GOV 312L -Exam 2 Review Questions
Fully Solved.
What is politics (as defined in lecture)? What are the two central components of this definition?
- Answer Politics → the use of authority to allocate scarce resources; means of coordinating
social behavior
Authority: the capacity to direct social behavior; often relies on coercion (the capacity to impose
costs) and rests on some legitimacy.
Allocation of scarce resources: happens when everyone's demands cannot be satisfied; implies
some degree of competition or social conflict over that allocation.
How does violence shape political order? Give an example of how the use of coercion by a
legitimate authority helps to establish political order. - Answer Political Order → stable
patterns of social behavior induced by authority relationships and/or coercion.
Violence, both the deployment or the threat of it, are often necessary for the enforcement of
directives.
EX: 6th Street on a weekend at 2 a.m..Police enforcing the law and restraining people who are
leaving bars drunk.
What is the coercion dilemma? How does it shape the construction of a domestic political
order? - Answer When a government or organization is strong enough to enforce its
directives and it's also strong enough to leverage authority for its own gain.
Violence can facilitate predation, which is the forcible redistribution of resources (as "armed
robbery"). Sometimes we have to go to war to impose limits on or regulate violence (and
regulate US military)
EX: Hitler using violence to overturn democracy
How did the U.S. address the international variant of the coercion dilemma after World War II?
What role did international organizations play in constraining U.S. military power? - Answer
Dilemma for the US: American military is necessary to defeat Hitler, Hussain, but how do we
constrain American capacity for violence so it cannot be abused?
Allied powers intervened in WWII. US helped to defeat Germany, and wanted to make US
military force legitimate in Western Europe.
, According to Ikenberry (cited in lecture), why was the 2003 invasion of Iraq so problematic for
the constraint of U.S. military power? - Answer American allies opposed the decision to go
into Iraq, but the US did it anyway.
US is an indispensable nation...the world needs US military power, but is it sufficiently
regulated?
What are some of the fundamental attributes of the bargaining model of war? - Answer "All
wars are costly"
Bargaining model of war → because all parties incur costs in fighting wars, there must be some
potential compromise that all parties would prefer to war
It shares explanations for why wars occur and it should focus on why states fail to reach and/or
sustain this mutually beneficial settlement.
What does it suggest are the primary components for any explanation of war? - Answer Two
explanations for war: private info and the commitment problem
Private info can lead to war as it is coupled with incentives to misrepresent and lead one side to
offer insufficient concessions.
Commitment problem → difficulties associated with contracting over time.
How can a commitment problem lead to the outbreak of war? What causes a commitment
problem? - Answer Commitment Problem: The inability of the side with rising power to
promise or commit to abide by the terms of any settlement indefinitely in the future.
*Often happens due to shifts in distribution of power
Organizations will fight if they think their adversary will want future revisions
How did a commitment problem help cause the outbreak of World War I in 1914? How did a
commitment problem contribute to US entry into World War I in 1917? - Answer 1914, WWI:
Russia cannot commit to respect Austro-Hungarian influence in the Balkans.
WWII: Since German military began to engage in submarine warfare, it impacted US submarines
and shifted US opinion. Overall influenced US to enter war.
Fully Solved.
What is politics (as defined in lecture)? What are the two central components of this definition?
- Answer Politics → the use of authority to allocate scarce resources; means of coordinating
social behavior
Authority: the capacity to direct social behavior; often relies on coercion (the capacity to impose
costs) and rests on some legitimacy.
Allocation of scarce resources: happens when everyone's demands cannot be satisfied; implies
some degree of competition or social conflict over that allocation.
How does violence shape political order? Give an example of how the use of coercion by a
legitimate authority helps to establish political order. - Answer Political Order → stable
patterns of social behavior induced by authority relationships and/or coercion.
Violence, both the deployment or the threat of it, are often necessary for the enforcement of
directives.
EX: 6th Street on a weekend at 2 a.m..Police enforcing the law and restraining people who are
leaving bars drunk.
What is the coercion dilemma? How does it shape the construction of a domestic political
order? - Answer When a government or organization is strong enough to enforce its
directives and it's also strong enough to leverage authority for its own gain.
Violence can facilitate predation, which is the forcible redistribution of resources (as "armed
robbery"). Sometimes we have to go to war to impose limits on or regulate violence (and
regulate US military)
EX: Hitler using violence to overturn democracy
How did the U.S. address the international variant of the coercion dilemma after World War II?
What role did international organizations play in constraining U.S. military power? - Answer
Dilemma for the US: American military is necessary to defeat Hitler, Hussain, but how do we
constrain American capacity for violence so it cannot be abused?
Allied powers intervened in WWII. US helped to defeat Germany, and wanted to make US
military force legitimate in Western Europe.
, According to Ikenberry (cited in lecture), why was the 2003 invasion of Iraq so problematic for
the constraint of U.S. military power? - Answer American allies opposed the decision to go
into Iraq, but the US did it anyway.
US is an indispensable nation...the world needs US military power, but is it sufficiently
regulated?
What are some of the fundamental attributes of the bargaining model of war? - Answer "All
wars are costly"
Bargaining model of war → because all parties incur costs in fighting wars, there must be some
potential compromise that all parties would prefer to war
It shares explanations for why wars occur and it should focus on why states fail to reach and/or
sustain this mutually beneficial settlement.
What does it suggest are the primary components for any explanation of war? - Answer Two
explanations for war: private info and the commitment problem
Private info can lead to war as it is coupled with incentives to misrepresent and lead one side to
offer insufficient concessions.
Commitment problem → difficulties associated with contracting over time.
How can a commitment problem lead to the outbreak of war? What causes a commitment
problem? - Answer Commitment Problem: The inability of the side with rising power to
promise or commit to abide by the terms of any settlement indefinitely in the future.
*Often happens due to shifts in distribution of power
Organizations will fight if they think their adversary will want future revisions
How did a commitment problem help cause the outbreak of World War I in 1914? How did a
commitment problem contribute to US entry into World War I in 1917? - Answer 1914, WWI:
Russia cannot commit to respect Austro-Hungarian influence in the Balkans.
WWII: Since German military began to engage in submarine warfare, it impacted US submarines
and shifted US opinion. Overall influenced US to enter war.
