Deck 17: Politics, Publics, and the State

Question 1

Political rule in traditional societies is characterized by:

A) Patrimonialism
B) Positions of authority are inherited
C) Arbitrary power under the direct control of a ruler
D) Administrative control over a territory that is managed by members of the extended family or groups loyal to the ruling family who have with no independent base.
E) All of the above

Answer 1

E

Question 2

Which of the following is not a characteristic of modern societies?

A) Modern states are typically managed through bureaucratic organizations rather than a personal ruler.
B) Bureaucratic power is used to serve the collectivity rather than the ruler.
C) The power of the individual ruler is the equivalent of state power, such that personal rulership is the legitimate basis of government.
D) The state is the appropriate object of allegiance.
E) None of the above

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Legally regulated and communicatively connected individuals, spread widely over a single territory, compose a:

A) State
B) Ethnic group
C) Civil sphere
D) Nation
E) None of the above

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The formal, political organization of social power is a:

A) State
B) Democracy
C) Class
D) Nation
E) None of the above

Question 5

A political system where political power is justified and exercised by the people (or the officers they elect) is a:

A) State
B) Democracy
C) Community
D) Nation
E) None of the above

Question 6

According to Weber, what distinguishes a state from a bureaucratic organization?

A) A state is democratic, whereas a bureaucracy is not.
B) A state bureaucracy is an organization that monopolizes the means of violence over an extended territory.
C) Bureaucratic organizations are target oriented, highly rational, and very efficient. States lack clearly defined goals and are slow to accomplish tasks.
D) Bureaucratic organizations have no hierarchy or clearly defined leaders. States are hierarchical organizations with clearly defined leaders.
E) None of the above

Question 7

Politics is:

A) The process by which power is generated, organized, distributed, and used in societies.
B) The way that impersonal bureaucracy is directed toward personal interests and private resources.
C) Elections or legislative activity taking place in a state
D) Individual participation in various activities such as a protest or signing a petition.
E) All of the above

Question 8

Weber argued that there are three different types of legitimate authority. Authority that is based on custom and the sanctity of ancient rules and powers is:

A) Self-fulfilling
B) Legal-rational
C) Tradition
D) Charisma
E) None of the above

Question 9

Authority that rests on rationality, the virtue of legality, and the belief in rules and principles of law, rather than the personal authority of a ruler is:

A) Self-fulfilling
B) Legal-rational
C) Tradition
D) Charisma
E) None of the above

Question 10

Authority that is granted on the basis of personal devotion, derived because of an individual ruler's ability to transcend the routine of everyday life is:

A) Self-fulfilling
B) Legal-rational
C) Tradition
D) Charisma
E) None of the above

Question 11

Philip Smith brings the cultural turn to Weber's political sociology. In particular…

A) Smith critiqued Weber's concept of legal-rational authority. He argued that modern societies are legal-rational in appearance, but in fact are deeply antirational.
B) Smith argued that it is cultural structures, binary cultural codes, which distinguish charisma in modern society. Charisma is constructed by not only representing the leader's sacred qualities, but also by identifying a symbolic threat to a given society.
C) Smith agrees with Weber that modern political life is anti-charismatic, but he thinks it can still be analyzed in cultural terms.
D) Smith does not bring the cultural turn to Weber's work. Smith is not interested in culture.
E) None of the above

Question 12

What does Lukes's three-dimensional model of power add to other one- and two-dimensional models of power?

A) A one-dimensional model of power deals strictly with the use of force. A three-dimensional model of power focuses on force, legitimation, and legality.
B) A one-dimensional model of power deals with the state alone. A two-dimensional model takes into consideration institutions outside of the state. Best yet, a three-dimensional model takes into account the state, institutions outside of the state, and individuals.
C) A one-dimensional model of power deals with power and politics as exercised in observable conflicts of interest. A more complex three-dimensional model of power explores how power can be used without any overt political conflict, as social power as well as political power.
D) A three-dimensional model of power is able to account for the way power is exercised between more than two actors.
E) All of the above

Question 13

What are the three characteristics of citizenship according to T.H. Marshall?

A) Civil rights, political rights, and social rights
B) Residence, employment, and establishment
C) Political participation, patriotism, and freedom
D) Assimilation, incorporation, and indoctrination
E) None of the above

Question 14

Women and African-Americans gaining the right to vote are examples of:

A) Disenfranchisement
B) Civil repair
C) Civil extension
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 15

What is meant by the statement "Prestige defines a President's ability to persuade"?

A) Though the United States is a democratic, postmodern nation, many Presidents are elected because of family ties and personal wealth.
B) American presidents are unable to use force and command alone to exercise power. The President has to persuade other elected officials and citizens to support his/her policies.
C) American Presidents become pseudocelebrities after their time in office and, as a result, are able to use this popularity to further policy after their time in office.
D) A President's class background determines the policies they are able to implement in office.
E) None of the above

Question 16

According to Seymour Martin Lipset, why might elections be described as a democratic class struggle?

A) The framework of citizenship allows economic cleavages to be debated in the public sphere.
B) Differences in political ideology in modern industrial society tend to be divided by economic class.
C) The American electoral system nearly guarantees that only the independently wealthy and upper class have a chance at successfully running for office
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 17

What is wrong with C. Wright Mills' theory that America is governed by a power elite?

A) It is not an elite but a capitalist class that governs the United States.
B) Mills believes that the power elite has only recently come to dominate American society
C) Mills does not see that Jews and African Americans are also part of the power elite.
D) Mills does not see that there is a public civil sphere independent of the power elite, and that this sphere creates a resource for criticism and civil repair.
E) None of the above.

Question 18

What is a welfare state?

A) A state in which the government takes responsibility for the wellbeing of its citizens.
B) A state that typically devotes a significant portion of its expenditures to programs that provide access to resources such as housing and healthcare for its citizens.
C) A model of governance that has largely failed in postmodern society. Welfare states provide resources for their citizens, which results in an inactive work force, and a diminishing federal budget.
D) Both a and b, but not c
E) None of the above

Question 19

The "Discourse of Decline" refers to:

A) The overwhelming pessimism of American society
B) The increased concern with mental health in postmodern society
C) The argument that democracy is being overwhelmed by mass media, and civil society and public life are in decline.
D) The increase in war in postmodern society
E) All of the above

Question 20

Which of the following would not be evidence in support of the "discourse of decline"?

A) Voting in the United States increased in the 2004 Presidential Election
B) Organizations such as Green Peace or the American Civil Liberties Union are replacing organizations such as the Boy Scouts.
C) Americans spend more time watching television alone than engaging in social activities.
D) Americans are less informed about the political happenings of the United States.
E) All of the above

Question 21

In spite of the emergence of impersonal, modern states, personal dictatorships have continued to be a recurring, often tragic, form of political rule in modern and postmodern societies.

Question 22

The state is not just a bureaucracy. It is distinct because it is the only impersonal organization that can legitimately and legally exercise force.

Question 23

State autonomy is a term used to describe the isolationist policy adopted by modern states, particularly prior to World War I and World War II.

Question 24

Power is strictly defined as the ability to mobilize the resources of society in order to attain a particular goal.

Question 25

Weber expected charismatic authority to diminish as modern society underwent rationalization.

Question 26

Mass media is not only essential to postmodern politics as a means of spreading information, but also as a key player in the construction of charismatic power.

Question 27

There is good evidence to support Mills's assertion that an economic elite actually controls the state.

Question 28

Civil society is an imagined civil community whose solidarity is founded on a shared belief in the possibilities of democracy.

Question 29

Political parties specialize in turning public debate into votes and votes into state power.

Question 30

While some argue that civil society and public life are in decline, the extension of rights to previously excluded groups and the increased number of minorities and women as elected officials actually are evidence of the deepening of civil society.