Deck 12: Socialism and Communism

Question 1

On which point would François-Noël Babeuf and Robert Owen disagree with each other?

A) Humans are inherently selfless beings.
B) Luxury leads to selfish behaviour.
C) Society requires authoritative leadership.
D) Money and trade are not essential for successful societies.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following is synonymous with scientific socialism?

A) Marxism
B) utopian socialism
C) Syndicalism
D) Anarchism

Answer 2

A

Question 3

What is the most fundamental difference between socialist thought,and modern social-democratic parties?

A) Socialist thought promotes equality of result, whereas social democratic parties focus on equality of opportunity.
B) Socialist thought relies on revolutionary reform whereas social democratic parties respect constitutionalism.
C) Socialist thought calls for an end to the market economy, whereas social democratic parties try to use the market to achieve their objectives.
D) Socialist thought calls for deregulation, while socialist parties seek nationalization of resources.

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which tenet of communism would social democrats be least likely to favour?

A) central planning
B) nationalization of key industries
C) proletarian dictatorship
D) equalization of conditions

Question 5

Which term did Marx and Engels use to refer to the owners of the means of production?

A) proletariat
B) bourgeoisie
C) utopians
D) middle class

Question 6

If Karl Marx were to visit Canada,which of the following modern-day professions would he be MOST supportive of,given the logic of "alienation"?

A) computer programmer
B) construction worker
C) cattle farmer
D) theatre actor

Question 7

The Cominform (Communist Information Bureau)was created in 1947.Which organization replaced it in 1956?

A) Comintern
B) Third International
C) Warsaw Treaty Organization
D) Second International

Question 8

In Canada,the Hutterites would fit most closely with the ideas of which thinker?

A) François-Noël Babeuf
B) Plato
C) Charles Fourier
D) Friedrich Engles

Question 9

What does the term "proletariat" refer to?

A) the industrial working class
B) the owners of the means of production
C) those at the bottom of the social scale
D) those who owned and worked in their own businesses

Question 10

What was the International Workingmen's Association (1864-1872)more commonly known as?

A) Second International
B) Comintern
C) First International
D) Cominform

Question 11

Which term is used to describe the hitherto unparalleled concentration of state ownership,control,and power in the former Soviet Union?

A) proletarianism
B) planning
C) totalitarianism
D) socialism

Question 12

The concept of common ownership of property has ancient philosophical roots.In which book is it advocated?

A) Plato's Republic
B) Aristotle's Politics
C) Aristotle's Ethics
D) Hobbes' Leviathan

Question 13

What was one of the things that the Communist Manifesto of 1848 did NOT advocate?

A) free education
B) abolition of the right of inheritance
C) progressive income tax
D) confiscation of luxury items by the state

Question 14

What is the most fundamental assumption that all of socialism rests on?

A) common ownership is ideal
B) the capitalist system is flawed
C) man is not innately self-interested
D) equality of result is attainable

Question 15

Which contemporary example of socialist political action is most similar to the experiences of the Second International?

A) Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe springing up in the wake of the Russian Revolution.
B) The CCF winning seats in the House of Commons.
C) The Communist Party of the People's Republic of China privatizing agriculture.
D) Mikhail Gorbechev introducing individual freedoms to the Soviet Union.

Question 16

After Lenin took power in Russia,those who approved of him and his methods formed communist parties in many countries.What else did they form?

A) Comintern
B) Cominform
C) Second International
D) Warsaw Treaty Organization

Question 17

Which of the following examples would NOT fit in a socialist society?

A) Governments set interest rates
B) Private companies are banned from extracting oil
C) Private luxuries are owned by some of the population
D) Grocery chains are owned by different companies

Question 18

The Second International saw the emergence of socialist political parties that succeeded in making inroads into democratic processes.What was perhaps the most significant contributing factor to the direction the movement took?

A) The anarchists had split from the movement.
B) Marx passed away and Engles took over as leader.
C) Some of the more strict socialist ideas had been abandoned.
D) Lenin created a parallel movement based on revolutionary reform.

Question 19

Which thinker would François-Noël Babeuf most likely align himself with?

A) Ilyich Lenin
B) Plato
C) Mikhail Bakunin
D) Robert Owen

Question 20

Who wrote the Communist Manifesto?

A) Karl Marx and V.I. Lenin
B) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
C) Mikhail Bakunin and Friedrich Engels
D) V.I. Lenin and Mikhail Bakunin

Question 21

Robert Own and Charles Fourier advocated small-scale communities of jointly owned productive property.

Question 22

Which of the following is NOT an example marketization?

A) lifting price controls, or liberalization
B) turning a market economy into a planned economy
C) opening a protected economy to foreign trade and investment
D) privatizing the means of production

Question 23

What name did those who opposed Lenin and his methods regroup under?

A) Marxists
B) utopian socialists
C) communists
D) social democrats

Question 24

In which way does a planning system function?

A) The market is left to decide prices and quantities.
B) A central authority decides what to produce and allocates resources to production.
C) Government owns and makes everything.
D) Businessmen plan their economic strategy and carry out their plans to the best of their ability.

Question 25

What was Canada's first important social democratic party?

A) Canadian Communist Party
B) Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
C) New Democratic Party
D) Social Credit Party

Question 26

Marx's famous slogan declared "from each according to income,to each according to need."

Question 27

Social democrats today can be hard to distinguish from reform liberals.

Question 28

Marx's idea of equality is best summed up in the famous slogan that begins "From each according to his ability." How does the slogan end?

A) to each according to his wants
B) to each according to his income
C) to each according to his desire
D) to each according to his needs

Question 29

Ray wants to be a medical doctor but faints at the sight of blood.Jody graduated from med school at the top of her class,but would be most content working outdoors as a rafting guide.What does this example NOT demonstrate?

A) the differences in individual abilities
B) the difficulty of designing a system based on equality of result
C) the differences in individual ambitions
D) the difficulty or relying on equality of opportunity

Question 30

François-Noël Babeuf organized a communist uprising in 1796.

Question 31

Socialism could only be created by the political victory of the industrial working class.Who reached this conclusion?

A) Robert Owen
B) Karl Marx
C) Charles Fourier
D) Henri Saint-Simon

Question 32

By definition,no socialist could support any form of free enterprise.

Question 33

Which of the following Marxist beliefs would be at odds with Lenin's beliefs?

A) The proletariat will overthrow the bourgeoisie.
B) Capitalism was a system in decay.
C) The socialist revolution will first occur in advanced industrialized states.
D) A classless society will come in the post-revolutionary phase.

Question 34

What is the term for the transition from a centrally planned economy to a market economy?

A) marketization
B) nationalization
C) capitalization
D) syndicalism

Question 35

According to Lenin,why had capitalism not yet spent itself,as Marx predicted?

A) Overproduction was overcome by imperialist expansion.
B) Capitalism had found the solution to all its problems.
C) Overproduction would never occur.
D) Overproduction was never a problem.

Question 36

What did Bakunin and the anarchists disagree with Marx on?

A) the role and destiny of the masses
B) the overthrow of the bourgeoisie
C) the role of the state
D) Bakunin and Marx did not disagree

Question 37

Which of the following is NOT an example of modern social democratic planning?

A) Reserving seats in the House of Commons for aboriginal MPs.
B) Taxing tobacco to fund healthcare programs.
C) Subsidising local farmers to make them competitive with international markets.
D) Dictating amounts of key resources to be produced by the industry.

Question 38

What is the term for a state takeover of an industry or business?

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

Question 39

The policies of social democrats have evolved over the last century.In which way have they NOT changed?

A) They now give priority to socialism over democracy.
B) They have now given up the socialist belief in violent revolution.
C) They now favour equality of result.
D) They now favour a mixed economy.

Question 40

Socialism is based on common ownership to avoid conflicts with central planning.How can a society where assembly line workers own the building where they work be considered a socialist society?

A) It cannot actually be considered a socialist society.
B) The society is run by leaders who idolize Karl Marx.
C) The society existed before Marx wrote the Communist Manifesto.
D) The society is based on syndicalism.

Question 41

Marx's idea of equality is best summed up in the famous slogan "From each according to ___________,to each according to ___________."

Question 42

The first socialist party in Canada was the ___________ founded in ___________ in 1932 and which later became known as the ___________.The first socialist government in North America was elected in ___________ in 1944.

Question 43

Identify and compare the different varieties of common ownership promoted by socialists.

Question 44

The industrial working class is known as the ___________,and those who own the means of production are the ___________.

Question 45

Today social democratic parties,like the NDP,still advocate full-scale central planning.

Question 46

Marx didn't necessarily believe in violence; he argued that in constitutional states with a parliamentary system socialism could be achieved through democratic elections.

Question 47

The first socialist government in North America was elected in Saskatchewan in 1944.

Question 48

The organization of the working class movements in the world was referred to as the First International and the Second International.

Question 49

Marx's unpublished manuscripts written in his youth emphasize the issue he called ________.

Question 50

Those who opposed Lenin and his methods regrouped under the general name of social democrats.

Question 51

Define and explain the significance of marketization.Does economic liberalization pave the way for political democracy?

Question 52

What are the four main features of socialist ideology? How are they different from those of reform liberalism?

Question 53

The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was the first socialist party in the United States.

Question 54

The term for Lenin's idea of a disciplined party firmly controlled from the top is __________________.

Question 55

Common elements of socialist ideology include ___________,___________,___________,and ___________.

Question 56

A form of common ownership in which workers own their own factories is called __________.The transition to a market economy from a fully planned one is called __________.

Question 57

Canadians have never really embraced the ideology of socialism in any of its variations.

Question 58

Outline some of the ideas Marx and Engels promoted in their Communist Manifesto.Have any been subsequently adopted by liberal or conservative governments?

Question 59

Lenin's idea of a disciplined party firmly controlled from the top is democratic centralism.

Question 60

Has socialism been successful in Canada? List the ways in which socialism has had an impact on the development of social policy in Canada.

Question 61

Evaluate the roll of individual desire and ambition in relation to socialist societies.What challenges does it pose,and how have socialist thinkers proposed to overcome these challenges?

Question 62

Explain the differences between communist and social democratic ideology and experiences.

Question 63

In your opinion,is communism as an ideological and political form dead? Has liberalism triumphed as the only workable modern ideology?

Question 64

Does socialism necessarily entail revolutionary violence? Can socialism be attained by democratic and constitutional means? Consider the views of Marx as well as the history of socialism in answering.