Week 14 Quiz

Which statement gives this course's definition of authority?

Select one.

• Any ability to make other people do what you want, whether they accept it or not and by any means at all
• The written rules that an organization uses to run its offices
• Power that people accept as legitimate, so they follow it as rightful
• The personal charm that makes a leader easy to like and follow

In an illustrative coffee supply chain, a roasting plant roasts, grinds, and bags the beans. Which sector is that activity in?

Select one.

• The secondary sector, because it turns a raw material into a manufactured good
• The primary sector, because coffee beans come from a farm
• The tertiary sector, because the bags are later sold to customers
• No single sector, because the plant belongs to a larger company that also owns farms and runs a chain of cafés

An illustrative movement leader draws thousands of followers who believe she has a rare gift for seeing what others cannot. Which of Weber's types of authority does she hold?

Select one.

• Traditional authority, because her followers obey her out of long habit and the movement has always followed one leader
• Rational-legal authority, because her movement may adopt written rules
• Charismatic authority, because it rests on belief in her extraordinary qualities
• Power without authority, because her followers are not legally required to obey

An illustrative licensed building inspector closes a construction site for a safety violation. The inspector retires, and a new inspector takes the job. What happens to the authority to close a site, and why?

Select one.

• It ends, because the crew trusted the first inspector personally
• It passes to the new inspector, because rational-legal authority belongs to the office
• It passes only if the new inspector is as charming as the first one
• It becomes traditional authority, because the inspector's job has existed in the city for a very long time

Which statements match this course's treatment of capitalism, socialism, and the mixed economy? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Capitalism is built on private ownership of productive property and production for profit
• Actual economies, the United States included, combine private and public ownership
• Socialism is built on collective or state ownership, with production aimed at shared needs
• The United States is a pure capitalist economy with no public ownership
• The course declares one of the two systems the better way to organize an economy

An illustrative tutor finds students through an app, sets her own hours, uses her own laptop, and is paid per session under a contract rather than on a payroll. What is her employment status?

Select one.

• An employee, because she does the same teaching that an employee of a tutoring center would do each week
• An employee of the app, because the app assigns her the students
• Unemployed, because gig work does not count as a real job
• An independent contractor, because she is self-employed under a contract

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 10.0% of wage and salary workers were union members in 2025, against 20.1% in 1983. How should the change in the rate be described?

Select one.

• A fall of 10.1 percentage points
• A fall of 10.1 percent
• A fall of 20.1 percentage points
• A fall of 3.0 million percentage points

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a union membership rate of 10.0% for 2025. Which statement says correctly what that figure describes?

Select one.

• About one in ten of all people living in the United States belonged to a union
• Union members were 10.0% of all U.S. adults, including retirees and the self-employed
• Union members were 10.0% of wage and salary workers, a rate of workers and not of people
• Any one worker you happen to meet at a bus stop or a store has exactly a one-in-ten chance of being a union member

An illustrative call-center worker follows a script, works alone in a booth, and sells plans she did not design, but says she enjoys the job. Which statement fits Marx's concept of alienation?

Select one.

• She cannot be alienated, because alienation means disliking your work
• Alienation describes how work is organized, so she can enjoy the job and still work in an alienating arrangement
• Alienation applies only to factory work in the secondary sector, not to call centers
• Alienation measures how many hours a worker spends at work each week

A researcher finds that the same few people move between top corporate posts, military command, and high government office. How does this course treat that evidence?

Select one.

• It proves the pluralist model, because three different institutions are involved
• It proves the power-elite model correct, so the pluralist model can be dropped
• It shows that conflict theory began with Durkheim's study of social cohesion
• It is evidence the power-elite model points to, weighed against the pluralist model with no verdict