Week 1 Quiz

Which of these situations is politics in this course's sense, a collective, binding decision made where scarcity and disagreement meet?

Select one.

• One commuter decides alone which of three routes to drive to work each morning.
• A condo board votes on how to split one repair budget among owners who disagree.
• A shopper compares two brands of coffee and buys the cheaper one.
• A runner chooses a new training plan from a fitness app.

Which pairing of a thinker, a year, and a shorthand definition of politics is correct?

Select one.

• Easton (1953): who gets what, when, how
• Lasswell (1936): the authoritative allocation of values
• Aristotle (1953): the authoritative allocation of values
• Lasswell (1936): who gets what, when, how

A scholar asks, "Should a legislature ever be allowed to bind future generations?" Which subfield asks this kind of question?

Select one.

• Comparative politics
• Political methodology
• Political theory and philosophy
• International relations

A researcher asks why two neighboring countries with no government above them would agree to share a river's water. Which subfield is this question most closely tied to?

Select one.

• International relations
• American government
• Political theory and philosophy
• Political methodology

Consider the claim "The Senate has 100 members." What kind of claim is it?

Select one.

• Normative, because it is about a political institution
• Normative, because people disagree about whether the Senate is fair
• Empirical, because it can be checked against the Constitution's text
• Neither, because a number is not a claim

A student writes, "The Senate has 120 members." Which description of this claim is most accurate?

Select one.

• It is an empirical claim, and checking it shows it is false.
• It is a normative claim, because it is false.
• It is an opinion, so it cannot be checked.
• It is not a claim, because it is wrong.

As the National Archives transcript of the Declaration's second paragraph (1776) prints it, which wording of the rights trio is correct?

Select one.

• life, liberty, and property
• Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
• Life, Liberty and Property
• life, liberty, and the pursuit of property

In the four moves on the Declaration's second paragraph, which unstated premise does the argument need but never state?

Select one.

• That governments have existed among people before
• That the rights listed are unalienable
• That the people have a right to alter or to abolish a destructive government
• Who judges when a government has become destructive

In the claim sort of the Declaration's second paragraph (1776), which of these claims are normative? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• "all men are created equal"
• "Governments are instituted among Men"
• "deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"
• "it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it"
• The Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration in 1776.

A columnist writes, "The survey shows the city must build more bike lanes." Which failure mode does this sentence show?

Select one.

• Shrugging, because it treats the bike-lane question as mere opinion that no reason could settle
• Smuggling, because it slips a must inside a statement of what the survey shows
• Sorting by topic, because it is about transportation
• None, because surveys can settle what a city ought to do