Political Psychology December 18, 1997

Final Exam

Directions: This exam has two parts. Each part will be weighted equally in grading.

PART I: Answer either question 1, 2, or 3.

1. Recent years have seen the emergence of a truly "globalized," market-based bureaucratic economy (what Barber calls "McWorld"). At the same time, there have been many developments in the opposite direction (what Barber calls "Jihad"): e.g., renewed nationalism, terrorism, ethnic hatred and conflict, the militia movement in the U.S. One might even include here the very low levels of political participation and interest on the part of young adults.

Discuss how these two simultaneous trends might be explained by the material of this course. One possible starting point might be Weber's suggestion that at the top of every rational-legal bureaucracy must be a leader whose legitimacy is not purely bureaucratic, but is rather in part traditional and/or charismatic:

"The basis of every authority, and correspondingly of every kind of willingness to obey, is a belief by virtue of which persons exercising authority are lent prestige. . . . In the case of 'legal authority,' it is never purely legal." (p. 263)

(This quotation is only a suggestion; you are not required to base your answer on it.)

2. "The fundamental psychological roots of all political activities can be understood as the playing-out of culturally-based conceptions of gender, gender differences, and gender relations."

Discuss, with reference to any three of the following topics covered in this course:

· war

· leadership

· nationalism

· the American national character (readers' stories and Veroff, et al. article)

· voting and political participation

· maternal thinking (Ruddick) and the "art" of politics (Weber)

· schemas primed by the American mass media

3. When asked, most Americans explain the actions of Theodore Kuczynski (the alleged "Unabomber") as resulting from internal, dispositional factors. His defense lawyers are attempting to argue that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia or other "mental disorders" - presumably expecting that jurors will believe such a causal explanation.

Discuss such a dispositional explanation of Kuczynski's alleged actions, in the light of relevant course concepts. For example:

· Who benefits from such an explanation? How does it serve American ruling class interests?

· How is such an explanation consistent with theory and research on (changing) American national character?

· What is the role of the media in advancing such an explanation, and why?

· Any other course concepts and theories you consider relevant

Note: This question does not ask you to explain Kuczynski; rather, it asks about a common explanation of his alleged actions.

PART II: Answer question 4.

4. Several times in this course it has been suggested that people do not always (or even do not usually) act according to their personal "self-interest." Examples might include the following:

Þ Americans generally do not "vote their pocketbook."

Þ People (especially women) often accept inequitable lower rewards.

Þ Working-class people usually do not rebel (or even vote) against the ruling class.

Þ People fight wars, even though they may be killed.

Þ People become politically active in causes that may not benefit them directly.

Why do people act against their apparent rational self-interest in these ways? What are the psychological mechanisms? Discuss the answer to this question that would be given by one theorist (or the theory and research on one concept) from each of the following three groups. Then compare and contrast the three answers.

List A:

· Weber

· MacKinnon

· Domhoff

List B:

· authoritarianism

· Inglehart (post-materialism)

· nationalism

List C:

· Crosby (relative deprivation)

· schemas and the mass media

· causal attribution