Political Science
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Course Introduction
Political Science is the systematic study of government, political processes, public policies, and political behavior both domestically and globally. This course introduces students to key concepts, theories, and institutions in the field, with an emphasis on understanding how power and authority are distributed and exercised within different types of political systems. Students will analyze the roles of individuals, groups, and the state; examine the impact of political ideologies and culture; and explore the dynamics of international relations. The course aims to develop critical thinking, analytical, and research skills essential for engaging with contemporary political issues and debates.
Recommended Textbook
International Politics Power and Purpose in Global Affairs 3rd Edition by Paul D'Anieri
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15 Chapters
1112 Verified Questions
1112 Flashcards
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Chapter 1: Introduction: Problems and Questions in International Politics
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39 Verified Questions
39 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Political scientists who study international relations are attempting to A) seek genuine "laws of nature" about politics, which have no exceptions.
B) perform laboratory experiments in order to control the variables they are studying. C) establish cogent formulas for understanding political events and phenomena. D) discern generalizable tendencies in the patterns of international affairs.
Answer: D
Q2) According to the author, international politics matters
A) only to foreign policy elites.
B) only to national politicians.
C) to everyone.
D) little to most people.
Answer: C
Q3) Besides the individual, state, and system levels of analysis, this text will also explore which other level of analysis?
A) Sub-atomic
B) Analytical
C) Substate
D) Supra-systemic
Answer: C
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Chapter 2: The Historical Evolution of International Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) A situation in which one country controls another country or territory is called A) imperialism.
B) satrapy.
C) tutelage.
D) domination.
Answer: A
Q2) The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) was the precursor to the A) World Trade Organization (WTO).
B) European Union (EU).
C) North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
D) International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Answer: A
Q3) The Peloponnesian War was fought between the two Greek city-states of A) Sparta and Athens.
B) Baghdad and Sparta.
C) Athens and Istanbul.
D) Constantinople and Thebes.
Answer: A
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Chapter 3: Theories of International Relations: Realism and Liberalism
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83 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Should Iran develop a nuclear weapon, which states in the region would apparently also be tempted to develop nuclear weapons in response?
A) Israel
B) Syria
C) Iraq
D) Saudi Arabia
Answer: D
Q2) According to the author, the state of theory in international politics is characterized by
A) misunderstanding and fear.
B) widespread agreement and cooperation.
C) disagreement and debate.
D) misperception and suspicion.
Answer: C
Q3) According to liberal institutionalists, when collaboration breaks down,
A) everyone is better off.
B) everyone ends up worse off.
C) nothing really changes.
D) conflict always occurs.
Answer: B
Page 5
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Chapter 4: Theories of International Relations: Economic
Structuralism, Constructivism, and Feminism
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84 Verified Questions
84 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The feminist school of thought that is skeptical of all claims to objective truth is A) postmodernism.
B) standpoint theory.
C) feminist liberalism. D) empiricism.
Q2) How has feminist theory influenced the study of international politics? How are women's lives affected by international politics?
Q3) Lenin believed that
A) the owners of capital and the governments of powerful states are smart enough to recognize that, rather than fighting each other, they are better off collaborating to exploit the weak.
B) powerful states have many reasons to collaborate and can do so.
C) capitalism would lead to war as the great powers expanded their economic power.
D) capitalism would eventually lead to peace through the increased wealth throughout the world.
Q4) What are the three schools of thought within feminist theory? How do they compare to each other?
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Chapter 5: The State, Society, and Foreign Policy
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85 Verified Questions
85 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The news media play an important role in determining the agenda of public debate over foreign policy by
A) providing objective information about an issue.
B) hiring special interest groups to report on policies.
C) expanding coverage of issues to the Internet.
D) deciding what issues to cover.
Q2) Latent public opinion refers to
A) active though superficial public opinion.
B) inactive opinion that can become very active.
C) the rising influence of public opinion in times of war.
D) the economic implications of foreign policy on public opinion.
Q3) Which three countries have not been admitted to the European Union?
A) Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine
B) Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia
C) Slovenia, Slovakia, and Czech Republic
D) Bulgaria, Romania, and Malta
Q4) Interest groups can have significant influence on a country's foreign policy. What are the ways in which interest groups influence policy? What makes an interest group successful in attempting to influence a government's foreign policy?
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Chapter 6: Bureaucracies, Groups, and Individuals in the Foreign Policy Process
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84 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following is not true about the War Powers Act?
A) U.S. presidents have consistently held that the law is unconstitutional.
B) The U.S. Supreme Court has declared in Valeo v. Buckley that the Act is unconstitutional.
C) U.S. presidents have generally followed the Act's provisions.
D) Combat troops must be removed from a zone of conflict after sixty days unless Congress passes legislation allowing the operation to continue.
Q2) What was the ultimate goal of the Schlieffen Plan?
A) To disable Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba before they became operational
B) To defeat France while Russia was still mobilizing its forces
C) To cutoff funds for U.S. forces in Vietnam before significant new forces were mobilized
D) None of the above is true.
Q3) How many times has the U.S. Congress declared war since World War II?
A) Zero
B) One
C) Three
D) Five
Q4) What is cognitive dissonance? What problems can it cause in decision making?
Page 8
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Chapter 7: International Organizations and Transnational Actors
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85 Verified Questions
85 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The __________ branch of the EU represents the governments of the member states.
A) European Commission
B) Council
C) European Parliament
D) European Court of Justice
Q2) List and briefly describe the four views of the United Nations.
Q3) Peacekeeping missions are most likely to succeed when
A) the United States decides to provide its own troops.
B) NATO forces join with UN peacekeeping forces.
C) the conflict is very small and limited.
D) the conflicting parties hope to avoid conflict.
Q4) According to the Lisbon Treaty, the President of the EU Council will
A) serve a four-year term.
B) serve a two-and-a-half-year term.
C) will rotate every six months.
D) serve a three-year term.
Q5) Discuss the historical evolution of the European Union. What were the main motivating factors behind the creation and growth of the European Union?
Q6) Describe the organization of the EU and the responsibilities of each section. Page 9
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Page 10
Chapter 8: International Insecurity and the Causes of War and Peace
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85 Verified Questions
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Sample Questions
Q1) The innate aggression hypothesis fails to explain
A) the tendency for conflict to occur between neighboring states.
B) the drive for national self-determination between groups.
C) the psychology of irrational leaders.
D) the variation in the amount of conflict over time.
Q2) How are the causes of civil wars and contentious politics different from the causes of interstate warfare? Use examples discussed in the text to highlight your differences.
Q3) When a state starts a war in order to distract the public from other crucial issues, this concept is referred to as the
A) diversionary theory of war.
B) power transition theory.
C) proximate cause of war.
D) misperception of conflict.
Q4) Misperception is considered to be a significant cause of war. What are some ways in which individuals and leaders could avoid misperception which, in turn, should help to avoid conflict?
Q5) Define collective security and discuss under what conditions it may be both successful and unsuccessful. Use real world examples to support your arguments.
Page 11
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Chapter 9: The Use of Force
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Q1) How is credibility defined?
A) Credibility is defined by perception.
B) Credibility can be defined as the extent to which an actor making a threat has both the will and the capability to carry out the threat if concessions are not forthcoming.
C) Credibility can be defined by the military size and power of the state making the threat.
D) Credibility can be understood by examining the past behavior of the state making the threat.
Q2) List and briefly describe the five different categories of weapons of mass destruction.
Q3) A primary objective for both insurgency and guerilla warfare is to
A) defeat the enemy on the field of battle.
B) raise the costs of conflict higher than any benefit to the attacker.
C) force the intervention of the UN to end the conflict.
D) use high-tech weapons against the attacker.
Q4) Describe the security dilemma. What are some modern day examples of this dilemma in action?
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Page 12
Chapter 10: Fundamentals of International Political Economy
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70 Verified Questions
70 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) The theory of comparative advantage has been closely associated with which theory of international relations?
A) Realism
B) economic structuralism
C) Liberalism
D) Feminism
Q2) An American manufacturer with American customers competing with imported goods will benefit from
A) a strong American dollar.
B) a weak American dollar.
C) neither a weak or strong American dollar. Exchange rates do not affect manufacturers.
D) a stable American dollar.
Q3) Which theory makes the argument that economic disparities, once established, will be self-perpetuating?
A) Mercantilism
B) Liberalism
C) Feminism
D) Economic structuralism
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Q4) Why do feminists argue that the costs of globalization are unevenly distributed?
Chapter 11: The Globalization of Trade and Finance
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Sample Questions
Q1) In 2010, who acted as the lender of last resort for Greece?
A) The European Union, but primarily Germany
B) The United Kingdom
C) The United States
D) The World Bank
Q2) Supporters of globalization tend to fall into which theoretical camp?
A) Economic structuralism
B) Realism
C) Liberalism
D) Constructivism
Q3) Why was the United States taken off the gold standard in the early 1970s?
A) The Vietnam War and the "Great Society" antipoverty programs increased U.S. budget deficits.
B) As the "dollar overhang" grew, foreign investors and governments grew less willing to finance it.
C) The Vietnam War undermined U.S. moral authority.
D) All of the above are true.
Q4) What are the competing costs and benefits of globalization?
Q5) Why does the text argue that states have lost control over globalization?
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Chapter 12: The Problem of Global Inequality
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Sample Questions
Q1) An important problem in Russia during the post-communist phase has been the A) weak industrial sector relative to a strong agricultural sector.
B) the weak dollar relative to a strong ruble.
C) absence of a strong, competent, and honest state authority.
D) weakening role of Russia in the UN.
Q2) In much of the post-World War II period, development aid focused on all of the following, except A) infrastructure.
B) short-term alleviation of poverty.
C) technical know-how needed for development.
D) investment funds.
Q3) Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, countries that pursued a trade-oriented policy, are known as the A) Asian Tigers.
B) Asian Union.
C) Asian Exporters.
D) Asian Innovators.
Q4) Many developing countries are known as late developers. What does this term imply for the developing world? What are the challenges that they face?
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Chapter 13: International Law, Norms, and Human Rights
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Sample Questions
Q1) Norms can take many forms, including all of the following except A) relative power between states.
B) ethical principles about how actors should behave.
C) mutual expectations about how actors will behave.
D) social identities indicating which actors are legitimate.
Q2) The principle that the International Criminal Court will only take on cases in which domestic criminal courts are either unable or unwilling to get involved in is known as A) segmentation.
B) complementarity.
C) jurisdiction.
D) ad hominem.
Q3) The Bush Administration argued that UN resolution 1441 supported the case for invasion because it called for
A) serious consequences.
B) military invasion.
C) a possible nuclear strike.
D) economic sanctions.
Q4) What are the various sources of international law?
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Page 16
Chapter 14: The Global Environment and International Politics
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Sample Questions
Q1) Which of the following theories directs us to look at the role of ideas in shaping behavior toward the environment and toward environmental policy?
A) Economic structuralism
B) Constructivism
C) Feminism
D) Rational choice
Q2) Which of the following is true about China?
A) Many countries oppose an agreement to limit greenhouse emissions that does not constrain China as much as everyone else.
B) China regards further economic growth as essential to raising its standard of living; this makes it unlikely that the leadership will consider limiting fossil fuel emissions.
C) Many countries are concerned that they will be economically disadvantaged if China is not limited in the production of greenhouse gas emissions.
D) All of the above are true.
Q3) What were the major factors that enabled the world's leading countries to deal effectively with the ozone depletion problem in the late 1980s?
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Chapter 15: Conclusion: Power and Purpose in a Changing World
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Sample Questions
Q1) The concept that describes states that will almost certainly not go to war with one another is called
A) regions of capitalist countries.
B) economic integrated countries of Europe.
C) the zone of peace.
D) free trade regions of the world.
Q2) How is globalization changing or altering the fundamental assumptions underiding the present international political and economic systems?
Q3) Of the six emergent changes in the international system, according to the text which is the most far-reaching?
A) Rise of international terrorism
B) Globalization of trade and finance
C) Widespread acceptance of democracy
D) Erosion of control of the sovereign state
Q4) Discuss some common career patterns for those interested in an international career? What skills are particularly prized by government, business, and nongovernmental organizations?
Q5) How has terrorism changed the way we deal with international politics?
Q6) What are some of the ways in which power and purpose are changing?
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