Liberalism, Conservatism, Socialism

Question 0

Smith and the invisible hand

Answer 0

Market economy according to Adam smith

Companies

Send goods

Individuals

Send capital and labor

• ordered by an invisible Hand

Constitutional state
Rule of law

Individuals
Freedom

Freedom of economic activity
Natural law/ human rights

Adams smith (1723-1790) 
Liberalism: principles of tolerance, constitutionalism, rule of law, centrality of individuals, emerges as movement of burgeoisie against absolutism
Most important goal: individual freedom 

Political liberalism: based on j. St. Mill- state protects freedom of citizens economic liberalism (smith) no state intervention in economic affairs (laissez-faire, self regulation of economy)
Precondition: in hampers individual activity
Law of the market: demand and supply (invisible hand)
Key political book: the wealth of nations

Question 1

Politic ideologies and modern political philosophy

Answer 1

4 examples of political ideologies 
Adam smith- liberalism 
Edmund Burke - conservatism 
Pierre- Joseph Proudhon - anarchism 
Karl Marx- communism 

4 examples of modern political thinking

Carl Schmitt- friend vs enemy
Bertrand Russel - pacifism
Hannah Arendt - totalitarianism and the human condition
John Rawls - justice

Question 2

Remember liberalism

Attention: in modern USA the term liberal is used in another way.

Answer 2

Parliamentary government
Parliaments and checks and balances protect citizens from arbitrary power
Traditionally: sceptic of democracy (tyranny of the majority) today: liberal democracy

Free trade
Laissez-faire economics and free trade 
State should only intervene as a liberator (creating the conditions for a free economy) 
Modern neo-liberalism
Deregulation and privatization 

Limited state power
State should be limited to the night watchman function of protecting individual rights and property
Government is best that govern least

Optimistic view of human nature
Mankind is rational and reasonable
Individuals should be equal rights and duties reforms work best if brought by the individual action of free individuals

Question 3

Burke and conservatism

Answer 3

The defense of the status quo

Old traditional order

Conservatism

Atheism
Individualism
Materialism
Rationalism

Edmund Burke ( 1729-1797)

Conservatism: party of the defense of the old order (ancien regime) (world around 1800) rather attitude than comprehensive ideology
Originally: rationalism, Atheism, and individualism as causes of revolution

Goal: reforms necessary in order to restore the old order (restauration)

Historical continuity instead of orientation towards abstract theories
Guiding principle: state as moral community

Variants in Germany: political romanticism (Christian feudalism) and constitutional conservatism (F.J. stahl: good-given monarchy incl. constitution

Question 4

Edmund Burke

Answer 4

Born 1728 in Dublin
Studied literature and history at trinity college in Dublin
Became author of any books that were well received among english elite
Worked as a secretary for several politicians
1766-1794 member of the parliament (house of commons) as a member of the Whig party
Died in 1797 in London
Philosophical founder of modern conservatism
Most famous writings: vindication of natural society ( 1756)
A philosophical enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the sublime and beautiful (1756)
Reflections on the revolution in France (1790)

Question 5

Nine key aspects of burke’s thinking

Answer 5

A constitution that is based on abstract principles/ ratio is not practicable

Experience is not reliable than reason (because human beings are not always rational)

Traditions should be respected, modern influences should be seen critical

Constitutions should be based on trading and the consent of many generations

Against contract theory; apolitical human beings and voluntaristic construction of state

The best constitution is a mixed one with a king, a House of Commons and a House of Lords

Constitutional change should be slow
(Evolutionary instead of revolutionary)

Existing allocation of property should not be changed

The foundation for any functioning society is religion

Question 6

Seven principles of conservatism

Bernd heidenreich

Answer 6

God’s will governs society and our conscience

Respect for nature as gods creation

property and freedom are inseparably linked

Family as the nucleus of society

trust in traditional institutions and values

Skepticism against zeitgeist and rapid changes

Respect for human dignity (unborn, living or old)

• society is organized hierarchically

Society is my constructed rationally, but evolved over time

Modernity has downsides too

Religious basis for society

Question 7

Conservatism

Answer 7

Inequality
People are inherently unequal in ability and intelligence

Responsibility of the rich and powerful for the poor and weak

Invisible hand of the market
Economic competition will result in efficiency and achievement of the public interest

State should intervene as little as possible in the economy

Organic society
Preservation of status quo
Old institutions are built on the accumulated wisdom of the past

Reform should be slow and cautious

Pessimistic view of human nature
Clear social hierarchy prevents rise of greed, selfishness, and irrationality

Strong police force to maintain social order and strong army to protect state from external enemies

Question 8

Evolution of conservatism

Answer 8

1. Opposing both absolutism and liberalism (aristocracy against king and against people)
   2.opposing socialism and communism
   3, after 1945 three branches
   Strong state/ welfare (fürsorglicher konservatismus)
   Conservation of nature and society (weltkonservatismus)
   Technological progress (technisches konservatismus)

Question 9

The social issue

Soziale Frage

Answer 9

Causes

Industrialization
Capitalism
Urbanization
Increase in population

Results

Pauperisation
Desperate housing situation
Social issue- resistance

Moral degeneracy 
Alienation of the workers from 
The product of his labor 
Working 
Himself 
Other people 

Possible solutions
Reform
Anarchism (Proudhon)
Utopian socialism ( Owen, saint-Simon, Fourier)

Revolution
Utopian communism (babeuf)
Anarchism (Bakunin)
Scientific socialism ( Marxism, Marx, Engels )

Question 10

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Answer 10

What is government?
Proudhon 1809-1865
First person who declared himself an anarchist.
French politician, philosopher, member of parliament (later exiled to Belgium)

Most quoted statements: property is theft! And anarchy is order without power (that later triggered the symbol for anarchy)
Friend and later adversary of Karl Marx
Most famous writing ( qu’est-ce que la propriete?) what is property?
He favored the free association of workers in co-operatives with private property

Question 11

What is anarchism

Answer 11

Anarchism from Ancient Greek anarchia (without authority)
Rejection of all forms of social or political authority (particularly rejection of state institutions like the military, judicial institutions etc)
State should be replaced by settles society as a free association of self-governed human beings

Four variants of anarchism
Mutualism ( Proudhon)
Free association of human beings based on peaceful reciprocity

Collectivist anarchism ( m Bakunin) 
Violent acts of elites triggers revolution, collective ownership 

Anarchist communism (p. Kropotkin)
Ownership replaced by usage, abolition of state, markets, money 

Individualist anarchism (m stirner) 
Freedom of individual as highest good, abolition of state and society, key value: egoism

Question 12

Karl Marx and communism

Answer 12

Capitalism
Rule of the rich
Exploitation of working class
The state as an instrument of the rich

Socialism
Dictatorship of the proletariat
Abolition of private property
The state as an instrument for social change

Communism
Classless society
Common property
He state dies off

Karl Marx 1818-1883
Unity of thinking and doing; the philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it. 
Historic materialism: base- superstructure- approach and dialectic development of history ( means of production vs mode of production) leads to class consciousness of the working class and Revolution

criticism of political economy
Contradiction between capital and work, surplus value, alienation of the worker, Revolution
Key political books: das kommunistische Manifest, das Kapital

Question 13

Communism

Answer 13

Textbook definition
Marxist theory merged with Leninist organization into a totalitarian party (roskin et all)
Later developments
Maoism (ultra radical form of communi, banning traditional culture and attempting overnight industrialization )

Titoism (moderate form of communism, decentralization, worker self management , debureaucratization)

Basic elements of communist ideology
Friedrich Engels . 1847 what is communism? Communism is the doctrine of the conditions of the liberation of the proletariat.

Worldwide Revolution

Goal: classless society based on common property of all means of production

Question 14

Carl Schmitt

Answer 14

Friend vs enemy
State - enemy

Pluralist decision making (enemy)

Authoritarian decision making

Carl Schmitt (1888- 1985) 
Most influential political philosopher and constitutional lawyer in the first half of the 20th century 

However, criticized for getting enmeshed in national socialism.
For Schmitt, democracy means homogeneity and the destruction of those who are different

most important feature of politics:taking decisions (decisionism)

Ultimate criteria for decisions
 ethics :  good.      Evil 
Aesthetics  beautiful.    Ugly 
Economy. Profitable.    Unprofitable 
Politics  friend     Enemy

Question 15

Bertrand Russell

Answer 15

Three evils

The evil of the body: necessity to survive - science

The evil f the character : human tendency toward ignorance and violence - education and free personal development

The evil power: human tendency to suppress others - reform of the political order to maximize freedom

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

British philosopher and one of the founders of analytic philosophy (with Frege and Wittgenstein)
Pacifist and anti-war activist

Nobel prize in literature 1950
Unideological thinker (meets Lenin, seen as a communist, liberal, pacifist) 

Critical towards mass consumption and superficiality, but also towards all ideologies, Christianity as totalitarian ideology

Supports one world government with one world army as the precondition for global peace
Strongly opposes nuclear weapons (Russell-Einstein-manifesto)

Question 16

Hannah Arendt

Answer 16

Hannah Arendt on totalitarianism

Applied Concept both to maul Regime be to Stalinism

It is not he success of totalitarianism that led to escalating orgies of destruction, but rather its repeated failure

Until now the totalitarian belief that everything is possible seems to have proved only that everything can be destroyed (origins of totalitarianism, 459)

The lebensraum theory of the holocaust, that it can be explained in terms of the ambition of nazis to germanise the east, forgets it was the failure of the ambition that led to the extermination of Jews.

Hannah Arendt 1906-1975)
German-Jewish-American philosopher, Königsberg/ Berlin, studied in Marburg, Heidelberg and Freiburg (Heidegger and Jaspers) , lived in Paris, captured, fled to New York, worked on New York, Berkeley, Chicago

Rejected to be labeled philosopher because philosophers write on man whereas political theorists write on men, not man, who live on earth and inhabit the world.

Most famous writings 
The origins of totalitarianism 1951
The Human condition (vita activata) 1958
Eichmann in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil 1963
On Revolution 1963

Question 17

Rawls and justice

Answer 17

The veil of ignorance 
Original position (Contract partner (eventual position in society unknown) 

Original contract:
Gerechtigkeitsgrundsätze
Vorrangregelung (Veil of ignorance)

Model of future society 
Millionaire 
Scientist 
Saleswoman 
Unemployed 

John Rawls (1921-2002)

Rawls theory of Justice as modern version of a contact theory

Just society: fair allocation of goods and opportunities

In the original position, nobody knows something about his eventual position in society. ( Veil of ignorance)
As a consequence :maxim principle

Consensus on two principles Of justice
Fair equality of opportunity

Difference principle: inequality admissible only if favorable for the least advantaged

Order of priority: basic liberties- Equality of opportunities -performance

Key political book
A theory of justice

Question 18

Three communitarianist critiques of John rawl

Answer 18

Communitarianism
Human beings are necessarily members of particular groups within which they are socialized and which generate rights
Political theory should be based on traditions and the culture of particular societies
Excessive abstractions of political theory should be avoided
Primacy of community
Values at the center of all social institutions

Society is threatened by..
Too much mobility (geographically, socially, politically, interpersonal relations)
It is difficult for human beings to develop their identity and a sense of life under conditions of unlimited plurality
Atomistic anthropology

Most important communitarian thinkers
Michael Sandel
Charles Taylor
Michael Walzer

Question 19

4 communitarian conclusions

Answer 19

1. Even in modern societies, human beings are not unbound individuals, but rather they are a priori incorporated into communities, traditions and social relationships
2. The dominance of the principle of egoism and atomistic individualism in many fields of social life destroys social integration
3. Therefore it is necessary to strengthen communities, values, and traditions
4. Democratic institutions and procedures need to be based on common values, otherwise they are not successful.