Deck 15: The Nation-State

Question 1

What trend has characterized the number of states in the world since 1900?

A) steady decline
B) steady increase
C) cycles of increase and decrease
D) no pattern or trend

Answer 1

B

Question 2

What has been responsible for the largest change in the number of states in the last 100 years?

A) neoliberalism
B) colonization
C) globalization
D) decolonization

Answer 2

D

Question 3

What country was the first global power?

A) Spain
B) China
C) Britain
D) United States

Answer 3

A

Question 4

What country spent the most on their military in 2015?

A) China
B) United States
C) Russia
D) United Kingdom

Question 5

What type of power dynamic is illustrated by the example of China building up its navy enough to back up territorial claims in the South China Sea?

A) soft power
B) superpower
C) hard power
D) core-periphery

Question 6

What income category is the United States?

A) high
B) upper middle
C) lower middle
D) low

Question 7

What is an example of natural capital?

A) roads
B) buildings
C) forest resources
D) education level of population

Question 8

What best explains the geography of income found within China?

A) Income distribution is equal across all regions of China.
B) Greatest inequality is between coastal cities and interior villages.
C) Income distribution only varies by education level.
D) Greatest inequality is between ethnic Han Chinese and non-Han groups.

Question 9

According to the plotting of the Gini Index, what type of country would be the most equal?

A) high-income, large population
B) low-income, small population
C) high-income, small population
D) low-income, large population

Question 10

Why does the CIA collect data on national income inequality?

A) as research for free trade agreements
B) to be used as a predictor of stability and well-being
C) as data for world poverty alleviation plans
D) to be used as an indicator of development potential

Question 11

What is the best description of a totalitarian regime?

A) Political power comes from economic growth and society's income distribution.
B) Government is elected, but leaders are deeply influenced by amassing personal wealth.
C) Political power comes from the will of the majority, who elect their regime leaders.
D) Government has control over wide and deep swathes of social, political, and economic life.

Question 12

What term describes what happened during the Arab Spring to the governing elites of Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya, who each lost the support of their populations?

A) fiscal crisis
B) political crisis
C) legitimation crisis
D) rationality crisis

Question 13

What term describes what happened when the US made the decision to invade Iraq in 2003 based on faulty assumptions?

A) fiscal crisis
B) political crisis
C) legitimation crisis
D) rationality crisis

Question 14

What are the four countries known as the BRICs, grouped together by their large size and developing economies?

A) Bangladesh, Russia, Indonesia, Canada
B) Brazil, Rwanda, Indonesia, Canada
C) Brazil, Russia, India, China
D) Bangladesh, Rwanda, India, China

Question 15

Why do countries join economic unions like the EU's antecedent, the European Economic Community?

A) to offset territorial or population limits
B) to satisfy the conditions of neoliberal loans
C) to qualify for foreign direct investment
D) to begin the process of cultural globalization

Question 16

What statement is an example of a state with more than one nation?

A) In Swaziland, the majority of the population in its territory is ethnically Swazi.
B) The Kurdish nation is territorially divided among Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran.
C) In Belgium, cultural divisions based on language threaten to split the country in two.
D) The Japanese ethnic homogeneity is being diluted by increasing international migration.

Question 17

What are centripetal forces?

A) forces that unify state power across space
B) forces that govern movement over space
C) forces that disrupt state power across space
D) forces that enable territorial expansion over space

Question 18

What type of forces are illustrated by the banning symbols of Scottish national identity in the 18^th century by the British state, then in the 20^th century, Britain granted Scotland its own parliament?

A) centrifugal
B) centripetal
C) both
D) neither

Question 19

What type of borders form the boundaries of the United States?

A) all natural borders
B) all artificial borders
C) 3 natural borders and 1 artificial border
D) 2 natural borders and 2 artificial borders

Question 20

What is the best definition for gerrymandering?

A) an intentional manipulation of people's cast votes
B) an imbalance in the number of registered voters across districts
C) the political manipulation of electoral boundaries to sway elections
D) in elections, neighborhood allegiance beats traditional allegiances