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POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES THEIR ORIGINS AND IMPACT

(7th Edition)

By: Leon P. Baradat

CHAPTER 1: Ideology

Ideology was first used by the French in the early 19th

century. Antoine Louis Claude Destutt deTracy originated the word. De Tracy believed that people could use science to improve social and

political conditions, to him ideology was a study of the process of forming ideas, and he wanted

to apply the knowledge developed from his “science of ideas” to the whole society and thereby

attempt to improve human life.

People before were not allowed to participate in politics because they are expected to work,

producing material goods to sustain the state. But there are other modern national political

entities; they are countries who share at least one major feature: they are all interested ininvolving their citizens in an effort to accomplish the objectives of the state and ideologies are

among the major tools used by modern governments to mobilize the masses.

Through knowledge, innovators developed machines and there have been many changes duringthe 18th and 19th century, and through ideology we become more dependent on others.

Industrialization produced great wealth also for the people, so ideology really had a big impact on

the people because they become more productive and in this way it will improve their lives. The

difference between the ideology and philosophy is that philosophy is profound; attempting to deal

with the intricacies of the world in detail and philosophy also tries to explain the universe and

help the people find his or her place in it. Ideology, on the other hand, is addressed to huge

numbers of people and asks for people to take definite steps to improve their lives.



CHAPTER 2: The Spectrum of Political Attitudes

Change, Policy options

- We must determine the direction in which the proposal change would carry society.- Progressive change simply means a change from the status quo to something new and

different.

- Retrogressive change refers to a return to a policy or institution that has been used by that

society in the past.

Radical

- A person who is extremely dissatisfied with the society as it is and therefore is impatient

with less than extreme proposals for changing it. All radicals favour revolutionary

change. Radicals use violence because for them this is one way to have social change.

Liberal

- They are less dissatisfied with the existing society and they favour rapid and relatively

far-reaching progressive changes. Optimism about people’s ability to solve their

problems through the use of reason is the keynote of liberalism.

Classical and Contemporary Liberalism

- The classical liberals spokesman was John Locke asserted that natural law applied to all

people in equal measure. Contemporary Liberalism more likely to argue that although

there is a wide variety of difference among individuals, all people are equally human and

their equality with one another is a matter of great importance. These are called the

human rights.

Moderate

- Fundamentally satisfied with the society, although they agree that there is room for

improvement and recognize several specific areas in need of modification.

Conservative

- Most supportive of the status quo and therefore are reluctant to see it changed.

Conservatives may desire a future no less pleasant than the liberals—a future free of

human conflict and suffering. They oppose change because they doubt that it will result

in something better, not because they do not desire improvement.



CHAPTER 3: Nationalism

Nationalism is the sense of political self that makes people feel patriotic about their country.

Millions of people have been sacrificed and died, property has been destroyed, and resources

have been plundered in the name of the state. Before we consider nationalism itself, however, letus examine two terms that are essential to our understanding, the Nation and State. The concept

of nation is not political, but social. A nation can exist even though it is not contained within a

particular state or served by a given government. A nation exists when there is a union of people

based on similarities in linguistic pattern, ethnic relationship, cultural heritage, or even simple

geographic proximity. Accordingly, a description of the state normally includes four elements:

people, territory, sovereignty, and government. The only characteristic necessarily shared by a

state and nation is people. When a nation of people manage to create a state of their own,

however, the resulting political entity, the nation-state is very important.

In this century, national self-determination has become one of the most universally accepted

principles. The instruments of the state (the law & government) were used to define, protect, and

transfer property. Yet, in previous eras, philosophers and theologians explained the origins of the

state in several other ways. True or not, however, these theories have been believed by people and

have motivated them in their political behaviour.

• The Natural Theory. Aristotle is an early prominent proponent of natural theory of the

origins of the state. He believed that people should constantly seek moral perfection,

which they would probably never reach. Humans, according to Aristotle, are social

beings by nature; that is, they naturally gather together and interact with one another,

thus forming a community.

• The Force Theory. In this theory, the state was created by conquest and force; it grew outof the forceful imposition of the strong over the weak. Therefore, the state was an evil

thing that should be resisted in a righteous cause.

• The divine theory. It is based on fairly common assumption: some people are God’s

chosen ones.

• The Divine Right of Kings Theory. This theory believes that all power comes from God,

but they differed from the churchmen by suggesting that God specifically chose the king

and gave him absolute power (authority).

• The Social Contract Theory. This was based on the concept of popular sovereignty in

which the ultimate source of legitimacy and authority of state is the people. This theory

is a major contributor to the ideology of nationalism because this is created by all theindividuals within it.

Patriotism is a fundamental and essential phenomenon in the concept of nationalism.

Patriotism, on the other hand, is not a theory but an act or gesture of loyalty or commitment

to the nation-state. Emotional attachment to nationalism is so strong because nationalism

gives the individual an identity and extends that identity into something greater than the self.



CHAPTER 4: The Evolution of Democratic Theory

• Process Democracy claim that there is no real philosophy, or theory of democracy.

Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques Rousseau believe that democracy isnothing more than an agreement among citizens that the majority vote will carry the

issue or that one branch of government will not reach too far into the functions of

another branch.

• Principle Democrats argue that democracy has a very important theoretical base;

they believe it is secondary to the basic intent and objectives democracy as expressed

in democratic theory.

• The Social Contract- this theory involves the actual grant of power by the people to

the government. The social contract is the act of people exercising their sovereignty

and creating a government to which they consent. We will then know the study of

these social contract philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean Jacques

Rousseau. These philosophers agreed on three things. First, they believed that

government was not a natural condition and that at one time people lived in a state of

nature, a condition in which there was no government. Second, they believed in the

existence of a natural law. Third, they agreed that all people were rational.

Thomas Hobbes believed that monarchy was the best possible form of government, yet he

rejected the theory of divine right of kings. Instead, he claimed that the social contract was the

source of royal power.

John Locke believed in natural law and that people could discover its principles by using reason.

Natural law, according to Locke, guaranteed each individual certain natural rights. He also

believed that private property was essential to people’s well-being. Rejecting the proposition that people were evil and selfish in the state of nature, for Locke, instead that people were essentially

good and the nature and function of government is limited, that its function if just to serve the

people.

Jean Jacques Rousseau believed that people in the state of nature were simple, shy, and

innocent. For him, people wanted to improve themselves for them to be better. Rousseau agreed

that morals could be developed only in an environment in which people related to and interact

with one another. According to Rousseau, people should for a new society to which they would

surrender themselves completely. The society would become an organism in which each

individual contributed to the whole. Rousseau thought that private property could be used to

exploit people because it was a source of inequality among individuals.



CHAPTER 5: Liberal Democracy, Liberalism, and Beyond

Adam Smith advocated the principle of laisez faire, which demanded that the government should

pursue no economic policy. Instead, the government should remain aloof of economic matters,thus encouraging competition. David Ricardo and Thomas Malthus, two English economists,

become capitalism’s leading intellectual lights. Ricardo assumed that while human labor created

value, it was perfectly appropriate for those who controlled capital to force labor to surrender a

large part of the value it created. On this assumption, Ricardo developed the theory of the Iron

Law of Wages, in which he suggested that the owner of the factory and the machines would be

driven by the profit motive to pay the workers only enough to bring them to the factories to work

another day.

Herbert Spencer applied the concept of Social Darwinism, coining the phrase “survival of the

fittest”. American Capitalism as modified by the welfare - state policies of the New Deal - has

been a wonderfully successful and productive economic system. The Neoclassical liberal

democratic philosophers Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau were trying to design governmental

changes in an environment that was already democratic. Edmund Burke was the father of modern

conservative philosophy; he believed that a good government is one that keeps the peace.

Although Burke was a conservative, he did not always object to change. Indeed, he regarded it as

a necessary feature of life. He also believed that the primary purpose of government was to keep

order. Burke rejected another liberal democratic position. He denied the basic equality of people.

People, he argued, are unequal. They have different abilities and intellects. James Madison

probably believed in popular sovereignty theory, he did not trust the people themselves. He had

observed that government when left unchecked was oppressive and cruel. Madison’s best known

and most creative contribution is the system of separation of powers, checks, and balances. Byseparating the powers of government, Madison hoped to make it impossible for any single branch

to dominate the others. Thomas Jefferson who is most famous for his work, the Declaration of

Independence, he believed that government was the product of an international act by the people

in the society. Jeremy Bentham belonged to a later generation, he believed that people could use

reason to improve themselves, but he thought that the natural law theory led to a philosophical

dead end. Bentham based his liberalism on belief in the value of human self-reliance. Rejecting

natural law, Bentham suggested his own measure by which to evaluate human conduct. He called

it utilitarianism.

Positivist Law then resulted from the combination of Bentham’s rejection of natural law, his

utilitarianism and his conviction that government should take positive steps to maximize the

happiness of society. John Stuart Mill was a student of Bentham, and for him freedom of speech

and thought should be given absolute protection under the law because individual liberty was the

surest way of reaching happiness.



CHAPTER 6: The Liberal Democratic Process

There are three major democratic procedures and they are distinguishable by the relationship the

people bear to the legislative, or policy making process. Direct Democracy, the people act as their

own legislature. Republic, it is a government without a King. The third form of democracy isPluralism, is a variant of the republican system. Pluralism is a method of decision making that is

popularly based and therefore democratic; but in a pluralist system choices are not necessarily

determined by the number of people for or against a given question.

Among the most persistent and insightful critics of the American Political System are the elite

theorists. These critics argue that the U.S. government is not democratic, and that pluralism is a

sham. They contend that the U.S. government is an oligarchy, a system ruled by a relatively small

number of people. Conspirationalists are phobic about politics. They believe that someone,

usually a small group of unseen people, is secretly and diabolically controlling things from

behind the scenes. Democracy is a process and philosophy about public policy making, but those

policies must be put into practice by a system of government of some sort. Federal government is

one that divides powers between the states, and the national government. Presidential-

congressional system, in this arrangement the legislature and the executive are elected separately.

They are elected to fixed terms that cannot be interrupted. Unitary government, this arrangement

concentrates all governmental power at the central level. Unlike the presidential-congressional

system, the parliamentary, cabinet system separates the positions of head of state and head of

government.

Nothing is more important in a democratic system than its electoral process. Those who seek high

office usually face either nomination by convention or election by primary election. The kind of

electoral district used largely determines the way a particular political system functions. There aretwo basic kinds of electoral districts: the single-member district and the multimember district.

Political parties’ goal is easily stated: to gain control of the government, and their function is to

provide candidates and holding officials responsible for their acts are only a few of their most

important responsibilities. Representation, the subject of representation in a democracy is almost

as complex as the question of elections. Theories of representation: the reactionary theory of

representation by Thomas Hobbes and Alexander Hamilton is based on the need for order and

authority. Less extreme is the Conservative theory of Representation by Edmund Burke and

James Madison. Conservatives grant popular control without encouraging public participation in

the governing process. John Locke and Thomas Jefferson subscribed to the liberal theory of

representation, the most democratic of all republican theories. According to this theory, all people

are essentially equal and all are therefore equally capable of ruling. Democracy has many critics

at every point on the political spectrum. Some critics argue that democracy is a hopelessly

visionary idea based on a number of impossible principles that can never really work because

they are too idealistic.

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