3. Discuss and compare the following ideologies: liberalism, conservatism, socialism and nationalism.

Question 1

What is an ideology?

Answer 1

An ideology is a 1) coherent collection of normative beliefs, set of ideas on how people should live together and 2) a plan of action for applying these ideas. According to A. Downs it is a ‘verbal image of the good society, and of the chief means of constructing such society.’ Its key functions include explanatory (how the world works), evaluative (things are good/bad), orientation (sense of identity) and programme (what to do and how).

Question 2

Describe liberalism!

Answer 2

• Has its roots in the 18th and 19th c. Enlightenment: antique traditions, ration and reason, development and progress / started with the English revolution?
• Focuses on the relationship btw the individual and society, the rights and responsibilities of the individual
• John Locke: Second Treatise of Government (1688) Locke’s model consists of a civil state, built upon the natural rights common to a people who need and welcome an executive power to protect their property and liberties; the government exists for the people’s benefit and can be replaced or overthrown if it ceases to function toward that primary end.
• The “invisible hand” is an important concept
• Adam Smith: The Wealth of Nations (1776) laissez-fair economy leaders to true wealth as people produce goods and services and it promotes prosperity. Govt interference retards growth since monopoly banishes competition and tariffs take away incentives. Market will regulate the economy: efficient producers will prosper, and supply & demand determines prices better than the govt. The unseen hand (myriad of individuals and rims pursing their self-interest) regulates and self-corrects the economy. Society should be as free as possible from govt interference (e.g. in religion, press, free speech). Nowadays it’s what Americans call conservativism. Modern liberalism (US liberalism today) favours govt intervention to correct economic and social ills due to imperfect competition and economic downturns and argues for freedom of speech and press.
• Competition both in economy and politics: capability and talent
• Fostering individuality is in focus
• John Stuart Mill: On Liberty (1859): the essay provides an impassioned defense of nonconformity as a positive good for society, and an equally impassioned reminder that no one can be completely sure that his or her way of life is the best or the only way to live. 1. Democracy alone does not guarantee personal freedom as the majority rules over the indv. 2. The only reason to limit liberty should be to save people from harm. Mill’s harm principles: Harm by default (drug), Harm by omission (tax evasion), Harm by accident (train). False opinions are not only good, they’re important.
• Liberty and equality of opportunity

Question 3

Describe Conservativism!

Answer 3

• Is a reflection to liberalism of 18th, 19th c.
• Edmund Burke Reflections on the revolution in France (1972). Agreed with Smith that the free market is the best economic system. Rejected French radicalism and predicted that it will fall into a military dictatorship. Holds that liberals place too much confidence in human raison as people have irrational passions also therefore institutions, traditions and morality are needed to contain them. Institutions and traditions are products of hundreds of years of trial and error, they are not perfect, but will work and people got used to them so they must be conserved. Change is possible, but only gradually, giving people time to adjust. Modern conservatism (neoliberals) hold that the free market is still the best as it is honest and self-correcting and reject govt intervention.
• Refuses revolutionary way of changes, focuses on order instead of mess (= radicalism)
• Emphasises progression, development through an evolutionary, organic way
• Has an organic understanding of society:
• Society and state like the human body
• Respect of the “natural”: permanent re-interpretation
• Aims to preserve and keep traditions: the fundaments of society
• Interprets equality differently: respect basic differences in ability and take differences into account

Question 4

Describe Socialism!

Answer 4

• Addresses social and economic inequality
• The division of capital and labour leads to unjust results
• Karl Marx: The communist Manifesto (1848), The Capital (1867). Posits that the proletariat has nothing to lose but everything to win and should unite. Capitalism would be overthrown by the proletariat and socialism (no class divisions) would come into being, then communism (plenty of good, no money, govt, policy, private property). Marx talked about the ills and malfunctions of capitalism, never specified socialism so social thinkers put forward their own versions.
• Emancipation is in the focus
• The rise of Working Class
• Real power should belong to workers
• Legal, political and social changes: if needed, through a revolutionary way (proletarian revolution)
• The fight of the Proletariat (industrial working class): the last battle of history
   After it, exploitation will be over
   Society without classes means equality
• Final phase: communism, a society without classes, capital, government
• Pope Leo XIII: Rerum Novarum (1891): the birth of Christian socialism. The Pope declared that while it is the government’s job promote social justice, it is the responsibility of the Church to promote social principles that prevent class conflict. He recognized the importance of a free market, but he warned that in practice, morals must be taken into consideration and workers must be treated with dignity and fairness. He condemned unrestricted capitalism, promoted dignity in the workplace and fair and safe working conditions for the laborers, and advocated the formation of trade unions.

Question 5

Describe Nationalism!

Answer 5

• Def.: people’s heightened sense of cultural, historical, and territorial identity, unity and sometimes greatness
• Has its roots in the idea of the Nation state (17th, 18th c.) that was born in the Peace of Westphalia (1648)
• In the 18th c. it was about political identity (nation), language, history
• Johann Gottfried Herder (1977-1803)
• Typologies include Ethno-cultural vs. Political (nation defined in terms of ethnicity vs. shared culture), and Premodern-modern-postmodern
• Self-determination, sovereignty are in focus
• Influences other ideologies
• In the XX. c. chauvinism and fascism developed out of it
• Fascism:
• First came in power in 1922 Italy
• Def.: an extreme form of nationalism with elements of racism, socialism and militarism.
• Characteristics: heightened or extreme (far-right) nationalism, strong state, anti-rationalism and anti-Enlightenment, collectivism, extreme social Darwinism
   Italian fascism focuses on the state. Corporatism, nationalism, modernism (futurism)
   German Nazism focuses on race “Volksgeist” and biological determination. “Lebensraum”-theory , “Führer-prinzip” .
• (Other political ideologies in the 20th c. include Chauvinism in France, Arrow-Cross movement and Racialists in Hungary, white supremacy and Jim Crow-states in the US, social democracy esp. after 1945, Feminism (mainly second ware from the ‘60s), ecological movements (‘70s, later parties ‘80s), peace movements of the ‘60s, anti-globalisation and the criticism of globalisation (mainly from the 1990s))