1. What is a political system?
(a) A network of relationships through which government generates ‘outputs’ (policies) in
response to ‘inputs’ (demands or support) from the general public
(b) The number of political parties which contest elections in a state
(c) The political institutions in a state
(d) The political institutions in a state and the number of political parties which contest elections
2. Why do political scientists classify political regimes?
(a) To allow policy makers to compare the outputs of a regime
(b) To aid understanding of politics and to facilitate evaluation
(c) To minimize the risks of revolutionary upheaval
(d) To provide a simplified approach to understanding procedures in a democracy
3. What is utopianism?
(a) A vision of the state based on the principle of equality of opportunity
(b) A vision of the state based on the principle of equality of outcome
(c) A style of political theorizing that develops a critique of the existing order by constructing a
model of an ideal or perfect alternative
(d) A style of political theorizing which draws heavily from Christian theological texts written in
Europe during the seventeenth century
4. What is a coup d’état?
(a) The judgement of a Supreme Court on the outcome of a disputed election
(b) A sudden and forcible seizure of government power through illegal and unconstitutional
action
(c) The appointment of senior members of the military to the government in a state
(d) The appointment of senior members of the military to the courts in a state
5. What two questions did Aristotle use to categorize governments?
(a) ‘Who rules’ and ‘Who benefits from rule’
(b) ‘Who is excluded from ruling’ and ‘Why’
(c) ‘What are the benefits of being a ruler’ and ‘How are the benefits distributed’
(d) ‘Is the state a democracy’ and ‘What is the state’s level of economic development’
6. Why did Aristotle advocate for a ‘mixed’ constitution that combined elements of aristocracy
and democracy?
(a) Aristotle criticized popular rule on the grounds that the masses would resent the wealth of
the few and too easily fall under the sway of a demagogue
(b) Aristotle criticized popular rule on the grounds that it would lead to the tyranny of the
majority
(c) Aristotle believed that a ‘mixed’ constitution would lead to rule by the middle classes who by
virtue of education levels would make more effective rulers
(d) Aristotle believed that a mixed constitution would be more effective in providing protection
for natural inalienable rights
7. Who wrote The Spirit of the Laws in 1748?
(a) Plato
(b) Jean Bodin
(c) John Locke
(d) Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
8. What is republicanism?
(a) A theory or practice of government most commonly associated with absolute monarchy
(b) The principle that political authority stems ultimately from the consent of the people; and
the rejection of monarchical and dynastic principles
(c) An approach to government which seeks to politicize every aspect of social and personal
existence
(d) A system of government which is focused exclusively on the design of political institutions
9. Why was the three worlds’ typology abandoned in the early 1990s?
(a) There was rapid economic growth in all developing ‘third world’ countries during the 1980s so
the classification system lost its meaning
(b) The collapse of orthodox communist regimes in the USSR and elsewhere after 1989 meant
that the classification system lost its meaning
(c) The rapid decline in economic growth in the ‘capitalist first world’ in the 1980s meant that the
classification system lost its meaning
(d) The growth in income inequality across the entire globe in the 1980s meant that the
classification system lost its meaning
10. Who wrote The End of History?
(a) Francis Fukuyama
(b) Samuel Huntington
(c) Helen Milner
(d) Margaret Levi
11. Which of the following is not a regime type identified in the modern world?
(a) East Asian regimes
(b) Military regimes
(c) Western liberal democracies
(d) Western absolutist monarchies
12. What is the Westminster model?
(a) A system of government where the executive is drawn from outside parliament and a
proportional electoral system is used to elect members of parliament
(b) A system of government in which the executive is drawn from, and (in theory) is accountable
to, parliament
(c) The system of government used in all former colonies of Great Britain
(d) A system of government in which there is one house of parliament and ministers are drawn
from outside parliament
13. What are the two distinguishing features of polyarchical liberal democratic regimes?
(a) A high tolerance for political opposition and widespread opportunities for political
participation
(b) Limited tolerance for political opposition and political participation is restricted to elections
which often do not meet the benchmark of being ‘free and fair’
(c) They were established during the third wave of democratization and value liberal individualism
(d) They were established during the third wave of democratization and use majoritarian electoral
systems
14. Which of the following countries is classified as a majoritarian democracy?
(a) Ireland
(b) Belgium
(c) India
(d) Russia
15. Which of the following countries is classified as a consensus democracy?
(a) Australia
(b) United Kingdom
(c) Ukraine
(d) Portugal
16. What is consociational democracy?
(a) A form of democracy that operates through power-sharing and a close association amongst
a number of parties or political formations
(b) A form of democracy which results in polarised pluralism, the presence of many pariah parties
and a tendency towards single party government
(c) A form of democracy which uses a majoritarian electoral system and has one house of
parliament
(d) A form of democracy which uses a majoritarian electoral system and has two houses of
parliament, one of which is indirectly elected
17. When did the second wave of democratization begin?
(a) 1945
(b) 1974
(c) 1989
(d) 1992
18. What was ‘shock therapy’?
(a) The rapid transition from authoritarian regime to transition democracy which took place in
many central and Eastern European states after the collapse of the USSR
(b) The rapid rise in political disenchantment and disaffection in mature democracies during the
1990s
(c) The emergence of oil rich states in the Middle East as major centres of economic power in the
1970s
(d) The transition from central planning to laissez faire capitalism advocated by the
International Monetary Fund
19. Which of the following countries is classified as an illiberal democracy?
(a) Switzerland
(b) New Zealand
(c) Hungary
(d) South Korea
20. What is authoritarianism
(a) A belief in, or practice of, government ‘from above’ in which authority is exercised
regardless of political consent
(b) A system of government where individual liberty is prioritized
(c) A system of government which went into decline globally in the early twentieth century
(d) A system of government in which authority rests in a demagogue who rules without regular
elections
21. What is Confucianism?
(a) A set of political norms which emphasises postmodern values and individual freedoms
(b) A system of ethics formulated by Confucius and his disciples that was primarily outlined in
The Analects
(c) A set of political ideas which prioritises economic growth over political development and
encourages strong government
(d) A political theory which emphasises the role of religion in the modern state
22. How are Asian values defined?
(a) Values which supposedly promote human development through meditation and adherence to
tradition ideals
(b) Values which have evolved in response to the rapid economic growth in Asia in the early
twenty first century
(c) Values which are avowedly post-colonial and which reject all forms of European norms on
liberty and equality
(d) Values that supposedly reflect the history, culture and religious backgrounds of Asian
societies
23. Which of the following states might be classified as an Islamic theocracy?
(a) North Kora
(b) Israel
(c) Saudi Arabia
(d) Namibia
24. Which of the following is not a circumstance associated with military seizure of government
power?
(a) Economic under-development
(b) Political institutions have low levels of political legitimacy
(c) The values and goals of the military differ from those of the broader regime
(d) Rapid economic growth which has led to a sharp rise in income inequality
25. How is a typology defined?
(a) As a system of classification which lists states that share common electoral systems
(b) As a system of classification which divides states into groups or types with different political
features
(c) As a system of classification which divides states into groups or types with common political
features
(d) As a theoretical approach to the study of comparative politics
