Chapter 02

Instructions

Choose your answers from a-d by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 1

Which one of the following is not a characteristic of the Westminster model?

a) The responsibility of governments and ministers to the people via Parliament and elections

b) Government in which several parties share executive power

c) The embedding of sovereignty in the institutions of Parliament

d) A Civil Service which is both neutral and permanent and loyal to the government of the day

Question 2

Richardson and Jordan argue which of the following in respect of pressure groups in the British system of government?

a) Pressure groups have made Britain ungovernable by creating a situation where governments are overloaded by pressure groups

b) Pressure groups have transformed a relatively elitist system of government by adding an element of popular responsiveness beyond elections

c) Pressure groups have contributed to the decline of the Westminster model by marginalizing Parliament

d) Pressure groups interactions with government replicate and reinforce patterns of structured inequality found in British society

Question 3

With which of the following statements would a pluralist agree with?

a) "Decision makers are motivated by the desire to avoid risk"

b) "Citizens should not to be expected to participate in politics and will have little impact when they do"

c) "Power is dispersed amongst a multiplicity of competing pressure groups"

d) "Formal and informal rules which emerge from institutions are of particular political significance"

Question 4

Which one of the following statements is correct with respect to rational choice theory?

a) Rational choice approaches are fundamentally incompatible with institutional approaches

b) Rational choice is based on an individualist and agency-based approach

c) Norms, values and culture are key concepts in understanding political behaviour

d) Democratic institutions like Parliament are a façade which disguises the rule of technocrats

Question 5

Path dependency is best defined as which one of the following?

a) The difficulty of getting rational self-interested actors to co-operate for the common good

b) The belief that past decisions can become entrenched and limit the options available to contemporary politicians

c) The tendency of politicians to refuse to compromise or amend their objectives

d) The tendency for the British political system to experience long periods of stability before being disrupted by an unexpected crisis

Question 6

An interpretivist view of British politics advances which of the following arguments?

a) That the motive force of British politics is the capacity of great men and women to anticipate and respond to key trends and developments

b) That self-interest motivates all political actors with the result that they are engaged in a constant battle to legitimate their own positions

c) That we need to consider the assumptions which shape the behaviour of actors within the British political system

d) That political leaders can be understood as falling into a variety of personality types which predispose them to particular patterns of behaviour

Question 7

An understanding of power as "A getting B to do something that they would not otherwise have done" is associated with which of the following?

a) Stephen Lukes

b) Robert Dahl

c) Michel Foucault

d) Bachrach and Baratz

Question 8

Bevir and Rhodes' work advances which of the following arguments?

a) That politicians are best viewed as political entrepreneurs in a electoral 'market'

b) Structural factors create a predisposition for individuals to solve political problems in particular ways

c) 'Traditions' are fundamental to understanding the behaviour of actors in the British political system

d) Globalisation has meant that a globally integrated state is necessary

Question 9

In the 'structure-agency debate' Anthony Giddens is associated with which of the following arguments?

a) Individual agents and actors in politics are free to act without constraint

b) Reflexive individual action is politically significant but takes place in a context of socially constructed rules

c) The impact of individual actions is limited because all political actors operate within the constraints of a given episteme

d) Political outcomes are the recognisable product of the interaction of structural forces operating in the economy, society and culture

Question 10

A view in which globalisation is seen as a rhetorical device to promote the extension of neo-liberal economic policies is associated with which of the following?

a) Colin Hay

b) David Held

c) Philip Cerny

d) Francis Fukuyama

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Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 02.

Chapter 02

Instructions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

Question 10