Political ideologies & thinkers Quiz
Who said what, and what each tradition believes. 10 multiple-choice questions with explanations.
Questions
Who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto (1848) with Friedrich Engels?
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Karl Marx. It opens: "A spectre is haunting Europe."
Who wrote Leviathan (1651), arguing that people accept a strong sovereign to escape a "war of all against all"?
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Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes described life without government as "nasty, brutish, and short."
Which thinker argued for natural rights to life, liberty and property in Two Treatises of Government?
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John Locke. Locke strongly influenced the Declaration of Independence.
Edmund Burke is widely seen as the founder of…
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Modern conservatism. His Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) defended tradition and gradual change.
Who wrote On Liberty (1859) and set out the "harm principle"?
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John Stuart Mill. Mill argued power may only be used against someone to prevent harm to others.
Friedrich Hayek's 1944 warning that central planning leads to tyranny is called…
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The Road to Serfdom. Hayek won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974.
In which country did fascism first take power, in 1922?
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Italy. Benito Mussolini became prime minister after the March on Rome.
Libertarianism generally favors…
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Minimal government and maximum individual liberty. Libertarians differ on how small government should be.
Social democracy typically supports…
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A market economy with a strong welfare state and regulation. The Nordic countries are often cited as examples.
Who wrote A Theory of Justice (1971), proposing the "veil of ignorance"?
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John Rawls. Rawls asked what rules people would choose without knowing their place in society.