Essay Tuesday Flashcards
“Governments and political parties are no longer motivated by political ideology.”
To say political parties are no longer motivated by ideology is somewhat ignorant of current global affairs. Most prominently, there has been a notable rise in nationalist parties within Europe, with one of the biggest political stories in Spain being the rise of the far-right vox party, which saw them double their seats to 52 in the Spanish parliament following the elections in the 10th of November. With the vox party promising to deport illegal immigrants and repeal laws against gender violence. Austria has also saw similar rises in far-right nationalist parties, with the freedom party coming to power through coalition with the conservate chancellor in 2017. This rise in nationalism is heavily accredited to the migrant crisis being experience from increased refugees. However, perhaps one of the best examples in Europe of a party in power that is very much motivated by ideology is the Scottish National Party (SNP). It is a party that has advanced its left of centre policies in keeping with its social democratic roots. Many of its policies, ranging from supporting same-sex marriage to unilateral nuclear disarmament to the building of affordable social housing, are consistent with other social democratic parties in Europe such as the Social Democrat Party in Finland and the Social Democrats in Denmark. The SNP supports policies which aim to redistribute wealth gradually while respecting capitalism and a free market economy. Progressive personal taxation and free tuition for higher education are social policies that are “populist” as well as social democratic in scope. Therefore, one could argue that the SNP have not wavered from an ideological standpoint; indeed, far from it, they actually very much uphold the ideology upon which they were founded. However, it can equally be argued that social democratic values are also populist so therefore their policies may not be enacted with the intention of upholding ideological purity
However, the SNP are a party who are pragmatic and, while they have held to their traditional social democratic values in many respects, they have recently broadened their appeal to be a party that offers more than just independence. It is perhaps fair to argue, then that “nationalist” ideology has motivated the SNP a great deal less since losing the referendum. They are a party that is growing on a “Scotland first” platform, but their growth in popularity in the recent General Election is in part down to Scots who are voting SNP for reasons other than to gain independence. The Scottish Government, led by a repackaged and softer First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, have developed a range of policies which appeal to a wide range of voters, not simply traditional nationalist, nor simply traditional Labour voters. An end to unfair policies like the so-called Bedroom Tax, a higher minimum wage and opposition to any further privatisation of the NHS are all “social democratic” in scope rather than “nationalist”. This seems to be as clear an indication as any that parties of government are no longer so concerned with ideology, as they perhaps are with winning votes.
However the rise of the leftist ideologies calling for increased taxation does not appeal to certain segments of the electorate, especially those in the red States of the US. The best known populist leader today is American President Donald Trump. His successful populist campaign surprised the world and has re-invigorated conservatives in the Grand Old Party (GOP). His populist rhetoric has led to reactionary measures intended to stem the anger emanating from his ‘base’ who live in the red states of the mid-west and south. To curb the effects of immigration and security concerns, Trump attempted to ban immigrants from seven countries. He has dramatically increased military spending in an effort to combat Chinese and Russian influence abroad and he is intent on cutting taxes for corporations and the rich. While such actions are in keeping with conservative Republican ideology, such moves are unquestionably ‘populist’ as the men and women that elected Trump were fed up with the Washington DC elite and politically correct liberal democrats that had come to dominate American politics for so long. Indeed, ‘populism’ and the plain spoken Trump have undoubtedly changed the Republican party and made it more responsive to its core voters. In an age of ‘big tent’ politics where parties have moved to the centre to attract votes, Trump’s election shocked the world and has ushered in many other authoritarian, populist world leaders.
This growth in populism has also been reflected in the United Kingdom, where class alignment to political parties has declined and therefore the Conservative and Labour parties have attempted to attract a wide range of voters as this is best rewarded by the FPTP system. The ressurection of One nation conservatives - a ideology revolving around decreasing class alignement - through David Cameron and most recently the Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, strongly suggests that the Conservatives have shifted into being a catch-all party rather than sticking to truly traditional conservative values, with Boris Johnson saying “This one nation Conservative Government will massively increase our investment in the NHS”. This is distinctly against the conservative value of private ownership. However, the strongest evidence of the conservatives becoming a catch-all party took place in the 2016 EU referendum, where members such as Boris Johnson backed leave while Prime Minister David Cameron backed remain. Such ideological contradictions themselves prove that it is a catch-all party, and additionally the support and leadership of the leave campaign by the now prime minister could very well be argued as going against the conservative commitment to traditional values, as the UK has been in the EU since 1973. Likewise though, one could argue that “tacking back control” and leaving the EU is the most traditional prospect possible.
However this disillusion has also caused an uprise in far-right support..The euro crisis, followed by Europe’s migrant crisis and the Paris and Brussels terror attacks has fuelled the right-wing rise. Many voters have become increasingly concerned by: immigration, integration, jobs, incomes, the EU, political and business elites. However, their ideological roots are very different: from anti-establishment to neofascist, nationalist to anti-austerity, authoritarian to populist, libertarian to Catholic ultra-conservative. Germany’s AfD is not quite as far-right as Hungary’s FideszIt may be misleading to bracket them all together in the same category (The Economist, 2016). The rise of the right suggests Europe’s traditional mainstream parties are losing popular support. Across Europe, the centre-left social democrats and centreright Christian democrats who have dominated national politics for 60 years are in decline. However, what is on the march across Europe may not be the farright, but distrust, disillusion, even full-scale rejection of the political establishment and their traditional ideological stances. This suggests that there are significant differences between party ideologies today as new party ideologies are emerging quite distinct to those which previously determined voting behaviour. Therefore, it would be a logical conclusion to suggest that political ideologies have never been more important or divisive than they are today.
The growth of neo-liberalism in modern times can be seen as a deeply ideological policy in modern times, as societal pressure to offer social support rises it is certainly not “populist”. Neoliberalism is a policy model that encompasses both politics and economics and seeks to transfer the control of economic factors from the public sector to the private sector. Many neoliberalism policies enhance the workings of free market capitalism and attempt to place limits on government spending, government regulation, and public ownership. One of the most promiment examples of this is the Brazilian government under President Bolsonaro, who’s government is determined in rolling back on social rights and the private sector by cutting back on trade unionisation and wokers rights. The application of neo-liberalism in such a brutal form as seen by bolsonaro is heavily associated with authoritarian regimes as strong force must be used – however this also reinforces that the Brazlian government is deeply ideological under Bosonaro, as a “populist” regime would have no need to use coercion. One of the most promiment neoliberal policies under Bosonaro was the privatisation of the Rio De Janeiro water and sewage utility through an auction. The utility tends to 64 municipalities in Rio state, of which 35 were included in the auction.
“Socialism is an ideology with little relevance in modern political systems.”
The influence of socialism is felt most within the Labour Party who have traditionally been associated with the Labour movement and socialist values of nationalisation, collectivism and universal welfare provision. However the degree to which Labour genuinely follows socialist doctrine and pushes reform has differed greatly throughout the years. During the Blairite years in power from 1997-2007 the “third-way” New Labour party’s policies where more representative of a neoliberal ideology – meaning minimal government intervention and promotion of private ownsership, this was therefore more refelective of the “new right” under Thatcher and the conservatives. Clause 4’s symbolic rewriting saw Labour end its commitment to nationalisation of key industries and the ‘means of production’, a cornerstone of socialist principles. New Labour’s commitment to neoliberal policy was shown through actions such as privatisation of the bank of England and heavy de-regulation of the financial sector.
However, Labour retained core values associated with socialism’s collectivist principles. Whilst in government Labour continued to support free universal access to healthcare and health spending grew year-on-year above inflation so that by 2010 it stood at £140 billion and had increased to almost 10% of GDP. This also occurred whilst enlargement of private healthcare provision was being adopted. ‘Equality of opportunity’ rather than ‘equality for all’. However new labour did not last for long and the election of Jeremy Corbyn as leader of the party in 2015 was seen as an end, as Corbyn’s values and support for renationalisation directly conflict with the “third-ways” goals of ending the economic determinism portion of socialism. However under Sir Keir Starmer, labour has taken a less radical approach then under Corbyn leading some to argue that the “third-way” is back.
Socialism can clearly be said to be dying. In recent years, fewer countries are being run by socialist parties and parties of this ideology have seen a decline in support. The easiest way to define socialism is that it seeks to redistribute the wealth of a nation, closing the gap between the rich and the poor. Current states that follow socialist principles include Laos, China, Cuba, and Vietnam. This number has dropped dramatically in recent years. Even where socialism remains, it could be said to have changed significantly from the roots of what socialism set out for it to be like. China is no longer a truly communist country as it is open to the free-market and operates in what is essentially a heavily regulated capitalist economy within a dictatorship. Cuba also aimed to create a communist system, however to say it has failed would be somewhat of an understatement, with approximatley 26 percent of the population living in poverty. However from 2015 Cuba opened up to the United States and has become more capitalist in nature, which acts as another examples of the failure and abandonment of socialism.
Venezuela is also an example of a failed socialist state with 96 percent of venezuelans living in poverty. Many academics and socialists that claim that the collapse in venezuela was a consequence of corruption and not the socialist system itself. Similar reasons are also given for Cuba. However economists such as Kristian Niemietz from the institution of economic affairs argue that socialism causes the corruption itself, with him stating that “socialist projects do not start out with totalitarian aspirations - they just end up that way” Former US President Donald Trump also echoed this sentiment stating that socialism “always gives rise to tyranny.” Regardless, socialism has clearly not worked in Venezuela, with inflation hitting 1.7 million percent, making money worthless.
Socialism is not dead and is not dying, but it has changed, and countries like Cuba, China and North Korea are less relevant to socialism now than when they adopted their own versions of it. Socialism is very prominent in modern first-world countries, such as the Nordic Countries, however it is no longer pure socialism and is instead a social democratic system. Social democracies are countries which place a high emphasis on socialist reform through the welfare system and heavy taxation. This ability to supply support to citizens such as free healthcare and increased workers rights has become increasingly popular within the electorate in recent times, with a most prominent examples of this being the SNP. Scotland is also partaking in a social democratic movement, with the SNP government scrapping prescription drugs and offering Free tuition for Scottish University students. This has lead to great success in recent elections, with the SNP winning 64 seats in the 2021 scottish parliament elections – one short of a majority. However it could also be argued that the SNP are simply enacting populist policy in an effort to gain support so they can put forward a second independence referendum, and therefore not fully committed to social reform and may abandon it once independence is achieved. This criticism is somewhat backed up too as a recent report by the hunter foundation and oxford economics found that Scotland must choose between a Singapore style model in which there is little welfare support and low taxation or rising debt. Therefore it could be argued that there is a significant chance the SNP could abandon the social democratic model once independence has been achieved.
However one can equally argue that social democracies themselves are dying in the globalised economy. Some argue that economies are no longer national and so no longer controlled by national governments. Social policy is limited by global constraints, laws are made by supra-national bodies. Human rights, environmental problems, terrorism crime, etc are global issues in relation to which politics must be (or is) organised globally. The nationstate has declined. Social democracy is traditionally associated with high taxes, public spending, large welfare states and a working class base, all of which are seen to have been eroded by globalisation or made impossible. It is said that the capacity of governments to control the economy within their own borders seems no longer possible due to international trade and travel which sees money between national borders at ease. For example, any wealth created by high public spending could be exchanged abroad by citizens instead of within their borders – offsetting any positive change. In 2019, 185.5 billion purchase transactions were made worldwide using Visa payment cards, in which there is no cross-border restrictionsThese are said by some to have led governments to construct neoliberal ‘competition states’. Social democrats give up their traditional policies and practice neoliberal policies to attract new investment from global multi-nationals. In that sense, it could be argued that mass travel and currency exchange has lead to corporations having more power than governments, therefore as the world increasingly becomes a corpotocracy it is unlikely socialism will survive as it is essentailly anti corporation.
