Sample Questions 1
Intl 204, Koç University / Fall 2015 / Assoc. Prof. Murat Somer
1. Discuss the pro- and contra-arguments for the following statements: (1)
Democracy requires active citizens who always know about and participate in
politics (2) The best government policy in response to ethnic, racial and religious
differences is accommodation as opposed to assimilation (3) Authoritarian regimes
are the best for developing countries (4) Income distribution determines how easy
it is for people to change their social class during their life time.
2. Aristotle defined politics in terms of its end goals. Why is his definition difficult to
uphold in modern society?
3. By contrast, many modern theories define politics based on its means, i.e. how
people use power to determine “who gets what?” If this is true, why do people in
politcs always talk about common good, national interest, and so on?
4. If power is central to politics, how can the underprivileged get a fair deal from the
government?
5. Give an example of structural power (structure as power) from politics, economics,
and your individual life.
6. Give some examples of identities that compete with nations. Which features
distinguish nations from competing identities?
7. Which features do (a) states and (b) nations share with competing institutions and
identities? What are their distinguishing characteristcs?
8. Why do environmental problems challenge the principle of national sovereignty in
the world? Give examples of two other problems that similarly challenge this
principle and explain why.
9. “Most authoritarian regimes have underdeveloped economies.” Does this
statement refer to a correlation or causal relationship? Why?
10. Explain the “most similar case” and “most different case” comparative methods.
Give an example for each.
11. (a) Explain how the everyday usage of the term “state” differ from its usage by
political scientists. (b) give an example where state as an organization conflicts
with other organizations (or group) in society (c) give an example where state as
an organization cooperates with other organizations (or group) in society. (d) Give
an example where a state first cooperated and then conflicted with an organization
(or group) in society.
12. Give an example where a state’s interests may conflict with that of its society.
13. Give concrete examples where different political cultures promote different
choices with respect to the tradeoffs between (a) liberty and security and (b)
groups and individuals.
14. Does globalization weaken states? Discuss by explaining releveant theories.
15. Explain modernization theory and Inglehart’s post-materialism theory and explain
whether they conflict or agree with each other in predicting China’s future.
16. Why is identity so effective as a tool for political elites who are trying to mobilize
members of the general public? What are the risks of using identity in politics?
17. How are civic and ethnic nations different? Give an example for each from TIC.
Also, give an example from TIC to explain how a national identity can be both
ethnic and civic characteristics.
18. Give examples of assimilation, inegration and accımmodatşon in dealing with
ethnic and religious minorities from TIC.
19. Explain how primordialism, constructivism, and the radical middle poisition
explain where identity comes from by giving examples.
20. (a) Define complementary and cross-cutting identity cleavages. (b) Give an
example for each from Iraq and Ukraine.. (c) from TIC countries.. (d) from Turkey
21. Imagine that you are given the following information. “On average, countries with
rich natural resources are less industrialized and less democratic than those with
few natural resources. (a) What is the dependent and independent variables in this
empirical relationship? (b) By giving comparative examples, explain which theory
can causally explain this relationship, and how some countries are able to become
industrialized and democratic despite having rich natural resources.
22. “After taking power, Chinese communists sent researchers across the country to
identify the existing ethnic groups. At the end, the government recognized (and
thus helped sustain) only 55 groups out of more than 400 ethnic groups which
applied for official recognition. Many groups were lumped together into the Han
Chinese category. However, government efforts to homogenize the Han culturally
and linguistically have had limited success. “ This narrative supports the following
theory about ethnic identities:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Ronald Suny’s “radical middle position”
Donald Horowitz’ primordialism
Russell Hardin’s instrumentalism
Iris Young’s Constructivism
None of the above
23. Social democrats want …. intervention in the economy and …. intervention in
social values in favor of …….. values, while the conservatives want….
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
intervention in the economy and …. intervention in social values in favor of ……..
values
Low, moderate, egalitarian; low, high, traditional
High, moderate, egalitarian; high, high, traditional
High, high, egalitarian; low, high, Islamic
High, moderate, egalitarian; low, high, traditional
None of the above
24. Cleavage structure theory predicts that cross-cutting cleavages in a country ……
group conflict while complementary (cumulative) cleavages ……… group
conflict. What would be a country confirming this prediction? Give the name of
the country and explain.
25. Fill in the blanks with the best available answer. National identities are ………
ethnicity because the former are ……………
a. same as; territorial
b. same as; territorial and include claims to self-government
c. different from; territorial
d. different from; territorial and include claims to self-government
e. none of the above
26. According to our book, “civic nations” are common in ….. while “ethnic nations”
are common in…..
a) Eastern Europe; North and South America
b) North and South America; Eastern Europe
c) Asia; Africa
d) Africa; Asia
e) None of the above
27. What is the difference between a country’s regime and government? What are the
UK’s (Iran’s, Mexico’s and Germany’s) current regime and government and why?
28. What is resource curse? What are the political causes of resource curse and how
are they different from the economic ones? How can a country overcome the
resource curse?