Deck 9: Constitutions and the Design of Government

Question 1

A key characteristic of constitutions written after World War Two is that they:

A) enshrine one-party rule
B) are usually ignored
C) are specific and complex
D) focus on elections, but not on actual governance
E) always lead to authoritarian government

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Incentive compatibility is the notion that leaders must structure their behaviors in strict "compatibility" with the prescriptions of the constitution.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

If a political system is a federal system, it is not possible for it to be highly centralized.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Constitutionalism is the dedication to create behavior that reflects both the spirit and the letter of the constitutional document.

Question 5

Iraq's 2005 constitution:

A) requires that one half of parliament members be women
B) created a federal system
C) imposed Islamic law on the entire country
D) assured the continued dominance of the Sunni minority
E) was defeated in a national referendum

Question 6

A political system in which any decision made at a local or regional level could be overturned by the central government is called a ______________ system.

Question 7

Political systems without written constitutions are non-democratic.

Question 8

Your text argues that constitutional vagueness can be a virtue in promoting long-term viability in a political system.

Question 9

Federal states far outnumber unitary states in the contemporary world.

Question 10

The difficulty in amending the United States Constitution has been ameliorated in large part by the actions of:

A) state governments with their more flexible constitutions
B) the Democratic Party and the Republican Party
C) the United States Congress
D) the executive branch
E) the Supreme Court

Question 11

The earliest and most famous element of the British "constitution" is the ____________________.

Question 12

Great Britain and the Catholic Church have in common that they both have ______________________.

Question 13

The clarity of the locus of political power can quell a great deal of conflict within a society.

Question 14

Iraq stands out as an example of how important and easy it is to set a political system on a positive course by designing a constitution and using it as a basis for other political construction.

Question 15

The key difference between a federal and a unitary system is that one has the system broken into parts and the other does not.

Question 16

A set of rules by which power is distributed among members and procedures are prescribed is generally called a _________________________.

Question 17

Great Britain's "constitution":

A) has not changed in over two centuries
B) invests the monarch with the greatest political power
C) does not include court precedents
D) is essentially an unwritten constitution
E) was the model for the United States Constitution

Question 18

In the industrialized states of the world:

A) centralized states are becoming more decentralized
B) centralized states are becoming more centralized
C) decentralized states are becoming more decentralized
D) most states are agreeing on a common set of constitutional organizational principles
E) new constitutions are being written creating federalist states

Question 19

Nearly all of the geographically largest states in the world are federal systems.

Question 20

Federal states:

A) make up the majority of the world's states
B) have a disproportionately large percentage of the world's population
C) are found in North America and western Europe and nowhere else
D) are rarely democratic
E) often have no real central government at all

Question 21

What are the most important characteristics of a successful constitution? Cover each characteristic in depth.

Question 22

What are the key differences between federal and unitary states?

Question 23

What is the connection between constitutions and guarantees of rights/rule of law? Does it vary? Why?

Question 24

Critical Thinking
Your text asks "how much centralization is good?" After thinking about this, consider the implications for power and choice; democratic and authoritarian systems; and equality and inequality. "Good" for whom?

Question 25

If a constitution neglects to include an inventory of individual rights and a guarantee of those rights, it is not democratic.