Final Exam Review

Schedule  Poli Sci 102 Section 10 (Mon/Wed 10-12): Tuesday, August 11 th, :30 am Rm 360  Poli Sci 102 Section 13 (Tue/Thu 12-2): Wednesday August 12 th, :30 pm Rm 334

Chapter 7  What are constitutions, what’s is their purpose?  What are the most important roles of constitutions?  What is constitutionalism?  How do federal and unitary states differ? What are their similarities? Is one system more democratic than another?  What are the separation of powers? Are there different ways to separate powers?  What role does the judiciary play in determining the constitutionality of laws?  Do courts ever (or ever not) have last say on whether a law is constitutional or not?  What’s the difference between a flexible and rigid constitution – who uses which?  Can constitutions only exist in democratic countries? Why might a non- democratic country want a constitution?  Why might federations lead to better (or worse) economic outcomes? Stability of the state?

Chapter 8  What are the roles of legislatures?  What is the role of the Magna Carta in the emergence of legislatures?  Are legislatures always democratic  In democratic states, what responsibilities to legislatures have in the functioning of democracy  What are the differences between unicameral and bicameral legislatures – advantages and drawbacks?  What are strengths and weaknesses of fused legislatures and systems with a separation of powers?  What are the different kinds of electoral systems? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What values do you believe are most important in choosing representatives?  How does the relationship between the legislature and the executive differ across systems?  What are the different ways in which someone can interpret the meaning of representations  Are democratic systems always representative?  Is the power of the legislature relative to the power of the executive the same across different systems?

Chapter 9  What is the role of the executive branch?  What is the difference between a head of state and a head of government  What’s a dual executive?  Why does the executive often get the credit or blame for the actions of the bureaucracy?  Why does the executive often remain when a government falls back into authoritarianism?  What are the strengths and weaknesses of different kinds of political systems (that is to say: the presidential, parliamentary and semi- presidential/mixed systems of government)  What are the formal powers of executives as outlined in constitutions?  What are the potential limitations on executive power?  What are partisan powers?  What is a coalition government? How do the come about?  What are the different kinds of coalitions?  Which systems lead to greater levels of stability?

Chapter 10  What are political parties? What are the goals?  What is an interest group and how does it differ from a political party?  What is civil society and what does it seek to achieve?  What is the relationship between civil society and democracy  What are the major kinds of political parties. How do they differ?  What is a party system, what kinds of party systems are there and how do different party systems emerge?  Are single dominant party systems always associated with authoritarian regimes?  What does a bi-modal population look like? What kind of party system is likely to emerge?  What is pluralism?  What is corporatism?  What are social movements and what is their relationship to civil society? How are the similar and different from interest groups and political parties?

Chapter 13  What is a “watershed” moment and what does it mean for society more broadly when someone like Barack Obama wins an election?  What is a glass-ceiling?  What is a political identity?  Why do identities imply the creation of boundaries?  What is social construction and why are most boundaries socially constructed?  What are important socially constructed boundaries that remain in society which may have been considered primordial in the past?  How have the interpretation of these boundaries changed?  What’s the difference between multiculturalism and a melting pot?  What’s affirmative action and how does it relate to discrimination?  What role does stereotyping play in discrimination?  What is empowerment and in what ways can groups be empowered?  What are differential rights?  What is the difference between taking and being given empowerment?  What role do political parties play in trying to overcome discrimination?  How might we seek to achieve better levels of equality in a political system?

Chapter 15  What are international relations and how does that differ from foreign policy?  What is international political economy? How does it relate to globalization?  What is the relationship between globalization and capital, both human and economic?  What’s outsourcing? Comparative advantage?  What is multilateralism and how does it relate to the UN?  What is nativism, how does it relate to immigration and what are the political implications  Brain drain?  Why must the biggest environmental threats be dealt with at the international scale?  What is the tragedy of the commons?  What is the international role in dealing with issues surrounding terrorism and nuclear proliferation  Why have we seen the rise of nonstate actors on the international scale?  What are the differences between Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism and Marxism in how people understand international relationships?  What is a hegemon and a balance of power?  What is game theory and the prisoners dilemma?

One more thing…  Bonus questions, as with the midterm, will be drawn from the case studies  In certain instances, where we used examples of the case studies in discussion key components in the class, you will be expected to connect these concepts  For instance: Understanding which countries we’ve studied use corporatism, or which one uses the run-off elections system.