Comparative Government Chapter 5-11

The World Bank's criterion for absolute poverty is an income per day of less than _____.

-$1.25

The problem with using democratic India and authoritarian China as evidence that authoritarian regimes have better economic performance than democratic ones is that:

-All of the above

Which of the following is NOT a reason authoritarian regimes allow elections in which several political parties can compete?

-Allowing opposition candidates to occasionally win control over important political offices diffuses discontent.

The hypothesis that oil revenues are the major obstacle to democracy in the Arab world runs into difficulty because:

-Arab countries that have few or no oil revenues are also authoritarian.

Which of the following has the most unequal income distribution, according to Gini Index measures?

-Brazil

Examples of flawed democracies include:

-Brazil, India, and Mexico.

Which of the following nations was shown to have the highest homicide rate, in a comparative study?

-Brazil, by far.

The upper house of the German parliament is the ____________, with representatives selected by _____________:

-Bundesrat, Lander (state) governments

The lower house of the German parliament is the ______________.

-Bundestag

The best example of authoritarian success in promoting economic growth and raising citizens out of poverty is __________.

-China

_______________ has experienced a high level of growth since 1980, despite having significant levels of corruption in its government.

-China

Supporters of the _____________ model believe that state intervention should "repair society, not replace it."

-Christian democratic

_______________ democracy works best in small groups of people.

-Direct

Why do presidential systems of democracy offer less representation than parliamentary forms of government?

-Election results are divisible but executive power is not.

In terms of public sector employment as a percentage of the labor force, which of the following is true?

-Extreme market countries rank the lowest, with relatively small public sectors.

In terms of physical well-being of the population, which of the following statements is true?

-Extreme market democracies perform the worst.

______________ refers to poverty so dire as to be a life-threatening condition.

-Extreme, or absolute, poverty

Two criteria used for looking at how nations differ in regard to their levels of development are:

-GDP per capita and HDI.

Which of the following is true of market systems?

-In market systems, production is for profit.

________________ is the power to implement state decisions, while ____________ refers to the power to gain citizen compliance with those decisions.

-Infrastructural power, authoritative power

Which of the following is elected by citizens' votes in Iran?

-Majles, or Parliament

Why are market-based economic systems more dynamic-better able to adjust to the changing needs of society-than planned economies?

-Market-based economic systems encourage entrepreneurs to produce a wide variety of goods and services based on consumer demand.

In 1985, a new generation of Soviet Communist Party leaders emerged, led by:

-Mikhail Gorbachev.

The most powerful institution in the Chinese Communist Party is the ___________.

-Politburo

Brazil was a colony of ____________.

-Portugal

__________ has been historically the most important political cleavage in Brazil, but in recent years __________ has emerged as a significant division.

-Social class; race

In terms of informed decision-making, which of the following statements is true?

-Social democratic countries perform the best.

The dominant political party in Russia after 2003 was:

-United Russia.

South Korea's military government was successful in promoting economic development in comparison with military governments elsewhere for reasons including:

-a competent bureaucracy, inherited from Japanese colonial rule, and economic support from the United States.

Political scientists' optimism about an end to authoritarian rule has been dampened because:

-a number of authoritarian regimes have displayed impressive staying power.

A characteristic of Scandinavian nations is:

-a relatively high percent of public employees in the labor force.

Nigeria is analyzed as a prototypical example of __________________.

-a semi-democracy

People in Brazil are more likely to accept the need for ___________ than people in the United States.

-a strong state

Authoritarianism is:

-a type of political system where the leader and a small group rules without constitutional limits.

Scholars who believe Islam is the main obstacle to democracy in the Middle East argue that Islam does not reject:

-acceptance of terror as a legitimate means of politics.

With Personalist Rule, the leader of the country:

-accumulates all power within his or her hands and controls policymaking.

Modern Russia has:

-an authoritarian government.

The Great Leap Forward in China was:

-an effort to catch up with Western European countries economically.

Personalist rule can emerge from:

-any of the previous types.

Those who argue that authoritarian political systems in less-developed countries produce faster economic growth than democracies say that authoritarian systems:

-are better at controlling ethnic conflicts that can disrupt economic growth.

In contrast to the more affluent nations of North America and Western Europe, many less developed countries:

-are more diverse in regard to governance, levels of income and urbanization, occupational structure, and ethnicity

Two political problems for authoritarian leaders are:

-authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.

The Russian legislature, known as the Federal Assembly, is __________ and known for being __________.

-bicameral, relatively weak

Developing countries in Africa and Asia adopted planned economic systems in the 1950s and 1960s in order to:

-bring modern industry to traditional agricultural areas.

During 1991, the Soviet Union:

-broke into several independent countries.

Monetary policy decisions are made by:

-central banks.

The classical definition of democracy was that democracy requires having:

-citizens participate directly in making laws that govern them.

Military regimes differ from other types of authoritarian regimes by:

-coming to power through coups d'état and using martial law to remain in power.

One-party regimes handle the problem of power-sharing through:

-committees, special benefits, and rules of transitions from one leader to another.

Some of the world's fastest-growing nations have economies whose growth may not be sustainable, critics charge, due to heavy dependence on:

-commodities such as oil and copper, whose prices are subject to fluctuations

The authors of the Comparative Political Analysis titled "Institutions as the Main Cause of Development and Underdevelopment" use the ___________ method of comparative analysis.

-comparative-cases

In a ____________ democracy, policymaking is inclusive, with power shared and views of parties not in the government considered.

-consensual

Welfare state programs in social democratic nations tend to offer ___________ protection, with everything from day care to job training to elder care.

-cradle-to-grave

States can use fiscal policy to stimulate economic growth by:

-cutting taxes.

The idea that homicide rates may be a misleading gauge of safety is particularly relevant in regard to the sub-Saharan region, given that:

-deaths in civil wars-of the sort many poor nations in that region have seen-are not counted in homicide rates.

In many nations with semi-democratic governments, ________________ was introduced relatively recently.

-democracy

Which of the following was NOT an important institutional feature of twentieth-century communist party rule?

-democratic rule-of-law as main organization principle

Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term creative destruction to:

-describe how market systems progress by developing new products that sweep away old products.

Major differences in democracies around the world include:

-distribution of power between the executive and legislative branches and electoral systems.

The hypothesis that the Protestant ethic helped explain why Europe developed economically is incompatible with the notion that capitalist development is:

-driven by greed or a desire for comfort and pleasure

The most far-reaching of Deng Xiaoping's reforms was:

-economic reform that gave a greater role to markets and market incentives.

Social democratic parties have been successful in Scandinavia in part because:

-even middle-class Scandinavians came to believe in the value of gradual socialism.

Most children raised in the poor nation of Angola will __________, when compared to children raised in the wealthy nation of Sweden.

-face much poorer life chances, given poor health care and high homicide rates

The most prevalent type of democracy in developing nations is ________________.

-flawed democracy

Brazil's ____________________ have hampered efforts to reduce inequalities in health care and education.

-fragmented political parties

After being overly optimistic about the collapse of authoritarianism, many political scientists do not believe that:

-fundamentalist Islam is the twenty-first-century ideological equivalent of Marxism.

Gorbachev's policy of ___________, or "openness," encouraged free speech as a means of highlighting failings of the Soviet economy.

-glasnost

Institutionalists argue that a main reason Canada and the United States became highly developed, in comparison with many less economically developed former colonies, is that they:

-had large numbers of European settlers, not directly tied to a commodities or forced labor economy, who adopted growth-promoting institutions.

China's judicial system:

-has no system for judicial review.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is an index that measures:

-health, knowledge, and standard of living.

The most distinctive institutional feature of Christian democracy is the:

-high degree of corporatism.

The process of expanding choices people have to lead the lives they value is a definition of:

-human development

Which of the following actions constitutes an effort on the part of the state to regulate the extensiveness of the market?

-imposing high taxes on imported goods

The nations ranked highest and lowest according to the Human Development Index (HDI) in 2010 differed most dramatically in regard to their:

-infant mortality rates.

In extreme market democracy countries,

-labor and left-wing political parties have not fared as well, due to weak class voting.

Many flawed democracies are wracked by _____________, making it difficult to improve the capabilities of lower-income people.

-large inequalities in wealth and political power

One level of repression is:

-limiting civil liberties.

The National People's Congress has:

-little power and does not meet often.

The State Duma is Russia's:

-lower house of parliament elected by voters to four year terms.

The coexistence of a market system and a communist government in China shows that:

-market systems are no guarantee of democracy and personal freedom.

The relationship between states and market systems is best understood as:

-market systems require states to function.

The type of regime with the best safety record as measured by homicide rates is:

-monarchy.

The main reason globalization has benefited some countries and not others that opened themselves to globalization is that some states were:

-more effective at putting in place the foundations that enable markets to work well.

Geography fails as an all-purpose explanation for different levels of development given that:

-most of Eurasia is less well-developed, and includes such less-developed nations as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

People who want a higher proportion of women legislators should favor:

-multiparty, proportional representation systems.

The evidence in the debate over whether authoritarian political systems have faster growth than democracies suggests that:

-neither has a clear advantage in promoting economic growth.

Communist societies have:

-no division of labor, no private ownership of businesses, and no social classes.

In parliamentary systems, prime ministers serve:

-no fixed term.

Active labor market policies:

-offer job training and support for workers to move to find new jobs.

If you were living in China, your leadership would come from:

-one-party regime that does not allow multi-party elections.

High-ranking members of the ruling party select the country's leader in ___________.

-one-party regimes

The first "wave" of democratization:

-originated in the American and French revolutions.

Gorbachev's policy of __________, or "restructuring," was a policy of loosening state control of the economy so firms could respond better to consumer demand.

-perestroika

Many state officials in semi-democratic nations are recruited on the basis of ________________ rather than merit.

-personal connections

Colonial authorities in Nigeria used "divide and rule" tactics to:

-pit ethnic groups against each other.

Extreme capitalist democracies all have similar:

-pluralist interest group structures in which power is highly decentralized.

A ______________ can be defined as countries that share similar institutions, policies, and politics.

-political model

The Iranian political faction that promotes economic development through the more reliance on market forces and foreign investment is the __________ faction.

-pragmatist

Brazil has a _____________ form of government.

-presidential

Scandinavian nations that adopt the social democratic model are capitalist, despite their reputations as socialist countries, because:

-private ownership of the means of production prevails, and the state sets neither prices nor production levels.

Those who challenge the argument that colonialism best explains the gap between developed and less-developed countries argue that:

-profits from colonialism were not large enough to explain Europe's wealth.

One institutional explanation for the origins of sustained economic development in Europe is that:.

-profits from trade gave European merchants the economic and political power to demand institutional changes necessary for economic growth

Party discipline is greatest with:

-proportional representation

Inclusive economic institutions are ones that:

-protect property rights.

Stalin's policy of agricultural collectivization was designed to:

-provide cheap food for urban workers.

Supporters of the __________ position argued that Washington Consensus policies raised workers' incomes in both high-income and low-income countries and benefited

-race-to-the-top

States can use monetary policy to stimulate economic growth by:

-reducing interest rates.

Which of the following was a part of "shock therapy" policy?

-selling state-owned firms to private investors

Typically, states with __________ regimes have little autonomy or capacity.

-semi-democratic

The hypothesis that a nation's level of democracy is associated with its GDP was shown to be somewhat problematic because:

-several nations with lower incomes than the United States were shown to have similar democracy scores.

Following World War II, the balance between state and markets:

-shifted in favor of state intervention.

A lack of ______________ makes it difficult for semi-democratic regimes to improve the capacities of its citizens.

-state capacity

Personalist rulers often have:

-strong policy power but loose organizational constraints.

Flawed democracies differ from semi-democracies in having:

-stronger states, with stronger foundations in society.

Politics in Russia is largely about:

-struggles among powerful state officials allied with business groups for control of state offices.

As was true with extreme poverty, the region of the world with the largest percentage of people having low capabilities is _____________.

-sub-Saharan Africa

The region of the world with the highest percentage of extremely poor people is _________.

-sub-Saharan Africa

Which of the following nations was shown to have the lowest homicide rate, in a comparative study?

-the Christian democratic nation of Germany

These political parties dominated British politics of the 20th Century, and are still the largest parties in the United Kingdom, despite declines:

-the Conservative Party, along with the Labor Party.

The third wave of democracy did not cause considerable change from authoritarian rule to democracy in:

-the Middle East.

One of the least-regulated economies in the world is that of:

-the United States

The record of the Washington Consensus in promoting economic development shows that:

-the Washington Consensus was theoretically incomplete and often contradicted by the evidence.

Those who argue that democracies produce faster economic growth than authoritarian systems also argue that democracies do not have:

-the ability to make decisions faster.

Political economy can be defined as:

-the balance between political and market forces within an economy.

Which of the following is not an independent variable that might determine whether a country is likely to make the transition to democracy?

-the country's climate

An important international factor determining whether a country becomes democratic or not is:

-the diffusion effect of democracy in countries surrounding it.

Which of the following is a main reason the communist regime did not survive in the Soviet Union?

-the economy

In pre-modern times, most economic production took place in:

-the household.

In the hypothesis that Islam is an insuperable obstacle to democracy in the Middle East:

-the independent variable is Islam.

In parliamentary systems, prime ministers are chosen by:

-the legislature.

Tests of the relationship between level of democracy and capabilities found that:

-the most democratic countries scored better than the most authoritarian countries on physical well-being, informed decision-making, but not safety.

The concept of a "global production chain" refers to:

-the phenomenon of different steps in the manufacturing process of a product such as a Barbie doll taking place in different countries.

The extent to which globalization benefits most people in a state or only some depends on:

-the state's institutions and governing coalition.

Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way suggest competitive authoritarian regimes are likely to democratize when:

-they have strong trade, travel, communication, and government ties with Western democracies.

Single-member districts in which winners are selected by plurality tend to produce:

-two-party systems.

During the Arab Spring, students:

-used social media to bring down governments.

China's economy with Chinese characteristics includes:

-using markets, closing poorly performing state enterprises, collective ownership of farmland, and competing in world markets.

Monarchies differ from other types of authoritarian regimes by:

-using traditional practices as a justification for rule.

The second wave of democratization:

-was inaugurated by the defeat of fascism in World War II.

Politicians in extreme market democracies tend to make more appeals to _____________ than working-class people.

-wealthy people, who are more likely to turn out to vote

The driving force behind greater state intervention in the economy after World War II was:

-working-class voters.

In Sweden's government, the ombudsman is:

a parliamentary office that investigates state agencies for misconduct.