28. Research on political values among Muslim publics has found that:
a. Muslims reject democracy.
b. a majority of Muslims in several Muslim majority countries strongly support the idea
that democracy is better than any other form of government.
c. a small percentage of Muslims believe democracy is better than any other form of
government.
d. Muslims’ willingness to challenge leaders is equal to that of Europeans.
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
29. To test the hypothesis that Islam is an insuperable obstacle to democracy, one should:
a. test the hypothesis in Arab countries.
b. test the hypothesis in Middle Eastern countries.
c. test the hypothesis among Arab populations in European countries.
d. test the hypothesis in all predominantly Muslim countries.
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
30. In the hypothesis that Islam is an insuperable obstacle to democracy in the Middle East:
a. the independent variable is democracy.
b. the independent variable is Islam.
c. the dependent variable is Islam.
d. the independent variable is the Middle East.
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
157
31. The country with the largest Muslim population in the world is ____________.
a. Egypt
b. Indonesia
c. Iran
d. Iraq
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
32. The hypothesis that low levels of economic development are the main reasons for
authoritarian rule in the Middle East runs into difficulty because:
a. Middle Eastern countries are rich as a result of oil revenues.
b. Middle Eastern countries have high levels of literacy.
c. while some Middle East countries are poor, several have some of the highest per
capita incomes in the world.
d. Middle Eastern countries have large middle classes.
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
33. The hypothesis that oil revenues are the major obstacle to democracy in the Arab world
runs into difficulty because:
a. countries with large oil revenues tend to be democracies.
b. researchers have found no correlation between the percentage of national income
from oil and democracy.
c. only four Arab countries derive high percentages of their revenues from oil.
d. Arab countries that have few or no oil revenues are also authoritarian.
Middle East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
158
34. The two types of authoritarian regimes that, on average, have been consistently best at
lowering infant mortality are:
a. monarchies and one-party regimes.
b. monarchies and military regimes.
c. military regimes and personalist regimes.
d. communist regimes and military regimes.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
35. The two types of authoritarian regimes with the best records for consistently increasing
literacy on average are:
a. one-party communist regimes and military regimes.
b. monarchies and military regimes.
c. military regimes and personalist regimes.
d. monarchies and one-party regimes.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
36. The type of regime with the best safety record as measured by homicide rates is:
a. one-party.
b. military.
c. personalist.
d. monarchy.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
159
37. The type of authoritarian regime with the worst democracy record as measured by Polity
IV data is:
a. military.
b. communist.
c. monarchy.
d. personalist.
regime type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
38. After being overly optimistic about the collapse of authoritarianism, many political
scientists do not believe that:
a. some authoritarian regimes have had to make big changes in policies to survive.
b. electoral authoritarianism is weakening as a way of maintaining authoritarian rule.
c. democracy is now the only widely accepted way of claiming legitimacy.
d. fundamentalist Islam is the twenty-first-century ideological equivalent of Marxism.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
39. The most successful monarchies are:
a. the dynastic monarchies in the Middle East oil rich countries.
b. the dynastic monarchies in Eastern European countries.
c. the monarchies in Britain and Denmark.
d. the tribal monarchies in Africa.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
160
40. In which of the following countries are women’s rights most restricted?
a. Zimbabwe
b. Saudi Arabia
c. Rwanda
d. China
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Short Answer Questions
41. Define authoritarianism and explain how current forms of authoritarianism differ from
earlier forms.
Topic: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level Remember the Facts
42. Distinguish between one-party and personalist regimes and describe the main ways in
which the two differ from each other.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Types of Authoritarian Regimes
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
43. Explain three reasons why many authoritarian regimes allow multi-party elections.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Types of Authoritarian Regimes
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
44. Define personal rule and discuss four ways in which personal rulers maintain their power.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Personalist Regimes
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
161
Essay Questions
45. Explain how dynastic monarchs solve the problems of authoritarian power sharing and
authoritarian control and why this tends to result in low infant mortality rates and high
literacy.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Monarchy
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
46. Explain the differences in the ways leaders of personalist regimes and one-party regimes
manage the problems of power-sharing and authoritarian control, and why the ways
personalist regimes handles these problems tend to lead to lower capabilities in personalist
regimes than one-party regimes.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Personalist Regimes
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
47. Explain how weak state institutions shape the ways in which personalist rulers hold on to
power.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Personalist Regimes
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
48. Explain why some authoritarian regimes survive elections while others do not by stating
a hypothesis, identifying the independent and dependent variables, and using the comparative
case study method to test the hypothesis.
problems of authoritarian power sharing and authoritarian control.
Topic: Personalist Regimes
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
49. Evaluate the explanations of those who argue that Islam is the major cause of
authoritarian persistence in the Middle East and those who argue that it is not.
East and North Africa
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
162
50. Explain two main reasons the majority of authoritarian regimes survived the Arab Spring
while a few did not.
East and North Africa
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
51. Evaluate whether authoritarian rule is justified if a leader can improve citizens’
capabilities as Paul Kagame has done in Rwanda.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Authoritarianism and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
52. Explain the evidence that political scientists used to make optimistic predictions about the
end of authoritarian rule in the 1990s, more pessimistic predictions by 2008, and cautiously
optimistic predictions about the vulnerability of authoritarian regimes by 2014.
type affects capabilities and evaluate the way in which that hypothesis is tested.
Topic: Conclusion
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
53. Using the four domestic explanations of authoritarian persistence, explain why
authoritarian rule has remained in Egypt. Do you expect Egypt to remain under authoritarian
rule or to become a democracy by 2020?
East and North Africa.
Topic: Explaining Authoritarian Persistence
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
54. Identify the two main international variables affecting the persistence of authoritarian
regimes, and explain in detail how one promotes democracy in authoritarian regimes while
the other does not.
East and North Africa.
Topic: Types of Authoritarian Regimes
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
163