6 test bank

CHAPTER 1

The Study of American Government

MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Type: FactualAns: BPage: 3

1. The two great questions about politics addressed by your text are, Who governs? and

a. Who pays?b. To what ends?c. With what means?d. For how long?e. Who votes?


2. The two great questions about politics addressed by your text are

a. Who votes? and Why?b. Who governs? and To what ends?c. Who runs for office? and Who pays?d. Who is right? and Why?e. For how long?

Type: ConceptualAns: APage: 3

3. The relationship between the two central questions addressed by your text ”Who governs? and To what ends?” can best be described in what way?

a. They are two distinct questions, but each must be considered with the other in mind.b. They are essentially two different versions of the same question.c. Who governs? deals with the purpose of politics; To what ends? deals with who holds

political power.d. They are two separate and distinct questions that should be addressed without

reference to each other.e. They are questions which cannot be separated without considering the very nature of

politics.

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4. Today, the U.S. federal income tax takes an average of what percent of taxpayers' income?

a. 10b. 15c. 21d. 43e. 45

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

2 Chapter 1: The Study of American Government

Type: FactualAns: DPage: 4

5. The text argues that political power and political purposes are

a. one and the same thing.b. frequently at odds with each other.c. occasionally overlapping concepts.d. inextricably intertwined.e. rarely joined in any obvious way.

Type: FactualAns: EPage: 4

6. The text argues that political power is inextricably bound with

a. mass media power.b. economic theories.c. an elitist attitude.d. religious and moral values.e. political purposes.


7. Individuals have power when they are able to

a. get elected to office.b. be present at behind-the-scenes political meetings.c. serve their fellow human beings.d. get others to do what they want.e. vote without being influenced by outside forces.


8. Power is best defined as the capacity to

a. make and carry out decisions without regard to others.b. get others to act in accordance with your intentions.c. persuade others to do what they do not want to do.d. respect your positions without fully believing them.e. believe in others while motivating yourself.


9. The president's wife gets him to change his position on abortion. Is this an example of political power, according to your text's definition?

a. Yes, because she's gotten the president to act according to her intentions.b. Yes, because the spouse of a president is a legitimate member of a political elite.c. No, because the spouse of a president lacks the formal authority to exercise political

power.d. No, because the exercise of political power requires overt action.e. No, because abortion is not mentioned in the Constitution.

Type: FactualAns: APage: 5

10. Your text notes that, over time, more and more issues in this country have tended to become ________ ones.

a. publicb. economicc. internationald. morale. private


Chapter 1: The Study of American Government 3


11. The text notes a tendency for issues that once were ________ to become ________.

a. simple, complicatedb. public, secretc. social, politicald. private, publice. economic, social

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12. Compared with the 1950s, government's involvement in the everyday lives of Americans in the 1990s is

a. about the same.b. slightly less.c. considerably less.d. slightly greater.e. considerably greater.


13. Formal authority refers to a right to exercise power that is derived from a(n)

a. official ceremony.b. majority vote.c. consensus.d. popular consensus.e. governmental office.

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14. If you decided that you wanted to achieve some formal authority in U.S. society, you would be best advised to

a. get a formal education.b. join a political party.c. pursue elective or appointive office.d. join an effective interest group.e. become well versed in the law.


15. People who run for office are trying to achieve what kind of authority?

a. respectedb. lastingc. formald. ultimatee. informal


16. The primary source of legitimate political authority in the United States is the

a. Bill of Rights.b. will of the people.c. U.S. Constitution.d. concept of civil liberty.e. notion of civil rights.




17. When did the U.S. Constitution become a source of legitimate authority?

a. at the time of the American Revolutionb. when it was written in Philadelphiac. after 1787, graduallyd. only in recent yearse. after the Supreme Court’s decision in Marbury


18. Which of the following statements about the U.S. Constitution as a source of legitimate authority is true?

a. This notion is widely accepted today.b. This notion has been accepted since 1787.c. This notion is unanimously recognized.d. This notion is accepted by many historians.e. This notion is vague, but developing.


19. The texts suggests that, in the United States, no government at any level would be considered legitimate if it were not in some sense

a. democratic.b. altruistic.c. humanitarian.d. elitist.e. aristocratic.


20. The author cites the early presidential administrations, the Civil War, and the New Deal as examples of struggles over

a. what constitutes legitimate authority.b. who shall govern.c. who gets what, when, and how.d. when progress is possible.e. how power is accumulated.


21. At the time of the Constitutional Convention, the view that a democratic government was desirable was

a. already waning.b. close to unanimous.c. beyond debate.d. held by an elite only.e. far from unanimous.


22. The Greek city-state, or polis extended the right to vote to everyone except

a. slaves.b. women.c. minors.d. those without property.e. All of these.




23. The term democracy was originally associated with

a. Jesus Christ.b. Vladimir Lenin.c. Aristotle.d. Thomas Jefferson.e. Kierkegaard.


24. The term participatory democracy applies most accurately to which of the following societies?

a. Greece in the fourth century B.C.b. modern Chinac. the United States since 1787d. the Soviet Union between 1917 and 1990e. the Southeastern United States before the Civil War


25. Aristotle's notion of democracy derived from the era of

a. warring duchies.b. city-states.c. independent tribes.d. global superpowers.e. revolting municipalities.


26. In recent times, Aristotle's ideal of democracy has been most closely approximated by

a. the AFL-CIO.b. the U.S. House of Representatives.c. the New England town meeting.d. the Constitutional Convention.e. the Southeastern United States before the Civil War.

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27. New England town meetings are commonly cited as the closest approach in the United States to

a. anarchy.b. classical democracy.c. revolution.d. socialism.e. plutocracy.


28. Of the following, the best example of a participatory democracy is

a. a Cuban village.b. Sweden or Norway.c. the Democratic National Convention.d. the U.S. House of Representatives.e. a New England town meeting.




29. The arrangement by which individuals gain power through competition for the people's vote is called

a. democratic centralism.b. participatory democracy.c. representative democracy.d. the "rule of the many."e. direct democracy.


30. Representative democracy allows individuals to gain political power through

a. media campaigns.b. quadrennial elections.c. nonpartisan elections.d. reciprocal elections.e. competitive elections.


31. Democracy was defined as the competitive struggle for people's votes by

a. Joseph Stalin.b. Joseph Schumpeter.c. Max Weber.d. Karl Marx.e. Soren Kierkegaard.


32. Joseph Schumpeter defined democracy as the competitive struggle for people's

a. hearts.b. votes.c. minds.d. power.e. consciousness.

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33. The key to the success of a representative democracy is

a. the direct participation of citizens in holding office.b. the direct participation of citizens in making policy.c. community control of policy formulation.d. genuine competition for leadership.e. an enlightened public.


34. Democracy in the United States is distinguished from many European democracies by the fact that, in the United States,

a. many more offices are elective.b. more campaign money comes from public sources.c. more people participate in the electoral process.d. the government plays a more active role in elections.e. the government frequently changes hands.




35. Democracy in the United States is distinguished from many European democracies by the fact that, in the United States,

a. more campaign money comes from private sources.b. more people participate in the electoral process.c. the government plays a more active role in elections.d. fewer offices are elective.e. the government frequently changes hands.


36. Compared to European democracies, the United States has a larger number of

a. voters.b. party members.c. elective offices.d. political activists.e. single-issues voters.


37. The Framers of the U.S. constitution favored

a. direct democracyb. participatory democracyc. representative democracyd. Marxisme. Socialism


38. Variants of direct democracy include programs of citizen participation and

a. interest group cooperation.b. guerrilla warfare.c. competitive elections.d. political party centralism.e. community control.


39. Community control and citizen participation in government programs are variants of which type of democracy?

a. democratic centralismb. representative democracyc. "the rule of the many"d. direct democracye. residual democracy


40. Critics of representative democracy have pointed out all of the following except

a. it responds too slowly.b. it serves special interests.c. it is unresponsive to majority opinion.d. it does not adequately protect basic liberties.e. A and C.




41. Majoritarian politics comes into play when

a. the major party prevails on an issue.b. a political elite comes to power.c. public opinion is unified.d. an absolute majority is required to win an election.e. leaders feel constrained to follow the popular will.


42. When the people have such intense feelings about a political issue that leaders feel obligated to follow the popular will, it is called

a. democracy.b. majoritarian politics.c. demagoguery.d. symbolic politics.e. Aristotelian politics.


43. A city council representative faces an important vote on how much, if any, money to spend on a new school. The representative relies on a poll of her constituents to make a decision. This is in keeping with the form of politics known as

a. participatory politics.b. majoritarian politics.c. pluralist politics.d. elitist politics.e. reciprocal politics.


44. Under what circumstances would majoritarian politics normally not be effective?

a. when a political leader feels sharply constrained by what most people wantb. when an issue is sufficiently important to command the attention of most citizensc. when an issue is too complicated or technical for most citizens to understandd. when an issue is sufficiently feasible so that what citizens want done can in fact be

donee. All of these.


45. Those who possess a disproportionate share of political power are defined as

a. capitalists.b. majoritarians.c. a political elite.d. officeholders.e. centralists.


46. A political elite consists of individuals who have a disproportionate amount of

a. power.b. influence.c. intelligence.d. media exposure.e. fame.




47. Members of the political elite possess a disproportionate share of

a. intelligence.b. political savy.c. money.d. natural resources.e. political power.


48. An identifiable group that possesses a disproportionate share of political power is called a political

a. elite.b. pressure group.c. party.d. interest group.e. coup.


49. C. Wright Mills, Karl Marx, and Max Weber are cited in the text as theorists who attempted to explain the

a. dynamics of Western history.b. behavior of the U.S. electorate.c. behavior of political elites.d. fate of political institutions.e. fall of Western European capitalists.


50. Which of the following was not an important source of theories explaining political elites?

a. Sigmund Freud.b. Karl Marx.c. C. Wright Mills.d. Max Weber.e. All of these.


51. Marxists claim that, in modern society, the two major classes contending for power are the

a. city dwellers and farmers.b. industrialists and capitalists.c. government and proletariat.d. intelligentsia and bourgeoisie.e. capitalists and workers.


52. Marx's view of government would dispose one to view an administration's proposal of a large military budget as a(n)

a. search for national security.b. exercise in bargaining and compromise.c. service to defense corporations.d. threat to world peace.e. ploy to appease the international community.




53. Marxists refer to those who own the means of production as

a. imperialists.b. bureaucrats.c. the proletariat.d. the collective.e. the bourgeoisie.


54. In Marxist ideology, the term bourgeoisie refers to

a. workers.b. capitalists.c. farmers.d. intellectuals.e. ideologues.


55. Society is analyzed as consisting of capitalists and workers in the theories of the

a. Marxists.b. elitists.c. pluralists.d. functionalists.e. tsarists.


56. Marxists analyze society primarily through the lens of

a. classb. racec. pluralismd. bureaucracye. institutions


57. Those who believe that government is little more than a front for major corporate interests would most likely be attracted to the thinking of

a. Joseph Schumpeter.b. Max Weber.c. Karl Marx.d. C. Wright Mills.e. J.S. Mill.


58. The founder of the elitist school in contemporary America was

a. Auguste Comte.b. Max Weber.c. C. Wright Mills.d. Ralph Abernathy.e. William F. Buckley, Jr.


59. C. Wright Mills expresses his view of power and policy making in his work entitled

a. The Inner Circle.b. The Proletarian Lament.



c. Bureaucracy and its Critics.d. The Owners of Production.e. The Power Elite.


60. C. Wright Mills is viewed as the founder of which school of thought in the twentieth-century United States?

a. Marxismb. pluralismc. elitismd. structuralisme. idealism


61. C. Wright Mills suggested the most important policies are set by

a. corporate leaders.b. top military officialsc. a handful of key political leaders.d. All of these.e. None of these.


62. Karl Marx and C. Wright Mills would be most likely to agree on

a. the diffusion of vital political resources.b. the centrality of a constitution and laws.c. the spread of socialist ideology.d. material dialecticalism as a starting point to politics.e. the existence of a small power elite.


63. That a comparatively tiny group of individuals holds the greatest political power could be agreed on by both

a. Tocqueville and Dahl.b. Dahl and C. Wright Mills.c. C. Wright Mills and Karl Marx.d. Karl Marx and Tocqueville.e. Truman and Dahl.


64. Max Weber argued that Karl Marx had neglected the most important institution in modern times, namely, the

a. media.b. military.c. mass media.d. university.e. bureaucracy.


65. Max Weber argued that the decision making of a dominant bureaucracy was more likely to be

a. inefficient.b. rational.c. circular.d. dialectical.



e. indefensible.


66. The pluralist view of political reality emphasizes the ________ of political resources.

a. coordinationb. duplicationc. irrelevanced. decentralizatione. reciprocity


67. The pluralist view holds all of the following except

a. No single elite has a monopoly on political resources.b. Policies are the result of a complex pattern of shifting alliances.c. Political resources are not distributed equally.d. Political elites are divided.e. Political elites do not respond to the interests of their followers.


68. That extragovernmental elites do not control politics could be agreed on by both

a. Max Weber and the pluralists.b. the pluralists and the Marxists.c. the Marxists and the elitists.d. the elitists and Max Weber.e. Mills and Dahl.


69. Max Weber and the pluralists would be most likely to agree that

a. class warfare is inevitable.b. written constitutions are mere symbols.c. multinational corporations make most political decisions today.d. economic policies are transparent.e. no extragovernmental elite controls politics.


70. The decentralization of political resources would be emphasized by the

a. structuralists.b. elitists.c. Marxists.d. isolationists.e. pluralists.


71. Those who emphasize the role in politics of shifting coalitions of groups are referred to as

a. Marxists.b. structuralists.c. elitists.d. pluralists.e. isolationists.




72. According to Tocqueville, Americans are fond of explaining their actions in terms of

a. self-interest.b. moral precepts.c. religious commitments.d. disinterested and spontaneous impulses.e. philosophical skepticism.


73. Regarding the role of self-interest in the positions that people take on important issues, it is safest to say that

a. the self-interest of individuals is usually a complete guide to their actions.b. economic self-interest may be important but is usually not the only guide to people's

actions.c. organizational self-interest rather than economic self-interest is usually the best guide

to people's actions.d. political preferences can be predicted invariably by knowing an individual's economic

or organizational position.e. self-interest is rarely an important factor in understanding political attitudes and

behavior.


74. The text cites the AFL-CIO's civil rights position in the 1960s as an example of

a. an innocent bystander caught up in a battle between opposing forces.b. an organization as a whole acting politically out of considerations broader than its

members' individual interests.c. the subtle ways in which obstructionism can be exercised in Washington.d. how economic interests lead directly to policy preferences.e. the manner in which interest groups can impose their viewpoints on large majorities.


75. The text argues that U.S. government, viewed in historical perspective, makes a mechanistic view of politics

a. inevitable.b. accurate beyond a reasonable doubt.c. impossible.d. difficult to accept.e. likely.


76. The text argues that a mechanistic view of U.S. government becomes impossible, given a(n)

a. economic approach.b. sociological context.c. historical perspective.d. etymological analysis.e. existential perspective.




77. The text presents the historical involvement of the United States in foreign affairs as

a. alternating between outward and inward movements.b. consistently drifting toward imperialism.c. devoid of any pattern whatsoever.d. being buffeted about by external forces.e. fluid in times of economic prosperity.


78. Your text argues that the history of U.S. involvement in foreign affairs alternates between

a. good and bad influences.b. Yankee and cowboy leadership.c. realism and idealism.d. expansionist and imperialist tendencies.e. inward and outward movements.


79. The average citizen in the United States would have been most likely to look to the federal government to solve social and economic problems in the year

a. 1790b. 1890c. 1920d. 1945e. 1985


80. Which of the following statements about political power ”who governs” is most accurate?

a. The key to understanding power is understanding the monetary costs of different political decisions.

b. Political power can usually be inferred by knowing what laws are on the books.c. Political power can usually be inferred by knowing what administrative actions have

been taken.d. Power cannot be realized without institutional arrangements.e. Most power derives from psychological and social factors such as friendship, loyalty,

and prestige.


81. Your text argues that we must study preferences as well as power in order to understand

a. history.b. society.c. politics.d. values.e. morals.


82. In the late 1970’s, many employees of the Civil Aeronautics Board worked hard to have their agency

a. expanded.b. deregulated.c. honored.d. reformed.e. abolished.




83. The text insists that, if we wish to understand power, we must also understand

a. powerlessness.b. preferences.c. economics.d. ambiguities.e. weakness.


84. According to your text, to infer the distribution of political power from studying the laws on the books would be

a. too ambitious an undertaking.b. too simplistic an approach.c. workable most of the time, but not always.d. the best single approach.e. acceptable if courts were policy makers.


85. The trouble with trying to infer the distribution of political power from examining the laws on the books is that

a. laws may be enacted in a great variety of circumstances.b. laws are made to be broken.c. legislative codes may be so obscure as to defy anyone's comprehension.d. many congressional enactments never get recorded at all.e. the judicial branch is rarely independent from the legislative branch.


86. Answers given by political scientists to major political questions tend to be

a. couched in economic theories.b. scientific and reliable.c. contingent and controversial.d. largely irrelevant to the real world.e. empirical and authoritative.


87. The text asserts that judgments about institutions and interests can be made

a. more reliably prospectively than retrospectively.b. on the basis of general ideological suppositions about modern society.c. when economic circumstances are properly assessed.d. only when one takes the time to accumulate sufficient sociological data.e. only after watching them act on a variety of important issues.


88. Which of the following shape the nature of day-to-day political conflict?

a. Opinions about what constitutes the dominant political problem of the timeb. Major economic developmentsc. Deep-seated beliefsd. All of thesee. None of these




89. The text concludes that the place to begin exploring how power is conducted in national politics is

a. the study of how children acquire their political attitudes.b. the founding of the national government at the Constitutional Convention.c. the current confrontation between Democrats and Republicans.d. the dissection of case studies of recent policy decisions.e. the political parties.


90. The Constitutional Convention is the logical place to begin to study how

a. this country gained its independence.b. today's parties first came into being.c. the spirit of democracy was established.d. power is distributed in national politics.e. equality was institutionalized.

TRUE/FALSE QUESTIONS

Ans: TruePage: 3

91. The two great questions about politics are, Who governs? and To what ends?

Ans: FalsePage: 3

92. The two questions that the text intends to ask about politics are, Who governs? and Who appears to govern?

Ans: TruePage: 3

93. The text argues that we can know who governs without knowing to what ends.

Ans: FalsePage: 3

94. If we know who governs, we can necessarily infer to what ends.

Ans: TruePage: 4

95. The goals of a particular administration will not be obvious from its party affiliation.

Ans: TruePage: 4

96. Most people holding national political office are middle-class, middle-aged, white Protestant males.

Ans: FalsePage: 4

97. We can always assume that government policy will favor government officials.

Ans: TruePage: 4

98. Government policies do not always favor the people who are in the government.



Ans: TruePage: 4

99. Political power is the ability to influence who rules and how rulers behave.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

100. Political power consists of the ability to use coercive force if you deem it appropriate.

Ans: TruePage: 5

101. Power is to be found in all human relationships.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

102. Power is found in some, but by no means all, human relationships.

Ans: TruePage: 5

103. One can have political power even if one does not possess formal authority.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

104. Only those who have formal authority may be said to exercise political power.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

105. The words "power" and "authority" describe the same concept.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

106. None of the Founders was particularly concerned about the government being too democratic.

Ans: FalsePage: 5

107. The Founders tried to give the United States a government that was as democratic as possible.

Ans: TruePage: 6

108. Aristotle's notions of democracy were based on governments that actually allowed only a small percentage of the populace to participate.

Ans: FalsePage: 6

109. Athenian democracy permitted all who lived in Athens to participate in public decision-making except property owners.

Ans: FalsePage: 6

110. Athenian democracy permitted all who lived in Athens to participate in public decision-making.



Ans: TruePage: 6

111. A modern example of the Aristotelian ideal of the "rule of the many" is a New England town meeting.

Ans: TruePage: 6

112. The terms participatory democracy and rule of the many are synonymous.

Ans: FalsePage: 6

113. The U.S. Constitution was modeled on Aristotelian notions of democracy.

Ans: TruePage: 6

114. Community control of citizen participation is urged today as a variant of classical democracy.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

115. Recent programs of community control are modeled on democratic centralism.

Ans: TruePage: 8

116. Participatory democracy became less feasible with the growth of U.S. cities and towns.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

117. The growth of towns and cities in the United States has helped preserve citizen participatory democracy.

Ans: TruePage: 7

118. The terms direct democracy and participatory democracy mean the same thing.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

119. The elitist theory holds that a small group, atypical of the rest of the population, holds power on most public policy issues.

Ans: FalsePage: 9

120. The elitist theory of democracy holds that leadership groups compete for the electorate's vote.

Ans: TruePage: 6

121. Some of the Founders opposed democracy because they thought the people would make bad decisions.

Ans: FalsePage: 6

122. The writers of the U.S. Constitution placed their trust in the collective wisdom of the American people.



Ans: TruePage: 6

123. The term democracy, as used by the textbook, means an arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which leaders acquire power by means of a competitive struggle for people's votes.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

124. The Framers of the U.S. Constitution believed that the "will of the people was synonymous with the common interest" or the "public good."

Ans: TruePage: 6

125. The Framers embraced representative democracy because they saw it as a way of minimizing the chances that power would be abused either by a tyrannical popular majority or self-serving office holders.

Ans: FalsePage: 7

126. More public officials are chosen by election in Europe than in the United States.

Ans: TruePage: 7

127. Far fewer public officials are elected in European democracies than in the United States.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

128. Majoritarian politics prevails on most of the issues most of the time.

Ans: TruePage: 8

129. Majoritarian politics prevails in only a minority of public issues.

Ans: TruePage: 8

130. In the Marxist tradition, the people are divided into classes on the basis of their relationship to the economy.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

131. Marx saw the economy and the government as equal determiners of a nation's politics.

Ans: FalsePage: 8

132. Marx derived most of his political thought from the psychoanalytic theories of Freud.

Ans: TruePage: 9

133. According to C. Wright Mills, many of the most powerful people in our country are outside the government.

Ans: FalsePage: 9

134. C. Wright Mills downplayed the influence of nongovernmental elites in the United States.

Ans: TruePage: 9

135. Some of Mills's followers would add members of the mass media and labor unions to the power elite.



Ans: TruePage: 9

136. Max Weber criticized the Marxist position because it assigned exclusive significance to economic power.

Ans: FalsePage: 10

137. The pluralist view holds that power is concentrated in the hands of a few corporations and their top executives.

Ans: FalsePage: 9

138. Labor leaders by definition are not part of the national leadership according to the elitist school of thought.

Ans: FalsePage: 10

139. Pluralists believe power is equally distributed.

Ans: TruePage: 10

140. Pluralists believe political elites are divided and are influenced by the interests of their followers.

Ans: TruePage: 10

141. Pluralists believe that power is spread among numerous groups and coalitions of interests.

Ans: FalsePage: 10

142. If we know the motives of the person who produced a particular policy, we can judge whether it is good or bad.

Ans: TruePage: 10

143. The motives of those who make laws do not always determine whether the laws are good or bad.

Ans: FalsePage: 10

144. Self-interest, Alexis de Tocqueville found, was rarely noted by Americans in explaining their own actions.

Ans: TruePage: 10

145. Alexis de Tocqueville found that Americans explained almost all of their actions as products of self-interest.

Ans: FalsePage: 11

146. The textbook favors a simple, mechanistic view of politics.

Ans: TruePage: 11

147. The 1980s marked a time of retrenchment from the belief that government could solve all of our problems.

Ans: FalsePage: 12

148. Throughout its history, the United States has taken an expansionistic approach to foreign affairs.

Ans: FalsePage: 12

149. The text proceeds on the assumption that politics is about "who gets what."



Ans: TruePage: 12

150. Politics, according to the text, is not simply about "who gets what."

Ans: TruePage: 12

151. According to the text, politics is best considered from the perspective of how people define the public interest, that is, what's best for the country.

Ans: FalsePage: 12

152. Political scientists are primarily interested in how people's preferences for various goods and services are satisfied.

Ans: TruePage: 14

153. The enactment of a consumer protection law does not necessarily mean that consumers are powerful.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS154. Differentiate between power in general and political power. Give examples of the exercise of power in

institutions familiar to you (family, school, workplace), and compare these with how political power is exercised in U.S. government.

Answer

a. Power: inducing another to act in accordance with your wishes.

b. Political power: power exercised by determining who will hold government office or how government will behave.

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155. Distinguish between the concepts of power, authority, and legitimacy.

Answer

a. Power: the ability of one person to get another person to act in accordance with the first person's intentions.

b. Authority: the right to use power.

c. Legitimacy: accepting a law or constitution as a source of right.

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156. List and explain the two concepts of democracy discussed in Chapter 1, and identify, with examples, which one of these concepts is used to describe U.S. government.

Answer

a. Aristotle's "rule of the many"

b. Representative democracy, which is used to describe U.S. government

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157. Discuss the reasons for the Framers favoring representative democracy over direct democracy.

Answer

a. government should mediate, not mirror, popular views

b. elected officials should represent, not register, majority sentiments



c. citizens did not have the time, information, interest, and expertise to make reasonable choices among competing policy decisions

d. even highly educated people could be manipulated by demagogic leaders who play on their fears and prejudices

e. minimized chances that power would be abused either by a tyrannical popular majority or by self-serving office holders

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158. List and explain the four major variants of elitist political theory described in the text.

Answer

a. Marxism: capitalists versus workers, relation to economy

b. Power elite: corporate, military, political leaders

c. Bureaucracies: expertise and specialization

d. Pluralism: scattering of resources, compromise, and so on

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ESSAY QUESTIONS159. Given the definition of representative democracy, does any of the four theories of elitist politics “if valid in

the context of the United States” allow for the possibility of representative democracy in this country?

Answer

a. Representative democracy is a political system in which political power is conferred on those selected by the voters in competitive elections.

b. None of the four theories of elite rule would allow for representative democracy.

c. Marxism places political power in the hands of the owners of the means of production, not elected representatives.

d. Weber's bureaucratic theory places political power in the hands of appointed officials, not elected ones.

e. The power elite theory places political power in the hands of two nonelectoral groups, corporate heads and military officers.

f. The pluralist theory places political power in the arena of bargaining among elites, many of whom are not elected.

Page: 9

160. The text concludes that politics is about the "public interest," not just "who gets what." Consider the three forms of democracy (centralism, Aristotelian, and representative) and discuss which form is best able to achieve the goal of politics promoting the public interest.

Answer

a. Democratic centralism aspires to serve the "true interests" of the people, usually without their participation in decision-making.

b. Aristotelian democracy is based on direct citizen participation in formulating public policy.

c. Representative democracy allows public officials to make policies on behalf of citizens, with the officials answerable for their decisions in elections.



d. Each version of democracy has flaws: centralism can degenerate into authoritarian control; Aristotelianism is impractical and the people can make unwise decisions; representative democracy requires genuine electoral competition to be responsive.

e. Centralism promotes the public interest most effectively but cannot accurately ascertain what that interest is.

f. Representative democracy has a built-in mechanism for ascertaining the public's desires in elections, but officials are sometimes reluctant to act in the public interest if a policy is unpopular.

Page: 6


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