Deck 3: France

Question 1

Hollande is widely considered to have rescued the French economy by drastically cutting the French welfare state and implementing reforms that made the workforce more flexible.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

The current French National Assembly has its origins in the pre-Revolution Third Estate that represented the masses.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

The Catholic Church was disadvantaged by the French Revolution, which resulted in the clerical-anticlerical split that can still be found in French political culture.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

France has single-member districts with a one-round electoral system.

Question 5

France has a multiparty system that generally functions as two blocs: left and right.

Question 6

In the French semipresidential system, cohabitation occurs when the president and prime minister are of the same party.

Question 7

Implementing a first past the post electoral system would minimize the chance that an extremist candidate might make a viable showing in French presidential election.

Question 8

France is a decentralized system with strong local government.

Question 9

French statism stunted the development of a voluntary, do-it-yourself attitude, which has led to French citizens placing responsibility for nearly everything in the hands of the central government.

Question 10

Legislative immobilisme helps to ensure that parliament and the president are able to agree on matters of important public policy.

Question 11

Which of the following is most consistent with attitudes central to French political culture?

A) Capitalism is basically a good thing.
B) Free market competition yields opportunities for all citizens.
C) Society as a whole should look out for its weakest members.
D) State ownership of industry is incompatible with democracy.

Question 12

The French thinker __________ influenced the French Revolution by arguing that a general will exists. Once it is discovered, the people can be "forced to be free."

A) Locke
B) Voltaire
C) Rousseau
D) Montesquieu

Question 13

Which of the following French philosophers claimed that checks and balances in government can ensure that liberty is preserved?

A) Montesquieu
B) Rousseau
C) Voltaire
D) Thucydides

Question 14

Voltaire's writings epitomized __________, which was an eighteenth-century philosophical movement that advocated reason and tolerance rather than blind religious rule.

A) revolution
B) the Enlightenment
C) democracy
D) clericalism

Question 15

Which of the following contributed to the French Revolution?

A) an economic downturn during the eighteenth century
B) the assassination of Napoléon Bonaparte
C) requiring the Third Estate to meet separately from the First and Second Estates
D) increased economic and political expectations arising from political reforms

Question 16

Which French party is the most anti-immigrant, going so far as to advocate deportation of Muslims?

A) Socialists
B) Communists
C) Union for Popular Majority
D) National Front

Question 17

According to Crane Brinton, which of the following is the last stage of revolution?

A) Intellectuals become dissatisfied with the system.
B) A Thermidor occurs.
C) Moderates seize power.
D) Extremists take over.

Question 18

Which of the following is a power held by the French president?

A) borrow money
B) veto bills passed by the National Assembly
C) appoint the prime minister
D) dismiss parliament

Question 19

French prime ministers are more powerful __________.

A) when their party is the majority in parliament
B) during cohabitation
C) under emergency rule
D) when the president is of the same party

Question 20

Former French president __________, elected in 2007, is one of the few politicians or bureaucrats in recent history to not be a product of one of the Great Schools.

A) Mitterrand
B) Chirac
C) Le Pen
D) Sarkozy

Question 21

The French __________, whose role is primarily __________, acts as a brake against ill-considered legislation.

A) National Assembly; political
B) Senate; legal
C) Constitutional Council; political
D) premier; legal

Question 22

Which of the following do the French overproduce?

A) agricultural products
B) technology-intensive products
C) employment opportunities
D) fossil fuels

Question 23

French National Assembly elections are conducted using what type of electoral system?

A) proportional representation
B) first past the post
C) single transferable vote
D) single-member districts with runoff

Question 24

Which philosopher expressed the French tendency toward privatism by saying, "Hell is other people"?

A) Montesquieu
B) Sartre
C) Rousseau
D) Camus

Question 25

If you were a working-class French man or woman residing in an urban area, you would also likely be __________ and support candidates on the political __________.

A) pro-Church; left
B) anticlerical; right
C) pro-Church; right
D) anticlerical; left

Question 26

Which best characterizes the French electorate?

A) far right
B) far left
C) right of center
D) centrist

Question 27

Which of the following are on the political right?

A) Common Program and UDF
B) Trotskyists and Socialists
C) Neo-Gaullists and UDF
D) Gaullists and SFIO

Question 28

Which of the following best characterizes French labor unions?

A) strong
B) cohesive
C) quite powerful
D) fragmented

Question 29

The French economic system is __________.

A) a completely free market
B) completely state controlled
C) partially state controlled
D) more state controlled now than ever before

Question 30

France's first stable democracy was the __________.

A) Second Republic
B) Third Republic
C) Fifth Republic
D) Bourbon Restoration

Question 31

France's high rates of unemployment can be partially attributed to __________.

A) the influence of strong labor unions
B) parliamentary cohabitation
C) state protectionism
D) its underfunded social welfare system

Question 32

Which of the following is an issue that the French currently quarrel about?

A) the quality of French wines and cheeses
B) high unemployment
C) too little domestic food production
D) high medical costs

Question 33

French voters __________ a new EU Constitution in 2005, which is indicative of their feelings toward __________ in France and the EU.

A) passed; all government
B) passed; reformers
C) rejected; elites
D) rejected; social democrats

Question 34

Some oppose shaping the EU into a full federation for fear that it will jeopardize France's __________.

A) legitimacy
B) membership
C) democratic institutions
D) sovereignty

Question 35

Who led the French resistance to the Vichy regime and also designed the Fifth Republic?

A) de Gaulle
B) Mitterrand
C) Sarkozy
D) Le Pen

Question 36

Discuss at least three causes of the French Revolution. Which of these do you think had the biggest impact on the Revolution? Explain.

Question 37

What is political culture? Discuss at least three elements of French political culture. In your discussion, provide a historical explanation for that element as well as a contemporary implication.

Question 38

What were the primary failures of the French Fourth Republic? Discuss the sources of these failures. Provide examples.

Question 39

What institutional elements make the French Fifth Republic more stable and less prone to immobilisme than the French Fourth Republic? Explain how these institutions generate stability and effective governance.

Question 40

What type of party system does France have? Discuss the number of effective parties, how they coordinate with one another, when they coordinate with one another, and why they coordinate with one another. What is responsible for this particular party system? What implications does the party system have on French politics?

Question 41

France has a semipresidential system. What exactly does this mean? Specifically, address the roles of the executive and legislative branches in this system. Would you recommend the semipresidential system for other countries? Explain why or why not.