Comparative Political Analysis Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The keyed answer is (A): both statements are true and the reason explains the assertion. The argument, in the comparative literature on presidential government, is that the American presidential system works because of a combination of conditions peculiar to the United States, with few deep social and political contradictions, and that it has broken down in many other countries, notably in Latin America. The reason names that condition. This is the keyed reading, which rests on the question's wording and not on a hard fact. Option (B) denies the link, and options (C) and (D) deny one statement.

Answer: C

In 2006, Nepal changed from Monarchy to Democracy.

In April 2006, a mass people's movement in Nepal forced King Gyanendra to give up the absolute power he had seized and to restore Parliament. That began Nepal's transition to democracy: an elected Constituent Assembly abolished the monarchy in 2008 and Nepal became a federal democratic republic. NCERT's Class 9 political science opens its chapter on democracy with this movement.

Autocracy and tyranny describe the absolute rule the movement ended, and oligarchy, rule by a small group, is not what replaced it.

Answer: A

The correct pair is U.S.A.: double citizenship.

In the United States a person is a citizen both of the nation and of the state in which he lives, which textbooks call double (dual) citizenship, in contrast to India's single citizenship.

The United Kingdom has no single codified written constitution. Australia is a federation, not a unitary state. Switzerland has a bicameral Federal Assembly and is famous for its direct democracy through referendums and initiatives, so 'unicameral indirect democracy' is wrong twice over.

Answer: C

Constitutional amendment by popular vote is used in Switzerland.

Every amendment to the Swiss federal constitution must be approved in a mandatory referendum by a majority of the voters and of the cantons, and citizens can themselves propose amendments by popular initiative with 100,000 signatures.

In the U.K. there is no codified constitution and Parliament changes constitutional law by ordinary statute. The U.S.A. amends through Congress and ratification by three-quarters of the states, and India through Parliament (with state ratification for some provisions), not by a direct popular vote.

Answer: C

The American federation was formed by a voluntary agreement.

The United States is the classic 'coming together' federation: thirteen independent states, already loosely joined under the Articles of Confederation, agreed through the Philadelphia Convention of 1787 and state ratification to form a stronger union, keeping their own powers and surrendering specific ones to the federal government.

It was not created by an act of any legislature or of the Senate, which itself was a creation of the new Constitution. The revolution won independence from Britain, but the federation was a later, negotiated agreement among the states.

Answer: A

The correct match is a-4, b-3, c-1, d-2.

• The classic theory of bureaucracy is Max Weber's ideal type of rational-legal administration.
• Samir Amin is a leading dependency theorist (Accumulation on a World Scale).
• Vilfredo Pareto is one of the founders of elite theory, with the 'circulation of elites'.
• Immanuel Wallerstein created world-systems theory.

Weber with bureaucracy and Wallerstein with world systems are unmistakable, and only option A has both.

Answer: D

The correct match is a-2, b-3, c-1, d-4.

• The traditional approach was criticised as Eurocentric and normative, focused on Western constitutions and ideals.
• The systems approach (Easton) studies inputs, outputs and feedback.
• The structural-functional approach (Almond) lists input functions such as interest articulation and interest aggregation.
• The Marxist approach explains politics through economic aspects, the mode of production and class relations.

All options agree on the Marxist pair; option D is the one that also pairs input-output with systems.

Answer: D

The correct match is a-3, b-1, c-4, d-2.

• Gabriel Almond co-edited The Politics of the Developing Areas (1960) with James Coleman.
• Karl Deutsch wrote 'Social Mobilization and Political Development' (1961).
• Daniel Lerner wrote The Passing of Traditional Society (1958).
• Lucian Pye wrote Aspects of Political Development (1966).

Each other option gives at least two of these works to the wrong author.

Answer: B

The incorrect statement is The relationship between core and periphery countries is disadvantageous for core countries.

Dependency theory (Frank, Amin, Cardoso) argues the reverse: the relationship benefits the core, which draws surplus from the periphery through unequal exchange, while the periphery is kept underdeveloped. That is why the other statements are correct propositions of the theory: underdeveloped countries can be understood only within the world system; under capitalism the gap will not close; and poor states are impoverished, and rich ones enriched, by the way the poor are integrated into the world economy.

Answer: B

The correct match is a-3, b-4, c-1, d-2.

• Media and friends are channels of political communication.
• Centre and periphery are the core concepts of dependency theory.
• Input and output are the terms of the systems approach (Easton).
• Family and school are the primary agents of political socialization.

Option A gives centre-periphery to socialization and family-school to dependency, and the other options mismatch the input-output pair, which can only belong to the systems approach.