General Instructions and Criteria for Grading Choose and answer 3 questions from the following list. Do not answer more than one question from a chapter. For each answer write a short essay between 300 to 500 words. The Essays will be graded based on the following criteria:
• Quality of Answer: How well you answer the questions, how well you manage to incorporate all the component questions in your answer, how clear are your answers, etc.
• Engagement with the readings: Your answers should be based on close readings of the chapters. Include reference (quotes, page numbers) to demonstrate your engagement with the texts.
• Quality of Writing: Grammar, Spelling, Sentence Construction, Absence of errors, etc. Question List
Chapter 1
1. Why is it difficult to create a science of comparative politics? Is it because this area of study is relatively new, or are there fundamental obstacles that will always limit what we can know based on the comparative method?
2. Discuss the emergence of and basic characteristics of modernization theory and behavioralism. How do the two approaches in comparative politics differ from each other, and how are they similar?
3. What is the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning? Why are both forms of reasoning important in determining correlations and/or causal relationships in comparative politics?
4. Describe the difference between qualitative and quantitative methodology in comparative politics. How has this difference evolved over time? How does a mixed-methods approach fit into this debate?
Chapter 2
1. What is the “state” and what are its primary features?
2. How is a regime different from a government? What are the components that make up the regime of the United States?
3. Describe Weber’s three forms of political legitimacy. Is one of them more associated with the modern state than the others? Briefly describe how each form of legitimacy is represented in the U.S. government.
4. Do you live under a weak or strong state? How do the concepts of autonomy and capacity help in thinking about the categories of strong and weak?
Chapter 7
1. What distinguishes a terrorist, a guerrilla, and a revolutionary? How do these terms relate to one another? Can there be overlap, or are they very different categories?
2. How have the use of institutional, ideational, and individual explanations for political violence evolved in the work of political scientists?
3. How and under what conditions does religion become a source for political violence?
Chapter 3
1. What are the most important political aspirations related to national identity? What major factors can contribute to the formation of a national identity?
2. Compare the central ideas of liberalism with those of fascism. How does each ideology view the role of the individual in political life? Does liberalism or fascism advocate for higher degrees of state autonomy and capacity? Why?
3. Describe the four types of political attitudes discussed in the text and how they array on a spectrum from left to right. How does each political attitude regard change differently?
4. What is political culture and how has the study of political culture changed over time? How do political scientists handle the role of religion in culture?
Chapter 4
1. What is a public good and why do states provide public goods rather than the market?
2. What are the ways the state control money supply in an economy? Why is the appropriate level of money supply important for healthy economy?
3. What tools do states use in regulating trade with other states? What political-economic systems are most and least likely to impose strict regulations on trade?
4. In what key ways does social democracy differ from liberalism? In what ways is it similar?
5. What is mercantilism? What are its strengths and drawbacks? Is mercantilism more suited for developing countries? Why or why not?
6. What are the relative benefits and drawbacks of using purchasing power parity (PPP), the Gini index, and the Human Development Index to measure relative wealth and inequality across countries?
7. Overall levels of economic liberalization are on the rise during the last few decades, appearing to indicate that liberalism is the preferred political-economic system. But what qualifications are important to this assessment?
