28. Extractive economic institutions are ones that:
a. involve extraction of oil and minerals and mining.
b. enable political leaders to concentrate power in their own hands.
c. grew from European colonization of less developed nations.
d. transfer a nation’s income and wealth to a small elite.
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others:
Institutions
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
29. One institutional explanation for the origins of sustained economic development in
Europe is that:
a. these countries earned enough from their colonies to jump-start sustained economic
growth.
b. European religious institutions provided models for how to manage large companies.
c. profits from trade gave European merchants the economic and political power to
demand institutional changes necessary for economic growth.
d. the capitalist class used state institutions to exploit labor and make high profits
necessary for sustained growth.
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others:
Institutions
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
30. Institutionalists argue that a main reason Canada and the United States became highly
developed, in comparison with many less economically developed former colonies, is
that they:
a. had richer mineral resources, given their large territories and geographic diversity.
b. had more fertile soil than most former colonies.
c. were both colonies of Great Britain, which founded democratic institutions
worldwide.
d. had large numbers of European settlers, not directly tied to a commodities or forced
labor economy, who adopted growth-promoting institutions.
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others:
Institutions
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
209
31. To test the hypothesis that Europeans were less likely to settle in colonies where they
were vulnerable to tropical diseases, one could compare:
a. the number of European settlers in India and Haiti.
b. the number of European settlers in Canada and Haiti.
c. European settlers as a percentage of the total population in colonies that were very
similar except for presence or absence of deadly tropical diseases.
d. European settlers as a percentage of the total population in colonies that had different
kinds of tropical diseases.
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others:
Colonialism
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
32. One reason South Korea and Rwanda have had greater success than other less-developed
countries is their ____________.
a. geographic location
b. oil reserves
c. work ethic
d. leadership
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others:
Leadership
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
33. The authors of the Comparative Political Analysis titled “Institutions as the Main Cause
of Development and Underdevelopment” use the ___________ method of comparative
analysis.
a. many-cases
b. case study
c. comparative-cases
d. statistical
explanations for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Comparative Political Analysis: Institutions as the Main Cause of Development
and Underdevelopment
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
210
34. The following diagram demonstrates that:
a. poor countries with very similar GDP per capita can have very different infant
mortality rates.
b. there exists little difference in infant mortality rates between the poorest and
wealthiest nations.
c. it is absolutely necessary for a country to reach extremely high income per capita to
achieve low infant mortality rates.
d. the outlier with the highest infant mortality rate has an infant mortality rate of a little
over 80 per 1000.
income per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society: Physical Well-Being
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
211
35. In the following diagram:
a. the independent variable is adult literacy, and the higher it is, the higher the GDP per
capita.
b. the independent variable is adult literacy, and the higher it is, the lower the GDP per
capita.
c. the independent variable is GDP per capita, and the higher it is, the higher the adult
literacy rate tends to be.
d. the independent variable is GDP per capita, and the higher it is, the lower the adult
literacy rate tends to be.
income per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society: Decision Making
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
212
36. The following scatter diagram shows:
a. a weak tendency for homicides to increase as GDP per capita increases.
b. a very strong tendency for homicides to increase as GDP per capita increases.
c. a weak tendency for homicides to decrease as GDP per capita increases.
d. a very strong tendency for homicides to decrease as GDP per capita increases.
income per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society: Safety
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
37. The idea that homicide rates may be a misleading gauge of safety is particularly relevant
in regard to the sub-Saharan region, given that:
a. deaths in civil wars—of the sort many poor nations in that region have seen—are not
counted in homicide rates.
b. homicides tend to be underreported in the region, given government corruption and
poverty.
c. higher rates of crime in other violent and non-violent categories.
d. Deaths in civil wars—of the sort that many poor nations in the region have
experienced—have temporarily increased homicide rates in some cities.
income per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society: Democracy
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
213
38. The hypothesis that a nation’s level of democracy is associated with its GDP was shown
to be somewhat problematic because:
a. several nations with lower incomes than the United States were shown to have similar
democracy scores.
b. many of the most highly developed nations, most notably Qatar, are not democratic.
c. several undemocratic nations were shown to have higher GDP than the nations with
the highest democracy scores.
d. several of the nations with democracy scores comparable to that of Iran had much
higher GDP.
income per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society: Democracy
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
Short Answer Questions
41. Explain the difference between economic development and human development.
development.
Topic: Economic Development and Human Development
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
42. Explain the difference between absolute and relative poverty and give examples of
differences between the two.
poverty and identify which regions of the world have the highest numbers and percentages of
people living in extreme poverty.
Topic: Comparing Incomes Between Countries with High and Low Levels of Development
Difficulty Level: Easy
Skill Level: Remember the Facts
43. Identify the two main criteria for describing countries as developed or less developed and
how they are used to create four levels of development.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Why Did Some Countries Become More Economically Developed Than Others?
44. Explain the reasoning of authors who believe colonialism is the main reason why some
countries are more developed than others and list two reasons other authors challenge this
explanation.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Colonialism
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
45. Explain the reasoning of authors who believe the Protestant ethic is the reason sustained
economic development began in Europe and list two problems with cultural explanations of
development and underdevelopment.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Culture
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
Essay Questions
46. Explain why economic development and human development usually reinforce each other,
and what it means to say that the difference between a country’s GDP rank and HDI rank is a
useful indicator of how successful, or unsuccessful, it has been in using whatever wealth it
has to improve citizens’ capabilities.
development.
Topic: Economic Development and Human Development
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
47. Explain three reasons why the military government of South Korea was so much more
successful in promoting rapid, sustained economic development than military governments in
most other less-developed countries.
development.
Topic: Economic Development and Human Development
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
215
48. Explain how the World Bank and the United Nations operationally define economic and
human development to rank countries at different levels of development, and evaluate
whether human development should be given the same importance or greater importance in
deciding which countries are developed and which are less developed.
levels of development.
Topic: Differing Levels of Development Among Countries
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
49. Define corruption and explain two ways in which it can be damaging for human
development. Explain why some countries have been able to have rapid and sustained
economic development despite relatively high levels of corruption.
economic development.
Topic: States and Development
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Understand the Concepts
50. Evaluate the argument that geography was the main determinant of differences in levels of
development between developed and less-developed countries and continues to be an
obstacle to development in many less-developed countries.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Geography
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
51. Explain how supporters of colonialist and geographic explanations of development and lack
of development would account for why Haiti changed from being one of the richest societies
in the world in 1790 to one of the poorest today, and evaluate their explanation.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Colonialism
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
52. Discuss how institutionalists explain why some European countries were the first to achieve
rapid, sustained economic development, and how institutionalists explain why some former
colonies have been much more successful economically than others.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Institutions
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
216
53. Explain what institutionalists mean when they say that colonialism matters for a less-
developed country’s chances for development—not so much for the wealth they took from
their colonies, but because of the institutional legacy they left behind.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Colonialism
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
54. Explain how supporters of cultural and institutional explanations of development and lack of
development would account for why Haiti changed from being one of the richest societies in
the world in 1790 to one of the poorest today and evaluate their explanation.
for why some countries are more economically developed than others.
Topic: Institutions
Difficulty Level: Moderate
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
55. Explain how you would test the hypothesis that the higher a country’s level of economic
development, the lower the infant mortality rate. Identify the independent and dependent
variable, explain how you would operationally define the two variables, and then describe
which method of comparative analysis you would use to test the hypothesis, and why you
selected this method rather than another.
per capita is associated with higher capabilities.
Topic: Development, Underdevelopment, and the Good Society
Difficulty Level: Difficult
Skill Level: Apply What You Know
217