Short-Answer Concept questions 3-5

Here are three more Short-Answer Concept questions. You can submit responses for evaluation as comments.

3. Would the political culture of Iran or Nigeria be more threatened by an enforceable demand by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for greater transparency? Explain briefly why the political culture of the country you chose would be more threatened.

4. Under the 1993 constitution, half of the delegates to the State Duma of the Russian Federation were elected by a plurality system. In 2007, those plurality elections were eliminated in favor of electing the entire Duma by proportional elections.

1. What is one major effect the change had on Russian political parties? Why?
2. What is one major effect the change had on political power of the Duma? Why?
3. What is one major effect the change had on the political power of the president? Why?

5. The historic cleavage between rural and urban Chinese citizens led Mao Zedong to base the Communist Revolution in China on the peasantry, not the working class.

1. Briefly describe one fact that demonstrates the persistence of that rural-urban cleavage now.
2. Briefly describe one way in which the persistence of that cleavage affects Chinese politics today.
3. What is a major factor limiting the capacity of the Chinese state to effectively deal with this cleavage?

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2012 - Question #9 – short answer/concept question

(A)          What is a prominent political cleavage in Russia?

(B)          How is that cleavage expressed (visible)?

See pp. 78-81 in What You Need to Know

Question No. 24 (27 April 2009)

Here's Question No. 24:

a. What is an example of how identity politics are reflected in the government or politics of Nigeria? (1 point)
b. What is a factor in Nigerian government or politics that counteracts identity politics? (1 point)
c. Explain why the factor you identified above (in part b), has not overcome the power of identity politics? (2 points)

(See pp. 115-120 in What You Need to Know.)

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