Midterm Practice Exam (ungraded) · Weeks 1–7 (Objectives 1–5)

Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
What this is: a low-stakes rehearsal for the cumulative midterm. It mirrors the real exam's blueprint — same coverage, item-type mix, length, and concept difficulty — but is built from fresh item-bank variants and shares none of the live midterm's questions.
Settings: ungraded (0 points) · unlimited attempts · feedback shown after submission · opens before the exam window so you can prepare.

This is the human-readable practice exam with its vetted answer key and feedback (released after submission). The import-ready Classic QTI 1.2 is in O-practice-exam-week-08-qti.xml (generated by a validated Python script — parses with 20 items). The Canvas placement block is at the bottom.

Integrity note for students. Every item here is a fresh variant — a new scenario and wording — with a pre-vetted answer. None of these are the live midterm questions. Working them builds the skill the midterm tests, honestly. The paired live exam is L-midterm-week-08.md.

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Blueprint (mirrors the midterm)

Coverage matches the real exam: Obj 1 = 3 · Obj 2 = 3 · Obj 3 = 5 · Obj 4 = 5 · Obj 5 (half) = 4. (The actual midterm items are not listed here — only the shared structure.)

#	Type	Concept	Objective	Week
1	Multiple choice	Empirical vs. normative — identify the empirical claim	1	1
2	Multiple choice	Subfield identification — international relations	1	1
3	Matching	Source-work moves (sourcing/contextualization/close reading/corroboration)	1	1
4	Multiple choice	Power vs. legitimacy — a legitimate figure with limited power	2	2
5	Multiple choice	Weber's traditional authority	2	2
6	True / False	Hobbes and the absolute sovereign	2	2
7	Multiple choice	Ideology defined, reworded	3	3
8	Matching	Ideology → what it fears/opposes	3	3
9	Multiple choice	Socialism ≠ social democracy	3	3
10	Multiple choice	Mill and pure paternalism	3	4
11	Multiple choice	Negative vs. positive liberty	3	4
12	Multiple choice	Direct vs. representative democracy coexisting	4	5
13	True / False	"Totalitarian" as a loose synonym — misconception	4	5
14	Multiple choice	Written vs. unwritten constitution — misconception	4	6
15	Multiple choice	Elements of the rule of law	4	6
16	Matching	Institutional-design terms → description	4	6
17	Multiple choice	Presidential system defining trait (Brazil)	5	7
18	Multiple choice	Bicameralism, standard rationale	5	7
19	Multiple choice	Fusion vs. separation — U.S. Constitution	5	7
20	Multiple choice	Government formation — parliamentary no-confidence removal	5	7

Objective totals: Obj 1 = 3 · Obj 2 = 3 · Obj 3 = 5 · Obj 4 = 5 · Obj 5 (half) = 4 → 20 items (ungraded; mirrors the 100-point midterm's emphasis).

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Questions, key, and feedback (feedback releases after you submit)

Objective 1 — The Discipline & Its Methods (Week 1)

P1 (MC). Which of the following is an EMPIRICAL claim (rather than a normative one)?
- A. Citizens have a moral duty to vote.
- B. Democracies with proportional representation systems tend to seat more parties in their legislatures than plurality systems do. ✅
- C. The voting age should be lowered.
- D. A just society ought to protect free expression.
Feedback: An empirical claim is about what is — checkable against evidence, in this case by comparing real countries' electoral systems and party counts (exactly the work of Week 11). (A, C, and D all use "ought/should/duty" language — the tell for a normative claim.)

P2 (MC). A researcher studies why two neighboring states have avoided war for decades despite a history of conflict, focusing on treaties, alliances, and their shared membership in international institutions. This work belongs primarily to which subfield?
- A. American government
- B. Political theory / philosophy
- C. International relations ✅
- D. Political methodology
Feedback: Studying politics between states — treaties, alliances, war and peace, international institutions — where there is no world government to enforce agreements, is the signature focus of international relations. (Comparative politics would instead compare each state's internal institutions to each other's; this scenario is about the relationship between the two states.)

P3 (Matching). Match each move in standard source work to its correct description.

Move	Correct description
Sourcing	Asking who wrote a document, when, and for what purpose
Contextualization	Situating a document within the historical or political moment that produced it
Close reading	Examining exactly what a document's words say — and what they leave out
Corroboration	Checking a document's claims against a second, independent source

Feedback: These four moves are the toolkit's application to primary texts specifically — used in every text-mode Political Analysis Workshop. The most common mix-up: confusing close reading (working within a single document's exact words) with corroboration (which always requires a second, independent source).*

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Objective 2 — Power, Authority, Legitimacy & the State (Week 2)

P4 (MC). A long-serving monarch is widely regarded by citizens, courts, and neighboring governments alike as the rightful holder of the throne under the country's constitution, even though the monarchy today exercises very limited day-to-day governing power. In the precise political-science sense, what does the monarch primarily have?
- A. Extensive coercive power but no legitimacy
- B. Legitimacy — a broadly accepted rightful claim to the position — even though actual governing power is limited ✅
- C. Sovereignty over neighboring states
- D. Charismatic authority only, by definition, since the position is hereditary
Feedback: Legitimacy — the broad belief that a claim to a position is rightful — can exist quite independently of how much actual governing power a figure wields day to day, exactly as with many constitutional monarchs today. (D is wrong because a hereditary position typically rests on traditional, not charismatic, authority under Weber's typology.)

P5 (MC). A village council's decisions are followed because the council has functioned this way, according to inherited custom, for many generations, and no one seriously questions the arrangement. Which of Weber's three types of legitimate authority does this best illustrate?
- A. Traditional authority ✅
- B. Charismatic authority
- C. Legal-rational authority
- D. Sovereign authority
Feedback: Traditional authority is rightful because of long-standing custom and inherited practice — exactly this village council's basis for being obeyed. ("Sovereign authority" is not one of Weber's three named types; sovereignty is a related but separate concept describing a state's final authority over its territory.)

P6 (T/F). True or False: Among the classic social-contract thinkers, it is Thomas Hobbes who argues that people should consent to a powerful, largely unchecked sovereign because the alternative — the state of nature — is worse than even a harsh government.
- True ✅
- False
Feedback: True. Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) describes the state of nature as a condition of war, "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short," and concludes that a powerful sovereign — even one with few checks on its authority — is a rational bargain to escape it. This is the position most often swapped with Locke's on an exam.*

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Objective 3 — Ideologies & Normative Theory (Weeks 3–4)

P7 (MC). Which of the following best captures how political scientists define an "ideology"?
- A. A relatively coherent, connected set of beliefs about how society ought to be organized and who should exercise power ✅
- B. Whatever position currently polls above 50 percent
- C. A body of claims that has been empirically proven true
- D. The specific legislative agenda of one political party in one election cycle
Feedback: An ideology is a coherent set of beliefs about social organization and power — broader and more durable than a single poll result, a proven fact, or one party's specific agenda in one cycle. (This definition applies neutrally to every ideology discussed this term.)

P8 (Matching). Match each ideology to something it centrally fears or opposes, as each is defined neutrally in this course.

Ideology	Correct fear/opposition
Classical liberalism	Concentrated government power that intrudes on individual rights and markets
Conservatism	Rapid, untested change that discards institutions proven by time
Socialism (broadly)	Concentrated private ownership of major economic resources producing entrenched inequality
Anarchism	Coercive, hierarchical authority of any kind, including the state itself

Feedback: Pairing each ideology with what it values (as in the midterm's version of this exercise) and what it fears are two sides of the same neutral-definition coin — both are tested because both describe a position fairly without endorsing it.*

P9 (MC). A student claims that "socialism" and "social democracy" are simply two names for the exact same position. What is the accurate response, as this course defines the terms?
- A. The student is correct — the terms are fully interchangeable in every respect
- B. The student is mistaken — socialism is the broader family of positions favoring collective control over major economic resources, while social democracy specifically pursues strong redistribution through democratic means within an existing market economy ✅
- C. Social democracy refers only to countries that have abolished private property
- D. Socialism refers only to authoritarian one-party states, by definition
Feedback: Socialism is the broad family; social democracy is one specific position within it that keeps a market economy while pursuing strong redistribution democratically. Communism (the Marxist tradition) is a separate, more specific position calling for abolishing private ownership of the means of production. Three related but distinct terms — never synonyms.*

P10 (MC). According to Mill's harm principle as he actually states it, may power be rightfully used against a competent adult purely for that person's own good, when no harm to others is involved?
- A. Yes — Mill's principle explicitly endorses paternalistic restriction whenever it benefits the person restricted
- B. No — Mill states the principle's purpose is to prevent harm to others, not to compel a person's own good against their will ✅
- C. Mill never addresses this question in On Liberty
- D. Only if a majority votes to approve the restriction
Feedback: Mill's exact standard names harm to others, not the person's own welfare, as the only legitimate ground for restricting an unwilling adult — the harm principle explicitly does not license pure paternalism. (A is the direct opposite of Mill's stated position.)

P11 (MC). "No law currently prevents this student from applying to any university she chooses." Which concept from Isaiah Berlin's distinction does this statement illustrate?
- A. Positive liberty — freedom to actually achieve a goal
- B. Negative liberty — freedom from external interference or obstacles ✅
- C. Equality of outcome
- D. The difference principle
Feedback: Negative liberty is freedom from interference or legal obstacles — this statement is entirely about the absence of a legal barrier, not about whether the student actually has the resources or opportunity to succeed (which would be a positive-liberty question).*

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Objective 4 — Regime Types & Constitutions (Weeks 5–6)

P12 (MC). A country's national legislature passes almost all ordinary legislation, but the constitution also allows citizens to directly repeal a law by referendum if enough signatures are gathered. This arrangement best illustrates that:
- A. Representative democracy has been entirely replaced by direct democracy
- B. Direct and representative mechanisms can coexist within a single democratic system rather than being rival, mutually exclusive regime types ✅
- C. The referendum provision automatically makes the country a hybrid regime
- D. Only authoritarian systems permit referenda
Feedback: Direct (citizens vote directly) and representative (elected officials vote) mechanisms routinely operate side by side within one democratic system — they are tools, not rival regime types. (C confuses this with the "hybrid regime" concept, which describes an uneven playing field for elections, not a mix of direct and representative tools.)

P13 (T/F). True or False: "Totalitarian" is simply a stronger synonym for "very repressive," so any severely repressive government can accurately be labeled totalitarian regardless of whether it seeks to remake the whole of society.
- True
- False ✅
Feedback: False. The authoritarian/totalitarian line is about scope, not just severity — a totalitarian regime specifically attempts to remake economy, culture, and family life around one ideology, not merely to govern harshly. A severely repressive regime that leaves non-political life mostly alone is authoritarian, not totalitarian.*

P14 (MC). Political scientists describe the United Kingdom as having an "unwritten" constitution. What does this description actually mean?
- A. The U.K. government operates under no meaningful legal constraints
- B. There is no single foundational document; the constitution is instead built from statutes, judicial decisions, and long-standing binding conventions ✅
- C. The U.K. has never had any constitution of any kind
- D. The phrase means the constitution's text is classified and unavailable to the public
Feedback: "Unwritten" describes the absence of a single foundational document, not the absence of real, enforceable constitutional rules — the U.K.'s constitution lives across statutes, case law, and convention, and it genuinely constrains government.*

P15 (MC). A legal system generally satisfies the "rule of law" (rather than mere "rule by law") when:
- A. Laws are numerous, detailed, and swiftly enforced against citizens
- B. The government itself is bound by the same known, general, publicly stated rules that bind citizens, and courts can rule against it ✅
- C. Only the executive branch has authority to interpret what a law means
- D. Laws, once passed, can never be amended
Feedback: The defining test is whether the rules bind the rulers, not just the ruled — a legal system with many detailed, swiftly enforced laws (A) can still fail the rule-of-law test if the government itself is effectively exempt.*

P16 (Matching). Match each institutional-design term to its correct description.

Term	Correct description
Separation of powers	Dividing governmental authority horizontally, among branches at the same level of government
Federalism	Dividing governmental authority vertically, between a national government and constituent regional units
Checks and balances	Giving each branch specific tools it can use to restrain the actions of the other branches
Entrenchment	Making a constitution's core rules deliberately harder to amend than an ordinary statute

Feedback: Separation of powers and federalism are the pair most often swapped — one is a horizontal division (among branches), the other a vertical division (among levels of government). Different axes entirely.*

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Objective 5 — Legislatures & Executives (Week 7)

P17 (MC). Brazil elects a president separately from its legislature; the president serves a fixed term and cannot ordinarily be removed by a simple legislative vote of no confidence. This is a defining feature of which system?
- A. A parliamentary system
- B. A presidential system ✅
- C. A monarchy with no elected offices
- D. A one-party totalitarian state, by definition
Feedback: A presidential system's defining features are exactly these: a separately elected chief executive, a fixed term, and no removal by ordinary no-confidence vote — Brazil, alongside the U.S. and Mexico, fits this pattern.*

P18 (MC). Which of the following is a standard rationale political scientists give for bicameral (two-chamber) legislatures, as distinct from unicameral ones?
- A. A second chamber can represent a different basis of representation (e.g., territorial units) and provide an additional check on hasty legislation ✅
- B. Bicameral legislatures are required in every democracy by international law
- C. A bicameral legislature is automatically more democratically legitimate than a unicameral one
- D. Bicameralism eliminates the need for an executive branch
- E. Bicameralism ensures every bill passes unanimously
Feedback: The standard rationale is representational and deliberative, not a legal requirement or an automatic legitimacy upgrade — bicameralism is neither universally mandated nor inherently "more democratic" than unicameralism, a common misconception this course corrects directly.*

P19 (MC). Under Articles I and II of the U.S. Constitution, the legislative and executive branches are:
- A. Deliberately separated — Congress and the presidency are distinct, separately selected institutions, unlike the parliamentary fusion Bagehot described in the British case ✅
- B. Fused into a single body, exactly as Bagehot described for the British Parliament
- C. Not addressed by the Constitution at all
- D. Both headed by the same person under the Constitution's original design
Feedback: Articles I and II establish Congress and the presidency as separate, independently selected institutions — the U.S. design is the textbook separation contrast to Bagehot's British fusion.*

P20 (MC). In a parliamentary system, if the governing party loses a formal vote of no confidence in the legislature, what typically happens?
- A. Nothing changes — no-confidence votes are symbolic and have no binding effect
- B. The government (the prime minister and cabinet) is ordinarily required to resign or call new elections, since its authority depends on the legislature's continued confidence ✅
- C. Only the head of state is removed, while the prime minister remains in office indefinitely
- D. The country automatically becomes a presidential system
Feedback: Because a parliamentary government's authority derives from the legislature's ongoing confidence, losing that confidence formally ends the government's mandate — it must resign or call new elections. This is the mechanism that has no real presidential-system counterpart (impeachment is a different, higher-bar tool).*

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Answer key (quick reference)

Q	Answer
1	B (PR systems seat more parties — empirical, testable)
2	C (international relations — between states)
3	Sourcing→who/when/why · Contextualization→historical moment · Close reading→exact words · Corroboration→second source
4	B (legitimacy without extensive governing power)
5	A (traditional authority — long custom)
6	True (Hobbes favors a powerful sovereign over the state of nature)
7	A (coherent set of beliefs about society/power)
8	Classical liberalism→fears concentrated gov't power · Conservatism→fears untested rapid change · Socialism→fears concentrated private economic power · Anarchism→fears coercive hierarchy
9	B (socialism = broad family; social democracy = specific democratic-redistribution position)
10	B (harm principle does not license pure paternalism)
11	B (negative liberty — freedom from interference)
12	B (direct and representative mechanisms coexist)
13	False ("totalitarian" ≠ generic "very repressive")
14	B (unwritten = no single document, not no constraints)
15	B (government itself bound by law = rule of law)
16	Separation of powers→horizontal, among branches · Federalism→vertical, among levels · Checks and balances→branches restrain each other · Entrenchment→harder to amend than statute
17	B (presidential system — Brazil)
18	A (different representation basis + extra check on legislation)
19	A (U.S. Constitution separates by design)
20	B (government must resign or call elections after losing confidence)

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Fact-and-source-accuracy gate — PASS

All 20 practice items are verified against the FACTS_PACK and the record:
- P1–P3: the empirical/normative distinction, the five-subfield map, and the four source-work moves are course-original definitions consistent with Week 1's build.
- P4–P6: power/legitimacy/authority definitions and Weber's traditional-authority type verified against FACTS_PACK A4 (Weber, "Politics as a Vocation," 1919). Hobbes's Leviathan (1651) Ch. XIII state-of-nature description and his absolute-sovereign conclusion verified against FACTS_PACK A1 and the Gutenberg text (ebooks/3207).
- P7–P9: ideology definitions (classical liberalism, conservatism, socialism/social democracy, anarchism) are course-original neutral definitions consistent with Week 3's build; no ideology is ranked.
- P10: Mill's harm principle — the "prevent harm to others" standard, and its explicit exclusion of pure paternalism — verified against FACTS_PACK A10 and the Project Gutenberg text (ebooks/34901).
- P11: Berlin's negative/positive liberty distinction is a standard, uncontested attribution consistent with Week 4's build.
- P12–P16: direct/representative democracy, the authoritarian/totalitarian scope distinction, written/unwritten constitutions, rule of law vs. rule by law, and separation of powers vs. federalism are standard, uncontested political-science distinctions consistent with Weeks 5–6.
- P17–P20: presidential-system defining traits (Brazil), standard rationales for bicameralism, and the U.S. Constitution's Articles I–II separation-by-design (contrasted with Bagehot's British fusion, FACTS_PACK A19) are verified against FACTS_PACK B6/B7 and the National Archives founding-documents transcript.

No quotations are invented. No dates are fabricated. No items overlap with L-midterm-week-08.md (verified by full stem comparison — 0 shared stems).

Evenhandedness gate — self-check

As with the live midterm, no practice item asks which ideology, thinker, or regime type is "right." Ideology items (P7–P9) test neutral definitions. Theory items (P10–P11) state Mill's and Berlin's positions factually. Regime-type and institutional-design items (P12–P20) report documented structural facts (elections, media control, judicial independence, formal removal mechanisms) without ranking systems by desirability, consistent with this course's evenhanded treatment of the parliamentary/presidential and democracy debates.

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Item-bank & coverage note

All 20 items are fresh variants assembled from the Week 1–7 item banks, preferring scenarios not used on the live midterm. Tagged course=POLS1 · form=practice-midterm · weeks=1–7 · objectives=1–5 and deposited back into the banks for future per-term regenerations.

Integrity vs. the live midterm: 0 items are shared. Where a concept slot overlaps, this form uses a different scenario or question angle (e.g., the midterm's power/authority/legitimacy item uses a coup leader; this form uses a legitimate-but-limited-power monarch; the midterm's social-contract item asks about Locke's right to resist; this form asks about Hobbes's absolute-sovereign conclusion).

Canvas placement block

canvas_object             = Quizzes::Quiz
title                     = "Midterm Practice Exam (ungraded) — Weeks 1–7"
assignment_group          = "Practice exercises"
points_possible           = 0
grading_type              = not_graded
allowed_attempts          = unlimited
show_feedback             = true        # released after submission
available_from_offset_days = -3        # opens 3 days before the exam window
due_offset_days           = 6         # on or before the exam due date
published                 = true
shuffle_answers           = true
provenance                = "~ Prof. Halloran's edition · Fall 2026 · built with thecoursemaker.com"