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Students Zone - Self test questions
Use these questions both to test your detailed knowledge of each chapter. Make a note of your answers and then consult the answers page on this website. If you score less than 12 correct answers for any chapter, you probably need to spend more time re-reading and revising its contents.
CHAPTER 9: Representing Interests in the Westminster System
1. The importance of organised interest representation:
a) Is the product of the rise of democracy
b) Long pre-dates democracy
c) Was the product of the modern interventionist state
2. 'Functional groups' are so called because:
a) They help democracy to function
b) They represent groups who perform a function in the division of labour
c) They are assigned a range of functions by government
3. 'Preference' groups
a) Unite people with common political preferences
b) Unite people with common religious preferences
c) Unite people with any kind of common preference
4. The Chemical Industries Association is an example of:
a) A functional group
b) A preference group
c) A mixture between a functional and a preference group
5. The chief 'peak' association for business is:
a) The Confederation of British Business
b) The Confederation of British Enterprise
c) The Confederation of British Industry
6. The chief peak association for trade unions is:
a) The Trades Union Congress
b) The Trades Union Committee
c) The Trades Union Conference
7. Giant firms in Britain:
a) Rely totally on trade associations and peak associations to represent their interests
b) Rely totally on their own public affairs departments to represent their interests
c) Rely on a mix of self representation and representation by associations
8. 'Tri-partism' was most influential:
a) In the 1930s
b) In the 1970s
c) In the 1990s
9. Differences in the power of groups are chiefly:
a) Due to systematic differences in their resources
b) Due to accident
c) Due to the varying political skills of their leaders
10. Churches are:
a) Entirely outside the world of interest groups
b) A case of a specialised lobby group
c) Social institutions that partly act as interest groups
11. New social movements are:
a) Highly organised centralised groups
b) Loosely linked decentralised groups
c) Highly organised decentralised groups
12. Preference groups:
a) All have great power resources
b) All have few power resources
c) Differ greatly in the power resources of different groups
13. Professional lobbying:
a) Has greatly grown in importance in recent decades
b) Has not changed greatly in importance in recent decades
c) Has declined in importance in recent decades
14. New technology has:
a) Greatly facilitated group formation
b) Made no difference to group formation
c) Been an obstacle to group formation
15. The rise of the European Union has:
a) Reshaped all interest representation profoundly
b) Made little difference to interest representation
c) Reshaped some areas of interest representation but made little difference to other areas
