People (updated Flashcards
Wrote “The Republic”
It talks about how politics ought to be and the purpose of politics is to create justice.
Cave analogy
Politics is an art, not a science
Politics is concerned with serving the public good
Plato
Wrote “The Prince” (1532) during the renaissance
Analyze politics as they really are (struggle for power) rather than how they ‘ought’ to be
Virtue and Fortuna (something you have no control over)
Politics is an art, not a science
Politics is about power and requires dirty hands
Conservative view of state power
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
“I think, therefore I am”
use of I to show the importance of individualism
Rene Descartes
Wrote “Leviathan” in 1651 based on the English Revolution.
Galilaeo’s scientific method
Focused on Individualism and self-preservation.
Believed in absolute monarchy.
Political power comes from the people, not God.
Conservative view of state power
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Wrote “Two Treatises of Government” in 1689.
Empirical scientific method (looking at the world around him).
Believed in the natural rights of liberty and property.
Law of Self-preservation.
“Father of Liberalism”
Believed in a Liberal/Democratic State
John Locke (1632-1704)
Wrote the “Communist Manifesto” in 1848
Scientific Socialism method.
Anti-Capitalist
Revolutionary Socialism. Communism will replace capitalism.
Politics is negative as the “organized power of one class oppressing another.”
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Aristotle’s Taxonomy of Government
Good; monarchy, aristocracy, and polity
Bad, Tyranny, oligarchy, Democracy.
Marxist view of state power
Modern
Power is held by economic elites and is coercive and repressive.
Noam Chomsky
Postmodern interpretation of state power
-Power exists beyond state/institutions
-power is not held but circulates
-power is productive
-Need to deconstruct power – No model of future society
Michel Foucault
Wrote “Wealth of Nations” 1776
Classic/economic liberalist.
-Belief in a free market
-Economic rights of the individual is key
Adam Smith (Died 1790)
Believed in Political Liberalism
-Liberty is a paramount value
Three basic kinds of liberty:
- Liberty of thought
- Liberty of Action
- Liberty of Association
Harm Principle
- Cannot partake in liberties that hinder and harm others’ liberty (crimes), important limitation.
- Tyranny of Majority
-Believed in free market
-Protection of civil and political rights, not social rights.
J.S Mill (1806-1873)
Wrote “Two Concepts of Liberty” in 1969
- Talks about Negative liberty and Positive Liberty
Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997)
Reformed Liberalist (Welfare Liberal)
Belief in Positive Freedoms
T.H Green (1836-1882)
Welfare Liberal
Wrote “General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money”1938
- State intervention necessary in economics
John Meynard Keynes (1883-1946)
Welfare Liberal
Wrote “ Citizenship and Social Class” in 1950 -Social Rights as important as civil/political rights
- Creation of welfare states
T.H Marshall (1893-1981)
Neoliberalism.
Wrote “Road to Serfdom” in 1994
Talks about how a government-controlled economy will lead to tyranny.
Fredrich Hayek (1899-1992)
Neo-liberalist.
Wrote “Capitalism and Freedom” in 1962
-Free markets and personal economic freedom are absolutely necessary for true political freedom to exist
Milton Friedman (1912-2006)
Republicanism
Wrote “The Social Contract” in 1762
Philosophical Inspiration for the French Revolution
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Conservative
Wrote “Reflection on the Revolution in France” in 1790
Anti-Romantic/Revolutionary/Republican
Organic View of Society
Conservation of Tradition
Skepticism of Change
Pessimistic View of Human Nature
Belief of Law and Order
Emphasis on duties rather than rights
Inequality and Hierarchy
Belief in aristocracy leading society
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Evolutionary Socialist
Wrote “Evolutionary Socialism” in 1899.
Revised Marx’s theory in a more contemporary light, leading to social democracy. The working class was not becoming more impoverished, and the
move towards universal suffrage meant that a socialist party could win power through political democracy. Rather than being a historical inevitability,
Eduard Bernstein (1850-1932)
Socialist
Wrote “Capital in the 21st Century” in 2013
Income inequality is increasing and will lead to bad democracy and economy.
Taxing the wealthy
Thomas Picketty (age 52)
Utilitarian
Against Natural Rights but believes in the positive rights in the law
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
The definition of Democracy is elections with real oppositions (not one-sided or heavily favoured)
Democracy can be reconciled with Elitism.
Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950)
Wrote “Democracy in America” in 1835
French author who celebrated American democracy
Democracy = ‘nation of joiners’
Democracy depends on active, engaged civil society.
Alexis De Tocqueville (19thC)
