Comparative Politics: Concepts and Approaches MCQs 2026

Sovereignty denotes

1. A only cultural fashion ✓
2. B only corporate branding ✓
3. C only sports rankings ✓
4. D supreme authority within a territory ✓

Comparative politics primarily studies

1. A political systems across countries to identify patterns and causes ✓
2. B only one village's folklore ✓
3. C only astronomical orbits ✓
4. D only chemical reactions ✓

The state in political science is

1. A any private club ✓
2. B the institution claiming monopoly of legitimate force in a territory ✓
3. C only a cultural festival ✓
4. D only a family ✓

A nation is often defined as

1. A a community sharing identity, often culture or history ✓
2. B only a stock exchange ✓
3. C only a building ✓
4. D only a military rank ✓

Regime refers to

1. A only weather patterns ✓
2. B the formal and informal rules determining who rules and how ✓
3. C only GDP numbers alone ✓
4. D only sports leagues ✓

Government is

1. A the incumbent leadership and administration at a given time ✓
2. B the entire regime forever fixed ✓
3. C only the constitution text ✓
4. D only the opposition ✓

Political socialization transmits

1. A only agricultural seeds ✓
2. B political norms to new generations ✓
3. C only ocean currents ✓
4. D only building materials ✓

Modernization theory once linked development to

1. A permanent feudalism ✓
2. B abolition of all cities ✓
3. C rejection of all education ✓
4. D secularization, urbanization and democratic pluralism ✓

Dependency theory argued that

1. A all colonies industrialized equally ✓
2. B trade always benefits periphery instantly ✓
3. C markets have no power relations ✓
4. D peripheral economies remain subordinate in the world capitalist system ✓

Authoritarian regimes permit

1. A full liberal democracy ✓
2. B no state institutions ✓
3. C limited pluralism but restrict political competition ✓
4. D complete press freedom always ✓

Hybrid regimes combine

1. A pure consensus without elections ✓
2. B no institutions at all ✓
3. C democratic forms with authoritarian practices ✓
4. D only anarchist communes ✓

Failed state lacks

1. A only high GDP ✓
2. B only large population ✓
3. C effective monopoly of force and basic governance capacity ✓
4. D only long history ✓

Westphalian sovereignty emphasizes

1. A world government mandatory ✓
2. B territorial integrity and non-interference ✓
3. C no borders ✓
4. D private armies everywhere ✓

Soft power influences others through

1. A only military invasion ✓
2. B only tariffs only ✓
3. C attraction and persuasion rather than coercion ✓
4. D only sabotage ✓

Hard power relies on

1. A coercion or payment to change behaviour ✓
2. B only public diplomacy ✓
3. C only educational exchange ✓
4. D only moral example alone ✓

Civil society in comparative politics

1. A mediates between individuals and the state voluntarily ✓
2. B is identical to the army ✓
3. C is only the cabinet ✓
4. D is only the central bank ✓

Interest aggregation in political systems is

1. A ignoring all demands ✓
2. B combining demands into policy alternatives ✓
3. C only violent repression ✓
4. D only random choice ✓

Political cleavage is

1. A a temporary weather event ✓
2. B a persistent social division shaping party competition ✓
3. C a building crack only ✓
4. D a math error ✓

Lipset's hypothesis linked democracy to

1. A permanent poverty as ideal ✓
2. B feudalism as necessary ✓
3. C isolation from trade ✓
4. D economic development and a large middle class ✓

Przeworski and colleagues found that

1. A democracy never lasts ✓
2. B only rich countries democratize instantly without history ✓
3. C democracy once reaching a income threshold often survives ✓
4. D elections cause instant war always ✓

Structural functionalism views politics as

1. A systems with inputs, conversion and outputs ✓
2. B only individual psychology without institutions ✓
3. C only literary criticism ✓
4. D only geology ✓

Rational choice in comparative politics assumes

1. A actors maximize goals under constraints ✓
2. B pure random behaviour always ✓
3. C no preferences exist ✓
4. D only divine intervention ✓

Historical institutionalism stresses

1. A that history never matters ✓
2. B only biology of plants ✓
3. C only coin flips ✓
4. D path dependence and timing of institutional choices ✓

Qualitative comparative method (QCA) uses

1. A only one case without comparison ✓
2. B set-theoretic comparison of cases ✓
3. C only opinion polls alone ✓
4. D only laboratory chemistry ✓

Most similar systems design compares

1. A planets and stars ✓
2. B unrelated random variables only ✓
3. C countries alike in many factors but differing in outcome ✓
4. D identical twins only in biology ✓

Most different systems design compares

1. A only identical countries ✓
2. B dissimilar cases sharing one outcome ✓
3. C only one time period without cases ✓
4. D only fictional states ✓

Democratic consolidation means

1. A a coup every year ✓
2. B no elections ever ✓
3. C one-party rule forever ✓
4. D democracy becomes the only game in town ✓

Democratic backsliding involves

1. A strengthening courts always ✓
2. B erosion of norms and institutions toward authoritarianism ✓
3. C expanding press freedom always ✓
4. D routine peaceful alternation ✓

Electoral authoritarian regimes hold

1. A no elections at all ✓
2. B perfectly fair contests always ✓
3. C elections that are seriously flawed in favour of incumbents ✓
4. D only judicial appointments ✓

Theocracy in comparative typologies is

1. A strict secular bureaucracy only ✓
2. B anarchist federation ✓
3. C corporate board only ✓
4. D rule justified by religious authority ✓

Parliamentarism versus presidentialism is a key

1. A comparative institutional variable affecting stability ✓
2. B literary genre only ✓
3. C musical scale only ✓
4. D culinary style only ✓

Federalism is often adopted to

1. A eliminate all regional identity ✓
2. B accommodate territorial diversity or plural societies ✓
3. C centralize all culture ✓
4. D abolish provinces ✓

Consociational democracy (Lijphart) uses

1. A winner-take-all exclusion ✓
2. B ban on all minorities ✓
3. C grand coalitions and group vetoes in divided societies ✓
4. D one-language assimilation only ✓

Political economy in comparative politics studies

1. A only poetry meters ✓
2. B only insect taxonomy ✓
3. C only bridge architecture ✓
4. D interaction of economic structures and political institutions ✓

Gender and politics scholarship examines

1. A only mineralogy ✓
2. B only tidal charts ✓
3. C how gender structures power and participation ✓
4. D only vehicle engines ✓

Area studies approach focuses on

1. A ignoring all local history ✓
2. B only universal laws without context ✓
3. C in-depth regional expertise within comparison ✓
4. D only laboratory experiments ✓

Transitology studies

1. A transitions from authoritarianism toward democracy ✓
2. B only ancient empires without change ✓
3. C only permanent dictatorship ✓
4. D only feudal stability ✓