Short Answer Questions Flashcards
In the Melian Dialogue, the athenians tell the melians that “the standard of justice depends upon the equality of power to compel and that in fact the string do what they have power to do and the weak accept what they have to accept”
**1. Identify: ** there is no justice in the international system, just the strong and weak.
2. Define: The strong always seek power and to expand and the weak have to just accept the power that the strong have.
**3. Explain the school of thought in international relations this statement represents: ** Realism All states have interests,or needs that they must pursue.
* A state’s fundamental interest is to ensure its survival,and thesurvival of its citizens, in a world with no law, justice or shared concept of morality.
-States acts in their interest not moral principles
4. Why are people who adopt this method of thinking skeptical of basing foreign policy decisions on moral reasoning?:
* Moral reasoning, they argue, may lead to decisions that undermine a state’s security or interests.
* Acting according to morality rather than interest is a form of national suicide. US isolationalists who failed to react to Nazis.
John stuart mill writes “People trust the infallibility of th world in general. And the world, to each individual, means the part of it with which he comes in contact, his party, his sect, his church, his class of society, nor is his faith in this collective authority at all shaken by his being aware that other ages, countries, sects, churches, classes, and aprties have thought, and even now think, the exact reverse, yet it is evident that ages are no more infallible than individuals:every age having held many opinions which subquest ages have deemed not only false but absurd:and it is certain than many opinions now in general will be rejected by future ages, as it is that many, once general, are rejected by the present”
1. Explain Mills argument in this passage
Mills argument here is the the marketplace of ideas. The Marketplace of ideas is a belief that, in a free and open society, the exchange of diverse and competing ideas leads to the discovery of truth throught debate and the betterment of society as a whole.
2. How it fits within his broader argument for free speech
That under free speech Individuals should be free to express any ideas without censorship or restraint by the government or other authorities because they are valuable to society.
It is 2008, Barack Obama has just been elected president of the United States. American troops have been fighting in Afghanistan for seven years, failing to quell the taliban insurgency despite winning every major battle. Joseph Nye is invited to the white house to offer his advice about what strategy the US should adopt in afghanistan.
1. What might Nye say the conflict illustartes about the limits of hard power?
2.** Define smart power**: combining hard and soft power into an effective strategy to meet national goals.
Soft: ( attraction and persuasion) ability of a country to influence others through non-coercive means, typically through cultural, economic, and ideological channels rather than through military force or economic incentives.
Hard: force or coercion to achieve a country’s objectives
3. What strategy Nye might reccomend that would be consistend with it?
Nye would reccomment smart power not only hard power because hard power is not always the best strategy to use, they need to convince the afghan people that the US have their best interest in mind. Withoight soft power the hard power would never work.
- Are voters competent to participate in a democracy?
- Explain what studies of voter knowledge and rationality have to say about this question.
- Be sure to identify and evaluate a common strategy that voters employ to make decisions about public affairs as part of your answer.
- Data shows that the average american does not know much about politics they can take cues from people arounf them, some people tend to pick issues they care adn are affcted by to speaciize and learn about
- Agregation and cue taking is the idea that people have enough opinions to get arounf.
Long-standing research shows low level of knowledge about politics on people and inconsistent policy views
 Three factors that can help overcome i
Cue taking
Issue public’s
Aggregation 
Define each of the three dimensions of power and offer an example of each.
- Power of A to COMPEL B to do something B would not do otherwise
Ex: police have the pwoer to compel when they are patroling (policing the police) - The power to CONTROL the agenda: decide what matters will be decided upon.
ex: Iowa water quality is very bad so legislatures keep it off the agenda. due to the high agriculture benefit - Control the BELIEFS of the disempower so they dont question the ideas in place. ( control the way people think)
ex: Police officers feel that they can never do any wrong and make people belief that they are there to support.
ex:Internalized racism
-They dont realise they are being opressed
In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton writes:
“This independence of the judges is equally requisite to guard the Constitution and the rights of individuals from the effects of those ill humors, which the arts of designing men, or the influence of particular conjunctures, sometimes disseminate among the people themselves, and which, though they speedily give place to better information, and more deliberate reflection, have a tendency, in the meantime, to occasion dangerous innovations in the government, and serious oppressions of the minor party in the community.”
1. Explain the threat is Hamilton describing in this paragraph
Hamilton is describing ill humors and tyranny of the majority.
2. why it presents such a danger in a democracy
It presents a threat to the
3. How he says the independence of judges guards against it.
They are safeguarded from political preassures and do not have to face elections makeing them totally independent.
Robert Dahl observed that the courts are unlikely to protect the minority against the majority.
**1. Explain why. **
-He says it is not truly independent.Its members are appointed by the elected branches and likely to reflect their values.
-As a result,the court is more likely to reflect the majority than to defy the majority.
2. Then, explain why social movements provide a powerful alternative strategy to protect minority rights.
- Social movements that change opinion are central to the protection of rights.
- They educated the public on the issue and show why they need their support to change.
3. Discuss the effect of Martin Luther King’s protests on the development of civil rights legislation during the Kennedy Administration as part of your answer.
-King wanted to provoke a crisis that would focus national attention on racial injustice and shift opinion in favor of Civil Rights legislation
* He succeeded.O’Connor’s brutal response received media coverage, horrified Americans, and led elected officials to press for legislation
*Kings social movement pushed the keenedy administration to push a strong civil rights bill
- President Kennedy, initially cautious about moving too aggressively on civil rights due to political considerations, became increasingly responsive to the demands for reform. The televised violence against peaceful demonstrators, as well as King’s efforts, swayed public opinion and pushed Kennedy to address civil rights issues more directly.
Robert Dahl says that equality in voting is a key democratic value.
**1. Define and explain that value **
-When the moment arrives at which the decision about policy will finally be made, every member must have an equal and effective opportunity to vote, and all votes must be counted as equal.
2. Why Dahl believes it is violated by the design of the United States Senate.
- it gives unequal representation to every state. A state like California with a population of 40 millions of residents have the same power in a vote in the senate as a state like Wyoming with only 500k resident
- in contrast to the principle of “one person one
vote,” the votes of different persons are given unequal
weights.
You are sitting at breakfast with your roommate, quietly drinking your coffee and dreaming about the end of the semester. Your roommate suddenly looks up from their Cheerios and says: “I’m tired of just choosing between Democrats and Republicans. We need to shake things up. We need a multiparty system!”
Parliment example how PR is beneficial to minority groups
1. Identify the system of representation most likely to a multiparty system.
-Proportional Representation system is likely to have a multiparty system
DEFINE
**2. Explain why this system is likely to lead to the election of multiple parties, and **
-Because parties gain seats in proportion to the number of votes cast for them, therefore allowing.
- Under PR, seats would be divided by vote share
-Coalition build (coaporating and colaboration)
3. Why Robert Dahl prefers it.
Robert Dahl prefers it because it ensures that minoriry groups are represented, more diverse group.
Throighr the process of coalition building.
4. Then, offer one criticism of this approach.
Provides a platform for extremists
In their book How Democracies Die, Livitsky and Ziblatt make the argument that democracies depend upon norms of behavior to survive
- ** Identify two of these norms of behavior**
-Define norms (Unwritten rules that influence the bahivor of people)
-Institutional forbarance
Self imposing limits that restrain themselves from over using their power.
-Mutual toleration - and explain how each helps to support democratic government.
They support democratic norms because»>
