PLS CH 3

Imagine that you are looking at a country's main political institutions to find out whether they meet a standard of good, effective governance. Which of the following characteristics would signify that they fail to meet this standard?

They are inflexible and have not evolved.

Which of the following would highlight a critical downside of a federal system?

a component state unable to raise sufficient funds to provide certain government services at the local level

Which of the following would demonstrate institutionalized power?

the U.S. Supreme Court striking down a law as unconstitutional

First-order civil divisions in the United States are represented by __________.

states

At the heart of the concept of a federal system is __________.

the existence of component states with some powers that cannot be easily overridden by the central government

Weak states are characterized by __________

the penetration of crime into politics

First-past-the-post (FPTP) countries tend to have __________ systems.

two-party

If you read reports from a particular country that indicate how easily people can bribe police officers, prosecutors, and judges to get themselves out of legal trouble, this would most likely suggest the existence of what kind of state?

weak

Another way of describing single-member districts with plurality win is to use the phrase __________.

first past the post

The components of a federal system are typically represented __________.

in the upper chamber of the national legislature

Federalism is the balancing of power between a nation's central government and __________.

its autonomous subdivisions

Which of the following best describes the term laissez-faire?

leaving the economy alone

Which of the following would highlight a critical downside of a unitary system?

local officials unable to make basic decisions without the express consent of the central government

Single-member districts produce winners on the basis of __________.

plurality

Which of the following is often the basis for center-periphery tensions?

regionalism

The American Civil War was largely fought for reasons that involved

sectionalism

A process of devolution involves __________

shifting some powers from central government to component units

If you were interested in designing a country with moderate, centrist, and pragmatic politics, what feature would you be most likely to support?

single-member districts

Why have U.S. states been called laboratories of democracy?

States can experiment with new programs, which, if successful, can be copied nationwide

Federal governments cannot always demand policy change in their component states, but they are often able to exert their influence in other ways. What would be an example of this dynamic?

withholding grants from states that refuse to adopt a national policy standard

Political institutions involve the __________ of a government.

working structures

Almost all countries today are republics; this includes constitutional monarchies, due to the fact that royal families in constitutional monarchies __________.

are only figureheads

Authoritarian systems that are often in the category of failed states deliberately confuse rule of law with "rule by law," which essentially means that __________.

authorities use the law to achieve their ends, but are themselves above the law

Political institutions represent established and durable patterns of __________ in a country.

authority

A state that is able to control and tax its entire territory would be considered __________.

effective