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50 free Political Science trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Political science is the study of power: who gets it, how they keep it and what rules shape the game. These 50 questions span the canon (Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu), the modern discipline (behavioralism, rational choice, the APSA) and the concepts every intro course covers: separation of powers, proportional representation, Duverger's law, soft power, the democratic peace. It is pitched for students, teachers and anyone who enjoys a quiz round that rewards knowing why first-past-the-post produces two parties or where the word gerrymander comes from. Every answer is cited so you can use it in class or at quiz night.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year was the American Political Science Association founded?
1903
Its journal, the American Political Science Review, followed in 1906; membership grew from 204 in 1904 to 1,462 by 1915.
Q 02Which 1950s–60s movement pushed political science toward the scientific study of behavior?
Behavioral revolution
Robert Dahl and Philip Converse were among its leading figures; it favored surveys and empirical testing over legal texts.
Q 03The Perestroika Movement of 2000 protested what trend in political science?
Its "mathematicization"
Supporters argued for methodological pluralism and for making the discipline more relevant to outsiders.
Q 04Which University of Rochester scholar led the push for game-theoretic modelling in the 1970s?
William H. Riker
His students borrowed theory and methods from economics to study Congress and voting.
Q 05Philip Converse and Bernard Berelson are associated with which approach?
Behavioralism
Berelson worked with sociologist Paul Lazarsfeld on public opinion; the approach stressed behavior over institutions and legal texts.
Q 06Which APSA president said politics is "an observational, not an experimental science"?
Lawrence Lowell
He cited the impossibility of experiment; field and survey experiments have since become much more common.
Q 07What is the main US honor society for students of government and politics?
Pi Sigma Alpha
Pi Alpha Alpha is the separate honor society for public administration.
Q 08The International Political Science Association (1949) grew out of an initiative by which body?
UNESCO
National associations followed in France (1949), Britain (1950) and West Germany (1951).
Q 09Which Greek philosopher declared that "man is by nature a political animal"?
Aristotle
His Politics treats the polis as the highest and most natural community; its title is the root of the word politics.
Q 10In Plato's Republic, what is the name of the utopian city ruled by philosopher-kings?
Kallipolis
The dialogue, set during the Peloponnesian War, opens with Socrates and Glaucon being waylaid at the port of Piraeus.
Q 11Who argued in the Republic that justice is simply what benefits the stronger?
Thrasymachus
Socrates counters by noting the strong can be mistaken about what actually benefits them.
Q 12The Prince was written around 1513 but not printed until which year?
1532
Publication came five years after Machiavelli's death, with permission from the Medici pope Clement VII.
Q 13Machiavelli wrote that if a prince cannot be both, it is safer to be what?
Feared than loved
The Prince was dedicated to Lorenzo de' Medici, Duke of Urbino, and draws repeatedly on the career of Cesare Borgia.
Q 21According to Rousseau, only what has the right to legislate?
The general will
The book was burned in Geneva; Voltaire mocked Rousseau but still called the burning odious.
Q 22Montesquieu's The Spirit of Law was published in which year?
1748
The Catholic Church put it on the Index of Prohibited Books in 1751, three years after publication.
Q 23Which Russian ruler drew on Montesquieu when writing her Nakaz (Instruction)?
Catherine the Great
Montesquieu also shaped the US Founding Fathers and Tocqueville's Democracy in America.
Q 14Which Renaissance figure does Machiavelli repeatedly cite approvingly in The Prince?
Cesare Borgia
Borgia's murderous career unfolded during Machiavelli's own diplomatic service for Florence.
Q 15Hobbes's Leviathan was published in what year?
1651
Written during the English Civil War, it argues that only an absolute sovereign can prevent the "war of all against all".
Q 16Hobbes described life in the state of nature as "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and" what?
Short
The book takes its name from the chaotic sea serpent of the Hebrew Bible.
Q 17Who etched the famous frontispiece of Leviathan showing a giant composed of tiny people?
Abraham Bosse
The Parisian artist worked out the design in lengthy discussion with Hobbes himself.
Q 18Locke's First Treatise of Government is a line-by-line refutation of which author?
Robert Filmer
Filmer's Patriarcha defended divinely ordained, hereditary absolute monarchy; the Two Treatises appeared anonymously in 1689.
Q 19Locke's Two Treatises was published anonymously shortly after which event?
The Glorious Revolution
It was likely drafted earlier, around 1680–81, during the Exclusion Crisis.
Q 20Rousseau's The Social Contract (1762) was written in which language?
French
The Genevan philosopher argued that only the general will of the people has the right to legislate.
Q 24Which ancient historian credited Lycurgus of Sparta with the first mixed government?
Polybius
In Book 6 of his Histories he described Rome's checks and balances among Senate, Consuls and Assemblies.
Q 25Locke divided state power into legislative, executive and which third kind?
Federative
His scheme in the Two Treatises was a forerunner of Montesquieu's better-known tripartite system.
Q 26In which essay did Max Weber define the state by its monopoly on legitimate force?
Politics as a Vocation
The idea has earlier roots in Jean Bodin's Six Books of the Republic (1576) and Hobbes's Leviathan.
Q 27Which political scientist coined "polyarchy" for rule by many?
Robert Dahl
He argued true democracy is an ideal no country has reached; polyarchy is the closest real systems come.
Q 28Who popularized the term "soft power"?
Joseph Nye
He introduced it in his 1990 book Bound to Lead and expanded it in Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics (2004).
Q 29Who wrote The End of History and the Last Man (1992)?
Francis Fukuyama
It expanded his 1989 essay "The End of History?" in The National Interest and leaned on Hegel and Marx.
Q 30The Clash of Civilizations thesis was first developed in a 1993 article in which journal?
Foreign Affairs
Huntington wrote it partly as a reply to his former student Fukuyama and expanded it into a 1996 book.