SOC 206 - Exam 1 - Spring 2005

The test consists of three sections:

1. Multiple Choice Section: Click the button corresponding to each correct answer. There is one correct answer per question. One point each.

2. In-class Essay Section. You will answer a total of TWO questions. 10 points each.

3. Take Home Essay: Be sure to either submit your takehome essay to the lab proctor, or to the instructor, or the Social Science Department Office. 20 points.

There is no limit on how much time you use to take this test. You may scroll up and down, answer questions in any order you wish, reconsider and change your answers, etc. 

When you are completely done with the test, click the "Submit" button at the bottom of the test.
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Economic Institutions

1. The central element(s) of India's New Economic Policies, as seen in the film Lifting the Veil, was
 expanding social spending on programs like education and housing, to bring Indian living standards up to 'First World' levels
 privatizing the economy and attracting foreign investors by lowering government regulation and labor costs
 returning the country to a subsistence economy to reduce environmental problems and social inequality
 implementing an 'import substitution model' so that India produced its own goods and could reduce exports and imports
 

2. Which of the following is NOT one of the central principles of capitalism identified by Eitzen and Zinn?
 competition
 pursuit of personal profit
 private ownership of the means of production
 democracy
 laissez faire
 

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the central principles of socialism identified by Eitzen and Zinn?
 democracy
 egalitarianism
 public ownership of the means of production
 planning for common purposes
 the dictatorship of the proletariat
 

4. The U.S. is not a 'pure' capitalist system because:
 there is no longer private ownership of property, since most companies are owned by shareholders
 the profits of U.S. companies have steadily declined over the past decade
 U.S. companies receive a great deal of help from the government
 progressive taxes have eliminated the profit incentive in capitalism
 

5. When four or fewer firms supply 50 percent or more of a particular market, a(n) ---------- results.
 monopoly
 shared monopoly
 interlocking directorate
 megamerger
 

6. A person serving on the board of directors of IBM, Burger King, and Ford is an example of:
 shared monopolies
 interlocking directorates
 the power elite
 a violation of the anti-trust Clayton Act of 1914
 

7. In what way (ways) are the overseas investments by U.S. corporations detrimental for the U.S.?
 Increased discontent of workers due to a lack of job security
 The trade imbalance is increased with overseas investments
 Taxes are lost, contributing further to the federal deficit
 All of the above
 Both A and B
 

8. How have poorer countries benefited from multinational companies locating there, according to Eitzen and Zinn?
 Profits from the companies are returned to those countries, helping them develop
 Employment is increased in the countries, further helping their economy
 Multinational companies pay huge taxes to the countries without interfering in their political arrangements
 Wages tend to rise
 None of the above
 

9. Scientific management (a.k.a. Taylorization) emphasizes the importance of workers receiving psychological satisfaction from the work that they do.
 True
 False
 

10. Which of the following is TRUE about sweatshops?
 Sweatshops are most common in the garment industry.
 The number of white women who work in sweatshops is similar to Latino and Asian immigrant women involved in such employment.
 Sweatshops are disappearing in today's post-industrial U.S. economy.
 Anti-sweatshop legislation is strongly enforced.
 

11. Today, approximately 28 percent of the entire U.S. workforce is unionized.
 True
 False
 

12. Those nations with strong unionized working classes have a social democratic conception of society, which leads to universal health care, progressive income taxes, and more equitable government programs.
 True
 False
 

13. Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that Eitzen and Zinn cite in explaining the decline in union membership and power?
 Unions are less necessary today, since many companies have developed management policies that share power and profits with their workers.
 Unions were directly assaulted by Republican presidents in recent decades.
 Public opinion has turned against unions.
 Businesses do everything they can to block and oppose unions.
 Jobs have declined in industries that have been traditionally pro union, while they have grown in industries that are hard to unionize.
 

14. Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of the primary labor market (as opposed to the secondary labor market)?
 Developed skills
 Higher than average representation of women and minorities
 Relatively well paid
 Stabile, secure employment
 Good working conditions
 

15. Why are women and non-whites more likely to live in poverty?
 Women and racial minorities aren't socialized to work as hard as white men
 Government programs have been cut back
 Women and racial minorities are disproportionately placed in the primary sector
 Women and racial minorities are over-represented in unstable, low-paying jobs
 

16. Unemployed workers who have given up on ever finding work, and thus are not counted as 'unemployed' in the official unemployment measure, are called
 dirty workers
 secondary labor market workers
 discouraged workers
 reserve army of labor
 

17. Marxists argue that unemployment exists primarily to
 create a reserve army of labor to keep wages down and workers in control
 punish politically active workers
 create artificial scarcity
 undermine racial antagonisms within the workforce
 

18. Which of the following is NOT one of the many products of capitalism that Marx and Engels described in 'The Communist Manifesto?'
 Tremendous growth of productive, communication, and transportation forces
 Growth of towns and cities
 End of feudal, patriarchal, and idyllic relations
 Growth of a world literature and culture
 Greater worker control over the labor process and lower relative levels of social inequality
 

19. According to Karl Marx, overproduction (a.k.a. 'under-consumption') crises in the economy are caused primarily by
 the tremendous productive power of capitalism
 the lack of markets in less developed countries
 consumer debt
 insufficient buying power of the working class because they are paid only a fraction of the value they put into the goods they produce
 

20. Which of the following factors is NOT part of Wilson's explanation for the concentrated poverty in inner cities?
 A shift to a younger population, which is more likely to be unemployed or employed at lower wage jobs
 The departure to the suburbs by working and middle class families
 Federal policies that withheld mortgage capital from cities while encouraging middle-class whites to flee to the suburbs
 Urban renewal projects that dislocated low-income communities
 None of the above, since ALL contributed to inner city poverty according to Wilson
 

21. True of False: According to Leidner, McDonalds is extremely successful because it trains its workers to be able to make good decisions.
 True
 False
 

22. The two main strategies McDonalds (and all other organizations) use to get employees to act according to McDonald's organizational plans are
 financial incentives and disincentives
 socialization and social control
 coercion and punishment
 good wages, benefits, and working conditions
 


Political Institutions

23. The ability to control the behavior of others, even against their will, is Max Weber's definition of
 authority
 power
 coercion
 influence
 

24. Which of the following perspectives suggest that power in society is dispersed among a number of organizations, special interests, and voters?
 The elitist model of power
 The pluralist model of power
 The 'new world order' power perspective
 The anarchist model of power
 

25. Robert Michels argued that attempts to build democracies will always result in the establishment of an elite. He called this the
 anti-democracy theory
 loss of democracy theory
 iron law of oligarchy
 autocratic principle
 

26. Which of the following is NOT one of the reasons that Robert Michels thought that efforts to build democracies always result in the establishment of an elite?
 Leaders need to defend their organization, even when it means ignoring the interests of their members
 Leaders come to relish the psychic and material rewards of power, and will do most anything to hold onto it
 Followers tend to be apathetic and overly trusting of their leaders
 The most skilled members of society always rise to the top, effectively becoming an elite, whether they desire it or not
 

27. Which of the following is NOT true regarding elite theory?
 Michels argued that societies are dominated by elites in part because of the societies' need for leaders and because the masses tend to accept, and even desire, leaders wielding greater power
 Elite theorists believe that societies can get rid of elites permanently, if only they can find leaders who truly believe in democracy and won't sell out
 Elite theorists argue that leaders of anti-elite movements will simply become the new elites should their movements be successful
 Neo-Marxists criticize elite theories for ignoring the resistance of the non-elites and exaggerating the difficulties of ridding societies of elites
 

28. C. Wright Mills argued that the power of the 'power elite' is rooted in
 their psychological orientation, especially their 'will to power'
 back room manipulations of the political system
 their charisma
 the organizational positions they hold in increasingly powerful social institutions
 

29. According to C. Wright Mills, the three branches of the power elite are the
 military, educational, and religious
 military, corporations, and the executive branch of the government
 corporations, education, and the executive branch of the government
 corporations, banking, and the military
 

30. According to Mills, what has happened historically to increase the power of the three most powerful social institutions?
 Each has distributed its power among many
 Each has become enlarged and centralized
 Each has gained international recognition
 Each has been taken over by a few elites hungry for political power
 

31. Which of the following is NOT consistent with Domhoff's ('neo-Marxist') explanation of how the capitalist class becomes a ruling class?
 Capitalists dominate the candidate selection process.
 Capitalists dominate the ideological process (e.g. they control the media and schools, and thus are able to promote ideologies that defend their class privileges).
 Holders of top government offices (e.g. Congressional leaders, Presidents, etc.) almost always were born into the capitalist class, and therefore are sympathetic to capitalist's interests.
 Capitalists have formed or support policy-planning organizations such as the Council on Foreign Relations that play a key role in creating government policies and laws.
 Government officials are wary of the economic power of the capitalist class, and therefore rarely consider creating laws and policies fundamentally contrary to capitalists' interests.
 

32. Which of the following is consistent with Parenti's 'systemic imperative' theory and other structural explanations of why government tends to follow the wishes of corporations?
 Corporations lobby government officials and pay them honoraria.
 Corporations give government officials campaign contributions
 Corporations convince government leaders to believe in pro-corporate ideologies
 Government needs to keep corporations profitable, in order to keep the economy healthy, unemployment low, and tax revenues coming in
 

33. Eitzen and Zinn argue that U.S. foreign policy primarily benefits
 political elites
 military elites
 corporations
 democratic interests
 developing nations
 

34. According to Piven and Cloward, the real reason that government programs are expanded during recessions (e.g. Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal during the Great Depression) is to
 promote social reform
 help the millions who are in misery
 provide favors to special interest groups
 diffuse social unrest
 

35. 'Sets of ideas used to explain and legitimize social inequality' is the sociological definition for
 propaganda
 sociological theory
 ideologies
 dogma
 

36. Government officials tend to opt for 'trickle-down solutions' to stimulate the economy because
 many of them come from the business class and believe that what is good for business is good for the country.
 they are much more likely to hear arguments from the powerful than from the weak.
 they are the most effective policies for promoting economic growth, the evidence shows.
 ALL of the above.
 BOTH A and B.
 

37. The main idea of the Clawson et al reading is that
 business has more power and influence on politics than individuals have
 PACs control politics through lobbying and contributions and forcing politicians to support their special interests
 politicians are self-interested actors who accept 'dirty money' from corporations
 we have 'the best congress money can buy'
 

38. Clawson et al argue that the best way to think about power in order to understand how corporate Political Action Committees (PACs) affect government policy, is to see power as
 the ability to force people to do things they don't want to (the Weberian definition of power)
 the ability to prevent actions you oppose from taking place (the 'two-dimensional view' of power)
 the ability to influence another merely by one's powerful presence (the 'field theory' of power)
 the ability to influence another by threatening force (the 'stick theory' of power)
 


The Mass Media

39. According to Eitzen and Zinn (and Parenti), the mass media's typical portrayal of poverty blames
 structural factors, such as high rents, low wages, and regressive taxes
 poor peoples' behavior, including lack of motivation and a dependence on welfare
 government, for not doing more to reduce poverty and social inequality
 religion, for encouraging people to focus on the afterlife and seeing poor people as suffering due to their own sins
 

40. Which of the following is NOT one of the values that Herbert Gans found commonly portrayed by the mass media?
 ethnocentrism
 collectivism
 altruism
 individualism
 small-town pastoralism
 

41. Mike Males' study of the effects of violence in television and film on society concluded that it
 is a major cause of violence in society.
 has little or no effects on the levels of violence in society.
 produces high levels of violence in poor communities, but has little impact on wealthier communities.
 is part of a conspiracy to prepare people to be willing to join the military and fight in wars.
 

42. The term for political ads used by corporations to influence the public on political and ideological issues is 
 political advertising
 propaganda
 political puffing
 advocacy advertising
 

43. Which of the following is NOT one of the 'lessons' that Parenti says the media teach us?
 Collective action is preferable to individual effort
 Free enterprise (a.k.a. capitalism) is the best economic system in the world
 Private monetary gain is a central and worthy objective of life
 United States military force is used for good goals, such as civilizing the world and promoting democracy
 Affluent professionals are more interesting than members of the working class
 

44. Parenti argues that the political impact of watching soap operas is it 
 undermines traditional values and norms by portraying people breaking them
 promotes traditional values and norms by presenting stories with moral dilemma where virtue typically wins out
 promotes critical insights into how societies should work by encouraging people to think critically about their society
 undermines critical insights into society, by overtly portraying conservative political ideas
 

45. Which of the following is NOT true regarding Parenti's analysis of how workers are portrayed in the mass media?
 They are underrepresented
 They are portrayed in negative, marginal, and patronizing ways
 Economic hardship faced by workers is portrayed as being solved by individual ingenuity, not collective actions
 Workers are portrayed as racist, sexist, homophobic, and bigoted
 Workers are seen as having more complex and genuine personalities
 

46. Which of the following is FALSE, regarding Eitzen and Zinn's discussion of the media's portrayal of women?
 Women are underrepresented and misrepresented in television
 It has improved in recent years, although women are often still portrayed as sidekicks, sexual objects, or helpless imbeciles
 The media send the message that women today should be superwomen, managing the multiple roles of wife, mother, and career women
 None of the above, since all are true.
 

47. Which of the following is NOT one of the four 'vital functions' that Marger thinks the mass media serve today?
 They are agents of socialization
 They are sources of information
 They promote democracy
 They function as propaganda machines for powerful units of the government and economy
 They serve as agents of legitimacy for dominant political and economic institutions
 

48. According to the Marger article, the theory that argued that television has little impact on viewers is called
 minimal effects theory
 class dominance theory
 culturalist theory
 'see no evil, speak no evil' theory
 

49. Which of the following is NOT one of the ways that Mantsios thinks the mass media portray the poor?
 The poor are victims of modern capitalist economics.
 The poor are undeserving.
 The poor only have themselves to blame.
 The poor are down on their luck.
 The poor are an eyesore.
 

50. Todd Gitlin argues that the popularity of American mass media around the world is primarily due to American political, economic, and cultural imperialism. 
 True
 False 


In-class Essay Section. 10 points per question.

Answer ONE question each from the TWO sections that you did NOT write a take home essay question from. For example, if you wrote your take home essay on a question on economic institutions, you are to now choose one question from the political institutions section and one question from the mass media section. 

Write your answers in the box below the questions. Be sure to identify your choice by starting your answer with the questions corresponding letter (e.g. "A, B, C, ..."). 

51. Economic Institutions: Answer ONE of the following questions. 
A. Explain what is happening to India, according to the documentary Lifting the Veil. Why is this happening? What do you think can/should be done about it? 
B. What do E&Z mean by "alienation?" How, and why, are workers alienated? Have you felt alienated from your work? Why? How have you responded to this? How might your work be structured to reduce or eliminate such alienation? 
C. Summarize and assess the reasons E&Z offer to explain the declining percentage of workers represented by unions. 
D. Identify the positive benefits and negative effects that Marx and Engels find in capitalism. How accurately do you think they describe contemporary U.S. society? 
E. Summarize the main thesis of Leidners article. How and why has work been routinized by McDonalds? What are its effects on workers and consumers? Do you see similar examples of routinization in your current or more recent job? If so, how have you and other workers responded?
  

52. Political Institutions: Answer ONE of the following questions. 
A. Compare and contrast pluralist, elitist, and neo-Marxist theories of power. Which model do you think offers the best understanding of the U.S. today? Why? 
B. Summarize and assess E&Z's response to the question they pose: "Is the U.S. a democracy?" Given these structural barriers, what do you think could be done to promote democratization of the U.S.?
C. How do E&Z explain why the New Deal and other "progressive" reforms were passed? If they are right, what should be done to address the needs of the poor and other subordinated groups?
D. Summarize Mills description of the "power-elite." Do you think the "big three" groups are equally powerful in the U.S. today? Critically assess Mills argument. 
E. Explain the five ways that the capitalist class becomes a ruling class, according to Marxists.
  

53. The Mass Media. Answer ONE of the following questions. 
A. Compare the common blaming of violence on the mass media, with Mike Males' critique of this argument. How does Males explain the high rates of violence in society? Assess this debate. 
B. What values did Gan's study find the media promoting? How does this finding fit with what values you see it promoting?
C. Explain and assess Marger's arguments that the "political objectivity" of the media doesn't mean it is "politically neutral", and that the media isn't even politically objective!
D. Summarize Mantsios explanation of the ways that the news media distort poor people, poverty, the wealthy, the middle class, and the working class. Assess his argument. 
E. How does Gitlin explain the popularity of the American mass media around the world? Be sure to explain both the demand side and the supply side of his theory. 
  
 
 
    
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