Political issues: SQA Advanced Higher Modern Studies quiz quiz

Power is concentrated in a small elite

Power is widely dispersed among many competing groups, with the state as a broadly neutral arbiter

Real power lies with the economic ruling class

Power belongs solely to the monarchy

Karl Marx

John Stuart Mill

Edmund Burke

C. Wright Mills

The economic ruling class that owns the means of production

All citizens equally

Only pressure groups

The military alone

Direct democracy uses elections; representative democracy does not

They are the same thing

In direct democracy citizens decide issues themselves; in representative democracy they elect representatives to decide on their behalf

Representative democracy only exists in ancient Athens

The widely accepted right of a government to rule, resting on consent

The size of a government's army

The amount of money a government has

The age of a constitution

A shortage of political parties

A government budget shortfall

A gap between the democratic ideal of popular control and the actual practice of a political system

The absence of a written constitution

Only party membership

Party and union membership, pressure groups, petitions, campaigns and protest

Nothing counts except voting

Only standing for election

A large, redistributive state

Common ownership of the means of production

A minimal state that protects rights and lets individuals compete

Rule by a hereditary elite

Opportunity (favoured by liberalism) means a fair chance to compete; outcome (favoured by socialism) means reducing the gaps in what people end up with

They mean the same thing

Opportunity is only about voting

Outcome means abolishing all government

Socialism and pluralism

Neoliberal free-market economics and neoconservative emphasis on order and traditional values

Direct democracy and common ownership

Marxism and liberalism

Social democracy seeks common ownership; radical socialism works within capitalism

They are identical

Social democracy reduces inequality within a capitalist mixed economy; radical socialism seeks common ownership and a fundamental transformation

Neither cares about equality

Greater equality and an active, interventionist state

A minimal state and the free market above all

Rule by tradition and hereditary authority

No government at all

Description and recall of as many facts as possible

The length of the answer

Analysis and synthesis: explaining why things matter and connecting points into a sustained argument

Listing theories without using them

To fill space

To abandon the original line

Because setting out and answering the strongest opposing case tests and strengthens the line

Counter-arguments are not allowed

Introduce new evidence not seen before

Simply restate the question

Answer the question directly, synthesise the argument, and reach a substantiated judgement that follows from the body

List every point again in full