Political theories

• Liberalism


  A theory of reforms, liberty, individual autonomy, and democracy
• Liberalism


  • Stands for secularism and opposes social discrimination
  • Favours capitalistic economy, individual ownership, and profit-earning
  • Stands for democratic polity, individual rights, and responsive government
• Individual liberty


  The essence of human personality and a means to one's development
• Individual-centred theory


  Individual is the centre and end, while other associations are the means
• Capitalistic economy


  Free-market economy, private property, profit-maximization, and market forces
• Limited state


  The state is a means to attain the good of the individual, opposed to totalitarianism
• Liberalism


  • Opposed to traditions and superstitions, favours reason and rationalism
  • Exponent of democratic government, constitutionalism, and rule of law
  • Closely associated with welfarism and the social service state
• Liberalism has inherent defects and tensions, such as the conflict between liberty and equality, and between capitalism and egalitarianism
• Marxism


  The political philosophy of the working class, a theory of social change through dialectical materialism
• Marxism


  • Assumes causal relationships, material development as the dominant factor, and class struggle leading to revolution and progress
• Alienation means aloofness, estrangement, apathy, and cutting off, which Marx finds in the capitalist system
• Marxism was further developed by Lenin, Mao, and others after Marx and Engels
• Social classes, especially the opposing classes, through their struggle and following the process of revolution, move in the forward direction. That is why the Marxists say that every subsequent society is better than the preceding society.
• Revolutions mean total and wholesome changes; they are not a negative force, but are what Marx had called, the locomotives of history. When launched and successful, revolutions take the society to a higher stage of development.
• Karl Marx


  (1818 – 1883)
• Dialectical materialism


  • Emphasizes the importance of real-world conditions and the presence of functional contradictions within social relations (social class, labor economic and socioeconomic interactions)
• GomBurZa make history because they sacrifice their life among priest.
• GomBurZa


  • Their birth occurred within a society shaped by centuries of colonization, religious influence, and social hierarchies
  • They advocated for equal rights among priests, challenging the oppressive power of Spanish friars
  • Their struggle centered on secularization, aiming to empower local secular priests and reduce the friars' dominance
  • Gomburza's involvement in the 1872 Cavite mutiny led to their execution, becoming a pivotal moment in Philippine history
  • Gomburza's sacrifice ignited the flames of Philippine nationalism
  • Their courage inspired subsequent generations to fight for independence and social justice
• The state, being the result of a class society, is a class institution. It is neither impartial nor just; it is a class institution. It is a partisan, oppressive and exploitative institution; it exists to serve the dominant class of which it is an instrument. In the capitalist society, the capitalist state protects and promotes the interests of the capitalists while in the socialist society, it protects and promotes the interests of the working class. By the time the socialist society becomes fully communistic, the state would, by then, have withered away.
• Withering away of the state

  Disappearing of the state, i.e., slowly and gradually the state apparatus would go the whole way
• Marxism advocates communism as the highest form of society where men would work as they wish and would get what they want : "from each according to his ability to each according to his needs."
• Dialectical materialism


  • The sum-total of the general principles which explain as to why and how social changes take place
  • The social changes take place because of the material factors and through the dialectical materialistic method
  • The dialectical materialistic method is a triple method
• Relations of Productions


  The basis of the society at any given point of time. What are called the social relations among the people are, for the Marxists, the relations of production.
• Productive Forces


  Those elements which originate from the relations of production, but which, though opposite to the latter, promise more production through newer methods/devices.
• New Mode of Production

  The result of the struggle between the relations of production and productive forces at a matured stage of their development. The new mode of production has the merits of both the relations of production and productive forces; hence a higher stage of economic development.
• Historical Materialism


  Also called the economic/materialistic/ deterministic interpretation of history. The Marxian explanation of history is that it is a record of the self-development of productive forces; that the society keeps marching on its path of economic/ material development; that each stage of development indicates the level of development attained; that history is the history of numerous socio- economic formations: primitive communistic, slave-owning, feudal, capitalist and thereafter the transitional socialist followed by the communist society; that each succeeding society is an improvement over the preceeding one; that the socialist society, after the abolition of the capitalist society would be a classless society but with a state in the form of the dictatorship of the proletariat; the communist society, which follows the socialists society, would be both classless society and stateless society.
• Theory of Surplus Value

  Marx says that it is the worker who creates value in the commodity when he produces it. But he does not get what he produces, he gets only the wages: over and above the wages is what goes to the employer. That is the surplus value. The surplus value is the difference between what the value a labourer produces and what he gets in the form of wages. In simple words, the labourer gets the wages; the employer, the profit. This surplus value makes the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. It is through surplus value that capitalists thrive.
• Theory of Class Struggle

  In the Marxian view, all hitherto history has been the history of class struggle between opposing classes. Class struggle is the characteristic of class societies. In the classless societies, there is no class struggle because there are, in such societies, no opposing/ antagonistic classes. Class struggle, in class societies, (i.e., in slave-owning society, the feudal society, the capitalist society) is of mainly three types: economic, ideological, political.
• Marxism advocates revolution. Revolutions, the Marxists say, are locomotives of history. Revolutions occur when the relations of production come into conflict with the productive forces, leading, thus, to a new mode of production. They bring about a complete transformation of society, without violence if possible, and with it, if necessary. Revolutions, indicate changes: wholesome changes, changes in the very character of a given society. They signify the coming up of a higher stage of social development. Accordingly, the Marxists regard revolution as a positive phenomenon.
• Dictatorship of the proletariat

  The rule of the working class. It is a state of the workers in the socialist society which follows the capitalist society. It is the dictatorship of the workers in the socialist society in the sense there is the dictatorship of the capitalists in the capitalist society. There capitalists rule the way they want; now the workers' rule in the socialist society the way the workers want. Nevertheless, Marx makes it clear that the dictatorship of the proletariat, i.e., the workers' state, is an interim or a transitional arrangement which functions between the capitalist society and the communist society. Once the socialist society is completely established, the workers state will not be needed, i.e., it will wither away (disappear slowly).
• Socialist society


  A classless society. It is a classless society in the sense that all are workers wheresoever they work, in the office, in the factory or on the fields: each gets job according to one's ability ('from each according to his abilities to each according to his work').
• Communist society


  Both the classless society and the stateless society.
• Marxism, both as a philosophy and also as a practice, has attained a position unparallelled in social and political thought. Its appeal crosses all boundaries, and in fact, all limits. Its adversaries are as much convinced of its strength as are its admirers. And yet its shortcomings are obvious.
• Changes do not occur simply because of the clashes between the opposing classes. History is indebted to class cooperation as well for its development. Material factor, though important and dominating it may be, is not the sole factor in explaining the whole complex of society's intricacies. Indeed, man does not live by bread alone, but it is also true that he can not live without it. Marxism has underestimated the worth and strength of national/ patriotic sentiments. To say that the workers have no fatherland of their own, as Marx used to say, is to make them parentless. Marxism also underestimated the importance of the state. To say that the State is a class institution and therefore, an oppressive and exploitative one is to oversimplify things.
• The Marxian formulations, in practice, have been really disappointing. Marxism, as a practice, has failed, whatever be the reasons. One chief reason has been its centralizing tendency: the dictatorship of the proletariat becomes the dictatorship of the communist party, the party's dictatorship becomes, ultimately, the dictatorship of one man: be that a Stalin or a Mao. In the Soviet Union, reform movement (Glasnost, especially) initiated by Mikhail Gorbachev marked the beginning of the end of the communist movement not only in Europe but almost the world over. The communist China has introduced numerous liberalization measures in its economy and polity. The relevance of Marxism as an alternative ideology before the world is no more unquestioned.
• Birth to


  (forces, production, antithesis, synthesis)
• For Marx, revolutions are


  engines of history
• Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)


  • Supreme leader of the Indian nationalist movement
  • Thinker who challenged most assumptions and doctrines of his times
  • Provided possible and plausible alternatives
• It is really difficult to project Gandhiji in any particular frame
• Gandhiji was a liberal among the Marxists, and a Marxist among the liberals; he was a democrat among the individualists and an individualist among the socialists