POLI 105 MIDTERM QUESTIONS WITH VERIFIED
ANSWERS
What is politics? - Answers - -Politics is the struggle in any group for power that will give
one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group.
-Focus on the struggle for leadership and power in a political community.
-Who gets what, when and how.
what is power - Answers - Power is the ability to influence others or impose one's will on
them.
what is the relationship between politics and power - Answers - -Politics is the
competition for public power.
-Power is the ability to extend one's will.
what is comparative politics - Answers - In political science, comparative politics is a
subfield that compares this pursuit of power across countries.
what is comparative method - Answers - -Comparative method is a way to compare
cases and draw conclusions and generalizations that could be valid in other cases.
-Inductive reasoning: we go from studying a case to generating a hypotheses about why
a country operates as it does.
-Deductive reasoning: starting with a puzzle and from there generating some hypothesis
about cause and effect to test against a member of cases.
what is state - Answers - max weber
The state is an institution claiming a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in
enforcing its order within a given territorial area."
the definition of state if linked with Sovereignty - Answers - the highest form of authority
within a given territory.
-no higher authority within that territory, and no external challenge to this authority
What Political Organizations Existed before States - Answers - debate between political
philosophers
Hobbes: human beings voluntarily submitted to political authority to overcome anarchy
and gain security, which ensures neither freedom nor equality.
Rousseau: human being were in essence "noble savages" who were instinctively
compassionate and egalitarian. It was civilization and the rise of the state that corrupted
them by institutionalizing a system of inequality.
ANSWERS
What is politics? - Answers - -Politics is the struggle in any group for power that will give
one or more persons the ability to make decisions for the larger group.
-Focus on the struggle for leadership and power in a political community.
-Who gets what, when and how.
what is power - Answers - Power is the ability to influence others or impose one's will on
them.
what is the relationship between politics and power - Answers - -Politics is the
competition for public power.
-Power is the ability to extend one's will.
what is comparative politics - Answers - In political science, comparative politics is a
subfield that compares this pursuit of power across countries.
what is comparative method - Answers - -Comparative method is a way to compare
cases and draw conclusions and generalizations that could be valid in other cases.
-Inductive reasoning: we go from studying a case to generating a hypotheses about why
a country operates as it does.
-Deductive reasoning: starting with a puzzle and from there generating some hypothesis
about cause and effect to test against a member of cases.
what is state - Answers - max weber
The state is an institution claiming a "monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force in
enforcing its order within a given territorial area."
the definition of state if linked with Sovereignty - Answers - the highest form of authority
within a given territory.
-no higher authority within that territory, and no external challenge to this authority
What Political Organizations Existed before States - Answers - debate between political
philosophers
Hobbes: human beings voluntarily submitted to political authority to overcome anarchy
and gain security, which ensures neither freedom nor equality.
Rousseau: human being were in essence "noble savages" who were instinctively
compassionate and egalitarian. It was civilization and the rise of the state that corrupted
them by institutionalizing a system of inequality.
