Deck 3: The Modern State

Question 1

Which of the following authors is most closely associated with the idea of the state "exerting a monopoly on the legitimate use of force"?

A) Tom Paine
B) Douglass North
C) Gosta Esping-Andersen
D) Max Weber

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following would not be a tendency of a modern state?

A) Claim of sovereignty
B) Extensive bureaucracy
C) Dependent judiciary
D) Autonomy from religious organizations

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is not a true characterization of the distinction between politics in a society with a modern state and a feudal society?

A) In a modern state, there are no titles of knighthood.
B) In a feudal polity, few expected government leaders to represent all groups equally.
C) In a feudal polity, there were multiple rival bases of power besides the state itself.
D) In modern states, it is rare to have separate legal codes and other formal privileges for "nobles."

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Which of the following would not necessarily be an indicator of a state having high capacity?

A) Properly functioning bureaucracy
B) Established monopoly on the use of force
C) Demonstrated economic growth
D) Maintenance of the rule of law

Question 5

Which of the following is less likely to be found in a well-functioning state than in a failed state?

A) Higher rate of taxation
B) Higher levels of interpersonal violence
C) Higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita
D) Higher adult literacy percentages

Question 6

What country in recent years has been an example of a failed state?

A) Japan
B) Chile
C) Switzerland
D) Somalia

Question 7

What do political scientists mean when they talk about the "state-society relationship"?

A) States and societies sometimes share overlapping territories.
B) Societies and states are social entities existing on parallel tracks.
C) The state is a political organization that is embedded in society, and the extent to which it is autonomous from various groups differs from case to case.
D) The state is a political organization that is embedded in society, and there is a standard, proportional relationship between a society's size and a state's strength.

Question 8

"A space in society outside of the organization of the state, in which citizens come together and organize themselves" refers to what?

A) Popular Society
B) Civil Society
C) Participatory Society
D) Democratic Society

Question 9

A highly efficient way to coordinate behavior in pursuit of common projects is:

A) War
B) Democratic regulation
C) Gerrymandering
D) Bureaucracy

Question 10

The ideal type of treatment of citizens as equal in rights and political roles, is an example of:

A) Impersonality of the state
B) Modern warfare
C) Economics
D) The Divine Right of Kings

Question 11

Which of the following is not a property of sovereignty?

A) Control over territory
B) The source of legitimate authority
C) Exerts a monopoly on the use of force
D) Organizes civil society

Question 12

Martial law would be an extreme example of __________.

A) Proactive foreign policy
B) Economic stimulus
C) Democracy
D) State policing

Question 13

Which of the following is not generally considered a key definitive feature or function of modern states?

A) Environmental sustainability
B) Domestic policing
C) International security
D) Administering information about the populace

Question 14

Which of the following definitions refers to the state system?

A) The condition that many of the most important actors in international relations are states, which can be understood as systemically linked to one another
B) A state that aims to provide a basic safety net for the most vulnerable elements of its population
C) States' efforts to shape the economic performance of their societies, especially in fiscal and monetary policy
D) The process through which states are constructed out of other kinds of polities, or by which state capacity is increased.

Question 15

Which philosopher is best known for the theory that a strong sovereign state is needed to keep internal conflict at bay?

A) Thomas More
B) Thomas Hobbes
C) Roy Hobbs
D) Barrington Moore

Question 16

The "bellicist theory of the state" refers to the belief that states are created by _________.

A) Geographical boundaries
B) War
C) Revolution
D) Trade

Question 17

Which of the following is not a concept used by Charles Tilly in his work on state formation? (p. 60)

A) Coercion-intensive state-building
B) Capital-intensive state-building
C) Capitalized coercion
D) Coerced capitalization

Question 18

North, Wallis, and Weingast argue that rule of law emerged when:

A) Regimes were natural states.
B) The core identity became nationalism.
C) Rulers opted for rights over privileges.
D) Elite coalitions responded to new economic circumstances.

Question 19

For which of the following regions does the bellicist theory of state development seem to apply most strongly?

A) Eurasia
B) Middle East
C) Southeast Asia
D) Western Europe

Question 20

Marx's view of the state as a representation of the interests of the bourgeoisie is an example of which of the following types of theories of state emergence.

A) Historical Institutionalist
B) Bellicist
C) Cultural
D) Economic

Question 21

Who is not a major scholar who has written on economics and state formation? (pp. 60-62)

A) Nigel Tufnel
B) Charles Tilly
C) Douglass North
D) Barry Weingast

Question 22

Which of the following authors argues that cultural factors like religion played a key role in the rise of the earliest modern states?

A) Nelson Mandela
B) Pope Francis
C) Charles Tilly
D) Philip Gorski

Question 23

Philip Gorski argues that ___________ paved the way for state development in Europe.

A) Calvinism
B) Lutheranism
C) Roman Catholicism
D) Greek orthodoxy

Question 24

World society theory argues that:

A) Organizations in a given field are always exactly the same because powerful ones force weak ones to comply.
B) Basic organizational features of the state system are cultural and have spread globally through processes of diffusion and imitation.
C) Similar organizations require the same initial causes for development.
D) State system expansion is necessary for the betterment of conditions in global society.

Question 25

Which of the following is not a leading explanation for Nigeria's weak state?

A) Ethnic and religious differences
B) Excessive emphasis on law and order
C) Political economy too heavily centered on petroleum products
D) Legacies of colonialism

Question 26

Hendrik Spruyt argues that:

A) City-states and leagues of merchant cities were more efficient than states.
B) City-states out-maneuvered larger states because they were more economically nimble.
C) States became powerful through diplomacy of such leaders as the Marques de Pombal in Europe and Empress Dowager Cixi in China.
D) States out-competed other forms of organization in economic terms in addition to political/military conflict.

Question 27

Isomorphism among institutions refers to which of the following ideas:

A) Morphological tendencies among institutions correlate with their isoquants
B) Institutions are not isolated, so they tend not to change over time
C) Institutions tend to become isolated from one another in complex systems
D) Institutions and organizations often take on similar forms or structures

Question 28

Who notably argues that modern states appear all over the world in part because the "nation-state" is a cultural model that everyone comes to imitate?

A) Joseph Strayer
B) Benito Mussolini (and his collaborators)
C) Charles Tilly
D) John Meyer (and his collaborators)

Question 29

How have the major political and cultural divisions of the British Isles changed since roughly 900?

A) They have not changed.
B) There has been a steady breakup of the country into smaller and smaller units.
C) There has been a steady consolidation of the country into a single unit.
D) There was a long period of state building and partial unification, but major divisions remain and many increase in coming years.

Question 30

Which is not an explanation of state diffusion theory?

A) States can form out of war-making, leading to the process of colonialism.
B) Open-access orders assist establishing a rule of law, to which everyone has access.
C) The need for organizing cultural and social interests spread efficiencies and were copied.
D) States spread to serve the interests of the capitalist class by exploiting local labor to extract resources.

Question 31

Chapter 3's "Thinking Comparatively" feature considers the implications of the history of British state formation for each of the three major theories in the chapter. Based on the discussion there, which of the following is the most reasonable conclusion?

A) The bellicist theory wins; the economic and cultural theories fail.
B) All the theories lose.
C) There is evidence for several major theories in the case.
D) The case is an outlier that must be thrown out.

Question 32

What are the most important political and military functions of modern states?

Question 33

What does "legitimate" mean for political scientists?

Question 34

What does it mean for a state to be "impersonal"?

Question 35

Why do scholars believe that modern states have to be bureaucratic?

Question 36

Why might a state "fail," become "fragile," or have diminished capacity?

Question 37

What factors or developments might, all else equal, increase a state's capacity?

Question 38

Why might some scholars focus on a "continuum of stateness" rather than treating the state as an "either/or" kind of thing?

Question 39

Why do social scientists consider bureaucracies to be more efficient than their alternatives?

Question 40

Explain the basic differences between Spruyt's and Meyer's accounts of the global dominance of the nation-state.

Question 41

What is the difference between a society with laws and a state that successfully establishes rule of law?

Question 42

Max Weber said that the most important feature of the modern state is that nobody can use force "legitimately" except the state and its representatives. Yet even in a society like the United States, people engage in violence all of the time. Does this mean that the United States is not a modern state? Why or why not?

Question 43

Along the same lines as question 2, does the fact that people in the United States sometimes in engage in violence that is not approved by the state indicate that something is wrong with Weber's definition? Why or why not?

Question 44

Hendrik Spruyt and John Meyer (with his collaborators) both try to explain the fact that most polities in today's world are nation-states. What do their explanations have in common, and in what respects do they differ? Which do you find most compelling and why?

Question 45

Based on your reading in this chapter, describe three general arguments put forward by scholars about the relationship between capitalism and the state. Which do you find most compelling and why?

Question 46

The thinking comparatively feature in chapter 3 presents the implications of the history of British state formation for three major theories discussed in the chapter (the bellicist, economic, and cultural theories). It then notes that the future of the British state is unclear. What might each of those theories predict about that state's prospects and which set of predictions do you find most plausible?

Question 47

If state-builders in later-developing states can learn from the experiences of other statebuilders in previous cases, what are the implications of this for the bellicist, economic, and cultural theories of state formation?