Evolution of Modern Constitutions — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. Magna Carta (1215) is significant because it:

   • Was the world's first written national constitution
   • Is the earliest landmark limiting a ruler's power by a written charter, though not itself a modern constitution (correct answer)
   • Established universal adult suffrage
   • Created the first federal government

   Explanation. Magna Carta planted the idea that royal power has limits, but it did not create a modern constitution.

2. The English Bill of Rights, 1689 followed which event?

   • The Glorious Revolution (correct answer)
   • The French Revolution
   • The American Revolution
   • World War I

   Explanation. Following the Glorious Revolution, this Act asserted the supremacy of Parliament over the Crown.

3. Which is generally recognized as the world's first codified, written national constitution?

   • The English Bill of Rights
   • Magna Carta
   • The United States Constitution, 1787 (correct answer)
   • The French Declaration of the Rights of Man

   Explanation. The US Constitution (1787) is a single document, deliberately drafted and ratified, set up as the supreme law of the land.

4. The French Declaration of the Rights of Man, 1789 contributed the idea that:

   • Supreme power lies in the nation, not in the monarch (correct answer)
   • Only the monarch could grant rights
   • Federalism is superior to unitary government
   • Constitutions cannot be amended

   Explanation. The 1789 Declaration declared that supreme power lies in the nation, not the monarch, and that men are born free and equal in rights.

5. A constitution drawn from statutes, judicial precedent, and convention, with no single authoritative text, is classified as:

   • Written (codified)
   • Unwritten (uncodified) (correct answer)
   • Rigid
   • Presidential

   Explanation. The United Kingdom is the standard example of an unwritten, uncodified constitution.

6. The Rigid vs. Flexible classification of constitutions turns on:

   • Whether power is divided between centre and states
   • How difficult the amendment procedure is (correct answer)
   • Whether the executive is elected separately from the legislature
   • Whether there is a single codified document

   Explanation. A rigid constitution requires a special, harder-than-ordinary procedure to amend; a flexible one can be amended like ordinary legislation.

7. India's Constitution is best described, on the Federal/Unitary axis, as:

   • Purely unitary, like France
   • Purely federal, like the United States
   • Federal in structure with a unitary bias, often called "quasi-federal" (correct answer)
   • Not classifiable on this axis

   Explanation. India's Constitution is federal in structure but with a unitary bias — commonly described as "quasi-federal."

8. Article 368 shows that India's Constitution is:

   • Entirely rigid, with only one amendment procedure
   • Entirely flexible, like the UK's constitution
   • Partly rigid and partly flexible, since different provisions need different amendment procedures (correct answer)
   • Impossible to amend

   Explanation. India has three ways to amend: a simple majority outside Article 368, a special majority under Article 368(2), and a special majority plus approval by half the State Legislatures. So the Constitution is flexible for some provisions and rigid for others.