Name: Group: Model 1A

Comparative Politics 2020-2021

Final Exam – Ordinary Call
Dr. Pedro Riera (priera@clio.uc3m.es)

The exam has two parts: 25 multiple-choice questions and four “short-answer” (aka,
open-ended) questions. Each part counts 50% of the grade of the final exam. In the
multiple-choice part, there is only one right answer per question and wrong answers
discount points (i.e., one right answer is equal to three wrong answers). Blank answers
do not affect the grade either positively or negatively. In the “short-answer” questions
part, quality is more important than quantity. So, reply to the question but longer answers
are not necessarily better. You have four pages at most to reply to the open-ended
questions. Duration of the exam: 2 hours and 30 minutes max.

PART A: Multiple-choice questions

1. According to Clark, Golder and Golder (2012), what topic is not usually covered by
comparative politics?
a. International organizations
b. Revolutions
c. Political economy
d. Executive-legislative relations.

2. Which of the following is not true of large-N studies?

a. Large-N studies have many cases
b. Large-N studies typically employ quantitative analysis
c. Large-N studies are common in political science
d. All of the above are true.

3. Which of the following best describes the idea of operationalizing concepts?

a. Operationalizing concepts involves making concepts measurable
b. Operationalizing is the same as making concepts valid
c. Operationalizing concepts means making them more complex
d. Operationalizing concepts is mainly an issue for the physical sciences, not for
comparative politics.

4. Which of the following situations calls for a Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD)?
a. There are several interesting cases but no clear pattern of similarity or
difference among them in terms of the variables we consider to be important
b. The cases in question have the same outcome
c. The cases are all very different in terms of their characteristics
d. The cases in question are very similar in terms of most conditions, but the
outcomes vary.
5. Which of the following is typically considered part of procedural definitions of
democracy?
a. Incomes must be equal
b. All national budgets must be subject to referenda
c. Religion must be kept entirely out of politics
d. Multiple parties must be allowed to compete to win political office.

6. When referring to elections, ex post irreversibility means…

a. Holding elections a second time to establish if the first election was fraudulent
b. Holding elections at regular intervals
c. Allowing electoral winners to assume office without obstruction
d. Allowing some segments of the population to have multiple votes.

7. According to Classic Modernization Theory, if financial international institutions

(i.e., WB, IMF, etc.) aim at promoting democracy, they should…
a. Fund democratic countries to avoid a return to dictatorship
b. Fund rich autocracies to ease the transition towards democracy
c. Fund poor and rich autocracies
d. Fund poor autocracies to ease the transition towards democracy.

8. Country A is characterized by the following features: it is wealthy, it has an abundance

of natural resources and its population is poorly educated. Country B is characterized
by the following features: it is wealthy, its economy is dominated by the financial
service sector and its population is well-educated. Which country is more likely to be
democratic?
a. Country A
b. Country B
c. Countries A and B with no difference
d. Country C (i.e., impossible to say).

9. Which of the following best describes Primordialism?

a. It views culture as something that is inherited and immutable
b. It views culture as something that is constructed or invented
c. It views culture as something that could not cause breakdown of democracy
d. It views culture as something that is unimportant.

10. Political culture is…

a. Popular media and literature that provide a basic explanation of the political
system and issues to the population couched in an entertaining format
b. The underlying set of values and beliefs about politics and the system of
meaning for interpreting politics among a given population
c. Traditional elements of a state’s popular culture that are related to politics,
such as the national anthem and mythological stories about past leaders
d. All of the above.

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11. People can sometimes enjoy democracy without contributing to it. Which of the
following concepts is the best to label this idea?
a. Tipping models
b. Free-rider problems
c. Bottom-up transitions
d. Preference falsification.

12. What started the “third wave” of democratization according to the seminal book of
Huntington published in 1991?
a. The collapse of Portugal’s authoritarian regime in 1974
b. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq in 2003
c. The end of the Argentinian military regime in 1983
d. The death of General Franco in Spain in 1975.

13. A key problem with the argument that democracy promotes property rights is that…
a. Growth is always higher in dictatorships than democracies
b. The extent of electoral rights is actually a poor predictor of the rule of law
c. All of the above
d. None of the above.

14. According to Clark, Golder and Golder (2012), the most frequent forms of autocratic
regimes are…
a. Monarchic
b. Military
c. Civilian
d. None of the above.

15. Divided government is…

a. Collegial presidency
b. Coalition cabinet of different parties
c. Different party majorities in presidency and assembly
d. President and prime minister from different parties.

16. Which of the following countries does not have a presidential system?
a. United States
b. Canada
c. Mexico
d. Brazil.

17. Which of the following characterizes connected coalitions?

a. Decreasing the number of parties in a coalition
b. Minimizing the ideological distance between parties in a coalition
c. Maximizing the number of seats the coalition holds in the Parliament
d. Minimizing the number of seats the coalition holds above a majority.

18. Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the UK is NOT…

a. Leader of the Cabinet
b. Leader of the Conservative Party
c. Head of State
d. Head of Government.

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19. Governments in presidential regimes are associated with…
a. High number of nonpartisan ministers and high proportionality in parties’
seats-portfolios
b. High number of nonpartisan ministers and low proportionality in parties’
seats-portfolios
c. Low number of nonpartisan ministers and high proportionality in parties’
seats-portfolios
d. Low number of nonpartisan ministers and low proportionality in parties’ seats-
portfolios.

20. What case of federalism is the result of a bargain among preexisting regional units
that face external threats?
a. Holding together
b. Coming together
c. Marble cake
d. Layer cake.

21. What is the difference between congruent federalism and incongruent federalism?
a. Congruent federalism is when the subnational units all share similar
demographic composition and incongruent federalism is when different ethnic
groups are concentrated in a particular region
b. Congruent federalism is when all sub-national governments hold equal power
relative to the central government and incongruent federalism is when some
sub-national governments have more extensive powers than others relative to
the central government
c. Congruent federalism is when subnational units have their own legislatures
and incongruent federalism is when subnational units do not have their own
legislatures
d. Congruent federalism is when a party has roughly the same seat share in both
national and local legislatures and incongruent federalism is when a party has
different seat shares in national and local legislatures.

22. Duverger’s Law refers to a relationship between which of the following?

a. Electoral systems and party systems
b. Party systems and political cultures
c. Social cleavages and party systems
d. Electoral systems and social cleavages.

23. Single Member District Plurality (SMDP) electoral systems…

a. Discourage strategic voting, that is, voting for a second-choice party
b. Reward large parties and hence facilitate the formation of single-party
governments
c. Are very proportional in the translation of votes into seats for parties
d. The duration of cabinets is usually short under these systems.

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24. What is an electoral quota?
a. The maximum number of parties that can win in any given election
b. The minimum number of parties that can win in any given election
c. The number of seats that need to be filled in an election
d. The number of votes a party needs to get in a district to ensure obtaining at
least one seat.

25. The idea of voters choosing who to vote for on the basis of past performance and
requiring clarity of responsibility is the idea of…
a. Mandates
b. Retrospective voting
c. Agenda setter
d. Veto player.

PART B: Short-answer questions (to be responded in the order that you want)

1. Adam Przeworski has messaged you on Instagram. He wants to know whether he

should classify the United States as a democracy or as a dictatorship after what has
happened in the last years in that country. Tell him very briefly what he should do by
listing the main characteristics of the three indicators of democracy we saw in class
(i.e., DD measure, Polity IV and Freedom House).

2. On the 3rd of November 2020, US presidential elections took place. What are the main
differences between presidentialism, semi-presidentialism and parliamentarism in
terms of the formation of governments? Start commenting very briefly on the US case
but also go beyond that country.

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3. Regarding the vertical separation of powers, what are the differences between
federalism, decentralization, devolution and confederations? Is political (and fiscal)
decentralization increasing over time and why?

4. Imagine Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, hired you to promote a
proportional vision of democracy in the UK. First, explain which electoral system is
used in the UK and which you would choose to replace it. Second, explain what would
change for the better and what would change for the worse in UK politics as a result
of the change in electoral system.