3.3.1.3.1 Socialism: Marxism, revolutionary socialism and social democracy Quiz: AQA Politics, Unit 3

The 20 questions

1. Which statement captures Marx's view of history?

   • History is driven by the progressive spread of religious faith across each society over time
   • History is driven by struggle between competing nations for territory and resources in every era
   • History is driven by the individual choices of great leaders, whose decisions and personal ambitions shape each historical age
   • History is driven by class struggle between those who own the means of production and those who do not

2. Which statement best describes dialectical materialism?

   • Ideas and religious beliefs alone determine the structure of society and its political institutions
   • Material wealth is shaped by the will of rulers, who determine economic conditions by decree
   • Economic life is unrelated to politics, which develops independently through the logic of ideas
   • Material economic conditions shape a society's social and political institutions, which change through conflict

3. What is the central aim of revolutionary socialism?

   • Overthrowing capitalism through working-class revolution and establishing a classless society
   • Restoration of the feudal system, in which land was held by lords and peasants in fixed obligations
   • Gradual reform of capitalism through parliamentary elections and the steady extension of welfare provision
   • Replacing the monarchy with a republic while leaving the capitalist economy and its ownership intact

4. How do social democrats seek to achieve socialist aims?

   • Through parliamentary democracy and gradual reform, including welfare and regulation of capitalism
   • Through immediate armed revolution, overthrowing the parliament and the monarchy in a single action
   • Through the complete abolition of trade unions, which social democrats see as obstacles to progress
   • Through the restoration of private monopolies, which would encourage competition and economic growth

5. What is meant by 'class analysis' in Marxist socialism?

   • Grouping citizens by religion and education in order to assign voting rights in each constituency and each local council area
   • Classifying individuals by their wealth and income as shown in an official government survey
   • Dividing society by hereditary rank into nobility, gentry and peasantry, as in the feudal period
   • Explaining society through the relationships between groups defined by their position in production

6. What are the fundamental goals of socialism?

   • Equality, collective or social ownership of resources, and social justice for working people
   • Preservation of hereditary privilege, national tradition and the authority of the established church
   • Maximum individual freedom, low taxation and minimal state intervention in every area of life
   • Expansion of private monopolies, with the aim of making firms as large as possible in each market

7. What is a central tension between revolutionary socialism and social democracy?

   • Whether socialism must be achieved by overthrowing the capitalist state or by reforming it through democratic means
   • Whether socialism should recognise the rights of animals before those of human workers in the economy
   • Whether socialism should be financed by private donations or by a national lottery in each region of the country and its towns
   • Whether socialism should abolish the monarchy or keep it as a symbol of national identity and tradition

8. Which concept refers to the view that capitalism contains internal contradictions that can provoke crises?

   • The steady growth of the welfare state, which reduces the need for private investment over time
   • The balance of trade between nations, which is always equal in the long run for every economy
   • Contradictions within capitalism, such as falling profits and overproduction, which can provoke crisis and revolution
   • The falling price of consumer goods, which increases the real wages of workers in every case

9. A factory owner keeps profits while wages stagnate. How would a Marxist explain the owner's profit from unpaid labour?

   • As surplus value, extracted by the capitalist from the labour of workers
   • As a reward for risk-taking, which the market fairly allocates to entrepreneurs in every case
   • As a consequence of worker inefficiency, which reduces the productivity of the labour force overall
   • As a subsidy from the state, which supports employers in order to maintain levels of employment

10. Which best describes the proletariat in Marx's theory?

    • The landed aristocracy, who own estates and rent land to tenants for a regular income
    • The state bureaucracy, which controls the means of production on behalf of the people
    • The professional middle class, who manage businesses on behalf of the owners of capital and share in their profits
    • The working class, who sell their labour because they do not own the means of production

11. What is meant by 'false consciousness' in Marxist thought?

    • Workers' acceptance of ideas that serve the interests of the ruling class, which hides their exploitation
    • A deliberate plan by workers to mislead employers about their productivity and their level of skill in every workplace they join
    • A religious conviction that wealth is a sign of divine favour and moral worth in every society
    • A belief that the state should never intervene in the economy under any circumstances whatsoever

12. Which best describes the 'withering away of the state' in Marxist theory?

    • A process in which the state grows stronger until it absorbs all private property in the economy
    • A policy of reducing public spending to a minimum in order to balance the national budget each year
    • A decision by the monarchy to dissolve parliament once the revolution in the country is complete
    • A stage in which, after the revolution, the state gradually disappears as class divisions end

13. Which view of the role of the revolution is associated with Marx's theory of history?

    • The working class should accept capitalism as permanent, so that wages rise gradually with the profits of owners
    • The working class's historic mission is to emigrate to colonies, where workers can build independent farms
    • The working class's historic mission is to overthrow capitalism and establish a classless, commonly owned society
    • The working class's historic mission is to preserve the traditional hierarchy and defend the rights of landowners and the Church

14. What is the base and superstructure relationship in Marxist thought?

    • The base and superstructure are unrelated, with ideas developing separately from the forces of production
    • The economic base shapes the superstructure of law, politics and ideas
    • The base is religion, which shapes both the law and the economy of each society in every period
    • The superstructure of law and politics determines the economic base entirely and independently of production

15. Which feature distinguishes social democracy from revolutionary socialism?

    • Social democrats seek to abolish parliament, while revolutionaries accept elections as the main route to power
    • Social democrats reject all welfare provision, while revolutionaries support universal state pensions for every citizen of the state
    • Social democrats accept electoral competition and gradual reform, while revolutionaries seek to overthrow the existing state
    • Social democrats support the monarchy, while revolutionaries seek to restore the feudal lords to their former power

16. A government supports public ownership of a rail network and higher taxes on the wealthy to fund welfare. Which socialist approach is most consistent with this?

    • Anarchist communism, which rejects all state ownership and regards government itself as oppressive
    • Social democracy, which uses democratic means to reform capitalism and expand public welfare
    • Classical liberalism, which argues that state ownership of railways should be abolished in every case
    • Conservatism, which argues that state ownership of railways is needed to preserve national tradition

17. Which is the best evaluation of the claim that socialism has been successfully achieved wherever Marxist theory has been adopted?

    • The claim is clearly true, because socialism has been achieved in every country that adopted Marxist theory
    • The claim is clearly false, because socialism has been proven impossible by every experiment attempted so far
    • The claim cannot be assessed, because socialism is defined so loosely that no outcome could count as evidence
    • The claim is contested, since revolutionary models have had mixed outcomes, while social democracy has delivered welfare gains

18. Which is a major criticism of Marx's predictions about capitalism?

    • Revolution did not occur in the advanced capitalist states where Marx expected it, though his class analysis remains influential
    • Marx's analysis of class is irrelevant because modern societies have no classes of any kind at all
    • Marx's predictions were confirmed only by a religious movement that later grew into the largest political force of the twentieth century
    • Marx's predictions were confirmed in every advanced capitalist state by the early twentieth century

19. In Marxist theory, what is the ruling class?

    • The group that works in factories and mines and sells its labour to employers for wages each week
    • The group that owns the means of production and so controls the state and the dominant ideas of society
    • The group that staffs the judiciary and the civil service in the national administration of the country, and so shapes the law
    • The group that elects the government in each parliament by universal suffrage at a general election

20. What is meant by a 'revolutionary vanguard' in socialist thought?

    • A group of religious leaders who guide the working class through prayer and moral instruction
    • A group of army officers who seize the state on behalf of the middle classes of the country
    • A party of committed activists that leads the working class towards revolution
    • A committee of trade union leaders who negotiate wages with employers in each industry every year

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