POSC 1000 Introduction to Politics

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POSC 1000 Introduction to Politics

• Russell Alan Williams

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• Unit Three Ideologies
• Required Reading Mintz, Chaps. 3,4 5.
• Unit Objectives
• Explore democratic theory and different
  ideologies
• Outline
• Introduction The democratic ideal
• Political Ideologies
• Liberalism
• Conservatism
• Socialism
• Fascism
• Newer Ideologies

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1) Introduction the democratic ideal

• Democracy Rule by the people or, popular rule
• Most states democracies . . . Or claim to be
• Democratic values spread rapidly in 20th century
• Virtues?
• Effective way to define common good
• Ensures legitimacy means democracies more
  effective?
• Promotes equality

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• Problems?
• Plato ? Mob rule and demagogues the tyranny of
  the majority
• Most people lack information to make good choices
  (?)
• Modern analysis
• Rent seeking behavior
• Patronage
• How democratic are democracies?
• E.g. Elitism vs. pluralism

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• Types of Democracy
• i) Direct Democracy System in which citizens
  make the governing decisions
• Direct Debate and direct votes
• E.g. Greek states 18th century America
• Problems?
• Defining citizenship . . .
• Right to participate
• Scale
• Possible in modern world?

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• ii) Representative Democracy Citizens elect
  representatives to govern on their behalf
• Legislature Body of representatives
  responsible for
• Passing laws
• Raising and spending taxes
• E.g. Assemblies, Parliaments and Congress
• Some legislatures also select the government . .
  .
• http//www.youtube.com/watch?vf2kRv0kW5Oc
• Problems?
• What is represented?
• Are legislatures effective?
• E.g. Executive Dominance

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• iii) Liberal Democracy Combines liberal ideals
  of limited government with representative
  democracy
• Liberalism Ideology supporting individual
  freedom and rights of each individual
• Stop excesses of majority rule . . .
• E.g. Legal rules limiting what legislatures can
  do
• Most developed nations are liberal democracies
• Problems?
• Some people think liberal principles limited,
  need for more effort at equality
• Social Democracy Capitalism must be reformed
  as meaningful democracy requires more social and
  economic equality

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• iv) Plebiscitary Democracy Use of more direct
  votes than is case in representative democracy
• Populism an ideology (or rhetoric?) that
  suggests putting more power in hands of people
  rather than elites
• Referendums Votes by citizens on some laws
• Initiatives Referendums initiated by citizens
• Recall Process which allows citizens to remove
  representatives from office.
• Petition by registered voters can trigger a
  by-election
• Examples? How common?
• Problems?
• Complexity vs. voter information
• Still dominated by elites interest groups and
  media

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• v) Deliberative Democracy Political decisions
  made based on discussion by citizens rather than
  by elected officials
• Tries to recover face to face exchange of direct
  democracy
• E.g. BC Citizens Assembly
• Citizens Jury Randomly selected individuals
  which deliberate about policies and make
  recommendations
• Increasingly popular used for issues too
  difficult for parties and legislatures to handle
• Problems?

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• Challenges to Democracy?
• i) Nationalism and nation states
• Democracy works best inside communities of common
  identity
• City states or nation states
• Reality of modern world multination states do
  not fit majority rule
• Solutions?
• Liberal Democracy
• Federal System Democratic system where
  sovereign authority is divided or shared between
  central and regional governments.
• Each gains authority form constitution
• Reduces majoritarian tyranny

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• ii) Globalisation
• Democratic ideal assumes citizens have control
  over own well being
• Glob. increases role of external forces in
  deciding allocation of resources
• Glob. Increases cosmopolitan citizenship erodes
  group identities necessary to democracy
• social cohesion

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1) Political Ideologies

• Political Ideology Package of interrelated
  ideas about government, society, the economy and
  human nature
• Each is descriptive how the world works
• Each is prescriptive how the world should be
• Most modern ideologies derive from the
  Enlightenment
• 18th century intellectual movement
• Human reason could be more effectively used to
  understand an improve the world
• Challenged traditional role of Church and faith?

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• Problems?
• Text Ideology can be used to justify the
  unjustifiable . . . .
• E.g. Cambodia and Khmer Rouge
• Popular culture Ideologies are bad
• Era of pragmatism?
• Liberalism so dominant we no longer recognize
  ideologies
• However . . . without ideology politics is just a
  struggle for power . . .

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• Organizing ideologies
• a) Left vs. Right continuum - Based on
  attitudes towards free market capitalism
  traditional values
• Left Support greater social and economic
  equality, oppose traditional religious values (?)
• Right Support traditional values, oppose state
  innovations to promote equality
• Popular typology, but problematic
• E.g. Totalitarian states Those that attempt to
  control all aspects
• of life

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3) Liberalism

• Emerged in Europe Enlightenment -gt Locke, Mill,
  Smith and Ricardo
• Description Self interested individuals use own
  reason to guide behavior
• Prescription Set individual reason free and
  remake world
• Support
• Individual rights and freedoms
• Rule of Law People should be subject to known,
  predictable and impartial rules, rather then the
  arbitrary wishes of a monarch.
• Rulers and ruled should be equally subject to the
  law
• Proscription Social privileges and power
  structures that can not be supported by reason .
  . .
• E.g. Divine right of Kings

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• Types of Liberalism
• Classical Liberalism Committed to limited
  government and the free market
• E.g. John Locke (1632-1704)
• Laissez-Faire System Markets better than
  government in allocating resources let
  individuals and business freely interact

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• Reform Liberalism Support for individual
  freedom etc., but belief that some state
  involvement necessary to remove obstacles to
  individual development.
• Combine equal rights with equal opportunity . . .
• E.g. State funding for education create
  opportunity for all
• Closely associated with Keynesianism

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4) Conservatism

• Critical response to enlightenment liberalism
• Emphasizes value of order, stability and
  tradition.
• Source Edmund Burke
• (1729-1797)

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• Description
• Humans are weak need for authority to check
  irresponsible desires
• Prescription
• Support institutions and ideas that promote
  stability and social order
• E.g. Marriage, family and religion
• Traditional institutions good even if reason
  suggests otherwise
• E.g. The British Monarchy
• Property rights

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• Proscription
• Govts should not be activist - promoting change
• E.g. Promoting equality

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• Types of conservatism?
• Economic conservatives shared values with
  laissez faire liberals
• E.g. Neo-liberalism Rejection of reform
  liberalism return to limited state interference
  in economy
• Often associated with Neo-conservatism/New
  Right
• New Right Critical reaction to rise of reform
  liberalism and new ideologies like feminism
• Combine neo-liberalism with conservative social
  values
• Some times internally at odds . . . .
• Social or traditional conservatives Traditional
  values more important than economic conservatism
• E.g. Paternalism and Red Torys

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• Reactionary conservatives Those who favor a
  return to traditional values
• Not really an ideology, but . . .

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4) Socialism

• Emphasis on human society
• Capitalism undermines social nature of human
  communities
• Critical response to liberalism and free markets
• Key source
• Karl Marx (1818-1883)

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• Description
• Humans are social highly cooperative
• Prescription
• Economic equality equality of condition
  rather than equal rights
• Social ownership of means of production
• Proscription
• Capitalism
• E.g. David Harvey

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• Types
• Communism Private property should be replaced
  by communal ownership
• Will emerge inevitably?
• Historical Materialism Historical development
  driven by way economy is organized
• Capitalism will fail . . .
• Leninism Communism should be achieved by
  revolution

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• Democratic Socialism Socialism should be
  achieved by democracy
• Socialism combined with liberal democracy???
• Voters will choose socialist parties that will
  implement socialism Optimistic and liberal(?)
  view of human nature
• Social Democracy Modern evolution of
  democratic socialism
• E.g. Most social democratic political parties
• More focus on reducing inequality than communal
  ownership of production
• Question How different is this from reform
  liberalism?

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4) Fascism

• Aggressive nationalism combined with an
  acceptance of inequality as natural
• Liberalism and socialism are utopian failures.
• E.g. Nazism form of fascism advocated by
  Adolph Hitler based on racial superiority

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• Description
• Human reason is limited
• Humans naturally adhere to their nation
• Prescription
• Individual should be subordinate to needs of
  nation-state
• Strong state more important than individual
  rights/democracy
• Inequality is either natural or good
• Social Darwinism use of evolutionary theory to
  argue that conflict and competition allow
  humanity to evolve
• Proscription
• Socialist organizations fighting socialism has
  been key to successes of fascism

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• Fascism has a bad name . . . .
• E.g. The Holocaust
• Has reduced its modern relevance . . . however
  there are modern forms
• Neo-Fascism and Neo-Nazi extremist groups

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6) Newer Ideologies

• Status as ideologies more uncertain have only
  begun to influence the way people think about
  politics . . .
• i) Feminism Perspective that seeks equality
  and independence of women
• Focused on Patriarchy System in which power is
  in the hands of men and in which womens lives
  are controlled by men.

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• Description
• Society divided into genders women's
  subordinate position is naturalized
• Often excluded from benefits of public life
• Prescription
• Agenda has evolved . . .
• Then - Pursuit of legal equality (E.g. right to
  own property and vote)
• Now - Social and economic equality (E.g. Pay
  Equity)
• Proscription
• Adherence to socially constructed gender roles

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• Types
• Liberal Feminism Focuses on equal legal and
  political rights
• End legal patriarchy
• E.g. the suffragettes

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• Socialist Feminism Women oppressed by both
  patriarchy and capitalism
• E.g. contradictions of women's employment in
  capitalist labour market
• More radicalism . . .
• Radical Feminism Society based fundamentally
  on oppression of women.
• Patriarchy is not just legal and economic it is
  personal
• Personal is political liberation
• Results in wider critiques of the images of women
  in society
• Objectification

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• ii) Environmentalism
• Sees need for humans to change relationship with
  nature
• Politics and economics must be limited by natural
  constraints of ecosystem
• Description Society supported by finite natural
  ecosystem
• Traditional ideologies ignore this
• Anthropocentrism vs. Ecocentrism

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• Prescription Recognition of limits to growth
  based on exploitation of natural resources
• Non-renewable resources
• Sustainability Use of resources should not
  exceed ability to replace them, or damage the
  integrity of the ecosystem.
• Fundamental change in attitudes needed
• Proscription Irresponsible consumerism at centre
  of modern economy.

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• Types
• Reform Environmentalism Better science,
  technology and environmental management can solve
  problem.
• E.g. Pollution reducing technology
• Deep Ecology Society must fundamentally
  redefine its relationship with nature need for
  an environmental consciousness
• Social Ecology and Ecofeminsm Economic and
  political hierarchies are the cause of both human
  and environmental problems need for political
  and economic reforms

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• Challenges?
• Directly contradicts free market capitalism and
  liberalism
• We already have a system for assigning value to
  things environmentalism challenges this system
• Globalization and global competition

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• iii) Religious fundamentalism
• Revival of religious beliefs as guide to ordering
  society
• Attack on all enlightenment thinking
• Secular Humanism Belief that right principles
  of life can be derived from reason
• Examples
• Christian new right in the US
• Islamic Fundamentalism Based on strict,
  literal interpretation of Quran public and
  private life governed by religious law.
• Radical Islamism Political campaign to purify
  Islamic society from external influences

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4) For next time

• PART TWO STUDYING POLITICS POLITICAL
  PARTICIPATION AND BEHAVIOR
• Unit Four Political Culture, Participation, and
  Socialization Required Reading
• Mintz, Chapter 6.