Political Theory Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The match is a-i, b-ii, c-iii, d-iv.

Approaches to the Study of Politics is by Roland Young, Dynamics of Modernization is by C.E. Black, Influencing Voters is by Richard Rose, and Studies in Political Development is associated with J.S. Coleman in the key.

Code (A) lists these four authors in the order of the books, and the other codes shuffle them. Roland Young edited Approaches to the Study of Politics (1958), C.E. Black wrote The Dynamics of Modernization (1966), Richard Rose wrote Influencing Voters (1967), and the key places J.S. Coleman as the last author, so the order in code (A) is the order of the authors in the list.

Answer: D

The factor that is not responsible for the decline of political theory is ideological pluralism, the keyed option.

The decline of classical political theory in the mid-twentieth century is usually traced to positivism, which dismissed value statements as unscientific, to historicism, which treated ideas as products of their time, and to moral relativism, which denied that political values could be argued as true or false. Together these undermined the normative enterprise of the field. Ideological pluralism, the existence of many competing ideologies, is a feature of the debate that theory studies and is not listed as one of the causes of the decline.

Answer: D

Neo-liberalism does not believe in statisation, the extension of state ownership and control.

Neo-liberals favour a minimal state and market-led growth, so they support deregulation (removing controls on business), debureaucratisation (cutting the size and red tape of the administration) and disinvestment (selling public-sector holdings to private buyers). Statisation runs the other way, by increasing the role of the state in the economy, so it is the one thing they reject.

Answer: C

The remark that taxation equals forced labour is by Nozick.

In Anarchy, State, and Utopia Robert Nozick argues that taxing earnings to redistribute income is on a par with forced labour, because it takes part of the hours a person worked. John Rawls defends redistribution through his difference principle, Hayek criticises redistribution mainly on grounds of liberty and knowledge, and Berlin is known for his essay on two concepts of liberty, so none of them is the source of this line.

Answer: A

The correct matching is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii, the first code.

Richard Lowenthal wrote World Communism. Benjamin Schwartz wrote the study of Chinese communism listed here as Communism and Chinese Ideology in Flux. Edgar Snow, the journalist, wrote Red China Today, and Richard Solomon wrote Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. The other codes attach at least two authors to the wrong book, for example Snow to Mao's Revolution.

Answer: B

The definition of ideology quoted is by Martin Seliger.

In Ideology and Politics Seliger defines ideology as a set of ideas by which people posit, explain and justify the ends and means of organised social action, whether it aims to preserve, amend, uproot or rebuild a social order. De Tracy coined the word 'ideology' as the science of ideas, McLellan and Larrain are writers on the concept's history and Marxist usage, and none of them gave this wording.

Answer: B

Both statements are true, but the reason does not explain the assertion, so the answer is the second code.

The assertion is true: philosophising about politics is one form of political theorising. The reason is also true: political theory includes empirical, analytical and historical work by people who are not political philosophers. But the fact that some theorists are not philosophers is not the reason that every philosopher is a theorist, since the one statement tells us only about the wider group and not why the narrower group belongs to it. So R is no explanation of A.

Answer: B

Both statements are correct, but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A), so the answer is the second code.

The assertion says citizens in liberal democracies accept democratic values yet are more critical of its core institutions, which is the observed 'democratic deficit'. The reason says that falling trust in government reduces the capacity of the system to reach shared goals, a true but separate consequence. It describes what happens as a result of the loss of faith, not why people accept the ideal while criticising the institutions. Code A is also faulty on its face, since it says (R) explains (R).

Answer: B

The correct matching is a-iii, b-iv, c-i, d-ii, the second code.

Robert Michels wrote Political Parties, Samuel Huntington wrote The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, Robert Dahl wrote Democracy and its Critics, and Francis Fukuyama wrote State-Building: Governance and World Order in the 21st Century. Each other code assigns at least one of these books to the wrong author, such as giving the Third Wave to Michels.

Answer: D

The correct matching is a-ii, b-iii, c-iv, d-i, the last code.

Michel Foucault is linked with bio-power, Steven Lukes with the radical (three-dimensional) view of power, Stewart Clegg with the circuits of power, and Friedrich Nietzsche with the will to power. The other three codes pair these thinkers with the wrong concepts, for instance giving the circuits of power to Foucault.