Chapter 6 Multiple Choice 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.

. Why have liberalism and socialism been powerful ideologies since the late eighteenth century?

In different ways they embodied the ideals of the Enlightenment.

They appealed to social groups which had been fostered by the industrial revolution.

Both were expounded in a series of classic writings by great thinkers.

All of the above.

. 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.

. 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.

. Who is the best-known political thinker who defined ideology in negative terms?

Friedrich Nietzsche

Joseph Schumpeter

Karl Marx

Rosa Luxemburg

. Why did 'evolutionary' socialism develop?

Some of Marx's predictions about social developments had not been verified in practice.

Socialists grew more nervous about the prospect of violent revolution.

Universal suffrage had removed all the grievances of the working class.

The Soviet Union had utterly discredited Marx's ideas.

. 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.

historically anti-liberal, reactionary, and authoritarian (in Europe).

all of the above.

. Why is it difficult to conceive of nationalism as an ideology like liberalism or socialism?

Its advocates are driven by emotion rather than reason.

It does not prescribe any specific form of government.

It creates tensions within and between established states.

It is irrelevant in an increasingly 'globalized' international context.

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