POL 140 – STUDY GUIDE

*NOTE: Not everything on this study guide will be on the exam and not everything on the exam is on this study guide. This study guide is exactly that, a guide.

1) What is comparative politics? * Why do we study it? What does it allow us to do? * How is it distinct from international relations (IR)? * Explain the significant relationship between comparative politics and IR. Give an example. 2) What a hypothesis? * Give an example. 3) What is a dependent variable? * Give an example 4) What is an independent variable? * Give an example 5) What are the three methods used to test hypotheses in comparative political analysis? Be able to explain each and note the costs and benefits of each. 6) Know the difference between empirical and normative studies. 7) Know the distinctions between the three types of pre-colonial societies that we discussed in class. * Acephalous societies * State societies * Empires * Know the differences of each. Pay attention to the details. 8) Colonialism – Why was Europe successful in colonizing the non-Western world? 9) What was the Maxim Gun? * How was it different than earlier machine guns? * What impact did it have on European colonization? 10) Who were the big players? * Latin America * Asia * Africa * Describe “the scramble for Africa”
11) What are the three Gs? * Gold * The Age of Mercantilism * Why did nations seek commercial expansion? The results? * What is comparative advantage? * God * In what ways did Europeans believe they were different than natives? * Why and how did colonizers try to convert natives? * What was the education system like? * Explain “rule through and by the natives” * Why would the colonizers use this approach? * Why would native elites agree to participate? * What are the ramifications? * Glory * Colonization pursued to become bigger power in international system. For what benefit? * Colonizers claimed colonization was for the good of the natives * How do we know that isn’t true 11) Explain the growth of resistance and emergence of nationalist movements. 12) What is ideology? * Explain the different resistance ideologies that emerged at this time? * Explain the generational divide * Describe the ideology and resistance approach of the new generation of nationalists. 13) How did WWI and WWII impact the power of resistance and nationalist movements? 14) What was the relevance of the establishment of the Atlantic Charter? 15) What was the relevance of the establishment of the UN? 16) Explain how the end of colonialism left some indigenous populations in better circumstances than others. 17) Indigenous populations felt that independence meant a smooth road ahead but instead they faced many emerging problems: * Political development, explain * Economic development, explain 18) After achieving independence, Ghanaians expected to have a smooth road ahead and to achieve democracy shortly thereafter. Explain why this wasn’t the reality. How can we relate this case study to what we learned about life after colonialism in much of the non-Western world? 19) Explain the difference between growth and development. Give at least one example of how we measure each. * Why do we study development? * What are the three essential capabilities associated with development? * What is human security? 20) Developing countries make up ___% of the world’s population but only generate ___% of the global gross national product. 21) What is convergence? 22) Global poverty rates dropped by 25% between 1981 and 2005 but ______ accounts for ____% of thid drop. 23) ________is estimated to be the world’s largest economy by 2030. 24) What is the “feminization” of poverty? * Examples? 25) What is neoliberalism? 26) In the context of the international economic system, globalization refers to… 27) What are the positive and negative effects? 28) What do neoliberals say about trade? * What about the critics of neoliberals? 29) What do supporters of MNCs say about the benefits of MNCs in the international economic system? * What about critics? * Discuss the issues of women and child labor 30) What are the different types of international foreign aid efforts? 31) Aid is directed toward 5 key objectives. What are they? 32) Roughly what percentage of the U.S. federal budget goes to foreign aid? 33) Understand U.S. aid as a percentage of GNI 34) Understand the “aid debate” – see corresponding class slides 35) What are the issues of aid conditionality? 36) How does the case of Haiti shine light on the problems that exist with food aid?