Deck 11: Conservatism

Question 1

Which term refers to the sale of publicly owned corporations and activities to the private sector?

A) nationalization
B) irredentism
C) deregulation
D) privatization

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which combination was Edmund Burke in favour of?

A) private property and a redistributive state
B) private property but not a redistributive state
C) no private property but a redistributive state
D) neither private property nor a redistributive state

Answer 2

B

Question 3

What is the term for people who hold the view that government must restrain individual choice outside the economy in the name of the common good?

A) fiscal conservatives
B) Red Tories
C) social conservatives
D) neoconservatives

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following ideologies is the most similar to classical liberalism?

A) Burkean conservatism
B) social conservatism
C) libertarianism
D) Red Tory conservatism

Question 5

Conservatives resist change primarily because they are skeptical about what?

A) spontaneous order
B) human ability
C) government power
D) social institutions

Question 6

What is the central belief of social conservatism?

A) society should not change
B) society must be protected through the use of force
C) individual desires are less important than the common good
D) society is ordered by God

Question 7

A project involving alternative methods of financing daycare is proposed in a federal legislature.Which of the following statements would a Burkean conservative most likely make?

A) "A similar project failed ten years ago, so we should not bother trying again."
B) "We have never done a project like this, so we should try, and see what happens."
C) "A similar project worked in a different country, so we should go ahead and try it here."
D) "There is popular demand and widespread support for this project, so we should try it."

Question 8

Which policy is NOT common to contemporary conservative thought?

A) privatization
B) deregulation
C) nationalization
D) downsizing

Question 9

Which ideology has the most in common with modern-day conservatism?

A) contemporary reform liberalism
B) modern social democracy
C) traditional classical liberalism
D) historical Red Toryism

Question 10

What is one of the beliefs of conservatives?

A) Change is for the better.
B) The status quo needs changing.
C) Inherited customs and existing institutions should be respected.
D) Government should be involved in the economy.

Question 11

What did Burke describe as a vast filter for selecting desirable and discarding undesirable innovations?

A) social science
B) natural selection
C) spontaneous order
D) the state

Question 12

Suppose the Canadian population decides that a particular ministry is no longer working effectively.Which of the following proposals for reform would Burke support?

A) Scrap the ministry and rebuild from scratch.
B) Have a commission investigate which aspects of the ministry should undergo incremental changes to resolve one issue at a time.
C) Allow the prime minister to decide what changes are necessary
D) Have the ministry take reforms upon themselves and do what they think is required.

Question 13

Which form of change would a Burkean conservative be most opposed to?

A) Grassroots movements convincing the government to make changes to legislation affecting their cause.
B) A violent uprising to topple an oppressive government.
C) A plan to raise minimum wage incrementally over a ten year period.
D) Government-initiated reforms to the national electoral system.

Question 14

If a conservative supports a class-based social order,it is probably because:

A) he is rich
B) he believes that such a system has been proven to work
C) he does not care about the poor
D) he has not lived in a liberal democracy

Question 15

Which phrase best defines the term deregulation?

A) selling off public goods to the private sector
B) relaxing the laws of the society
C) lifting controls that kept the government out of market activity
D) lifting government controls on market activity

Question 16

Which of the following policies would NOT have been included in the political platforms of Margaret Thatcher,Brian Mulroney,and Ronald Regan?

A) Selling national oil companies to private investors
B) Hiring a private company to make weapons
C) Increasing public funding for university students
D) Cutting spending to arts and cultural organizations

Question 17

Who would today be considered a pioneer of conservatism?

A) Adam Smith
B) John Stuart Mill
C) Edmund Burke
D) John Locke

Question 18

Which type of "conservative" would be most likely to support legalized physician-assisted suicide?

A) libertarian
B) Red Tory
C) Burkean
D) social conservative

Question 19

On which of the following policies would conservatives and classical liberals disagree?

A) cutting back social programs aimed at helping the poor
B) limiting the powers of government over the people
C) imposing religious or moral teaching on school children
D) deregulating market activity

Question 20

Why is conservative doctrine harder to explain than other ideologies?

A) it is newer and less articulated
B) it is always changing
C) it is older and less relevant
D) it is extremely complicated

Question 21

While Edmund Burke spoke against the French Revolution,he supported the American Revolution.

Question 22

Margaret Thatcher,Ronald Reagan,and Brian Mulroney were all fiscal conservatives.

Question 23

One of the main convictions of conservative thinkers is that civilized society requires classes,orders,and hierarchy.

Question 24

Conservatism is more like an attitude rather than a full-fledged ideology.

Question 25

When it comes to the role of government in the economy,what is libertarianism similar to,for all intents and purposes?

A) economic conservatism
B) fiscal conservatism
C) neoconservatism
D) classical liberalism

Question 26

Those who espouse the view that government must restrain individual choice outside the economy in the name of the common good can be called: ____________.

Question 27

Despite their differences,economic conservatives,fiscal conservatives,social conservatives,classical liberals,and libertarians have very similar beliefs regarding the role of government in the economy.

Question 28

Allowing the market to determine flight prices could be considered a form of deregulation.

Question 29

Conservatism is derived from the ideas of Plato and Aristotle.

Question 30

Whatever their differences,conservatives all revere the social order as more important than the individual.

Question 31

In the contemporary context,libertarianism is another term for classical liberalism.

Question 32

What is Edmund Burke NOT known for?

A) rejecting the redistributive state and defending private property
B) supporting the revolutionaries in France
C) defending the American colonies in their dispute with England
D) advocating for the hereditary aristocracy

Question 33

Conservatism is based on respect for habits,customs,and the latent wisdom of the past.

Question 34

Conservatism originated with the Parliamentarian ____________,who was moved to write in response to the events of the ____________ in his main work ____________.

Question 35

Which of the following initiatives was NOT undertaken by the Conservative leaders of the 1980s?

A) deregulation
B) decentralization
C) privatization
D) downsizing

Question 36

Which of the following leaders was NOT one of the Liberal leaders of the 1990s?

A) Jean Chretien
B) Tony Blaire
C) Bill Clinton
D) Pierre Eliot Trudeau

Question 37

A political movement that promotes deregulation,downsizing and privatization is known as ____________.

Question 38

Edmund Burke,one of the pioneering figures of conservatism,defended prejudice.

Question 39

What conclusion can we draw when we examine the economic policies of the liberal governments of Canada,the United States,and Britain in the 1990s?

A) Conservative economic policies will never last in the long run.
B) Real political parties do not always fit perfectly within ideological frameworks.
C) Liberal economic policies are more practical than conservative ones.
D) The 1990s saw a decline in responsible economic planning.

Question 40

Conservatives believe that "if it is not necessary to change,it is necessary not to change."

Question 41

Explain the significance of Edmund Burke's political thought.Describe some aspects of his thinking.

Question 42

Those who espouse the view that government must restrain individual choice within the economy can be called: ____________.

Question 43

In Canada,a conservative who supports some government intervention in the economy can be called a ____________.

Question 44

What is referred to as the most "intellectually consistent" type of conservatism,and why is it called that?

Question 45

What is the significance of the French Revolution in the history of conservative thought?

Question 46

Compare and contrast Burkean conservatism and social conservatism.Are they related to other ideologies?

Question 47

Has the global economic recession undermined the credibility or validity of the conservative approach to government?

Question 48

Why is conservatism a self-contradicting ideology? Which two aspects are at odds with each other? Explain.

Question 49

Compare and contrast libertarianism and classical liberalism.

Question 50

What did Edmund Burke mean in defending prejudice?

Question 51

The selling off of public goods to the private sector is known as ____________,and the lifting of government controls on market activity is called ____________.

Question 52

The election of ___________ in Great Britain in 1979,___________ in the U.S.A.in 1980,and ___________ in Canada in 1984 brought about a wave of modern __________.

Question 53

Define and explain the significance of Red Tory conservatism.