Polgov 1

• Classical liberalism


  An early form of liberalism, the political-philosophical doctrine which holds that the central problem of politics is the protection of individual freedom or liberty
• Classical liberalism was first articulated in England in the mid-17th century
• Modern liberalism was predominant in western Europe, North America, and elsewhere for much of the 20th century
• Liberalism


  • Government is necessary to prevent individuals from being harmed by others
  • Government has a necessary role in providing public services that private businesses are incapable of performing fairly or efficiently, such as law enforcement, education, health care, national security, and sanitation
  • Seeks to limit the powers of government, because government itself can pose a threat to individual freedom
• Modern liberalism


  An ideology generally considered to be in the center of the economic spectrum and is based upon the idea of a mixed economy that includes elements from both the left and right
• Modern liberalism first emerged out of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the rise of socialist movements and values that swept across Europe and North America at the time
• Modern liberalism was preceded by classical liberalism and both are part of liberalism as an ideology
• Positive aspects of modern liberalism

  • Mixed economy benefits society by focusing on principles from both the left (collectivism) and right (individualism) sides of the spectrum
  • Allows for both individual rights and freedoms and rule of law, maintaining a society based on democratic values
• Rule of law


  A country should be ruled by a distinct and clear set of laws instead of the individual rule of a singular person, and all people are equal before the law, including the rulers
• Classical conservatism


  The ideology of authority, hierarchy, order, and tradition (like classical aristocracy)
• Classical conservatism is generally the antithesis of classical liberalism
• Classical conservatism


  • Favors the order and the authority of traditional power structures (including the traditional class system and a robust top-down system of government and central planning)
  • Can produce tyranny and cause social, economic, and technological stagnation in its extreme form, but in moderation it is the necessary key to tempering other conservative and liberal forms
• Modern conservatism


  Generally suspicious of large-scale social change driven by ideology, insisting that lasting and beneficial social change must proceed organically through gradual shifts in public attitudes, values, customs, and institutions
• Marx's concept of socialism


  • Not a society of regimented, automatized individuals, nor a society in which the individual is subordinated to the state, to the machine, or to the bureaucracy
  • Aims to create a form of production and an organization of society in which man can overcome alienation from his product, work, fellow man, himself, and nature, and return to himself and grasp the world with his own powers
• Marx expected that by this new form of an unalienated society, man would become independent, stand on his own feet, and would no longer be crippled by the alienated mode of production and consumption
• Marx's vision of socialism

  • The condition of human freedom and creativity, not the goal of man's life itself
  • Permits the actualization of man's essence by overcoming his alienation, creating the conditions for the truly free, rational, active and independent man
• Marx distinguished between the true needs of man rooted in his nature, and the synthetic, artificially produced needs of man
• The principal goal of socialism, for Marx, is the recognition and realization of man's true needs, which will be possible only when production serves man, and capital ceases to create and exploit the false needs of man
• Marx's concept of socialism is a protest against the alienation of man
• Unalienated man


  The man who does not "dominate" nature, but who becomes one with it, who is alive and responsive toward objects, so that objects come to life for him
• Marx's socialism is the realization of the deepest religious impulses common to the great humanistic religions of the past
• Marx fought against religion exactly because it is alienated, and does not satisfy the true needs of man
• Marx's atheism is the most advanced form of rational mysticism, closer to Meister Eckhart or to Zen Buddhism than are most of those fighters for God and religion who accuse him of "godlessness"
• The Messianic hope is a feature unique in Occidental thought
• The prophets of the Old Testament are not only spiritual leaders, they are also political leaders
• In Old Testament thought, God is revealed in history, and in history, not in a state transcending history, lies the salvation of man
• Socialism (in its Marxist and other forms) returned to the idea of the "good society" as the condition for the realization of man's spiritual needs
• Socialism is the abolition of human self-alienation, the return of man as a real human being
• Social Democracy


  Political ideology that originally advocated a peaceful evolutionary transition of society from capitalism to socialism using established political processes
• Social democracy shares common ideological roots with communism but eschews its militancy and totalitarianism
• After World War II, social democratic parties came to power in several nations of western Europe and laid the foundations for modern European social welfare programs
• Communism


  Political and economic doctrine that aims to replace private property and a profit-based economy with public ownership and communal control of at least the major means of production and the natural resources of a society
• Communism is a form of socialism, a higher and more advanced form according to its advocates
• Communism is largely identified with the form of political and economic organization developed in the Soviet Union and adopted subsequently in the People's Republic of China and other countries ruled by communist parties
• Visions of a society that may be considered communist appeared as long ago as the 4th century BCE in Plato's Republic
• Nationalism


  The attitude that the members of a nation have when they care about their national identity, and the actions that the members of a nation take when seeking to achieve (or sustain) self-determination
• At shares common ownership not only of material goods but also of spouses and children
• Nationalism raises questions about the concept of a nation (or national identity), which is often defined in terms of common origin, ethnicity, or cultural ties, and specifically about whether an individual's membership in a nation should be regarded as non-voluntary or voluntary
• Nationalism raises questions about whether self-determination must be understood as involving having full statehood with complete authority over domestic and international affairs, or whether something less is required
• Nationalism came into the focus of philosophical debate three decades ago, in the nineties, partly in consequence of rather spectacular and troubling nationalist clashes