ProCon’s Mandatory National Service Quiz
- Question: Which country has a mandatory, police-enforced community cleanup on the last Saturday of every month for everyone age 18 to 65, contributing to the country’s reputation as one of the cleanest countries on its continent?
- Answer: In Rwanda, the last Saturday of every month is called Umuganda (meaning “coming together in common purpose”), a compulsory, police-enforced community cleanup. The monthly event has fostered civic responsibility and national unity and has significantly contributed to the African country’s social and economic development.
- Question: Which of the following offers Americans an avenue for community, national, or international service?
- Answer: All of these offer opportunities for community, national, or international service.
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument against mandatory national service in the United States?
- Answer: All of these are common arguments against mandatory national service.
- Question: What is the common meaning of conscription?
- Answer: Conscription, also called a draft, is compulsory enrollment in military service.
- Question: Which of the following is a common argument in favor of mandatory national service in the United States?
- Answer: All of these are common arguments in favor of mandatory national service.
- Question: Which internationally popular pop-music act went on hiatus because of mandatory national service?
- Answer: The seven members of the K-pop (South Korean pop music) boy band BTS had to take a break from their wildly successful careers from December 2022 to June 2025 to complete their country’s mandatory national service.
- Question: Which event was widely associated with mandatory U.S. national service in the 1960s and early ’70s?
- Answer: In the 1960s and early ’70s, some 2.2 million men were drafted into the U.S. military during the Vietnam War.
- Question: Which American novel promoted mandatory national service?
- Answer: The utopian novel Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888) by journalist Edward Bellamy imagines a society in which mandatory national service is seen as so natural and reasonable that the idea of its being compulsory has ceased to exist.
