Deck 9: Global Stratification

Question 1

The death of 52 garment workers in a Bangladeshi sweatshop shows that

A) some countries do a far better job of protecting workers than the United States does.
B) factory jobs are hard to find in low-income nations.
C) Bangladesh has suffered a surprising number of natural disasters in recent years.
D) poverty in low-income nations is often a matter of life and death.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The settlements called "las colonias," which are communities containing many extremely poor people, are found

A) in Texas along the U.S. border with Mexico.
B) in south Florida.
C) throughout the United States.
D) in inner-city Los Angeles.

Answer 2

A

Question 3

In 2009, any one of the richest three people in the world had more wealth than the world's

A) three largest banks.
B) the combined economic output of the world's thirty-four poorest countries.
C) three largest corporations.
D) the combined wealth of 90 percent of the world's people.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Where on the planet would you find most high-income nations?

A) spread evenly throughout all world regions
B) all within North America
C) mostly in the Northern Hemisphere
D) mostly in the Southern Hemisphere

Question 5

Japan, Canada, and the nations of Western Europe are all classified as

A) high-income countries.
B) middle-income countries.
C) low-income countries.
D) They each fall into a different income category.

Question 6

Which of the following statements about high-income nations is CORRECT?

A) They generate almost all of the world's agricultural output.
B) They make use of large factories, advanced energy sources, and high technology.
C) These nations have populations that are mostly rural.
D) People in these countries typically earn about $12,000 annually.

Question 7

The poorest 20 percent of the global population receives only about_______ of all global income.

A) 25 percent
B) 15 percent
C) 7 percent
D) 2 percent

Question 8

Which world region contains the largest share of the world's street children?

A) Asia
B) Latin America
C) Africa
D) Europe

Question 9

In low-income nations, poverty is _______than in the United States.

A) addressed more effectively
B) a less serious problem
C) more likely to involve men
D) more widespread and severe

Question 10

A majority (57 percent) of the world's people live in

A) North America, including the United States.
B) high-income nations.
C) middle-income nations.
D) low-income nations.

Question 11

Middle-income nations typically have per capita income in the range of

A) $250 to $1,000.
B) $1,000 to $2,500.
C) $2,500 to $12,000.
D) $12,000 to $25,000.

Question 12

Modernization theory identifies _______as the greatest barrier to economic development.

A) capitalism
B) tradition
C) technology
D) multinational corporations

Question 13

The wealthiest 20 percent of the global population receives about _______of all global income.

A) 77 percent
B) 57 percent
C) 37 percent
D) 17 percent

Question 14

The people in high-income countries, who represent 23 percent of the world's population, earn about how much of the world's income?

A) 10 percent
B) 30 percent
C) 50 percent
D) 80 percent

Question 15

A social theorist who contributed to the development of dependency theory by tracing the growth of the capitalistic world economy is

A) Max Weber.
B) Emile Durkheim.
C) Immanuel Wallerstein.
D) W. W. Rostow.

Question 16

Over the course of the last century, although living standards have risen, the extent of global inequality has

A) stayed about the same.
B) decreased sharply.
C) become somewhat smaller.
D) increased.

Question 17

If you wanted to visit the world's low-income nations, where would you travel?

A) North America.
B) Eastern Europe.
C) Latin America.
D) Africa and Asia.

Question 18

The concept "absolute poverty" refers to

A) a lack of resources that is life-threatening.
B) the absolute number of poor people in any country.
C) the poverty rate in high-income countries.
D) the poverty rate in low-income countries.

Question 19

High-income nations

A) contain a majority of the world's people.
B) are all located in North America.
C) lie mostly in the Northern Hemisphere.
D) are evenly spread across all world regions.

Question 20

In poor nations, poverty is_______ than in the United States.

A) less likely to involve children
B) a less serious problem
C) more likely to involve men
D) more widespread and severe

Question 21

Of all the world's countries, _______ranks lowest in terms of quality of life.

A) Niger
B) Brazil
C) South Korea
D) Australia

Question 22

Read the following four statements. Which statement is CORRECT?

A) In rich societies, on average, women have higher social standing than men do.
B) In poor societies, on average, women have higher social standing than men do.
C) In poor societies, men and women have about the same social standing.
D) In poor societies, women's social standing relative to men's is lower than in rich societies.

Question 23

In the poorest countries of the world, roughly half of all children who are born die before reaching the age of

A) one.
B) ten.
C) twenty-five.
D) fifty.

Question 24

The text explains that slavery

A) is found almost entirely in high-income nations.
B) is found in every country of the world.
C) is found today in a number of low-income nations in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.
D) no longer exists in today's world.

Question 25

The organization Anti-Slavery International estimates that about_______ men, women, and children live today as slaves or in conditions that come close to slavery.

A) 2 billion
B) 200 million
C) 2 million
D) 200,000

Question 26

The concept "colonialism" refers to the process by which

A) immigration helps to spark economic development.
B) poor nations rebel against control by other poor nations.
C) some nations enrich themselves through political and economic control of other nations.
D) rich nations share advanced technology with poor countries.

Question 27

Which type of slavery consists of employers holding workers captive by paying them too little to cover their debts?

A) debt bondage
B) chattel slavery
C) human trafficking
D) servile forms of marriage

Question 28

Modernization theory claims that

A) the main causes of poverty include traditional culture and lack of advanced technology.
B) poor nations can never become rich in today's world.
C) most poor nations were richer in the past than they are today.
D) the main causes of poverty involve the operation of multinational corporations.

Question 29

The populations of poor nations in Africa

A) are declining, due to large numbers of immigrants coming to North America.
B) are increasing and will double in the next twenty-five years.
C) have remained stable for several decades.
D) are declining, due to deaths caused by poverty.

Question 30

Which type of slavery refers to forced movement of people from one place to another for the purpose of performing forced labor?

A) chattel slavery
B) child slavery
C) debt bondage
D) human trafficking

Question 31

Of all the people in the world who live in absolute poverty, _______are women.

A) 70 percent
B) 50 percent
C) 35 percent
D) 20 percent

Question 32

About_______ people in the world die each year as a result of hunger.

A) 90,000
B) 900,000
C) 9 million
D) 90 million

Question 33

From a global perspective, economic productivity is lowest in precisely the regions where

A) most people live in cities.
B) technology is most advanced.
C) population growth is the highest.
D) once there was the greatest prosperity.

Question 34

The concept "absolute poverty" refers to

A) the absolute number of poor people in any country.
B) a lack of resources that is life-threatening.
C) the poverty rate in low-income countries.
D) the real poverty rate as opposed to what governments claim to be the case.

Question 35

Chapter 9's "Seeing Sociology in the News" article focuses on South Africa and reports that preparations for the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament included

A) "exporting" millions of poor people to Western Europe.
B) building a new stadium using slave labor.
C) rounding up street children and moving them away from the city hosting the games.
D) passing laws to make women more equal to men.

Question 36

According to W. W. Rostow, nations begin at the _______stage of development and may eventually reach the stage of_______ .

A) drive to technological maturity; take-off
B) high mass consumption; take-off
C) take-off; drive to technological maturity
D) traditional; high mass consumption

Question 37

The concept of "neocolonialism" refers to the process by which

A) countries grant independence to a former colonies.
B) countries gain new colonies to replace older ones.
C) large companies operate in many countries at one time.
D) multinational corporations dominate the economy of a poor country. (Applied;

Question 38

For the world as a whole, about how many people suffer from chronic hunger that leaves them less able to work and places them at high risk of disease?

A) 1 billion
B) 100 million
C) 1 million
D) 100,000

Question 39

Modernization theory identifies which of the following as the greatest barrier to economic development?

A) capitalism
B) tradition
C) having too few people
D) multinational corporations

Question 40

In poor countries, the disadvantages women face relative to men are

A) just about nonexistent.
B) greater than in rich nations.
C) about the same as in rich nations.
D) not as great as in rich nations.

Question 41

Dependency theory claims that poor nations

A) suffer from traditional culture.
B) suffer from a "technology gap."
C) are responsible for their own poverty.
D) were "underdeveloped" by the colonial practices of rich nations.

Question 42

What nation had colonial lands that included parts of Haiti and Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and the Hawaiian Islands?

A) Spain
B) Great Britain
C) the United States
D) Portugal

Question 43

For the world as a whole, income is distributed less equally than it is in the United States.

Question 44

The richest 20 percent of the world's people receive about 50 percent of all the world's income.

Question 45

The most serious problem of increasing poverty is found in

A) North America.
B) Latin America.
C) Asia, especially in China.
D) Africa, especially south of the Sahara.

Question 46

Critics claim that modernization theory

A) amounts to an attack on capitalism.
B) ignores how rich nations can block the economic development of poor nations.
C) suggests that rich societies are to blame for world poverty.
D) encourages global socialism.

Question 47

While modernization theory focuses on_______ , dependency theory focuses on_______ .

A) rich nations; poor nations
B) the production of wealth; the distribution of wealth
C) the future; the past
D) the global economy; cultural traditions

Question 48

According to "capitalist world economy" theory, which nations form the "periphery" of the world economy?

A) high-income nations
B) middle-income nations
C) low-income nations
D) All nations operate as the "core."

Question 49

Critics claim that dependency theory

A) incorrectly states that one country gains wealth only at the expense of another.
B) blames poor countries for their own poverty.
C) has little to say about the role of rich countries.
D) is an effort to spread global capitalism.

Question 50

The global region that has seen the greatest reduction of poverty is

A) Latin America.
B) North America.
C) Asia.
D) Africa.

Question 51

Wallerstein pointed to several factors that cause dependency among low-income nations. Which of the following is NOT a factor that Wallerstein considered to be a cause of dependency?

A) a lack of integration into the world economy
B) narrow, export oriented economies
C) lack of industrial capacity
D) foreign debt

Question 52

The text states that any one of the world's three richest people has more wealth than the world's thirty- four poorest countries.

Question 53

A social theorist who contributed to the development of dependency theory by tracing the growth of the capitalist world economy is

A) Immanuel Wallerstein.
B) Max Weber.
C) Emile Durkheim.
D) W. W. Rostow.

Question 54

Considering the list of nations below, which had the largest colonial presence in Africa?

A) Belgium
B) Portugal
C) Great Britain
D) United States

Question 55

Which theoretical approach is linked to modernization theory?

A) the structural-functional approach
B) the symbolic-interaction approach
C) the social-exchange approach
D) the social-conflict approach

Question 56

According to dependency theory, poor countries have become dependent on rich nations because

A) rich countries bring tourism dollars to poor countries.
B) poor countries sell raw materials for low prices to rich nations.
C) poor nations benefit more than rich nations from the global economy.
D) rich nations buy manufactured goods from poor countries.

Question 57

Over the course of the last century, although living standards have increased, the extent of global inequality has

A) decreased sharply.
B) increased.
C) stayed about the same.
D) become smaller, but not by much.

Question 58

Dependency theory differs from modernization theory by

A) supporting capitalism as a path to development.
B) making poor nations responsible for their own fate.
C) claiming that economic development is not a desirable goal.
D) explaining global inequality in terms of the exploitation of poor countries by rich countries.

Question 59

If you were applying modernization theory to the problem of global poverty, you might expect rich nations to aid the economic development of poor nations by

A) introducing advanced technology to poor nations.
B) encouraging poor nations to rely on rich nations as a source of raw materials.
C) helping poor nations to increase their population.
D) helping poor nations keep their cultural traditions strong.

Question 60

With regard to the role of rich nations, dependency theory

A) urges rich nations to invest in poor countries.
B) agrees with modernization theory that rich nations are a positive force for global development.
C) claims that rich nations prevent poor countries from "growing for export."
D) claims that rich nations are to blame for global poverty.

Question 61

Some forms of marriage in the world amount to slavery.

Question 62

Typically, people in low-income countries do more physical labor yet consume fewer calories than people in rich nations.

Question 63

Mexico is now a high-income nation.

Question 64

If you were to study low-income nations, you would find most of the people living in villages and small towns and farming as a common way to make a living.

Question 65

In low-income nations, population density is generally high.

Question 66

People living in high-income nations receive 80 percent of the entire world's income.

Question 67

Traditional cultural patterns can discourage economic development.

Question 68

Modernization theory was created as a criticism of U.S. foreign policy.

Question 69

The world region with the greatest number of "street children" living in poverty is Asia.

Question 70

High-income nations are the home of most of the world's largest corporations as well as the world's top financial markets.

Question 71

If you were living in a low-income nation, it is likely that you would find inequality between men and women to be greater than it is in high-income countries such as the United States.

Question 72

Japan and Australia are examples of middle-income nations.

Question 73

The concept "relative poverty" refers to poverty that is life-threatening.

Question 74

The capitalist, industrialized Western countries used to be called the "first world."

Question 75

Colonialism and neocolonialism both refer to a situation where one country politically rules or controls another.

Question 76

Huge businesses that operate in many different countries are called "multinational corporations."

Question 77

A recent United Nations report shows, in general, high-income nations have a higher quality of life than low-income nations.

Question 78

The former Soviet Union and the nations of eastern Europe are low-income countries.

Question 79

Low-income countries are home to most of the world's people.

Question 80

Although poverty is still found in much of the world, slavery is no longer known to exist anywhere.