Paper 1 Flashcards
Liberalism Thinkers
John Locke
Wollstonecraft
Mill
Rawls
Friedan
Locke’s ideas
Social Contract Theory - Society, state and government are based on consensual agreement
Limited Gov - Gov should be limited and based on consent from the people
Wollstonecraft ideas
Reason - Women are rational and independent
Formal Equality - Women should be able to enjoy full civil liberties and allowed to have a career
Mill’s ideas
Harm Principle - Individuals should be able to do anything as long as it harms no-one
Tolerance - belief that the popularity of the view does not make it correct
Rawls ideas
Theory of Justice - society must be just and guarantee a citizen a life worth living
Veil of Ignorance - people would want society to be fair if they didn’t know where they would end up in the hypothetical society
Friedan Ideas
Legal Equality - women are as capable as men and oppressive laws and social views should be overturned
Equal Opportunity - women are being held back due to limited number of jobs “acceptable” for women and should be able to have the same opportunities
Modern vs Classical Liberals on human nature
AGREE - Rationality - free from state interference - have boundless capabilities
AGREE - Stress importance of individuals with equal rights - (Locke) Capacity for reason
DISAGREE - Motivation - Classical egotistical individualism - humans are self interested and they are fixed/ Modern developmental individualism - human nature isn’t fixed and flourishing knows no bounds
Modern vs Classical Liberals on state
AGREE - agree on dispersing power (devolution)
DISAGREE - Size - Classical = limited state with no interference in lives/ Modern = enabling state - support some interference to help people born with disparities so they can succeed
DISAGREE - Intervention in the economy - Classical = No intervention in the economy (Laissez-faire economy) - ‘invisible hand’ / Modern - Keynesian economics - some intervention to prevent a complete and collapse and manage it so can limit homelessness and joblessness - off of the Great Depression
Modern vs Classical Liberals on economy
AGREE - Free market capitalism and free trade between nations - unleashes potential of individuals
AGREE - All favour wider ownership - avoid concentrations of power and encourage meritocracy
DISAGREE - Laissez Faire vs Keynesian
Modern vs Classical Liberals on society
AGREE - Tolerance - accepting of differences as long is does not restrict others - individualism
AGREE - Freedom from the state - Wollstonecroft thought it was women’s choice if they remained in a traditional role in the private sphere - private realm left free from interference - Freedom from discrimination
DISAGREE - How much can society support freedom - Modern Liberals = Positive freedoms - freedoms to - state removes barriers from people’s freedoms/ Classical = freedom from high taxes so no welfare - negative freedoms = freedom from
Conservative Thinkers
Thomas Hobbes
Edmund Burke
Oakeshott
Rand
Nozick
Hobbes Ideas
Order - ordered society balance the human need to lead a free life
Human Nature - humans are needy, vulnerable and easily led astray in attempts to understand the world around them
Burke Ideas
Change - political change should be with caution and organically
Tradition and empiricism - tradition should be respected
Oakeshott ideas
Human Imperfection - society is unpredictable and humans are imperfect
Pragmatism - belief Conservatism is about being pragmatic
Rand ideas
Objectivism - advocates virtues of rational self interest
Freedom - supports pure laissez faire economy
Nozick ideas
Libertarianism - humans cannot be treated as a thing or used against their will as a resource
Self ownership - individuals own their own bodies, talents, abilities and honours
Conservative views on Human Nature
AGREE - humans are self interested so universal equality is impossible - grant property and reward effort are best
DISAGREE - neoconservative pessimists vs neoliberal optimists (Hobbes vs Rand) - fear of chaos and need for order vs love of and need for freedom
DISAGREE - Understanding - Traditional = humans ain’t capable of complex ideas / New Right = humans are capable of understanding
Conservative views on society
AGREE - Humans are self interested and flawed - attempts to impose an engineered society will end up doomed
DISAGREE - One Nation paternalists vs neoliberal minarchists - ON = role of state in providing welfare (paternalism) / NL = fear of a dependency culture and ‘road to serfdom’
DISAGREE - Traditional communitarians vs neoliberal rationalists (Burke vs Rand) - T = organic society of little platoons held together by morals and tradition / NL = atomistic rational individualists - reflected in hierarchy vs meritocracy
Conservative views on the state
AGREE - Reject totalitarian state will to create a perfect society - cruel and doomed
AGREE - Due to human imperfection, state is necessary to provide some control over humans to keep them in line and keep justice and prevent threats
DISAGREE - One nation paternalists vs neoliberal minarchists - ON = role of state to provide for some people (paternalism/welfare) / NL = fear of dependency culture
Conservatives views on the economy
AGREE - rejection of nationalisation of industries and redistribute wealth - profit encourages competition
AGREE - individual property ownership should be encouraged as it develops responsibility and effort and innovation
DISAGREE - ON vs NL - role of state in steering the economy to avoid unemployment vs laissez faire economics with no interference and free markets and trade
Socialism key thinkers
Marx and Engels
Webb
Luxemburg
Crosland
Giddens
Marx and Engels ideas
Centrality of social class - ideas of historical materialism, dialect change and revolutionary class consciousness
Humans as social beings - how nature is socially determined and how true common humanity can be expressed only under communism
Webbs ideas
Inevitability of gradualness - gradualist parliamentary strategy for achieving evolutionary socialism
Expansion of the state - this and not the overthrow of the government is vital to achieving evolutionary socialism
Luxemburg’s ideas
Evolutionary socialism and revisionism - not possible as capitalism is based on an economic relationship of exploitation
Struggle by the proletariat for reform and democracy - creates class consciousness necessary to overthrow the capitalist society and state
Crosland’s ideas
Inherent contradictions in capitalism - does not drive social change and managed capitalism can deliver social justice and equality
State managed capitalism - includes the mixed economy, full employment and universal social benefits
Giddens Ideas
Rejection of state intervention - acceptance of the free market in economy, equality of opportunity, responsibility and community over class conflict
Role of the State - social investment in infrastructure and education not economic and social engineering
Socialism on Human Nature
AGREE - Human nature is influenced by nurture rather than nature, so seek to improve surroundings
AGREE - Positive view on human’s capacity for reason, sociability and cooperation (different methods but still agree on the outcome)
DISAGREE - Extent to which common humanity requires collectivism declines as one moves away from revolutionary fundamentalist positions - Marxists demand it but Giddens is closer to liberalism
Socialism on Society
AGREE - society where there is no polarisation between the rich and poor is desirable - everyone has access to the necessities of life
DISAGREE - Marxists want revolution and see there is a divide between the classes / Social Democrats see less polarisation in society and want to reduce inequalities by reform
DISAGREE - Third way = less focused on class inequalities and want to build an inclusive society by spreading opportunity and minority rights / Marxists see this as window-dressing
Socialism on the state
AGREE - socialists are not anarchists and require a state to deliver the equality they seek - Shared by Giddens and Marx, Education is vital in this
DISAGREE - Marx wanted to smash the bourgeoisie state and replace it with a dictatorship of the proletariat/ Webb and other revisionist socialists agree to evolutionary change
DISAGREE - Revisionists and Neo-revisionists divided between Croslandite mixed economies and the more market-oriented liberal approach of Giddens
Socialism on the economy
AGREE - Unregulated capitalism creates inequalities and inefficiencies which should be addressed by some government activity
DISAGREE - Marxists and democratic socialists believe Capitalism should be completely replaced / Revisionists and neo-revisionists have agreed with Keynesian and not to completely get rid of it but control and manage it
DISAGREE - revisionists and neo-revisionists disagree on the kind of capitalism whether it looks more like Croslandite economics or the more liberal approach put forward by Giddens
Direct vs Representative Democracy
DIRECT:
72% turnout - Brexit 2016
INDYREF 2014 - 85% turnout
Protests after the EU referendum - against Direct Democracy
REP:
2001 GE TO = 59%
2017 GE TO = 69%
2019 - Lib Dems received 19% of the seats and only had 2% of the vote - against REP democracy
Wider franchise and suffrage
Over 89% of 16-17 olds registered for INDYREF
Elections Act 2022 - Voter ID - suppressing voters
Civil Disobedience examples (Pressure Groups)
2023 - Just Stop Oil abandons climate protests after being shamed by Tory Gov
Police, Crime and Sentencing Act 2022 - allows police to toughen up on dealing with protests
2023 - 77% of Junior doctors voted to strike
Insider Pressure Groups
BMA - lobbied policy makers through direct meeting and other methods to ensure the Health and Care Act 2022 addressed their concerns
CBI - Sunak made speech at conference and they responded by asking questions about measures used to achieve Sunak’s goals
Outsider Pressure Groups
Marcus Rashford worked with Fare Share on the free school meals for underprivileged kids
38 degrees - used social media to impact change and has 2.5 million members
Think Tanks
Truss’ senior special advisor, Ruth Porter was communication director at the IEA - Spoke many times at their convention over the last 12 years
Institute for fiscal studies revealed the “fiscal hole” after the 2022 mini budget - important as gov won’t publish broadcast by the independent office of budget responsibility
Lobbying
2021 - Greensil scandal - Cameron lobbied Sunak on behalf of Greensil who paid him 10 million over two and a half years
Owen Patterson left the commons after Nov 2021 after being accused of breaking lobbing rules
Rights
2023 Public Order Bill - further prevents right to protest
Freedom of Information Act 2000 - right to access information if it is deemed needed to be seen by the public
Investigatory Powers Act 2016 - allows greater surveillance in Britain
S.C declares 2004 civil partnership act against the HRA in 2018- gov amended it in 2019
Political Parties
2015 - Green won 1 million votes but only 1 seat
2019 - Johnson elected leader of Tories and the PM by only 1% of the population
Expenses Scandal
2017 - Labour and Cons had 82% of the vote share
2022 - Cons received 4.8 million in donations and Labour received 7.2 million in donations
2022 - Green received 172,000 in donations
Electoral Systems
AV 2011 - TO = 42%
68% voted against
2001 GE = 60%
Brexit = 52% leave
2019 - Cons won 365 seats despite only having 44% of the vote
Voting Behaviour and Media
Long term factors
Age:
2019 - 57% of 60-69 year olds voted Tories
64% of 18-24 voted to remain in the EU
61% of 60 - 69 year olds voted to leave
Class:
2019 - 36% of all AB voters voted Labour
Region:
2019 GE:
57% of South East voted Cons
48% voted Labour in NE
Voting Behaviour and the Media
Short Term factors
Media:
Sun has backed every winner since 1979
1992 - “Its the Sun wot won it”
2017 - greater use of social media
2017 - “May Bot” - still won it
2017 - Labour still scored well even though attacks on Corbyn through media
2010 - TV Debates - Cleggmania
Campaign:
1997 - Tony Blair = young, charismatic leader
2017 - Corbyn took advantage of media and in person events to secure the vote of young people
2017 Cons campaign = uninspiring - didn’t get enough for a majority
Salient Issues:
2019 - Labour promises led to questions over affordability
2017 & 2019 - Brexit was a divisive issue and each used this to their advantage
1997 - Labour took advantage of failing economic issues after Black Wednesday
