POLITICS

Question 1

What does Heywood define ideology as? (1)

Answer 1

• is an action-orientated belief system, can guide or inspire political action.

Question 2

What do all ideologies offer? (3)

Answer 2

• account of existing order/world-view.
• module of a desired future.
• outline on how political change should and could be brought about.

Question 3

What are the classical ideologies? (3)

Answer 3

• liberalism
• conservatism
• socialism

Question 4

What is Liberalism portrayed to be, and why? (1)

Answer 4

• meta-ideology
• seen as the ideology of the industrialised west.
• thus seen as capable for embracing a broad range of values and beliefs.

Question 5

What is ‘laissez-faire’ ?

Answer 5

• abstention of governments from interfering in the workings of the free market.

Question 6

What was the purpose of ‘early liberalism’? (3)

Answer 6

• reflected to rising aspirations of the industrial middle class.
• seen as a ‘political doctrine’.
• advocated for a constitutional and representative government.

Question 7

What are the key concepts of liberalism? (7)

Answer 7

• individualism
• freedom
• reason (critical enquiry and human reason)
• equality (meritocracy)
• toleration
• consent (willingness)
• constitutionalism (limited government)

Question 8

What is the central theme of classical liberalism? (2)

Answer 8

• commitment to an extreme form of individualism
• therefor human beings are seen as egoistical, self-seeking and largely self-reliant creatures
  -heavy belief in meritocracy

Question 9

What does ‘atomistic’ mean?

Answer 9

• a belief that society is made up of largely self-sufficient creatures, who owe little or nothing to one another.

Question 10

Why did classical liberals use, ‘laissez-faire capitalism’? (4)

Answer 10

• guaranteed prosperity
• holding up individual liberty
• allows individuals to rise and fall in accordance to their own merit
• ensured social justice

Question 11

What are the characteristics of ‘modern liberalism’? (3)

Answer 11

• more sympathetic attitude to state intervention
• were more supportive over a ‘big government’
• abandoned the belief in laissez-faire capitalism

Question 12

Why did the shift between classical and modern liberalism occur? (2)

Answer 12

• recognition of massive injustices that were generated by industrial capitalism.
• the injustices lead to large masses of the population subject to the unpredictability of the free market.

Question 13

What was ‘social/welfare liberalism’ characterised by? (2)

Answer 13

• recognising state intervention
• safeguard individuals from ‘social evils’

Question 14

What are the identified ‘social evils’? (5)

Answer 14

• want (vanity and self-esteem)
• ignorance (lack of awareness)
• idelness (lazy and inactive)
• squalor (extremely dirty and unpleasant)
• disease (something that adversely affects a person or a group.)

Question 15

Why did modern liberals abandon their belief in laissez-faire capitalism? (2)

Answer 15

• prosperity and growth could only be maintained through a managed or regulated system of capitalism
• need for key economic responsibilities

Question 16

What happened in the 19th century with regard to socialism? (2)

Answer 16

• took shape as a political creed.
• formed as a reaction against the emergence of industrial capitalism.

Question 17

What was the goal of the earliest form of socialism?

Answer 17

• abolish the capitalist economy
• replace it with a qualitatively different socialist society
• common ownership

Question 18

Define Reformist Socialism. (2)

Answer 18

• gradual integration of the working class into the capitalist society.
• make gradual and legal changes in order to transition into socialism.

Question 19

What are the 2 sources of reformist socialism? (2)

Answer 19

• humanist tradition/ ethical socialism, (morally conscious economy, opposing possessive individualism.)
• a form of revisionist marxism.

Question 20

What is ‘revisionism’? (1)

Answer 20

• the modification of original or established beliefs.

Question 21

What were the two rival ‘camps’ that emerged in 20th century socialism? (2)

Answer 21

• revolutionary socialist / communists
• reformist socialists, constitutional politics, later called, ‘social democracy’

Question 22

What were the key ideas regarding socialism? (6)

Answer 22

• community, (nurture over nature)
• fraternity, (cooperation over competition)
• social equality, (central value) (equality of outcomes over equality over opportunity)
• need, (resources distributed on the basis of need and not simply on merit or work.)
• social class, (oppressed and exploited working class), (eradication of economic and social inequalities.)
• common ownership, (no private property)

Question 23

Orthodox Marxism (1)

Answer 23

• enhances Marx’s idea of revolution and little importance to the concept of freedom

Question 23

What is classical marxism described as? (1)

Answer 23

• materialist conception of history
• economic conditions ultimately structure law, politics and culture etc.

Question 24

What was Stalinism linked to? (2)

Answer 24

• systematic oppression
• brutal political oppression

Question 25

What did Neo-Marxism do? (2)

Answer 25

• portrayed the idea of humans as the makers of history, and thus not contolled by impersonal material forces.
• were unwilling to treat the class struggle as the beginning and end of social analysis.

Question 26

What did George Lukacs present marxism as? (2)

Answer 26

• humanistic
• reification, process treating abstract ideas and concept as concrete and tangible.

Question 27

What does social democracy stand for? (3)

Answer 27

• balance between the market and the state, and thus between individuals and society.
• encompasses compromise between accepting capitalism and the only reliable mechanism of wealth.
• desire to distribute wealth in accordance with moral principles.

Question 28

What is neo-revisionism / third way?

Answer 28

• attempts made by places such as germany or netherlands, to reconcile old style social democracy.
• want for the electorally attractive aspects of neo-liberalism.