Ideologies Flashcards
Main Western Theories (4)
- Liberalism - 17th C - John Locke
- Republicanism - 18th C - JJ Rousseau
- Conservatism - 18th C - Edmund Burke
- Marxism - 19th C - Karl Marx
Liberalism
An ideology which holds individual liberty as its paramount value and argues that the state being a contract between citizens and their government must preserve the rights of individual through the rule of law, equality and opportunity and tolerance amongst its members
Adam Smith
Author of Wealth of Nations, 1776
Wrote about Economic Liberalism
- Believed economic rights of individual are key
- Free market ; Invisible Hand of Self-Interest (unintended greater social benefits and public good brought about by individuals acting in their own self-interests)
J. S Mill
Author of On Liberty, 1859
Political Liberalism
- Liberty is paramount value
Believed in Political Liberalism and that Liberty is paramount value and there were 3 basic kinds
1. Liberty of Thought (freedom of expression, publication, religion)
2. Liberty of Action (free from all constraint except Harm Principle)
3. Liberty of Association (free to join any organization you want)
Creator of the Harm Principle and Tyranny of the Majority
Main Tenants of Classical Liberalism (7)
- Individual Freedoms are Paramount
- Free Market
- Rule of Law
- Equality of Opportunity
- Tolerance
- Representative Government
- Division between Public & Private Spheres
Negative Liberty (Classical Liberal/Neoliberalism)
One of Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty (1969)
Liberty “from” = Freedom from External Constrain
Role of the State is not to interfere & protect/preserve individual liberties
Manifested in Civil and Political Rights
Positive Liberty (Welfare/Reform Liberalism)
One of Isaiah Berlin’s Two Concepts of Liberty (1969)
Liberty “to” = Capacity to be master of one’s own destiny
Role of the State is to provide basic goods in so the individual can be free to act
Manifested in Social and Economic Rights
Positive Liberty (Welfare/Reform Liberalism) Thinkers
- T.H Green - “positive freedom”
- State intervention is necessary in economy - John Maynard Keynes - General Theory of Employment & Money, 1938
- Social rights are as important as civil/political rights, creation of welfare state
Negative Liberty (Classical Liberal/Neoliberalism/Libertarianism) Thinkers
- Friedrich Hayek - Road to Serfdom, 1944
- Milton Friedman - Capitalism and Freedom, 1962
= Both believe that bigger state is bad and is going to lead to problems
American Constitution (1776)
Anti-Monarchical, emphasizes the “people” and rule of law
Emphasizes civic virtue/duty
No foundational religion - separation of church and state
Conservatism
An ideology which seeks to avoid large-scale or radical change, conserve tradition, maintain institutions and defend general law and order
Edmund Burke (4)
Author of Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790
Anti-Romantic/Revolutionary/Republican
1. Organic View of Society rather than mechanical
2. Conservation of Tradition
3. Pessimistic View of Human Nature
4. Inequality and Hierarchy
Neoconservatism
An ideology that defends two older traditions
- Fiscal Conservatism - economic classical/neoliberalism
- Social Conservatism - traditional social values along with law and order/security
Fiscal Conservatism
Economic Neoliberalism
- Minimal government intervention in market
- Decrease social spending
- Cut income taxes
- Maximize private sector
Social Conservatism (3)
- Increase state control functions and spending
- Protect individual’s right of self-defence
- Pro traditional family and values
Neo-Liberalism
Historical Roots - 1980’s, reaction to Welfare Liberalism
Ideological Roots - Rooted in Frederich Hayek’s ‘Road to Serfdom’ 1944
- Emphasize negative liberties and downplay social rights (right to think, act, and associate freely)
- Shrink state, maximize market domestically and globally
Socialism Key Tenets (4)
- Technology/Economics determines history
- Class conflict in society
- Replacement of capitalism
- Utopia (communal ownership, abolition of family, free education, and healthcare, redistribution of income)
Ideology
‘A systematic and comprehensive political doctrine based on rational principles that provides both an explanatory theory and a prescriptive program of mass action’
John Locke; Two Treaties of Government
A piece of political philosophy intended to push forward the ideas of contract theory and natural rights
Empirical scientific method rather than deductive: look at politics as it actually exists in society and examine empirical data of world; he was also a doctor
Law of nature: self-preservation AND right to liberty and right to property
- State, therefore, must protect rights of individuals and is its chief purpose to do so… liberal/democratic state is the ideal gov’t
Wellfare Liberalism vs Libertarianism
Reform/welfare liberalism: positive liberty
Key events: Responding to Industrial Revolution, Depression
Key tenets: Emphasis on equality and positive freedom; Redistribution of wealth/tax and spend;
State has a duty to provide healthcare, housing, education
—-
Libertarianism/Neo-Liberalism (1980s) = negative rights
Key events: Responding to expanding states and deficits and debt; responding to excess of welfare liberalism
Key tenets
- Classical economic liberalism (Smith)
- Shrink state
- Privatization of various state-run institutions
- Maximize market domestically and globally (deregulation)
- Support free trade, globalization, reduced barriers so that capital can move freely - Classical political liberalism (Mill)
- State protect civil and political rights (NOT SOCIAL RIGHTS)
- Non-interference in individual’s life or free market
The Enlightenment
Intellectual + cultural movement of 17-18th C
- Emphasis reason and individuality are placed above traditional ideas
Cause and effect of the decline of religious authority
Notable critic, EDMUND BURKE –> conservative philosopher, on the french revolutions
Liberalism, socialism, nationalism, anarchism all emerged directly as a result of the enlightenment; conservatism and fascism as a reactions/challenges to its thought
Classical Liberalism
Theme : The freedom of individuals rather than central authorities, and the idea was spawned by a number of original thinkers like Adam Smith, John Locke, and others as a response to the industrial revolution and population growth in the late 1800s
Classical Liberalism was a strong counter to previous political movements that placed authority in the hands of churches, monarchs, or governments.
State should only intervene for internal/external security and enforce property rights
- The market is the most effective means of meeting human needs
Moral: Small state emphasizes individual freedom and rewards those who work the hardest
- Marxist challenges at end of 19th C; in response T.H. green, leonard hobhouse and john hobson call for NEW LIBERALISM emphasizing social reform + state intervention
Emphasizes NEGATIVE LIBERTY
- Liberal ideology in general: liberty, tolerance, individualism, equality and that INDIVIDUAL CREATES COMMUNITY
Fascism
Exclusively a 20th c phenomenon
Extreme form of nationalism accompanied by a set of racial, social, and moral ideas that are unacceptable in modern liberal democracies
Rejects abstract intellectualizing in favour of action, instinct, emotion
Key texts: giovanni gentile and hitler ‘mein kampf’
- Anti enlightenment, anti marxist, revolutionary
- COMMUNITY CREATES INDIVIDUAL
Embraces elitism, some are superior than others; people are generally ignorant
Anarchism
Similarities with socialism and liberalism; dates back to 19th C
Abhorrence of the state which they see as an illegitimate and criminal institution that unlawfully exercises over society to reduce liberty of people; optimistic view of human nature and/or neutral, claiming it is socialized
In an anarchist society, the people will be morally correct and do what is required of them; little influence on modern politics.
Republicanism
An ideology which rejects corruption, domination and tyrannical rule to embrace civic freedom, secularism and citizens’ duties as central to a ‘good’ society
“Res Publica”
Roman ‘res publica’ = everything is public; virtue of citizenry, on avoiding corruption and tyranny and factions; the interests of the whole
Jean Jacques Rousseau
- Social Contract, 1762 = Republicanism
- Emerges out of romantic era which argues that the state of nature is our ideal state; a key text for republicanism
- Defends ‘general will’ of people
- Popular sovereignty/secularism: that people must participate in politics and sovereignty is rooted in the people; people should govern themselves
- Takes philosophical influence from the French Revolution (secular, etc + liberal bill of rights)
Edmund Burke; Reflections on the Revolution in France (4)
-1790; key conservative text
- There is a need to conserve prudence, as the people will always be swayed and not make proper decisions;
- There needs to be an order through elite
- Revolutionary fervour leads to terrorism (accurately predicted this)
- Politics and emotions as closely related.
Tenets of Conservatism
- Anti-romantic/Revolutionary/Republican
- Organic view of society: we are connected to future and past generations; society has a larger history.
- Conservation of tradition: what already exists and work must be preserved; skepticism of change (if something has lasted a long time, then there must be something good in it)
- Pessimistic view of human nature: believe people can be swayed by motion and manipulated; there must be a law and order; emphasis on duty rather than rights
- Inequality and hierarchy: in an organic society, some rise to the top and that is natural; people are not naturally equal; belief in aristocracy leading society to provide stability and strength
Eduard Bernstein; Evolutionary Socialism
- 1899, Key Socialist text
- While Marx emphasizes revolution, Bernstein argues that we can work WITHIN system to achieve
Dialectical Materialism
Dialectical materialism/historical materialism
A view of history as determined by the struggle between economic forces
- Associated with marx
- MATERIALISM = a new way to think about history; the way we understand history is through economics; the ways in which we produce the material conditions of our own existence… (OWNERS and LABOURERS) = class conflict
This class conflict is DIALECTICAL (meaning a clash); eventually leading to communism
Socialism & Key Tenets (3)
Developed with emergence of working class during IR - Transform society in a cooperative and egalitarian one
An ideology that believes capitalism is an economic system that creates poverty, alienation and inequality and must be replaced or modified by a more egalitarian system
Key tenets
1. GENERALLY OPTIMIST VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE: socialist believe that through socialization, the individual can be more cooperative
- EQUALITY: equality of outcome (outcomes defined by different situations rather than ability)
- COMMUNITY: cooperation and collectivity rather than individuality; common ownership and equality
Tommy Douglas
Father of modern Canadian welfare state; baptist minister;
Founders of co-operative commonwealth federation (CCF) in 1932, and premier of Saskatchewan; introduced Canada’s first healthcare system; elected as NDP successor
Karl Marx
Author of Communist manifesto, 1848
- 19th century socialist thinker, ‘scientific socialism’
- Deductive scientific method (concept to real world)
- Laws of capital’ underpinning society: we are producing the material conditions of our own reality; those who work in producing the means of productions and those who own it; thus creating a separation of class between proletariat and bourgeoisie; it is inevitable
Communism ‘ is a much larger thing, shouldn’t be restricted to ‘communes’
- Does not think this is an ideology, rather a scientific discovery
Communist Manisfesto
History of oppressor/oppressed
-bourgeoisie played the most important/revolutionary role in history
-capitalism made ppl self-interested
- Free trade is exploitation
- The ruling ideas of each age have always been the ideas of its ruling class.
- Revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class to win the battle of democracy.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with
state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the
bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for
agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all
the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the
populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory
labor in its present form.
