POLITICAL SCIENCE 102 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2025/2026

POLITICAL SCIENCE 102 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2025/2026 An institution can be defined as any: - Answers organization or activity that is self-perpetuating and valued for its own sake. Politics is defined in the text as the: - Answers struggle in any group for the power to make decisions for the larger group. Which of the following is true of the work of most comparativists? - Answers When they expand study outside of a single country, they tend to limit their focus to a single geographic region. Which of the following best describes the current trend in comparative politics research? - Answers There is hopeful talk of moving away from models that describe politics, but much research in comparative politics remains descriptive and focused on a single country. In which of the following ways does quantitative research differ from qualitative research? - Answers It favors a wider use of cases not restricted by area specialization. Which of the following could be considered a major challenge faced by political scientists in their use of the comparative method? - Answers the difficulty in controlling variables A true comparative approach to politics only emerges with the work of: - Answers Machiavelli. The shift in comparative politics away from political institutions (such as legislatures and constitutions) and toward individual political behavior is known as the: - Answers behavioral revolution Which of the following is true of the concept of political institutions? - Answers U.S. democracy is an institution in both the formal and informal sense. In which of the following ways can multicausality affect comparative politics research? - Answers It complicates the comparative method and makes it more difficult to develop concrete explanations about real-world phenomena. What is deductive reasoning? - Answers the means by which we go from a hypothesis to studying evidence Modernization theory can be defined as the view that: - Answers as societies develop, they will become capitalist democracies. To a comparativist, which would be of more value: discovery of a correlation or discovery of a causal relationship? Why? - Answers causal relationship, because it describes a more concrete, specific relationship between two variables In which of the following ways did behavioralism differ from modernization theory? - Answers It was more of a method than a general hypothesis. In case study research, one problem that can emerge is the choosing of only cases that match the expected results of the research question, or what is known as: - Answers selection bias. Which of the following forms of research or data would more likely be used by a quantitative research study than by a qualitative research study? - Answers economic data In which of the following ways were behaviorialism and modernization theory similar? - Answers They both constituted new, more scientific attempts to study politics. Which of the following served as a major modern turning point for the study of comparative politics? - Answers The two World Wars Which of the following statements about the current institutional approach to comparative politics is accurate? - Answers It shares an emphasis on the importance of institutions with pre-1950s comparative politics research. The problem in comparative politics research of distinguishing cause from effect is know as - Answers the endogenity problem Recent discussions of the future of comparative politics and political science have called for: - Answers a greater connection to real-world concerns and contribution to the ideals of civic life. A major criticism of comparative politics at the turn of the twentieth century was that it: - Answers was descriptive rather than explanatory. Which of the following would be an example of selection bias? - Answers studying causes for the emergence of democracy by looking only at case studies where democracy emerged One big rift within the study of comparative politics is: - Answers quantitative versus qualitative research. Critics of the behavioral revolution accused it of which of the following? - Answers It had come to emphasize methodology over knowledge what is inductive reasoning - Answers research that works from case studies in order to generate hypotheses the substance of politics is inevitably bound up in the struggle between - Answers individual freedom and collective equality in what ways did behaviorism differ from modernization theory? - Answers the modernization theory was a set of hypotheses that determined how countries would develop while behaviorism was a set method of how to examine politics. herbst argues that war affected state formation in Europe in what two ways? - Answers 1. summary of Herbst: War and the State of Africa 1. war acted as a filter whereby weak states were eliminated 2. war caused the state to become more efficient in revenue collection 3. war forced state leaders to improve administrative capabilities 4. war led to the development of nationalism political scientists, based on the work of max weber, define the state as - Answers an organization that maintains a monopoly of violence over a territory Sovereignty is defined as the ability of: - Answers states to carry out actions or policies independent of outside actors or internal rivals. what phenomenon is more responsible for bringing the organization of the modern state into adoption by most of the world - Answers Imposition by European states through colonial dominance regimes are defined as - Answers the basic rules and norms of politics thomas hobbes believed that people gave up their rights to the coercive power of the state in order to - Answers A philosopher that believed that the purpose of government was to provide protection and order, and in return the people would give up their right to overthrow or even question the government. - All human beings have "a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death" what might be a characteristic of a state with low autonomy - Answers the ability of a state to operate without public or international influence a limited ability to disobey the public