Deck 11: Sport, Politics, and the Future

Question 1

An example that illustrates power rather than authority in sports is:

A) a high school coach benches a player who fails to join in the team prayer offered by a local priest.
B) a league commissioner fines a player for violating league rules about drug use.
C) a baseball club owner trades a player whose contract does not give him the right to prevent being traded.
D) an athletic director fires a football coach after his contract has expired.

Answer 1

a high school coach benches a player who fails to join in the team prayer offered by a local priest.

Question 2

Recent evidence about the willingness of U.S. athletes to be social change agents has shown that:

A) the celebrity status of star athletes makes them more likely to speak out on important social issues in sport and society.
B) professional athletes rarely become involved with established community or civic organizations, such as United Way agencies, as volunteers to help people in need.
C) major sports stars today typically avoid becoming involved with controversial political issues that might threaten their popularity with fans or the corporate world.
D) professional athletes who take controversial stands on political issues typically are respected and supported by sports officials and fans.

Answer 2

major sports stars today typically avoid becoming involved with controversial political issues that might threaten their popularity with fans or the corporate world.

Question 3

The influence of multinational corporate interests on international sports is shown by:

A) Phil Knight of Nike rooting for Brazil over the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup of soccer because the teams wore different brands of shoes.
B) federal government regulation of national sports organizations within some nations.
C) Little League Baseball, Inc. in the United States.
D) the sale of naming rights for an NFL stadium to an American corporation.

Answer 3

Phil Knight of Nike rooting for Brazil over the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup of soccer because the teams wore different brands of shoes.

Question 4

According to Richard Mandell's analysis of the Nazi Olympics:

A) Hitler was opposed to staging the 1936 Summer Olympics on German soil.
B) the United States Olympic Committee supported a boycott of the 1936 Summer Games by Jewish and African-American athletes.
C) the German government used those Games to try to unite their Aryan population and distract other nations from their military intentions.
D) Hitler permitted the Olympics to take place in Germany but avoided an
Association between his Nazi government and the Olympics.

Question 5

Government support of sports in the former Soviet Union:

A) was limited.
B) was willingly accepted by the Soviet people as a reflection of their deep commitment to Soviet ideology and the Soviet political regime.
C) was based on goals of educating people about the virtues of the Communist system and of glorifying the Soviet state.
D) resulted in limited success in international competition by Soviet teams.

Question 6

The Olympic ideals promoted by the founders of the modern Olympics in 1896 are illustrated by:

A) interaction among athletes from different nations in the Olympic Village.
B) medals ceremonies for athletes representing different nations.
C) athletes carrying their national flags and wearing national team uniforms during the opening ceremony.
D) medal counts for nations.

Question 7

The global protest against Nike:

A) was based on the accusation that Nike used Third World sweatshops to manufacture their products.
B) was totally ineffective.
C) resulted in an increase in Nike's corporate earnings when the protests were most intense.
D) had no influence on Nike's customers or universities that did business with Nike.

Question 8

The case of "beisbol diplomacy" highlighted in the "sport in the news feature" in the text showed that:

A) the Cuban government had no interest in sports competition between teams from Cuba and the United States.
B) the U.S. government had no interest in sports competition between teams from Cuba and the United States.
C) sport can overcome political differences between hostile countries.
D) past political relations between nations affect how much sports diplomacy efforts change relations between hostile nations that compete on the athletic field.

Question 9

The "focus on research" feature about Baird's research on ideology, politics, and market forces in Cuban baseball showed that:

A) nations committed to socialist principles cannot compete successfully in the global sports arena.
B) Cuban leader Fidel Castro admired and respected Major League baseball despite its capitalistic structure.
C) Cuban players had no restrictions on the amount of money they could earn from their sport.
D) the commitment of Cuban political leaders to socialist principles in their regulation of baseball in their country encouraged a number of star Cuban players to try to defect to other countries.

Question 10

Under communist rule in the former Soviet Union, outstanding athletes were most likely to:

A) be viewed officially as heroes of the state.
B) have their jerseys or numbers hung from the rafters of the arenas where they achieved their great successes.
C) earn money from commercial advertisements and endorsements related to the Golden Triangle.
D) wear commercial logos on their uniforms.

Question 11

A social conflict or critical perspective on the politics of sport is illustrated by the idea that:

A) U.S. sports teams reinforce a belief in the American Dream in the U.S. and in the countries playing against the U.S. in international competitions.
B) sports accomplishments of national sports teams can overcome ethnic divisions within nations and unify those nations.
C) the international success of national sports teams reinforces the legitimacy of political leaders and the stability of their political regimes when these leaders strongly and publicly support these teams.
D) the Golden Triangle uses its political ties to governmental elites to serve its economic and political interests and maintain its dominance over big-time sports.

Question 12

The United States has been relatively unusual among nations participating in the Olympics because:

A) it has not had a centralized federal sports authority to regulate and sponsor Olympic sports.
B) it has not tried to use the Olympics for its political purposes.
C) the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is part of the U.S. government and is fully funded by the federal government.
D) no independent national governing bodies of amateur or Olympic sports have been allowed to organize or operate their sports in the U.S.

Question 13

According to a study by Green and Houlihan about the governance of sports in the United Kingdom and Australia:

A) national sports organizations (NSOs) in these countries were promised more autonomy and government funding if they adhered more closely to government standards for organizational performance.
B) the national governments of the United Kingdom and Australia have had little or no interest in the international competitive success of their national sports teams.
C) the national governments of the United Kingdom and Australia discouraged NSOs from adopting business-oriented neoliberal policies that other sectors of governments in these countries were expected to adopt.
D) government leaders in the United Kingdom and Australia wanted NSOs to decrease the influence of the Golden Triangle over their sports.

Question 14

Sack and Suster's study of politics and sport in the Yugoslav Federation showed that:

A) the sports stadium tends to be a place where spectators from different ethnic groups can celebrate their nationalistic feelings and learn not to express those feelings in violent ways.
B) fans of the Croatian Bad Boy Blues and Serbian Delije soccer club came together to express their sense of national unity through sport.
C) different factions among Yugoslavian sports spectators used the sports arena to try to advance conflicting political agendas.
D) newly elected president of Croatia, Franco Tudjman, strongly opposed the display of patriotic and nationalistic Croatian patriotic symbols during an exhibition game in Maksimir soccer stadium in Croatia between a Croatian all-star team and the U.S. team.

Question 15

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was unique among modern Olympics Games in its organization and operation because it:

A) involved a boycott.
B) was the most expensive Olympics in modern Olympic history.
C) was not officially organized, run, or financed by a city.
D) relied entirely on public or taxpayer financial support.

Question 16

A political decision that was most inconsistent with the typical political approach of national or international Olympic officials was:

A) banning South Africa from the Olympic movement due to its apartheid policies.
B) ignoring international concerns about Hitler and German political exploitation of the Games prior to the 1936 Olympics.
C) sending Tommie Smith and John Carlos home and taking away their medals after their "black power salute" on the victory stand in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City.
D) asserting that the "Games must go on" following the political terrorism at the 1972 Munich Games.

Question 17

In dealing with the "Two Chinas" issue, International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials:

A) never have been able to decide whether the People's Republic of China or the Republic of China should represent the Chinese people and as a result, always have invited both delegations.
B) have vacillated or wavered over time, inviting one delegation at one time and the other delegation at another time.
C) have made the Chinese government on Taiwan responsible for organizing the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
D) have always been able to avoid political protests about their decisions concerning which Chinese delegation to invite to participate in the Games.

Question 18

The political economy perspective in sport sociology:

A) is more consistent with a structural functional than social conflict or critical perspective.
B) focuses on how political power and capitalism combine in sport and influence the organization of sport and its operation.
C) tends to ignore how networks such as the Golden Triangle influence sport.
D) helps us see how sport, politics, and the economy are basically unrelated to each other.

Question 19

The politics of access in sport:

A) demonstrates that sport is no longer contested terrain for minority groups.
B) involves racial or ethnic minorities but not women.
C) involves issues of racism and sexism in decisions about who gets the most opportunities to play sports.
D) involves the Paralympics but not the Olympics.

Question 20

The environment became a major theme in planning for the Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway because:

A) the previous Winter Games in Albertville, France had set a precedent as a model of environmental responsibility.
B) the planning focus of the Lillehammer organizers on the "Compact Games" replaced their planning focus on the "Green Games."
C) local grassroots environmental activists in Norway pushed for an environmental emphasis.
D) the International Olympic Committee had made a major commitment to preserving environmental quality as their top priority in the bidding process for aspiring Olympic hosts prior to the Winter Games in Albertville.

Question 21

According to Sage and the discussion in the text and in this course, how has the case of Nike in low-income countries demonstrated both the role of the sporting goods industry in the global economy and the capacity of social movements to influence major business interests in the global Golden Triangle? Be specific.

Question 22

How do you think that the major contemporary forces of change in society that we introduced at the beginning of the course - that is, socio-demographic, organizational, economic, political, and technological - will influence sport in the future, and what kind of role do you think the Golden Triangle will play in the future of sport in the U.S. and globally?

Question 23

In the special "focus on research" feature concerning Baird's case study of Cuban baseball, what were significant "cracks" that Baird found in the Cuban socialist model of baseball and what caused these "cracks"?

Question 24

In the "sport in the news" feature about "Beisbol Diplomacy," what was distinctive about the use of baseball for international diplomacy, and what was the result of this diplomatic effort?

Question 25

What does the concept of "war without weapons" mean in relation to sport, and what is an actual example that illustrates this concept?

Question 26

How is the politics of the environment related to sport, and what are two distinct examples that illustrate this relationship?

Question 27

Using Barber's conception of the "Jihad vs. McWorld," in what direction would the dominance of Jihad forces push sport and the Golden Triangle in the future, in what direction would McWorld forces push sport and the Golden Triangle in the future, and which of these two types of global forces of change is likely to have the most impact on sport in the next decade? Explain your answers.