Chapter 4 Multiple choice questions

1. Which of these statements about ideology is FALSE?

Political ideology is a stable and consistent set of ideas about the world that provides a guideline for political action.

Ideology is a stable set of ideas, whereas preferences refer to specific policies or candidates.

Voters use ideology in order to make political decisions such as voting for candidates.

Less educated people are often more ideological than more educated people and are more likely to let ideology guide them in making political decisions.

2. Which of the following is NOT one of the three classic political ideologies?

Fascism

Liberalism

Conservatism

Socialism

3. Why do we commonly use the terms "left" and "right" when we talk about European political positions?

They refer to the entrances through which German politicians entered the Frankfurt parliament in 1848.

They refer to the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly after the French Revolution.

They refer to the House of Commons in which the Conservatives sit on the right and Labour on the left.

They refer to Belgian society, where voters in the west (or "left" on the map) are more likely to vote socialist whereas voters in the east are more conservative.

4. Which of the following explanations for a person's political ideology belongs to the realm of "value explanations"?

A factory worker voting socialist because many of her colleagues do.

A person considering themselves right-leaning because she votes for the Conservative party.

A voter supporting the Christian Democrats because the regular attendees at her church often support the party.

A voter voting for a green party because that party fights for environmental protection, which she finds important.

5. Which of the following is NOT part of the second, or cultural ideological dimension?

Traditional values.

Free expression of sexuality.

Worker's rights.

European integration.

6. How do many extreme left-wing parties view the European Union?

They oppose the EU due to intra-EU migration.

They oppose the EU for its neoliberal character.

They support the EU because it protects the welfare state.

They support the EU because it creates economic growth.

7. Measurement of populism is commonly conducted by surveying people about the degree of agreement with specific political statements. Which of the following is NOT part of these statements, as proposed by Akkerman, Mudde and Zaslove?

The people, and not politicians, should make our most important policy decision.

The political differences between the elite and the people are larger than the differences among the people.

Politicians are making laws for capital owners and not for workers.

What people call "compromise" in politics is really just selling out on one's principles.

8. In Euroscepticism and the Future of European Integration, De Vries describes four types of attitudes towards European integration. Which of the following is not an argument underlying that classification.

Benchmarking: Democracy and policy in the EU is compared to national performance.

Some people like the EU as a concept, but dislike specific policies the EU has made.

People from countries with bad national democratic performance will be more inclined to like the EU.

People that dislike the policies the EU makes will also be less enthusiastic about its institutions.

9. Following Inglehart, researchers have measured post-materialism by asking respondents to order possible goals by priority for their country. Which of the following four hypothetical orderings can be regarded as the most post-materialistic? "1." Signifies the most important issue, "4." Signifies the least important.

1. Giving the people more say in important government decisions; 2. Protecting freedom of speech; 3. Fighting rising prices; 4. Maintaining order in the nation

1. Giving the people more say in important government decisions; 2. Fighting rising prices; 3. Maintaining order in the nation; 4. Protecting freedom of speech

1. Maintaining order in the nation; 2. Giving the people more say in important government decisions; 3. Fighting rising prices; 4. Protecting freedom of speech

1. Fighting rising prices; 2. Giving the people more say in important government decisions; 3. Maintaining order in the nation; 4. Protecting freedom of speech

10. Which of the following statements about voter self-placement on a left-right scale in Europe is FALSE?

On average, voters in Europe are rather centrist.

Voters in Malta, Cyprus and Hungary are more extreme than in other countries.

Countries such as Spain and Sweden show more flat distributions, indicating that they are more spread across the ideological spectrum.

Voters in Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg are more to the right than the average country in Europe.

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