Chapter 14

Instructions

Choose your answers from a-d by clicking the radio button next to each choice and then press 'Submit' to get your score.

Question 1

Mick Moran puts forward which of the following arguments about the regulatory state?

a) Regulation successively diminished after the late 1970s in response to business demands to cut 'red-tape'

b) Regulation increased significantly from the 1970s onwards and extended the reach of the British state

c) There has been a shift away from the regulation of public goods to the regulation of private goods

d) The Thatcher governments realised their ambitions to 'roll back the frontiers of the state' through their zeal for creating regulatory bodies

Question 2

Which of the following privatisations was undertaken by John Major's governments?

a) The privatisation of Amersham International

b) The privatisation of British Rail

c) The privatisation of British Petroleum

d) The privatisation of British Aerospace

Question 3

In the 2005 general election the Liberal Democrats argued which of the following?

a) Regulation of the privatised utilities had failed and that several of these industries should be renationalised

b) The regulatory state was in urgent need of democratisation

c) The powers of international and European regulatory bodies like the World Trade Organisation and the European Competition Commission should be strengthened

d) There should be less reliance on centrally imposed targets for public services

Question 4

Stephen Littlechild advanced which of the following arguments in respect of regulation?

a) Regulation of privatized industries should be a temporary expedient to counter the market monopolies enjoyed by privatized industries

b) The proliferation of regulatory bodies in recent decades needs to be paralleled by enhanced parliamentary scrutiny of these regulators

c) That the British government should introduce regulation only occur where there is clear evidence of the potential for market failure

d) That the British government frequently 'gold-plates' European Union directives by over-elaborating and imposing more regulation than is strictly required

Question 5

The concept of 'club government' is particularly relevant to which kind of regulation?

a) Regulation of formerly state-owned enterprises and industries

b) Regulation of financial services

c) Regulation of the professions

d) Regulation of inter-governmental relations and transactions

Question 6

Which of the following is evidence of the existence of a 'regulatory state within the state'?

a) NHS Direct

b) The European Competition Commission

c) The Financial Services Authority

d) The National Audit Office

Question 7

Which of the following is a criteria for an organisation to hold the status of a Royal Charter?

a) At least three-quarters of corporate members must be qualified to first degree standard

b) It must be prepared to govern its affairs without any government intervention

c) The organisation must be a formerly state run industry or enterprise

d) They must receive the explicit personal consent of the Monarch

Question 8

Friedrich von Hayek made which of the following arguments in 'The Road to Serfdom'?

a) Privatisation of state industries means that foreign nations could conceivably control key industries

b) Central planning by the state erodes individual liberties

c) Globalisation is eroding labour standards. These needs to be regulated by trans-national agreements

d) The European Competition Commission places unreasonable restrictions on the consolidation of companies and industries

Question 9

Richards and Smith are associated with which one of the following arguments in respect of privatisation?

a) Privatisation has allowed government to depoliticise large swathes of public policy

b) Privatisation has successfully 'rolled back the frontiers of the state'

c) Privatisation was a pragmatic and not an ideologically inspired policy introduced by the Thatcher governments

d) Privatisation has changed rather than ended state control

Question 10

The 'audit explosion' is best defined by which one of the following statements?

a) The significant increase in regulations issued by the European Union since the Treaty of Maastricht

b) The application of commercial accounting procedures to other areas of social life

c) The tendency of recent British governments to increase the amount of 'red tape' and regulation encountered by British business

d) The concern of the British political elite to maintain control over privatised industries by reconstitution of the powers of the core executive

Oxford University Press, Online Resource Centre, Chapter 14.

Chapter 14

Instructions

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Question 5

Question 6

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

Question 10