IMAT Reading Skills and General Knowledge · Politics, Economics and Society
Society, Rights, Media and the Modern Economy
Names for new kinds of economy, the vocabulary of social science and research, landmarks in voting rights and women's leadership, the media and tech companies, and which islands belong to which country.
Why this matters
The 2026 ministry paper asked for the name of an economy built on digital technology, and the Cambridge papers asked about the sharing economy, a placebo, women prime ministers, a speech at the UN, national newspapers, the founder of a social network and island groups.
Concept 1 of 5: Types of economy and modern economic terms
Economists name an economy after whatever organises it: prices (a market economy), the state (a planned economy), or, more recently, digital platforms, shared assets or recycling. Each new label describes a real change in how goods and work are organised. Learn the label with its defining feature.
Definition
- Market economy: prices and production set by supply and demand. Planned (command) economy: set by the state. Mixed economy: markets plus a large public sector.
- Welfare state: the state provides health care, pensions and unemployment support (the UK's Beveridge Report, 1942, is a founding text).
- Digital economy: economic activity in which digital technologies, the internet and ICT are central to producing, distributing and exchanging goods and services.
- Sustainable development: meeting present needs without compromising future generations (Brundtland Report, 1987).
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed economy | Private markets alongside a large public sector | Italy and most of Europe |
| Planned (command) economy | The state decides what is produced and at what price | The Soviet Union |
| Digital economy | Production and exchange built on digital technology, the internet and ICT | Online shops, app stores, streaming |
| Sharing economy | People share access to under-used goods and services through platforms; access is preferred to ownership | Car sharing, home sharing |
| Gig economy | Short-term, task-by-task work arranged through apps | Food-delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers |
| Circular economy | Products and materials kept in use by repair, reuse and recycling, so waste becomes a resource | Opposite of the linear take, make, dispose model |
| Globalisation | Growing integration of world trade, finance, people and culture | Global supply chains |
| Sustainable development | Growth that does not harm future generations | UN 2030 Agenda: 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015) |
Practice this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
Sharing economy is not charity, and it is not anti-market
In the sharing economy, people pay to use something they do not own, usually through a commercial platform that rates users so strangers can trust each other. It is a market model in which platforms compete with each other and with traditional firms, not a rejection of competition.
Concept 3 of 5: Milestones in voting rights and women in leadership
The vote was extended step by step: first to wealthy men, then all men, then women, often decades apart even in neighbouring countries. Women reached the top of government later still. Learn the first country, Italy's date, and the most famous first women prime ministers.
Definition
- Universal suffrage: every adult citizen can vote, whatever their sex, wealth or education.
- Italian women first voted nationally on 2 June 1946.
- The world's first woman prime minister was Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), in 1960.
- Malala Yousafzai spoke at the UN for girls' education on her 16th birthday, 12 July 2013, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014.
| Date | Milestone | Country or person |
|---|---|---|
| 1893 | First country where women vote in national elections | New Zealand |
| 1906 | First European country to give women the vote and the right to stand | Finland |
| 1918 and 1928 | Women's vote, then on equal terms with men | United Kingdom |
| 1946 | Women vote in a national election | Italy |
| 1971 | Women's vote at federal level | Switzerland |
| 1960 | World's first woman prime minister | Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka |
| 1966, 1969, 1979 | Women prime ministers | Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom) |
| 1988 | First woman to lead a Muslim-majority country | Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan |
| 1964 | Civil Rights Act ends legal segregation | USA, after the movement led by Martin Luther King |
| 1994 | First free elections, end of apartheid | South Africa; Nelson Mandela president |
| 2021 and 2022 | First women prime ministers | Magdalena Andersson (Sweden); Giorgia Meloni (Italy) |
Practice this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
Progressive does not mean early
Countries known for equality were not always first. Sweden had no woman prime minister until 2021 and Switzerland no federal women's vote until 1971, while India (1966), Israel (1969) and Pakistan (1988) had women prime ministers much earlier.
Concept 4 of 5: Newspapers and technology companies
Each major country has one or two national newspapers whose names are general knowledge, and a few internet companies changed daily life so much that their founders are household names. Learn the paper with its country and the company with its founder and year.
Definition
- The two best-known Italian dailies are the Corriere della Sera (Milan, 1876) and La Repubblica (Rome, 1976).
- De Telegraaf is Dutch (Amsterdam), not Danish; Denmark's best-known dailies include Politiken and Berlingske.
- Most famous tech companies were founded in the USA between 1975 and 2006.
| Name | Country or type | Fact to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Corriere della Sera; La Repubblica | Italy | Milan, 1876; Rome, 1976 |
| Le Monde; Le Figaro | France | Paris dailies |
| The Times; The Guardian | United Kingdom | London dailies |
| El País | Spain | Madrid, 1976 |
| Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Süddeutsche Zeitung | Germany | Frankfurt; Munich |
| De Telegraaf | Netherlands | Amsterdam |
| The New York Times; The Washington Post | USA | Washington Post broke the Watergate story (1972) |
| Microsoft | Tech company, 1975 | Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| Apple | Tech company, 1976 | Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak |
| Amazon | Tech company, 1994 | Jeff Bezos |
| Tech company, 1998 | Larry Page and Sergey Brin | |
| Wikipedia | Online encyclopedia, 2001 | Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger |
| Facebook (now Meta) | Social network, 2004 | Mark Zuckerberg |
| YouTube | Video platform, 2005 | Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim; bought by Google in 2006 |
| Twitter (now X) | Social network, 2006 | Jack Dorsey and others |
Practice this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
Netherlands and Denmark are different countries
Students mix up the two small North Sea monarchies. De Telegraaf is published in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Danish papers have Danish names such as Politiken.
Concept 5 of 5: Island groups and the countries they belong to
Many island groups lie far from the country that governs them, a legacy of exploration and empire. Some, like Cape Verde, have since become independent. Learn the islands with their country and one fact.
Definition
- Autonomous regions of Portugal: the Azores and Madeira; of Spain: the Canary and Balearic Islands.
- Denmark includes two self-governing territories: Greenland (the largest island in the world) and the Faroe Islands.
- Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony, has been independent since 1975.
| Islands | Country | Fact to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Azores and Madeira | Portugal | Autonomous regions in the Atlantic |
| Canary Islands | Spain | Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco |
| Balearic Islands | Spain | Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, in the Mediterranean |
| Corsica | France | Birthplace of Napoleon |
| Sicily and Sardinia | Italy | Regions with a special statute |
| Greenland and the Faroe Islands | Denmark | Self-governing territories |
| Svalbard | Norway | Arctic archipelago |
| Falkland Islands | United Kingdom | Claimed by Argentina (Malvinas); war of 1982 |
| Galápagos Islands | Ecuador | Visited by Darwin in 1835 |
| Hawaii | USA | Became the 50th state in 1959 |
| Cape Verde | Independent republic since 1975 | Former Portuguese colony off West Africa |
Practice this conceptself-check · 3 quick reps
Portuguese-speaking does not mean Brazilian
Cape Verde, off West Africa, speaks Portuguese because it was a Portuguese colony, not because of Brazil. It has been an independent country since 1975. The Portuguese islands today are the Azores and Madeira.
Summary — formulas & gotchas at a glance
A revision cheat-sheet for the formulas and gotchas above. Click any concept name to jump back to its full explanation.
Reference tables (5)
Types of economy and modern economic terms8 rows
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Mixed economy | Private markets alongside a large public sector | Italy and most of Europe |
| Planned (command) economy | The state decides what is produced and at what price | The Soviet Union |
| Digital economy | Production and exchange built on digital technology, the internet and ICT | Online shops, app stores, streaming |
| Sharing economy | People share access to under-used goods and services through platforms; access is preferred to ownership | Car sharing, home sharing |
| Gig economy | Short-term, task-by-task work arranged through apps | Food-delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers |
| Circular economy | Products and materials kept in use by repair, reuse and recycling, so waste becomes a resource | Opposite of the linear take, make, dispose model |
| Globalisation | Growing integration of world trade, finance, people and culture | Global supply chains |
| Sustainable development | Growth that does not harm future generations | UN 2030 Agenda: 17 Sustainable Development Goals (2015) |
Social science and research vocabulary10 rows
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Census | An official count of a whole population (in Italy, run by ISTAT) |
| Sample | A part of a population studied to draw conclusions about the whole |
| Birth rate | Births per 1,000 people per year |
| Fertility rate | Average number of children per woman |
| Ageing population | A rising share of older people in the population |
| Urbanisation | The movement of people from the countryside to cities |
| Placebo | An inactive substance or treatment given for comparison |
| Double-blind trial | Neither the patients nor the researchers know who receives the real treatment |
| Social mobility | Movement of people between social classes or income levels |
| Meritocracy | A system in which positions are earned by ability and effort |
Milestones in voting rights and women in leadership11 rows
| Date | Milestone | Country or person |
|---|---|---|
| 1893 | First country where women vote in national elections | New Zealand |
| 1906 | First European country to give women the vote and the right to stand | Finland |
| 1918 and 1928 | Women's vote, then on equal terms with men | United Kingdom |
| 1946 | Women vote in a national election | Italy |
| 1971 | Women's vote at federal level | Switzerland |
| 1960 | World's first woman prime minister | Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lanka |
| 1966, 1969, 1979 | Women prime ministers | Indira Gandhi (India), Golda Meir (Israel), Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom) |
| 1988 | First woman to lead a Muslim-majority country | Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan |
| 1964 | Civil Rights Act ends legal segregation | USA, after the movement led by Martin Luther King |
| 1994 | First free elections, end of apartheid | South Africa; Nelson Mandela president |
| 2021 and 2022 | First women prime ministers | Magdalena Andersson (Sweden); Giorgia Meloni (Italy) |
Newspapers and technology companies15 rows
| Name | Country or type | Fact to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Corriere della Sera; La Repubblica | Italy | Milan, 1876; Rome, 1976 |
| Le Monde; Le Figaro | France | Paris dailies |
| The Times; The Guardian | United Kingdom | London dailies |
| El País | Spain | Madrid, 1976 |
| Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Süddeutsche Zeitung | Germany | Frankfurt; Munich |
| De Telegraaf | Netherlands | Amsterdam |
| The New York Times; The Washington Post | USA | Washington Post broke the Watergate story (1972) |
| Microsoft | Tech company, 1975 | Bill Gates and Paul Allen |
| Apple | Tech company, 1976 | Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak |
| Amazon | Tech company, 1994 | Jeff Bezos |
| Tech company, 1998 | Larry Page and Sergey Brin | |
| Wikipedia | Online encyclopedia, 2001 | Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger |
| Facebook (now Meta) | Social network, 2004 | Mark Zuckerberg |
| YouTube | Video platform, 2005 | Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim; bought by Google in 2006 |
| Twitter (now X) | Social network, 2006 | Jack Dorsey and others |
Island groups and the countries they belong to11 rows
| Islands | Country | Fact to remember |
|---|---|---|
| Azores and Madeira | Portugal | Autonomous regions in the Atlantic |
| Canary Islands | Spain | Atlantic, off the coast of Morocco |
| Balearic Islands | Spain | Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza, in the Mediterranean |
| Corsica | France | Birthplace of Napoleon |
| Sicily and Sardinia | Italy | Regions with a special statute |
| Greenland and the Faroe Islands | Denmark | Self-governing territories |
| Svalbard | Norway | Arctic archipelago |
| Falkland Islands | United Kingdom | Claimed by Argentina (Malvinas); war of 1982 |
| Galápagos Islands | Ecuador | Visited by Darwin in 1835 |
| Hawaii | USA | Became the 50th state in 1959 |
| Cape Verde | Independent republic since 1975 | Former Portuguese colony off West Africa |
Watch out for (5)
- Sharing economy is not charity, and it is not anti-market→ Types of economy and modern economic terms
- A placebo has no active ingredient→ Social science and research vocabulary
- Progressive does not mean early→ Milestones in voting rights and women in leadership
- Netherlands and Denmark are different countries→ Newspapers and technology companies
- Portuguese-speaking does not mean Brazilian→ Island groups and the countries they belong to
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