SQA Higher Politics Political Parties and Elections overview quiz quiz

To win political power and form a government

To act only as a neutral charity with no policy aims

To replace elections with rule by a single leader

To stop citizens from taking any part in politics

Censoring the press and banning all opposition groups

Developing policy and offering voters a manifesto

Appointing the unelected judges of the highest courts

Setting interest rates and running the central bank

Free-market conservatism and a smaller state

Fascism and the cult of an all-powerful leader

Classical liberalism and a minimal nightwatchman state

Social democracy and greater social equality

Its aim of achieving Scottish independence

Its commitment to free-market deregulation above all

Its rejection of all forms of social-democratic policy

Its opposition to having any Scottish Parliament at all

The geographic centre of the country where most seats are

The moderate middle of the spectrum where most voters sit

The far left and far right of the political spectrum

The group of unelected officials who run the civil service

Local door-to-door canvassing in marginal constituencies

The counting and recounting of ballots on election night

The national media campaign of broadcasts and debates

The selection of candidates by party members

Local canvassing, leafleting and get-out-the-vote work

A televised debate between the main party leaders

A national newspaper advertising campaign

An opinion poll of voters across the whole country

Because safe seats are not allowed to be campaigned in by law

Because marginal seats are where swing voters can decide the result

Because marginal seats always have far larger populations

Because the media refuses to report on any safe seats

It guarantees that no misinformation can ever be spread online

It removes the need for parties to have any policies at all

It forces every voter to support the same single party

It lets parties target messages cheaply and reach younger voters

Campaigns decide every result entirely on their own

Campaigns matter at the margins alongside longer-term factors

Campaigns have no effect on any election outcome at all

Only the air war matters and the ground war is irrelevant

Social class

A televised leaders' debate held during the campaign

A scandal breaking in the final week before polling

The state of the economy in the month of the election

A voter's lifelong loyalty to a single party

The social class a voter was brought up in

The state of the economy at the time of the election

The region of the country a voter has always lived in

Fixed social attachments such as class and party loyalty

Voters calculating their self-interest at each election

The personal charisma of an all-powerful single leader

The complete absence of any pattern in how people vote

That voters never change which party they support

That voting is decided only by a person's social class

That voters obey whichever party controls the media

That voters judge parties on issues, policies and self-interest

The weakening of the link between social class and party support

A law banning working-class people from voting in elections

The strengthening of fixed party loyalty among all voters

The merging of all social classes into a single class