Political Theory Questions and Answers

Answer: A

The key gives David Easton.

Easton, in The Political System (1953) and his earlier essay on the decline of modern political theory, argued that traditional political theory was largely historical and value-laden: it grew out of the troubles of the age in which each thinker wrote, and political scientists tended to conform to the moral presumptions of their own time. That is the criticism the quoted sentence makes.

I could not trace the exact sentence to a page of Easton's text. The key's attribution fits his well-known critique of traditional theory, which none of the other three authors is known for: Germino and Cobban wrote on the history of political ideas and the decline of political thought rather than as critics of the traditional approach in this way, and Lipset is known for the sociology of democracy and elections. The answer therefore rests on the key and on that fit, not on a located quotation.

Answer: D

The feature that is not a characteristic of behaviourism is Action.

David Easton listed the 'intellectual foundation stones' of behaviouralism as regularities, verification, techniques, quantification, values (kept analytically separate, that is value-neutrality), systematisation, pure science and integration.

Action, the commitment to apply knowledge to society's problems, belongs to post-behaviouralism, whose 'credo of relevance' urged political scientists to act on their knowledge. Regularities, verification and value-neutrality are all on the behaviouralist list.

Answer: A

The correct aspects are (i) and (ii).

David Easton defined the political system as that system of interactions through which values are authoritatively allocated for a society. He treated it as one system among the other social systems of society (statement i), which allocates values by means of policies (statement ii).

Statements iii and iv deny the two defining features of Easton's definition: political allocations are authoritative and binding on the whole society. Since both iii and iv are incorrect, the options 'only (iv) is incorrect' and '(i), (ii) and (iii) are incorrect' are wrong, as is the one accepting iii.

Answer: B

The characteristic of post-behaviourism is Relevance.

In his 1969 address to the American Political Science Association, David Easton announced the post-behavioural revolution with its 'credo of relevance': substance should come before technique, research must address urgent social problems, values cannot be ignored, and intellectuals have a duty to act.

Quantification, value-free analysis and pure science are the behaviouralist commitments that post-behaviouralism criticised, so none of them can be its characteristic.

Answer: B

The attribute incorrectly stated is embodiment of reason.

Power is the capacity to influence or control the behaviour of others, if necessary by sanctions or force. Unlike authority, which is power accepted as legitimate (often backed by law), power as such need not be legal or rational.

So 'capacity to influence', 'based on force' and 'not backed by law' describe power as distinct from authority. 'Embodiment of reason' does not: that is how idealists such as Hegel describe the state, not how political science defines power.

Answer: B

The view that all governments are ultimately oligarchic is Vilfredo Pareto's.

Pareto, one of the founders of elite theory, held that every society is ruled by a minority, an elite, whatever its formal constitution. Democracies too are governed by elites, and history is a 'graveyard of aristocracies' in which elites rise and are replaced (the circulation of elites).

Fritz Morstein Marx and Herbert Simon wrote on public administration and administrative behaviour, and Max Weber analysed bureaucracy and types of authority; none of them put forward the thesis that all government is oligarchy.

Answer: C

The correct match is Legal theory : the state has a fictitious personality.

The legal (juristic) theory of the state treats the state as a legal person, a fictitious or juristic personality created by law, with rights and duties distinct from those of its members.

The others are mismatched. That the state will wither away is the Marxist view, not the idealist one. 'An association of associations' is the pluralist description, not the mechanistic one. And 'the objectification of spirit' is Hegel's idealist account, not the organic theory, which compares the state to a living organism.

Answer: A

The basic principle of liberalism is individual freedom.

Liberalism, from Locke to Mill, places the freedom of the individual at the centre: government exists to protect individual rights to life, liberty and property, and its power must be limited and based on consent.

Social justice and equality are emphasised by modern (social) liberals and by socialists, but as conditions for freedom rather than the foundation, and nationalism is a separate ideology that liberalism has sometimes allied with.

Answer: A

The statement is attributed to Rousseau.

For Rousseau, great inequality destroys freedom: the Discourse on Inequality traces how property and inequality led to dependence and servitude, and in the Social Contract (Book 2, chapter 11) he argues that liberty cannot subsist without equality, so that no citizen should be rich enough to buy another or poor enough to be forced to sell himself.

Hobbes was concerned with security, not with equality as a condition of liberty. Mill feared that equality could threaten individuality, and Green's positive liberty did not rest on this claim.

Answer: C

The incorrect statement is that the modern liberal state advocates a laissez-faire economy.

Laissez-faire, the minimal state that leaves the economy to the market, was the creed of classical liberalism. Modern (welfare or social) liberalism, from T. H. Green and L. T. Hobhouse to Keynes, accepts state intervention to regulate the economy and provide welfare, so it rejects laissez-faire.

The other statements are correct: negative liberty is the absence of obstacles or constraints; classical liberalism upholds the right to private property; and the welfare state is a 'maximum' government compared with the classical minimal state.