Deck 16: Politics and War

Question 1

Which president of the United States warned the public of the buildup of the military-industrial-complex?

A) Harry S. Truman
B) Dwight D. Eisenhower
C) John F. Kennedy
D) Lyndon B. Johnson

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What do psychological warfare, misinformation, and disinformation have in common?

A) They are all forms based on legal-rational authority.
B) They are all forms of censorship.
C) They are always based on lies and falsehoods.
D) They are only employed during times of conflict.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What third-party candidate for president of the United States gained the highest percentage of the popular vote?

A) Ross Perot
B) Ralph Nader
C) Theodore Roosevelt
D) Pat Buchanan

Answer 3

C

Question 4

What is another name for the "winner-take-all" governmental system, even if the victory is by a single vote?

A) plurality system
B) oligarchy
C) centrist system
D) junta

Question 5

Which scenario is the BEST example of influence?

A) Colonel Fury has just taken a fortified enemy position in a daring commando raid.
B) Hillary Clinton is elected as the U.S. Senator from New York even though she has never lived there before last year.
C) Ringo was arrested by the Pittsburgh Police after a long, high-speed chase.
D) The judge has just sentenced a man convicted of second degree murder to life in prison.

Question 6

What kind of warfare is on a small scale and an irregular armed struggle against larger, better armed forces?

A) proxy war
B) military junta
C) Cold War
D) guerrilla war

Question 7

What term is used to describe people and organizations that formulate and implement public policy?

A) aggregates
B) social groups
C) social institutions
D) government

Question 8

Which set of demographic criteria describes the person who is MOST LIKELY to vote?

A) black male, 35 years old
B) white male, 40 years old
C) black male, 55 years old
D) white female, 65 years old

Question 9

What is power?

A) the honor and privilege that accompanies a status role
B) the use of force or the threat of the use of force against an opponent
C) the ability to realize one's will even against the opposition and resistance of others
D) the physical harm inflicted upon an individual by another individual of higher status

Question 10

In the antebellum South slave owners defended slavery by the belief that they were saving Africans from savagery, converting them to Christianity, and improving their quality of life. These rationalizations of slavery are called ________.

A) censorship
B) hypotheses
C) ideologies
D) compartmentalization

Question 11

What is a political system where power is concentrated in a small group of elites without constitutional limits?

A) aristocracy
B) oligarchy
C) regime
D) monarchy

Question 12

Legitimate power that has widespread social approval and is obeyed because people believe those who exercise it have a right to do so is called ________.

A) coercion
B) authority
C) charisma
D) expertise

Question 13

What is the actual use of a threat?

A) competition
B) authority
C) enforcement
D) coercion

Question 14

At a fire scene the Fire Chief outranks everyone there including the mayor, members of council, and the governor of the state. Such power based on specialized knowledge is called ________.

A) oligarchy
B) totalitarianism
C) rationalization
D) expertise

Question 15

What type of authority is based on explicit rules, regulations, and procedures and is summarized by the phrase, "We are a nation of laws...not men."

A) legal-rational authority
B) traditional authority
C) charismatic authority
D) totalitarian authority

Question 16

What is another name for legal-rational authority?

A) oligarchy
B) expertise
C) bureaucratic authority
D) charismatic authority

Question 17

Who manages the Doomsday Clock?

A) the Pentagon
B) the Kremlin
C) The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
D) The Society of Friends (Quakers)

Question 18

What term did G. William Domhoff use to describe the members of the upper class who assert a great deal of power in political policymaking?

A) the democratic facade
B) the governing class
C) the ruling class
D) the power elite

Question 19

Who was the first "baby boomer" to be elected president of the United States and the first president who was not a military veteran?

A) Jimmy Carter
B) Ronald Reagan
C) William Jefferson Clinton
D) George W. Bush

Question 20

In Whoville, every member of the town over 18 years of age gathers at the town hall to vote on every bill, law, or code that governs the citizens. In view of this, what type of government is Whoville based upon?

A) limited democracy
B) oligarchy
C) direct democracy
D) gerontocracy

Question 21

Which set of rights most qualifies as being civil rights?

A) freedom of speech and freedom of assembly
B) social welfare and socialized medicine
C) Social Security and the right to own firearms
D) public education and immigration reform

Question 22

What presidential campaign debate launched the domination of the electoral process by television?

A) Roosevelt-Thompson, 1944
B) Truman-Dewey, 1948
C) Eisenhower-Stevenson, 1952
D) Kennedy-Nixon, 1960

Question 23

Out of 163 democracies worldwide, Americans rank first in terms of voter participation.

Question 24

Who proposed that world nations should concentrate on "peace games" rather than "war games"?

A) Theodore Caplow
B) Oscar Lewis
C) Kenneth Gailbraith
D) Immanuel Wallerstein

Question 25

What is the most common form of oligarchy in Asia, Africa, and South America?

A) traditional monarchy
B) limited democracies
C) constitutional parliament
D) military junta

Question 26

Bob Bond, a wealthy businessman, wants to see Senator John McCain win the presidential nod from the Republicans in the 2008 election. In view of this, what is the maximum amount of money that Bob can donate to the McCain campaign?

A) $1,000
B) $5,000
C) $10,000
D) There is no limit on what a private citizen can donate.

Question 27

What are the three approaches to American policymaking?

A) direct approach, indirect approach, central approach
B) first party, second party, third party
C) core issues, periphery issues, external issues
D) organizational approach, pluralist approach, elite approach

Question 28

Who coined the term "the power elite?"

A) Talcott Parsons
B) Karl Marx
C) Kai Erikson
D) C. Wright Mills

Question 29

Which of the following organizations most qualifies as a single-interest group (as opposed to a public interest group)?

A) Sierra Club
B) NAACP
C) Public Citizen
D) National Rifle Association

Question 30

What is the approach to American policymaking based on diverse group interests, multiple sources of power, and open decision making called?

A) elite approach
B) organizational approach
C) pluralist approach
D) direct approach

Question 31

What is the communication of facts, opinions, and ideas, not for the audience's sake but to benefit the communicator?

A) propaganda
B) censorship
C) misinformation
D) disinformation

Question 32

Who was the first president of the Women's International League for Peace?

A) Florence Nightingale
B) Margaret Mead
C) Susan B. Anthony
D) Jane Addams

Question 33

What is the type of warfare that relies on recruitment of terrorist bombers via the Internet and exploits information technologies to confound, confuse, and defeat established powers?

A) cyber terrorism
B) proxy war
C) cold war
D) civil jihad

Question 34

The key issues on which politics is based are negotiation, cooperation, and consensus.

Question 35

What are the two most important global political organizations that were established in 1945?

A) the United Nations and the World Court
B) the International Peace Society and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
C) the United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
D) the World Court and the International Peace Society

Question 36

Enduring coalitions of individuals who organize to win elections and shape public policy are called ________.

A) public interest groups
B) political parties
C) oligarchies
D) military juntas

Question 37

Using the Bible to support the claims that men have control over women and that homosexuality is evil is an example of traditional authority.

Question 38

What sociological perspective is most embraced by those who see wars as an attractive way to achieve goals and a "continuation of political activity by other means?"

A) functionalists
B) conflict theorists
C) interactionists
D) structuralists

Question 39

Small territories with shifting boundaries and less efficient forms of government are called nation-states.

Question 40

Governments have often placed an emphasis on consensus rather than coercion.

Question 41

The type of warfare where major powers do not participate directly but one side assists government forces and the other supports guerrilla forces is called ________.

Question 42

Based on the functionalist approach, when there is a balance of power among states, war is likely to be on the horizon.

Question 43

The Doomsday Clock, established by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, is currently set at 10:00 PM, mostly due to the breakup of the former Soviet Union and end of the Cold War.

Question 44

The Secretary of Defense who developed the concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD) was Donald Rumsfeld.

Question 45

The United States spends more on the military than the next nine nations combined.

Question 46

The ability to realize one's will even against the resistance and opposition of others is called ________.

Question 47

The year 1992 was billed as "The Year of the Woman" by the media because of the gains women made in national politics.

Question 48

The type of authority being synonymous with being a "gift of grace" is ________ authority.

Question 49

A major part of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) developed under President Reagan was the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction.

Question 50

If a candidate wishes to become President of the United States, they must have military experience or Americans will not elect them.

Question 51

Of all types of authority, charismatic authority is most likely to be the most short-lived.

Question 52

Governments that have administrative reach across large territories over which sovereignty is claimed are called ________.

Question 53

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, wars were limited to a smaller number of combatants, resulted in fewer deaths, and were for a limited duration.

Question 54

The California governor recalled in 2003 and replaced by Hollywood action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger was Tom Ridge.

Question 55

The term "democracy" is derived from Latin and means "rule by the people."

Question 56

Relatively enduring social arrangements that distribute and exercise power are referred to as ________.

Question 57

Of the third parties that have developed to participate in presidential elections, Ross Perot's Reform Party was the most successful in attracting the highest percentage of the popular vote in the twentieth century.

Question 58

The two latest members added to the United Nations Security Council are China and Russia.

Question 59

In the 2008 presidential election, the majority of white voters voted for John McCain.

Question 60

Legal-rational authority stresses qualifications, credentials, and achievements, whereas traditional authority is based on custom and has virtually nothing to do with objective qualifications.

Question 61

Enduring coalitions of individuals who organize to win elections and shape public policy are referred to as ________.

Question 62

Sustained armed conflict among politically organized groups that involves large-scale violence and many fatalities is called ________.

Question 63

The American president who issued a warning to the public prior to leaving office to beware of the military-industrial complex was ________.

Question 64

How have third party candidates faired in presidential elections? Do you consider them to be an important part of the American political system or just a fad by wealthy and egoistic "wanna-bes"?

Question 65

How has the information age changed the political system not just on the national scale, but also in local government and within the framework of organizations? What are some of its advantages and disadvantages?

Question 66

A foreign policy promoted during the Kennedy administration that dominated strategic planning for over 30 years and featured a guarantee that any nation would be obliterated in a retaliatory attack if it attacked another with nuclear weapons was called ________.

Question 67

What features do nation-states share that distinguish them from traditional states and how are nation-states different from one another?

Question 68

What are the four factors that sociologists and political scientists agree upon that are necessary for a democracy to exist?

Question 69

What is authority? Identify and define the three types of authority first discussed by Max Weber and an additional type of authority that has become important since his death.

Question 70

The small triumvirate of top corporate, political, and military leaders that dominates American politics is called ________.