POLS 200: Exam 1 complete Questions
with correct Answers
politics - correct answer-✅- Laswell: "Who gets what, when, and how?"
- Easton: " The authoritative allocation of values"
- Clark, Golder & Golder: " The subset of human behavior that involves the use of power"
- Munger: "Groups of people making choices"
- Ura: "The process of making social choices"
arete - correct answer-✅living up to one's potential, excellence, virtue, effectiveness, human flourishing
aspirations of politics (6) - correct answer-✅life/safety, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness,
efficiency/general welfare, justice
political science - correct answer-✅application of politics to science, "the systematic accumulation of
knowledge achieved by subjecting tentative propositions about truth t repeated tests or assessments."
positive theory - correct answer-✅descriptive/fact based, the way something is or was (Tilly)
normative theory - correct answer-✅subjective/value based, the way something should be (Rawls'
theory of justice)
state of nature/natural society - correct answer-✅- the absence of politics.
- a metaphor for a world w/out people's capacity to make social choices.
- Hobbes
political society - correct answer-✅alternative to natural society, in hope of doing better together as a
group than we can individually. Society utilizing politics, or group decision making.
justice; Robert Nozick - correct answer-✅- there is no patterned/centralized distribution of holdings.
- just acquisition, just transfer, just restoration.
- involuntary transfer to achieve a desired distribution is unjust.
- Individual/Transactional
justice; John Rawls - correct answer-✅- fairness, 2 principles, equality in the assignments of rights and
duties & maximizing the minimum position.
- Aggregate/Patterned
entitlement theory - correct answer-✅Nozick: a society is just when everyone is entitled to their own
holdings.
restorative justice - correct answer-✅- redistributing wealth, opportunities, and privileges in society to
account for injustice in an existing distribution of holdings.
- often incomplete and complicated
original position/veil of ignorance - correct answer-✅- Rawlsian thought experiment
- "No one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortune
in the distribution of natural assets or abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like. I shall even assume
the parties do not know their conceptions of the good or the special psychological propensities. The
principles of justice are chosen from behind the veil of ignorance"
collective action problem (free-rider problem), (tragedy of the commons) - correct answer-✅the
difficulty arising in the provision of public goods, in groups, following from individuals' incentives to take
advantage of public goods w/out contributing to their creation or maintenance
coordination problem - correct answer-✅the difficulty in selecting and enforcing a common course of
action that benefits everyone in the group, when all members adhere to the selected outcome.
externalities - correct answer-✅- spill-over effects
- the effects of one person's or group's activities on others, positive or negative.
coercion problem - correct answer-✅- social choice implies some kind of enforcement
- enforcement implies sanctions and violence
with correct Answers
politics - correct answer-✅- Laswell: "Who gets what, when, and how?"
- Easton: " The authoritative allocation of values"
- Clark, Golder & Golder: " The subset of human behavior that involves the use of power"
- Munger: "Groups of people making choices"
- Ura: "The process of making social choices"
arete - correct answer-✅living up to one's potential, excellence, virtue, effectiveness, human flourishing
aspirations of politics (6) - correct answer-✅life/safety, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness,
efficiency/general welfare, justice
political science - correct answer-✅application of politics to science, "the systematic accumulation of
knowledge achieved by subjecting tentative propositions about truth t repeated tests or assessments."
positive theory - correct answer-✅descriptive/fact based, the way something is or was (Tilly)
normative theory - correct answer-✅subjective/value based, the way something should be (Rawls'
theory of justice)
state of nature/natural society - correct answer-✅- the absence of politics.
- a metaphor for a world w/out people's capacity to make social choices.
- Hobbes
political society - correct answer-✅alternative to natural society, in hope of doing better together as a
group than we can individually. Society utilizing politics, or group decision making.
justice; Robert Nozick - correct answer-✅- there is no patterned/centralized distribution of holdings.
- just acquisition, just transfer, just restoration.
- involuntary transfer to achieve a desired distribution is unjust.
- Individual/Transactional
justice; John Rawls - correct answer-✅- fairness, 2 principles, equality in the assignments of rights and
duties & maximizing the minimum position.
- Aggregate/Patterned
entitlement theory - correct answer-✅Nozick: a society is just when everyone is entitled to their own
holdings.
restorative justice - correct answer-✅- redistributing wealth, opportunities, and privileges in society to
account for injustice in an existing distribution of holdings.
- often incomplete and complicated
original position/veil of ignorance - correct answer-✅- Rawlsian thought experiment
- "No one knows his place in society, his class position or social status, nor does anyone know his fortune
in the distribution of natural assets or abilities, his intelligence, strength, and the like. I shall even assume
the parties do not know their conceptions of the good or the special psychological propensities. The
principles of justice are chosen from behind the veil of ignorance"
collective action problem (free-rider problem), (tragedy of the commons) - correct answer-✅the
difficulty arising in the provision of public goods, in groups, following from individuals' incentives to take
advantage of public goods w/out contributing to their creation or maintenance
coordination problem - correct answer-✅the difficulty in selecting and enforcing a common course of
action that benefits everyone in the group, when all members adhere to the selected outcome.
externalities - correct answer-✅- spill-over effects
- the effects of one person's or group's activities on others, positive or negative.
coercion problem - correct answer-✅- social choice implies some kind of enforcement
- enforcement implies sanctions and violence
