150 free Political trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
44 free political trivia questions with answers. Politics is more than one country's presidents. This political trivia quiz roams the world: where the words 'left' and 'right' come from, why a Massachusetts governor's name became a verb, which parliament is the oldest on Earth, who was the first woman ever elected prime minister, how many members sit on the UN Security Council, and which country fines you for not voting. There are questions on the leaders (Mandela, Thatcher, Merkel, Gorbachev, Wałęsa, Bhutto, Sirleaf), the systems (Westminster, ranked-choice voting, the secret ballot, coalitions), the scandals and turning points (Watergate, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Churchill's Iron Curtain), and the assemblies (Bundestag, Knesset, Storting, Althing). A handful touch the United States, but only a handful; if you want presidents, we have a separate quiz for that. Every stem is neutral and every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the people, institutions and events, with a source attached to each question.
30 of 150 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The political terms 'left' and 'right' come from where members sat in which body?
The French National Assembly of 1789
Supporters of the king sat to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left, and one deputy explained he wanted to avoid the shouting on the other side.
Q 02'Gerrymandering' blends the name of an 1812 Massachusetts governor with which animal?
A salamander
The Boston Gazette coined it for a twisted district drawn to help Elbridge Gerry's party; his own party lost the governorship anyway.
Q 03Which senator filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1957 for 24 hours 18 minutes?
Strom Thurmond
His 24-hour-18-minute speech against the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was the longest single-senator filibuster for decades, until Cory Booker's 25-hour floor speech in 2025; 'filibuster' descends from a Dutch term for a freebooting pirate.
Q 04The Watergate scandal began with a 1972 break-in at the headquarters of which organisation?
The Democratic National Committee
The burglars were linked to Nixon's re-election campaign, and the cover-up ended with Nixon's resignation in 1974.
Q 05Which US president is the only one to have resigned from office?
Richard Nixon
He left in August 1974 rather than face near-certain impeachment over the Watergate cover-up.
Q 06How many years did Nelson Mandela spend in prison before his release in 1990?
27
He was held first on Robben Island, and four years after his release he became South Africa's first black head of state.
Q 07Which South African president released Mandela and later negotiated the end of apartheid with him?
F. W. de Klerk
The two shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize, and Mandela won the 1994 election in which every adult could vote for the first time.
Q 08Before entering politics, Margaret Thatcher trained and briefly worked as what?
A research chemist
She read chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, then became a barrister; she was the longest-serving British PM of the 20th century.
Q 09Which 1978-79 wave of British strikes helped bring Thatcher to power in 1979?
The Winter of Discontent
The Conservatives ran on the slogan 'Labour Isn't Working' and won a majority that May.
Q 10Angela Merkel holds a doctorate in which field?
Quantum chemistry
She worked as a research scientist in East Germany until 1989 and in 2005 became the first woman elected chancellor.
Q 11Who became the world's first woman elected prime minister, in 1960?
Sirimavo Bandaranaike
She led Ceylon, later Sri Lanka, three separate times after entering politics following her husband's assassination.
Q 12Which country elected the world's first female president in a democratic vote, in 1980?
Iceland
Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, a former theatre director, served 16 years; the country's parliament is also the world's oldest, founded in 930.
Q 13Established in 930, which is the oldest legislature in the world?
Iceland's Althing
It met at Thingvellir until union with Norway in 1262 stripped its power for 641 years; today it has 63 members.
Q 21Instant-runoff (ranked-choice) voting is used to elect the lower house of which country's parliament?
Australia
Voters rank candidates and the last-placed is eliminated round by round; Papua New Guinea and Ireland's presidency use it too.
Q 22The 'Australian ballot' refers to what democratic innovation first used in Tasmania in 1856?
Voting in secret
Before it, American parties printed pre-filled ballots that workers handed to voters at the polls; US states adopted secret ballots after 1884.
Q 23Which self-governing colony became the first to grant women the national vote, in 1893?
New Zealand
Q 14How many members sit on the United Nations Security Council?
Fifteen
Five are permanent with veto power, the Second World War's main Allied powers, and ten serve two-year elected terms.
Q 15Which country introduced compulsory voting for national elections in 1924?
Australia
Turnout had ranged from 47 to 78 percent before; Belgium has the oldest system still in force.
Q 16The 'Westminster system' of government takes its name from what?
The palace where the UK Parliament meets
Most former British colonies adopted it on gaining self-government, starting with the Province of Canada in 1848.
Q 17How many single-member constituencies elect the UK House of Commons?
650
Elections use first-past-the-post at least every five years, while the House of Lords is appointed and includes up to 26 bishops.
Q 18Who is regarded as the first British prime minister, taking office in 1721?
Robert Walpole
He was also the longest-serving, at more than 20 years; the office exists only by convention, not statute.
Q 19Which British prime minister served the shortest tenure, seven weeks?
Liz Truss
Canning died in office after 119 days in 1827, which had been the record before 2022.
Q 20Since 1997, Prime Minister's Questions has been held weekly on which day?
Wednesday
Tony Blair merged the two 15-minute sessions into one 30-minute Wednesday slot in 1997; the fixed slot dates from a 1961 experiment under Harold Macmillan, originally on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Kate Sheppard's campaign delivered a petition of nearly 32,000 signatures, about a quarter of the adult European female population.
Q 24Emmeline Pankhurst founded which militant British suffrage organisation in 1903?
The Women's Social and Political Union
Its motto was 'deeds, not words', and British women over 30 won the vote in 1918.
Q 25In which year did the Berlin Wall fall?
1989
A botched press conference by spokesman Günter Schabowski sent crowds to the checkpoints, and overwhelmed guards opened the gates.
Q 26In which year did East Germany begin building the Berlin Wall?
1961
About 3.5 million East Germans, a fifth of the population, had left before it went up.
Q 27Winston Churchill delivered his 'iron curtain' speech in 1946 in which US state?
Missouri
Speaking at Westminster College in Fulton with President Truman present, he described a curtain 'from Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic'.
Q 28Where did John F. Kennedy declare 'Ich bin ein Berliner' in June 1963?
On the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg
He spoke to about 120,000 people, 22 months after the Wall went up.
Q 29Which country did Fidel Castro lead from 1959 until 2011?
Cuba
He was the longest-serving non-royal head of state of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Q 30Robert Mugabe led which country from 1980 until his removal in 2017?
Zimbabwe
He was its first prime minister and then its second president, a 37-year run ended by a military takeover.