Chapter 8 Self-test questions

. What is ideology?

A type of belief-system favoured by extremists.

A science devoted to the discovery of unquestionable truths.

A set of ideas which typically provides a description of things as they are, portrays an ideal political order, and suggests how that ideal could be attained.

The characteristic outlook of people who are not clever enough to understand the work of political philosophers.

. Classical liberalism began to be questioned in the late nineteenth century mainly because...

the British Liberal Party was in steep decline.

the industrial revolution had generated widespread poverty and social problems.

political thinkers were anxious to strike a compromise with socialism.

in practice it had led to excessive state intervention.

. Liberal ideology ...

was invented in the eighteenth century to serve the interests of the British Liberal Party.

developed as a hostile response to the emergence of industrial capitalism.

is a compromise between socialism and conservatism.

is a long-established creed which focuses on individual freedom.

. Why do Liberals favour the free market economy?

They feel that individuals are rational enough to be left to pursue their own economic interests.

Most of them are closely connected to big business.

They think that poverty is a good way of ensuring social control.

They regard human existence as taking place in a 'state of nature', in which cut-throat competition is perfectly justified.

. Karl Marx disagreed with many socialist thinkers because ...

they did not approve of totalitarian government.

they were a bit squeamish about the use of violence to secure political change.

their ideas were not based on 'scientific' methods.

they were not affiliated to a trade union.

. The socialist view of human nature assumes that ...

human beings are easily led.

human beings are naturally competitive.

human beings are driven by envy.

human character is radically affected by circumstances.

. Characteristically, conservatives are ...

opposed to 'rationalism'.

supportive of the tried and trusted in preference to the experimental.

believers in 'organic' society.

all of the above.

. What are some of fascism's key characteristics?

It rejects abstract intellectualizing in favour of action.

It supports authoritarianism and elitism.

It is anti-Enlightenment, believing that the state and community give meaning to individual lives-without them the individual is nothing.

All of the above.

. What is post-modernism primarily opposed to?

The belief that there is an objective truth that can, with effort, be perceived.

Technology.

Traditional ways of life.

Diversity.

. In what way might we conceive of radical ecologism as a separate ideology?

In that, unlike all other ideologies, it is not anthropocentric, believing in the intrinsic worth of nonhumans and nature.

It has its own historical lineage.

There are many textbooks on Green Political Thought.

All of the above.

Chapter 8 Self-test questions

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