The Age of Social Change

Correct answer: A. Parliament could be a representative form of law-based government

Explanation: The correct answer is A. Liberal political thought emphasised individual rights, equality before law, constitutional government and limits on arbitrary authority. In this framework, a parliament made up of representatives could debate, make and supervise laws rather than allowing a monarch to rule solely by personal will. Parliament was therefore connected with accountable, law-based government, although early liberal systems often restricted voting to property-owning men and were not fully democratic. Option B confuses a representative institution with a military force. Options C and D do not describe the constitutional role that liberals assigned to parliament. The answer is thus about representative politics under a legal constitution.

Correct answer: C. Because they wanted to include more people in politics

Explanation: Radicals supported rule by the majority because they wanted a larger number of people to participate in political decision-making and government. They opposed power being confined to a monarch or a small privileged group. Therefore, option C is correct. Option A supports monarchy, which was contrary to radical ideas. Exam tip: associate radicals with wider suffrage and broader political participation.

Correct answer: D. Conservatives favoured gradual change while preserving traditions, whereas radicals wanted wide-ranging social and political change

Explanation: Conservatives were cautious about sudden change. They supported gradual reforms while retaining traditions and established institutions. Radicals, in contrast, favoured wider social and political changes. Option A reverses the positions of the two groups. Exam tip: remember conservatives as gradual reformers and radicals as supporters of broad change.

Correct answer: A. As a person who profits from workers' labour

Explanation: Socialist thinkers argued that a private factory owner controlled the goods produced and the profit earned from workers’ labour, while workers received limited wages for their work. They therefore criticised this system as exploitation of labour. An elected representative or a union secretary represents workers, not the factory owner. Exam tip: Link socialist criticism with profit, private ownership, and exploitation of labour.

Correct answer: C. Because it connected socialist and workers' organizations of different countries

Explanation: The Second International connected workers and socialist parties internationally. Link it with labour unity.

Correct answer: A. It produced different plans for the future of society

Explanation: Liberals radicals conservatives and socialists wanted to change society differently. This was the feature of the age.

Correct answer: D. Private property and economic equality

Explanation: Liberals generally accepted property rights but socialists criticized private property. Remember this difference.

Correct answer: A. Expansion of democratic rights and representation

Explanation: Radicals supported a wider democratisation of society. Their demand for women’s suffrage meant that political representation should not remain limited to men; therefore, it was linked to the expansion of democratic rights and representation. Preserving royal absolutism was the opposite position. Exam tip: Connect demands for suffrage with equal political rights and wider representation.

Correct answer: C. The problem of exploitation and class relations

Explanation: The correct answer is C. Socialist thinkers argued that workers' poverty was produced by the organisation of industrial society, not merely by bad luck or temporary shortage. Owners controlled factories and capital, while workers sold their labour for wages and often received only a small part of the value created by production. This unequal relationship was understood as exploitation and as a conflict between social classes. Socialists therefore proposed collective action, regulation, cooperation or common ownership to change the structure of production. Options A, B and D are unrelated to the economic relationship between capital and labour. The question tests whether poverty is understood as a structural class problem rather than an isolated personal condition.

Correct answer: B. Both saw cooperatives as a path to a better society

Explanation: The correct answer is B. Robert Owen and Louis Blanc were associated with socialist approaches that viewed cooperation as a way to reduce the harmful effects of competitive industrial capitalism. Owen experimented with planned communities and cooperative principles, while Blanc advocated socially organised workshops in which workers could participate in production. Their precise programmes and methods were not identical, and they differed from later revolutionary Marxist strategies. However, both believed that cooperative organisation could improve workers' lives and help create a more equal society. Option A is unsupported, while C and D make overly broad claims about their views. The shared point asked in the question is their faith in cooperation as an instrument of social reform.

Correct answer: A. They wanted to reduce social and economic inequality

Explanation: Radicals opposed privileges based on birth, property, and social position. Their opposition to the advantages enjoyed by large landowners and wealthy factory owners shows their aim of creating greater social and economic equality. Option B is the closest distractor, but it is incorrect because it supports preserving the very privileges radicals criticised. Exam tip: Remember radicals as supporters of equality and opponents of inherited privilege.

Correct answer: C. Government based on laws and a representative parliament

Explanation: Liberals supported the rule of law, equality before the law, and a government with elected representatives. Therefore, a law-based government and representative parliament is correct. Feudal hereditary privileges conflicted with the liberal idea of equality. Exam tip: associate liberalism with constitutional government, civil rights, and representative institutions.

Correct answer: A. Because it could disrupt social order and stability

Explanation: Conservatives valued traditions, established institutions, and social stability. They believed that very rapid change could disturb the existing order and create unrest, so they preferred gradual and cautious reform. Universal voting rights for workers, abolition of private property, and a classless society are ideas more closely associated with socialism. Exam tip: Link conservatism with tradition, order, and gradual change.

Correct answer: B. Struggle of the working class

Explanation: According to Marxist thought, the interests of the capitalist class and the working class conflict under capitalism. The class struggle and organised action of the working class were seen as the force that would bring the transition from capitalism to socialism. The divine will of a king is an idea associated with monarchy, not Marxism. Exam tip: Remember the key Marxist terms: class struggle, working class and capitalist class.

Correct answer: A. Different classes and groups had different visions of society's future

Explanation: The correct answer is A. The Age of Social Change produced disagreement because different groups experienced industrialisation, political power and economic inequality in different ways. Liberals generally emphasised individual rights and constitutional government; radicals sought wider political and social change; conservatives defended order and gradualism; and socialists criticised class exploitation and proposed cooperation or collective ownership. These positions did not offer one identical future. The variety of ideologies therefore reveals competing interests and different interpretations of justice, freedom and progress. Options B and C deny the political debates of the period, while D ignores the major effects of industrialisation that made these arguments urgent.

Correct answer: B. Means of political awareness and collective struggle

Explanation: In socialist thought, workers’ unions fought over economic issues such as wages, working hours, and working conditions, but their role was broader. They developed political awareness, unity, and the capacity for collective action among workers. Feudal courts and monarchic departments were state institutions, not organisations for workers’ struggle. Exam tip: Remember unions as bodies linked to both workers’ economic interests and collective political action.

Correct answer: B. The state should be tolerant of all religions and should not privilege any one religion

Explanation: Liberal ideas emphasised religious tolerance and freedom of conscience. The state should not impose or privilege one religion; it should treat followers of all religions tolerantly and fairly. Option A is contrary to liberalism because it supports state enforcement of a single religion. Exam tip: associate liberalism with individual liberty, equal rights, and religious tolerance.

Correct answer: A. Because the owner's profit depended on workers' labour

Explanation: Socialists criticised the factory system because production was organised around private ownership and profit, while workers depended on wages and performed the labour that created goods and value. In their view, the owner or capitalist could receive a return greater than the wages paid to workers, creating an unequal relationship between capital and labour. This concern is expressed in option A. The criticism was not that factories had no workers or that all factories were cooperative.

Option B is plainly false because factory production required labour. Option C reverses the socialist criticism, since factories were not always cooperative. Option D confuses industrial production with feudal agriculture. The important concept is the relationship between ownership, labour, wages, and profit. Socialists asked who controlled production and who benefited from the value produced by workers. Thus A is correct.

Correct answer: A. Problem of inequality and privilege in society

Explanation: Both were concerned with inequality but their solutions differed. Radicals stressed political and social equality while socialists stressed economic equality.

Correct answer: C. At international level

Explanation: The Second International connected workers' organizations of different countries. Link it with international labour unity.

Correct answer: A. It questioned the limits of political rights

Explanation: The correct answer is A. The women's suffrage debate challenged the assumption that political citizenship and voting should belong mainly to men, especially property-owning men. It asked whether claims about liberty, equality and representation could be considered meaningful while half the adult population was excluded from elections and public decision-making. The debate therefore exposed the limits of early liberal democracy and encouraged broader campaigns for equal political rights. It did not complete monarchy, end workers' unions or directly expand private property. Although women’s movements included different goals and strategies, the central significance of suffrage was the demand to widen the definition of citizenship and participation in democratic politics.

Correct answer: A. Because it also questioned economic equality and relations of production

Explanation: Socialism questioned economic exploitation and private property. Treat it as an idea beyond political rights.

Correct answer: A. They were linked with different social groups and different directions of change

Explanation: The correct answer is A because the ideologies of the period differed in both social support and political aims. Liberals generally supported constitutional government and civil liberties, although early liberalism often limited political participation. Radicals demanded wider democracy and more extensive reform, conservatives prioritised order and gradual change, and socialists focused on class inequality and collective solutions. Even within each group there were disagreements, so it would be inaccurate to treat all ideologies as identical. Option B ignores liberal, radical and socialist opposition to absolutism. C is false because many movements supported unions, and D is false because not all ideologies opposed private property. Comparison, not generalisation, is the correct method.

Correct answer: A. Class division and worker exploitation

Explanation: The correct answer is A. Marx analysed capitalism as a system divided between classes with different relationships to the means of production. The bourgeoisie owned factories, land or capital, while the proletarian workers generally had to sell their labour to survive. Marx argued that this ownership structure enabled the appropriation of workers' surplus and produced exploitation, inequality and class conflict. A classless society was therefore intended to remove the division between exploiting owners and exploited workers by changing ownership and production relations. Religious tolerance, an independent judiciary and parliamentary government may be important social or political questions, but they do not identify the specific capitalist problem addressed by the concept of classlessness.

Correct answer: A. Owners took profit from workers' labour

Explanation: Industrial capitalism connected workers and owners through production, but the relationship was unequal. Workers usually did not own factories, machines, or raw materials, so they had to sell their labour for wages. Owners controlled the means of production and sold the goods produced. After paying wages and other costs, they kept the remaining income as profit. Socialists criticised this arrangement because workers created value but had little control over production.

Option A is correct because it describes the central economic relationship: owners gained profit from workers’ labour. Option B reverses the actual relationship, since workers did not collect taxes from owners. Option C is wrong because their wages and profits were directly connected. Option D is also false; owners were not defined by running workers’ unions. The important idea is unequal control over labour and capital.