Test Bank

Chapter 14: Social Cleavages and Party Systems

1. A nonpartisan democracy is:

A. a democracy with no political parties.

B. a democracy in which the political system is not heavily divided.

C. a democracy in which the party system is based on ethnic divisions.

D. a democracy in which voters do not identify with the political parties.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. A one-party dominant system has only one legal party.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Political parties do what?

A. They help to structure the political world.

B. They mobilize the masses.

C. They recruit and socialize the political elite.

D. They provide a link between the rulers and the ruled.

E. All of these

F. Only (C) and (D)

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. What does it mean for a social cleavage to be politically salient?

A. All social cleavages that can be identified in a country are politically salient.

B. If a social cleavage in a given country defines a political conflict, it is said to be politically salient. The same social cleavage might be politically salient in one country but not in another.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Easy

Table 1 illustrates how society X is divided up along two identity cleavages.

Table 1: Identity Matrix for a Hypothetical Country X

5. According to the information in Table 1, does society X have crosscutting or reinforcing cleavages?

A. crosscutting

B. reinforcing

C. neither

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

Table 2 illustrates how society Y is divided up along two identity cleavages.

Table 2: Identity Matrix for a Hypothetical Country Y

6. According to the information in Table 2, does society Y have crosscutting or reinforcing cleavages?

A. crosscutting

B. reinforcing

C. neither

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. Based on the correlation and distribution of attributes in countries X and Y above, which country do you expect to have more politicized social groups (controlling for other factors)?

A. X will have more.

B. Y will have more.

C. X and Y will have the same.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

Table 3 illustrates how a hypothetical society A is divided up along two cleavages.

Table 3: Identity Matrix for a Hypothetical Country A

8. According to the information in Table 3, does Society A have crosscutting or reinforcing cleavages?

A. crosscutting

B. reinforcing

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

Table 4 illustrates how society B is divided up along two cleavages. In order to be in power in society B, you need the support of 55% of the population.

Table 4: Cleavage Structure of Society B

9. According to the information in Table 4, does society B have crosscutting or reinforcing cleavages?

A. crosscutting

B. reinforcing

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

10. If you were a Flemish-speaking Catholic political entrepreneur interested in mobilizing a minimal winning coalition (consisting of at least 50% of the population), which group would you try to politicize in society B?

A. French speakers

B. Flemish speakers

C. Protestants

D. Catholics

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

11. Based on the correlation and distribution of attributes in countries A and B, which country do you expect to have more politicized social groups (controlling for other factors)?

A. A will have more.

B. B will have more.

C. A and B will have the same.

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

In Table 5, we illustrate the distribution of attributes in a hypothetical community in the New York City Borough of Queens that is divided along language and race lines. Use this table to answer the following three questions.

Table 5: Distribution of Attributes in a Hypothetical Queens Neighborhood

12. If you know that someone is a Latino, can you predict with much certainty what language he or she speaks?

A. Yes

B. No

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. If you know that someone is a Hindi-speaker, can you predict with much certainty what racial group he or she belongs to?

A. Yes

B. No

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. Let’s assume that experience from recent elections in this New York community have led political analysts to expect that in order to win political office, a candidate needs to win at least 48% of the vote. Let’s also assume that political entrepreneurs will try to mobilize voters along either racial or linguistic lines. If this is the case, what identity category or categories COULD be activated or politicized to win the election? In other words, what identity category or categories (racial or linguistic) form minimal winning coalitions?

A. Latino

B. English speaking

C. White

D. English speaking or South Asian

E. White or Polish speaking

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

In Table 6, we illustrate the distribution of attributes in a hypothetical Los Angeles community that is divided along language and race lines. Answer the following questions.

Table 6: Distribution of Attributes in a Hypothetical Los Angeles Community

15. If you know that someone is an English speaker, can you predict with much certainty what racial group he or she belongs to?

A. Yes

B. No

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. If you know that someone is a Latino, can you predict with much certainty what language he or she speaks?

A. Yes

B. No

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. If you know that someone is Asian, can you predict with much certainty what language he or she speaks?

A. Yes

B. No

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Easy

18. Based on your answers to the previous three questions, would you say that the attributes in this hypothetical Los Angeles community are more crosscutting or more reinforcing?

A. crosscutting

B. reinforcing

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

Let’s assume that in order to win political office in this Los Angeles community, a candidate needs to win at least 50% of the vote. Let’s also assume that political entrepreneurs will try to mobilize voters along either racial or linguistic lines, using the existing identity categories listed above.

19. If this is the case, what identity category or categories COULD be activated or politicized to win the election? In other words, what identity category or categories (racial or linguistic) form minimal winning coalitions?

A. Latino

B. English speaking

C. Black

D. Asian

E. Either (A) or (B)

F. Either (B) or (C)

G. Either (A) or (D)

H. Either (B) or (D)

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. If you answered the previous question correctly, you will find that there are two identity categories that form minimal winning coalitions. According to the logic of the theory that predicts minimal winning coalitions, which of these two identity categories do you think is most likely to be politicized?

A. Latino

B. English speaking

C. Black

D. Asian

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. In the previous questions, you should have found that there were two identity categories that form minimal winning coalitions. Are there any groups of individuals that are members of both minimal winning coalitions? If so, who are they?

A. No.

B. Yes, English-speaking Latinos

C. Yes, English-speaking Asians

D. Yes, Spanish-speaking Latinos

E. Yes, English-speaking Blacks

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. When we talk about “district magnitude” we are referring to:

A. Whether a district is important or not for a national candidate’s victory.

B. The population size of a district.

C. The average income of the population in a district.

D. The number of representatives elected in a district.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. The mechanical effect of an electoral system refers to the way that votes are translated into seats.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. In disproportional electoral systems, the mechanical effect rewards large parties and punishes small ones.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. The existence of the mechanical effect of electoral systems creates an incentive for voters and elites to behave strategically.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. Is the incentive to vote strategically higher or lower when the district magnitude is large?

A. higher

B. lower

C. the same

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. No electoral rules allow a perfectly proportional transfer from votes into seats, although some electoral systems are much more proportional than others.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

28. Why do electoral rules affect how many parties a country has?

A. mechanical effect

B. strategic voting

C. strategic entry

D. all of these, because the mechanical effect provides incentives for (B) and (C)

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. What is the connection between district magnitude and the permissiveness of an electoral system?

A. When district magnitude is low, permissiveness is high.

B. When district magnitude is high, permissiveness is high.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. France has recently banned people from covering their faces in public, which was widely understood to target Muslim women from wearing full-face veils. This indicates that the ______ cleavage is still salient in France.

A. urban–rural

B. confessional

C. class

D. secular–clerical

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Difficulty Level: Medium

31. According to Duverger’s theory, when are you likely to see many parties in a country?

A. When the country uses a proportional representation electoral system.

B. When the country has many politically salient cleavages.

C. When the country has many politically salient cleavages and the electoral system is not proportional.

D. When the country has many politically salient cleavages and the electoral system is proportional.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

32. The results of empirical tests of Duverger’s theory show that increasing ethnic heterogeneity always leads to more legislative parties, regardless of the permissiveness of the electoral system.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. Nonpermissive electoral systems (such as single-member district plurality) are thought to benefit a small number of large parties because:

A. they have a strong mechanical reductive effect on the way votes are translated into seats.

B. there are many incentives to engage in strategic voting.

C. there are many incentives to engage in strategic entry.

D. all of the above explain the benefits to larger parties.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Duverger’s theory predicts that if a country with a homogeneous society (few cleavages) uses permissive electoral rules, then it will have many parties.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. Duverger’s theory predicts that if a country with a homogeneous society (few cleavages) uses disproportional electoral rules, then it will have many parties.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

36. According to the logic of Duverger’s theory, if a country with a heterogeneous society (many cleavages) like Israel switched from its current permissive electoral rules to a disproportional system (such as the one the United States uses), what would you expect to happen to its party system?

A. The number of parties in the legislature would decrease.

B. The number of parties in the legislature would increase.

C. The number of parties in the legislature would stay the same.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. According to the logic of Duverger’s theory, if the United States changed its electoral rules and adopted a permissive form of PR (with large district magnitudes), what do you predict would happen? (You should assume that the United States has a fairly heterogeneous society—i.e., many cleavages.)

A. The number of parties in the legislature would decrease.

B. The number of parties in the legislature would increase.

C. The number of parties in the legislature would stay the same.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

38. To test Duverger’s theory, we need to have a measure of the number of cleavages in a society. The measure that is used most often is the effective number of ethnic groups. What does an analyst need to assume if she is to use this measure?

A. That ethnicity is the only type of cleavage that exists in a society.

B. That all of the nonethnic cleavages in a society (class, religion, region, and so on) are highly correlated with the ethnic cleavages.

C. That there are no ethnic cleavages in a society.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. The results of empirical tests of Duverger’s theory show that increasing ethnic heterogeneity always leads to more legislative parties, regardless of the permissiveness of the electoral system.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

40. Posner’s study of the Chewas and Tumbukas in Zambia and Malawi suggests that ethnic groups in Africa nearly always organize politically along ethnic lines, unlike ethnic groups in other parts of the world, who are typically more responsive to the logic of minimal winning coalitions.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Difficulty Level: Medium

41. How might Duverger’s Law be used to explain why there are only about two effective parties in the United States?

Cognitive Domain: Application

Difficulty Level: Medium