10 questions about socialism

protection click fraud

Test your knowledge with questions about socialism with feedback from our expert teachers.

question 1

Liberalism and socialism are economic, political and social currents that aim to create a fair and democratic model for the development of society. The main difference between liberalism and socialism is:

a) the role of the State in relation to the economy.
b) democratic participation.
c) the right to freedom of expression.
d) the intention to guarantee well-being.

See Answer

a) the role of the State in relation to the economy.

Liberalism and socialism contrast with regard to the role of the state in the economy.

While liberalism provides that the economy must be regulated by the market itself through the law of supply and demand, socialism advocates greater state intervention as a way to ensure justice Social.

question 2

The characteristics of utopian socialism are:

I - Creating an ideal society
II - Cooperatives
III - Industry privatization
IV - Social equality

a) I, II and III
b) I, II and IV
c) I, III and IV
d) II, III and IV

instagram story viewer

See Answer

Correct alternative: b) I, II and IV

Privatization of industry, as well as free competition, are mechanisms of capitalist modes of production.

For socialism, industry must undergo a process of collectivization, which presupposes that they belong to the State (nationalization).

question 3

How can we differentiate utopian socialism from scientific socialism?

a) Utopian socialism defends the market economy.
b) Utopian socialism does not develop material conditions for overcoming capitalism.
c) Scientific socialism is the only one to propose the creation of a just and egalitarian society.
d) Scientific socialism builds models of present or future ideal societies that should act as a horizon for decision-making.

See Answer

Correct alternative: b) Utopian socialism does not develop material conditions for the overcoming of capitalism.

Both currents project a just and egalitarian society. However, scientific socialism criticizes the so-called "utopian socialism", as it does not provide concrete bases for this transformation of society.

question 4

Among the main theorists of scientific socialism we can highlight:

a) John Locke and Thomas Hobbes
b) Adam Smith and David Ricardo
c) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
d) Mikhail Bakunin and Joseph-Pierre Proudhon

See Answer

Correct alternative: c) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

The work developed by Marx and Engels is a critique of utopian socialism because it believed that the transformation of society would take place in a harmonious way.

Locke and Hobbes are contractualist thinkers; Adam Smith and David Ricardo developed the theses of liberalism; while Mikhail Bakunin and Joseph-Pierre Proudhon are names for anarchism.

question 5

"Free man and slave, patrician and commoner, feudal lord and serf, member of corporation and official-craftsman, in short, oppressors and oppressed were in constant opposition to each other.
_{Marx and Engels, Communist Party Manifesto}

What is the engine of history for this doctrine of scientific socialism?

a) primitive accumulation
b) articles of incorporation
c) labor rights
d) class struggle

See Answer

Correct alternative: d) class struggle

For Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: "The history of all societies up to the present is the history of class struggles". Thus, they claim that history develops through the antagonism between two social classes: exploiters and exploited; oppressors and oppressed.

question 6

Accumulation based on the exploitation of the labor of a subordinate social class sustains the privileges of a dominant class. Are the maintenance of this structure together with changes in the mode of production the basis of what scientific socialism calls the “engine of history”?

According to the theses of scientific socialism, the engine of history is the class struggle. Throughout history this antagonism has taken different forms.

What were the names given to these social classes in the industrial period?

a) Servants and overlords
b) Masters and slaves
c) Bourgeoisie and proletariat
d) Urban and rural class

See Answer

Correct alternative: c) Bourgeoisie and proletariat

For Marx, with the end of feudalism, the mode of production changed and gave a new configuration to the class struggle.

Thus, the ruling class ceased to be the nobility and began to identify with the holders of the means of production (bourgeoisie). While the oppressed class was made up of wage workers (proletariat).

question 7

"My contribution was only to demonstrate that: 1. the existence of classes is a result of certain historical phases in the development of production; 2. The class struggle will lead to a dictatorship of the proletariat 3. And such a dictatorship is nothing more than a transition to the end of social classes and a classless society."
_{Karl Marx, Letter to Joseph Weydemeyer}

What does the dictatorship of the proletariat consist of?

a) A military government designed to discipline individuals.
b) A transitional government aimed at taking over the means of production.
c) The creation of a classless society.
d) A monarchic state with power unlimited to the king.

See Answer

Correct alternative: b) A transitional government aimed at taking over the means of production.

The dictatorship of the proletariat consists of a period of transition from the capitalist mode of production, for profit, for the socialist mode of production, aimed at meeting the needs of the population.

This change would take place through the takeover and collectivization of the means of production. Industry: raw material, machinery, facilities, etc. they would be expropriated and collectivized.

question 8

It is not a question of replacing the existing society with a totally new one, but of adapting the former to the new conditions of social existence. It is not a question of classes, of opposition between rich and poor, of businessmen and workers, as if the only possible solution would be to reduce the part that corresponds to ones to increase the number of others. What is required in the interests of both is the need to curb, from above, the appetites of both and so put an end to the state of disintegration, of manic agitation, which is not a product of social activity and which even provokes sufferings.
Émile Durkheim, Socialism.

In the text above, Durkheim's thought is opposed to the thesis defended by Marx because:

a) denies the existence of class struggle.
b) affirms that the interest of some harms social well-being.
c) affirms that society should be fairer.
d) denies that there is inequality in society.

See Answer

Correct alternative: a) denies the existence of class struggle.

Durkheim's criticism refers to the non-existence of class struggle, that society would develop as a whole based on solidarity and collective good.

question 9

For socialism, the capitalist mode of production is profit-oriented and based on the exploitation of the worker. So what are the main measures to achieve an egalitarian society?

a) Stimulate free competition and reduce State intervention in the economy.
b) Develop agribusiness and enable food self-sufficiency.
c) Collectivize the means of production and value work.
d) Collectivize corporate profits and create taxes on large inheritances.

See Answer

Correct alternative: c) Collectivize the means of production and value work.

For socialist doctrines, the origin of capitalist profit and worker exploitation lies in surplus value.

Surplus value is a concept that states that part of the work developed is unpaid, being the source of profit for the bourgeois class.

With the abolition of private property, the taking of the means of production and the valorization of work, profit is no longer the objective of production, surplus value loses its meaning and collective needs start to guide the production process.

question 10

(Enem/2015) The main articulator of the current Chinese economic model argues that the market is just an economic instrument, which is used interchangeably in both capitalism and socialism. However, the Chinese themselves are already feeling, in their society, its real meaning: the market is not something neutral, or a technical instrument that enables society to use it for the construction and construction of the socialism. It is, contrary to what the articulator says, an instrument of capitalism and is inherent to its structure as a mode of production. Its use is leading to a polarization of Chinese society.
OLIVEIRA, A. The Chinese Revolution. Dear Friends, 31 Jan. 2011 (adapted).

In the text, the economic reforms that took place in China are placed as antagonistic to the construction of a socialist country. In this context, the fundamental characteristic of socialism, which the current Chinese economic model opposes, is:

a) privatization of the economy.
b) establishment of a single party.
c) maintenance of free competition.
d) formation of labor unions.
e) gradual extinction of social classes.

See Answer

Correct alternative: e) gradual extinction of social classes.

In the text, the socialist model adopted in China seeks to adapt the market to the state's ideology and create a way to maintain social classes.

Thus, it opposes the fundamental characteristic of socialism, which is the extinction of social classes.

Keep studying with the texts: