Deck 19: Late Globalization: The Early Twenty-First Century

Question 1

The number of people in the world today that are going hungry and that have inadequate clean water and medical care is about

A) 50 million
B) 100 million
C) 500 million
D) one billion
E) two billion

Answer 1

D

Question 2

The key resource that made the exponential growth of the human population possible in the 20ᵗʰ century was:

A) cars
B) videogames
C) oil
D) ginseng
E) bananas
F) none of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

The United Nations embodies democratic principles in

A) the security council
B) the rotating geographical location of the World bank
C) the rotating geographical location of the International Monetary Fund
D) the rotating leadership in the World Bank
E) none of the above

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The Internet and social media have helped transnational movements because

A) they are cheaper forms of communication
B) the dominant order has less control over them
C) there are more opportunities to expose events as they happen relative to previous forms of communication
D) all of the above

Question 5

International relations theorists argue that core countries are not likely to go to war with one another because they share the same democratic values. Factors that might overcome the "democratic peace" are

A) ecological crises
B) population pressure
C) financial crises
D) hegemonic decline of the United States
E) all of the above

Question 6

The number of military bases abroad that the United States controls is about ___ as many as those that were control by the British at the end of the 19ᵗʰ century:

A) twice
B) three times
C) 4 times
D) ten times
E) twelve times
F) none of the above

Question 7

The 20ᵗʰ century wave of globalization was similar to the 19ᵗʰ century wave in that:

A) transportation and communications costs fell rapidly
B) people far from one another became connected through the expansion of trade
C) a hegemon rose and then declined
D) a wave of financialization arose during the period of hegemonic decline
E) the declining hegemons engaged in imperial overreach
F) the hegemons were about the same size relative to the economic size of the whole system
G) a, b, c, d, and e
H) none of the above

Question 8

C. Wright Mills was

A) the leader of an infamous motorcycle gang
B) a baseball star in the 1950s
C) an English political philosopher
D) a radical sociologist who criticized the U.S. labor movement and the power elite during the 1950s
E) a Hollywood film director

Question 9

Attendees at the World Social Forum

A) are interested in issues of global social justice
B) mostly belong to organizations that advocate armed struggle
C) make an effort to include activists from the global south
D) meet almost every winter in Switzerland
E) generally oppose neoliberalism
F) a, c, and e
G) none of the above

Question 10

World revolutions

A) always involve people from every continent
B) include local social movements and rebellions that may are may not be directly connected with one another
C) are usually signified by a single year during which dramatic events occurred
D) are not over until John Belushi says they are over
E) b and c
F) none of the above

Question 11

The democratic deficit refers to

A) the tendency for modern democracies to build up gigantic national debts
B) the process by which government borrowing must be approved by popular elections
C) the failure of modern institutions of global governance to be subject to the will of the people
D) a complaint often heard from fuzzy-minded idealists at the World Economic Forum
E) none of the above

Question 12

The decline of U.S. hegemony is a problem because

A) most people do not appreciate the subtleties of baseball
B) the Super Bowl is less likely to be viewed in the Global South
C) Hollywood is being forced to outsource motion picture production
D) hegemons supply world order and when they decline there is more conflict
E) trade follows the flag
F) might makes right
G) all of the above

Question 13

Research shows that dependence on foreign investment has helped to lessen income inequality within noncore countries.

Question 14

The World Trade Organization has applied a free trade policy across the core, semiperiphery and the periphery of the world-system.

Question 15

The world population has grown almost four-fold in the last one hundred years.

Question 16

Compared to the end of the 19ᵗʰ century core states have weaker alliances among themselves today.

Question 17

The proportion of all wealth now controlled by financial capital compared to the "real economy" is far greater than at the end of the 19ᵗʰ century.

Question 18

One difference between British hegemony in the last century and the United States today is the United States has far more foreign debt than Britain had.

Question 19

In the global class system, the working class in the core and the working class in the periphery are now interchangeable in terms of standard of living.

Question 20

In peripheral countries in the 20ᵗʰ century, life expectancy has gone down.

Question 21

The United States' share in the global GDP in 1945 was about twice the size of the British share at its peak in the 19ᵗʰ century.

Question 22

The British Empire mainly used colonial subjects rather than mercenaries to fight wars in the first half of the 20ᵗʰ century.

Question 23

There are important differences between the structure of the world-system now and the way it was structured at the end of the 19ᵗʰ century.

Question 24

In what ways was the structure of the world-system at the end of the 20ᵗʰ century similar to and different from how it had been at the end of the 19ᵗʰ century?

Question 25

Discuss how the idea of semiperipheral development might again be operating in the contemporary world-system.

Question 26

The World Social Forum is an example of a transnational set of movements that want to end capitalism. Describe the World Social Forum and consider how transnational social movements of this kind might be able to have an impact on world politics that is in some ways similar to the impacts that earlier transnational movements and global parties have had.

Question 27

Chapter 19 contends that a transnationalized global class structure is emerging but that the core/periphery hierarchy remains an important structure of the contemporary system. Discuss the ways in which conditions for workers in the core have become more similar to conditions for workers in the periphery, and also the remaining differences.

Question 28

Discuss the reasons why people in the global south are unhappy about global inequality.

Question 29

Discuss the causes of the reproduction of large inequalities between the global north and the global south.

Question 30

Discuss the notion of "peak oil" the possible or likely consequences of the long-term rise in energy prices.

Question 31

Describe the so-called democratic deficit in institutions of global governance and discuss the main reasons why this might cause problems during the 21ˢᵗ century.

Question 32

Compare the contemporary world revolution (20xx) with earlier world revolutions.

Question 33

Discuss the evolutionary changes in global governance and political globalization that seem to indicate a long-term trend toward global state formation.

Question 34

Discuss the possible implications for the future of global politics of the current distribution of semiperipheral countries in different world regions.

Question 35

Discuss the idea of a transnational capitalist class and the implications of this idea for the future of global conflict.

Question 36

What does it mean to say that the United States is too large to fail?

Question 37

Discuss the three main problems that humanity will confront in the 21ˢᵗ century according to Chapter 19.