Modern political ideologies

Question 1

define ideologies according to Detruit

Answer 1

rationalist set of ideas that can be discovered in the same ways as rational truths in the natural sciences

Question 2

What are features of ideologies?

Answer 2

1. action oriented
2. empirical and normative element
3. seen as less rigorous as real political phylosophy
4. 20th century is seen as the age of ideologies
5. ideologies shape and reflect the historical and social context in which they exist (19th century liberalism and socialism due to optimism created by the enlightenment movement)

Question 3

Define enlightenment

Answer 3

• 17th -18th century intellectual and cultural movement
• wanted to apply reason to knwoledge for the sake of human progress
• aimed to model political institution around an abstarct set rational principles
• french revolution was peak enlightment

Question 4

Ideology defined by Garder et al.

Answer 4

1. set of ideas designed to define existing political order (lense through which one interpets the world)
2. presents a vision of what the ideal politcal order should be (normative element)
3. Lays the means to go from what exists to where we want to be

Question 5

Origins of the Left-right political spectrum

Answer 5

• french revoltion
• revolutionaries took Bastille and established a national assembly
• questioned how much residual power the king should keep and if he should have a veto (right to overrun laws)
• left: limit the king’s power and give power to the assembly which repd. the people
• right: maintain king’s power and give him a veto
• left became associated with change and power to the people and right with rigidity and aversion to change

Question 6

What is classical liberalism?

Answer 6

• Drew on adam smith’s economic theory and Herbert Spencer’s social theory
• emerged with enlightenment
• limited state intervention (negative liberty)
• individuals have natural rights
• today’s democratic instituions emerged from classical liberalism
• moral dimension: limited state intervention increases freedom and rewards those who work the hardest

Question 7

What are the natural rights classical liberalism advocate for?

Answer 7

• private property
• self-achievement
• liberty

Question 8

what are the characteristics of classical liberalism?

Answer 8

1. private property, economic freedom and free market
2. Freedom of association (assemble w like-minded individuals)
3. Freedom of expression (express views and act upon them)
4. Tolerance towards different religious perspectives

Question 9

What are the strands of liberalism?

Answer 9

• classical: historic form, limited state intervention, individual freedom, close to todays conservatism
• new/social: associated with welfare state, state has a role in adressing inequalities
• libertarianism: most extreme form of liberalism, close to no state intervention, night watchman state
• Neo: importance of free market economy, limited sttate intervention

Question 10

What is new liberalism?

Answer 10

• associated with social democratic left (dominated in 20th century politicis)
• much more positive role for the state state in adressing inequalities of the market
  -positive liberty: state must create oppsotunities for people to achieve their goals

Question 11

Define liberal ideology

Answer 11

at the core:
- liberty (value of liberty comes from allowing people to pursue self-development)
- tolerance for different religions
- equality

Question 12

What is negative liberty and positive liberty?

Answer 12

• negative liberty(classical liberalism): removing external constraints
• positive: (new liberalism): adding measures to improve liberalism

Question 13

What is the main focus of liberty?

Answer 13

Individualism

Question 14

What does individualism mean?

Answer 14

• focus on the individual (importance of rights)
• based on belief individuals are rational and able to self-determing their interest and pursure them
• in most extreme form: denies statee all right to intervent in indiv. lives (libertarianism works best in anarchy)
• individualism can devalue community
• conflict between communitarianism and liberalism

Question 15

Define communitarianism

Answer 15

• humans should be analysed in their social, cultural and historical context
• state has a role to play as an institution that unites society around shared values
• emphasises value of community and shared values of common good

Question 16

What is communitarian critique of liberalism

Answer 16

• underestimates the importance of social ties in determining and individual’s belief system

Question 17

Define Socialism

Answer 17

• System of social organisation that want public ownership of private property and natural resources
• between capitalism and communism
• Marx and engels create “scientific socialism” as opposed to the utopian version before them
• 20th century socialism branched into communism and revisionism (later social democratic)

Question 18

Define Socialism

Answer 18

• System of social organisation that want public ownership of private property and natural resources
• between capitalism and communism
• Marx and engels create “scientific socialism” as opposed to the utopian version before them
• 20th century socialism branched into communism and revisionism (later social democratic)

Question 19

What are the core principles of socialism?

Answer 19

• positive view of human nature
• equality of outcome
• community and cooperation

Question 20

What is a critrique against socialism?

Answer 20

demands too much of its citizens in terms of self regulation
to maintain this level of egalitarianism, would result in an authoritarian state

Question 21

Define classical conservatism

Answer 21

• emerged in oppositition to classical liberalism
• opposed to enlightenment ideals
• rationalism: destroys family ties, tradition and religion
• humans are imperfet and unable to understand the social and political environment they’re in
• inequality is natural and inevitable
• conservative society is organic and not mechanic (must be change progressively and keep valuable things), state is little understood and complex
• hierarchy: self government is a myth (plato/ strong government must enforce order to protect state from deviants

Question 22

What is classical liberalisms problem with rationalism?

Answer 22

• based on the idea that humans have the ability too construct society on the basis of rationalprinciples
• believe that rationalism means that all are inependent from any form of authority

Question 23

Why are classical liberalist concerned with moral relativism?

Answer 23

(moral relativism: morals differ between diff people and groups)
belief society will end up with individuals all living their lives based on their own set of rules

Question 24

What is nationalism?

Answer 24

political organisations ought to be defined by national identity
nationalism as a cultural ideal, moral ideal, civic nationalism, ethnic nationalism

Question 25

Define nationalism as a cultural and moral ideal

Answer 25

cultural ideal: claim nation gives people their primary source of belonging
moral ideal: question ethics of heroic sacrifice/ justifies violence to protect the nation from external threats

Question 26

Define civic nationalism

Answer 26

loyalty to a politcal institutions, its values, its national territory regardless of people’s ethnic background
inclusive: anyone who wishes to subscribe to values and institutions of a community

Question 27

Define ethnic nationalism

Answer 27

Loyalty based on a shared ethnic inheritence (culture, language, religions)
exclusionary: inherited, can’t join based on values

Question 28

Define liberal nationalism

Answer 28

Believes that nation is a source of unity and sees possibility of cooperation between nations