Week 3 Quiz

In the week's six-statement sort (illustrative), Statement 1 reads: "Government should do little more than protect each person's rights and enforce contracts, and free markets should set prices." In the political-theory sense, which ideology does it express?

Select one.

• Conservatism, because everyday American speech calls this view conservative
• Modern liberalism, because it starts from individual rights
• Classical liberalism, because it joins rights to a limited government and markets
• Social democracy, because it gives the state a role in enforcing contracts between private parties

According to the course's definition, what makes a government legitimate in the liberal tradition?

Select one.

• It protects individual rights
• It preserves long-standing traditions
• It ends private ownership of the means of production
• It gives a nation a state of its own

Burke (1790) wrote: "A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation." Which reading of this line is accurate?

Select one.

• Conservatives oppose every change to established institutions, whatever the reason for it
• Burke argued that a state should be rebuilt from scratch
• The line is a normative claim that no state should ever reform
• A state keeps itself going by being able to change, carefully and gradually

The Manifesto (1848), Part I, opens: "The history of all hitherto existing societies is the history of class struggles." What kind of claim is this sentence?

Select one.

• Normative, because it appears in a text with a political goal
• Empirical, because it is a claim about history the record could support or refute
• Normative, because it says what society ought to become
• Neither, because a sentence in a famous text cannot be checked

A party in a made-up country promises a national health service paid for by higher taxes, keeps private businesses, and plans to win power at the next election. Which branch of the socialist family does this fit?

Select one.

• Communism, because it uses taxes to share resources
• Totalitarianism, because a state that pays for health care controls a large part of everyone's life
• Social democracy, because it seeks a welfare state within a market economy by winning elections
• Classical liberalism, because it keeps private businesses

True or false: Totalitarianism is the economic ideology at the center of the socialist family.

True or false.

• True
• False

At a festival in a made-up country, a resident says: "Our people share a language and a history, and we should govern ourselves in a state of our own." Which term fits this claim, and why?

Select one.

• Nationalism, because it claims a nation should have a state of its own
• Patriotism, because it expresses love for a people and its history
• Anarchism, because it rejects the existing state's authority
• Fascism, because it centers the nation

Which of these are points that critics of the left–right spectrum make? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Left and right mean the same thing in every country and era
• It squeezes an economic dimension and a social dimension into one line
• It shows which ideology is the best one
• Its meaning shifts across countries and eras

Statement 4 of the six-statement sort (illustrative) reads: "Taxes on high incomes should fund a broad welfare state, and that change should come by winning elections, not by revolution." What kind of claim is it?

Select one.

• Empirical, because it is about taxes and the economy
• Empirical, because tax revenue can be measured
• Neither, because it states a party's preference
• Normative, because it says what should happen

Which statement about conservatism and fascism matches the course?

Select one.

• Fascism is conservatism taken to its extreme, since both are usually placed on the right of the one-line spectrum
• They are distinct ideologies with distinct commitments, and some conservatives have opposed fascism explicitly
• Both are defined by a preference for gradual, tested change
• Fascism is a branch of the socialist family