Test your knowledge with questions about socialism with gabrito prepared by 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.
Answer
a) the role of the State in relation to the economy.
Liberalism and socialism contrast in relation to the role of the state in the economy.
While liberalism predicts that the economy must be regulated by the market itself through the law of supply and demand, socialism calls for greater state intervention as a way of guaranteeing social justice.
Question 2
Characteristics of utopian socialism are:
I – Creation of an ideal society
II – Cooperativism
III – Privatization of industry
IV – Social equality
a) I, II and III
b) I, II and IV
c) I, III and IV
d) II, III and IV
Answer
Correct alternative: b) I, II and IV
The privatization of industry, as well as free competition, are mechanisms of capitalist modes of production.
For socialism, the industry must go through 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 ideal present or future societies that should act as a horizon for decision making.
Answer
Correct alternative: b) Utopian socialism does not develop material conditions for overcoming 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
Answer
Correct alternative: c) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
The work developed by Marx and Engels is a criticism of utopian socialism because it believed that the transformation of society would take place in a harmonious way.
Locke and Hobbes are thinkers of contractualism; Adam Smith and David Ricardo developed the theses of liberalism; while Mikhail Bakunin and Joseph-Pierre Proudhon, are names of anarchism.
Question 5
“Free man and slave, patrician and plebeian, feudal lord and servant, member of corporation and 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 scientific socialism doctrine?
a) primitive accumulation
b) social contract
c) labor rights
d) class struggle
Answer
Correct alternative: d) class struggle
For Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: “The history of all societies to date 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 work of a subordinate social class upholds the privileges of a ruling class. Is the maintenance of this structure in conjunction 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) Lords and slaves
c) Bourgeoisie and proletariat
d) Urban and rural class
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 came to be composed 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 of 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 for 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 seizing the means of production.
c) The creation of a classless society.
d) A monarchical state with unlimited power to the king.
Answer
Correct alternative: b) A transitional government aimed at seizing the means of production.
The dictatorship of the proletariat consists of a period of transition from the capitalist mode of production, aimed at profit, to the socialist mode of production, designed to meet the needs of the population.
This change would take place by taking and collectivizing the means of production. The industry: raw materials, machinery, installations, etc. would be expropriated and collectivized.
Question 8
It is not a question of replacing the existing society with a totally new one, but adapting it to the new conditions of social existence. It is not a question of classes, of opposition between rich and poor, of entrepreneurs and workers, as if the only possible solution was to reduce the part that corresponds to one to increase that of the others. What is required in the interests of both is the need to curb the appetites of both from above and thus put an end to the state of disintegration, of manic agitation, which is not the product of social activity and which even causes suffering .
Émile Durkheim, Socialism.
In the text above, Durkheim’s thinking is opposed to the thesis defended by Marx because:
a) denies the existence of the class struggle.
b) affirms that the interests of some people harm social welfare.
c) affirms that society should be more just.
d) denies that there is inequality in society.
Answer
Correct alternative: a) denies the existence of the class struggle.
The criticism made by Durkheim refers to the non-existence of the class struggle, that society would develop as a whole based on solidarity and a 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 reach 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.
Answer
Correct alternative: c) Collectivize the means of production and value work.
For socialist doctrines, the origin of the capitalists’ profit and the exploitation of the worker lies in surplus value.
Value added is a concept that states that part of the work carried out is unpaid, being the source of profit for the bourgeois class.
With the abolition of private property, the seizure of the means of production and the valorization of labor, profit ceases to be the objective of production, surplus value loses its meaning and collective needs begin to guide the production process.
Question 10
(Enem / 2015) The main articulator of the current Chinese economic model argues that the market is only an economic instrument, which is used indistinctly 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 tool that allows society to use it for the construction and edification of socialism. Contrary to what the articulator says, it is an instrument of capitalism and is inherent in its structure as a mode of production. Its use is leading to a polarization of Chinese society.
OLIVEIRA, A. The Chinese Revolution. Dear Friends, Jan 31 2011 (adapted).
In the text, economic reforms in China are seen as antagonistic to the construction of a socialist country. In this context, the fundamental characteristic of socialism, which the current Chinese economic model is opposed to is:
a) privatization of the economy.
b) establishment of a single party.
c) maintaining free competition.
d) formation of labor unions.
e) gradual extinction of social classes.
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 ideology of the State and creates a way of maintaining social classes.
Thus, it opposes the fundamental characteristic of socialism, which is the extinction of social classes.