Political Ideologies

Ideology
• It is a set of related ideas or systematic
group of concepts and beliefs about
how society should function, operate
and behave.
Political Ideology
• In Social Studies, a political ideology is a
certain set of ethical ideals, principles,
doctrines, myths or symbols of a social
movement, institution, class or large group
that explains how society should work and
offers some political and cultural blueprint
for a certain social order.
Major Political Ideologies

• Conservatism
• Liberalism
• Socialism
 Conservatism
• Political doctrine that emphasizes the
value of traditional institutions and
practices.
• Conservatives thus favor institutions
and practices that have evolved
gradually and
are manifestations of continuity and
stability.
• Government’s responsibility is to be
the servant, not the master, of
existing ways of life, and politicians
must therefore resist the temptation
to transform society and politics.
 Liberalism
• Political doctrine that takes
protecting and enhancing the
freedom of the individual to be
the central problem of politics.
Liberals typically believe
that government is necessary
to protect individuals from
being harmed by others, but
they also recognize that
government itself can pose a
threat to liberty.
 Who were the
intellectual founders of
liberalism?
• John Locke (1632–1704)-
who developed a theory
of political authority
based on natural
individual rights and the
consent of the governed,
and the Scottish
economist and
philosopher.
• Adam Smith (1723–90)- who
argued that societies prosper
when individuals are free to
pursue their self-interest within
an economic system based on
private ownership of the means
of production and competitive
markets, controlled neither by
the state nor by
private monopolies.
Kinds of Liberalism
Classical Modern
Liberalism Liberalism
• With government
• No gov’t interference intervention
• Gov’t to protect life, • All individual valued
liberty, and property equally
• Emphasizes the economic • Emphasizes programs to
freedom and the role of help the disadvantaged
entrepreneur • Promotes the ideas to
share the benefits of
development
 How does modern liberalism differ
from conservatism?
• Conservatives are
• Modern liberals generally suspicious
are generally of such ideologically
willing to driven programs,
experiment with insisting that lasting
large-scale social and beneficial social
change to further Modern change must
Conservatism
their project of Liberalism proceed organically,
protecting and through gradual
enhancing shifts in public
individual attitudes, values,
freedom. customs, and
institutions.
Socialism
• An Ideology based on collective or
governmental ownership and democratic
management of the essential means of the
production and distribution of goods.
• Human beings are social by nature, and society
should respect this. Individualism is poisonous.
• All citizens have roughly the same level of
prosperity, a classless society.
Other Political Ideologies

• Communism
• Anarchism
• Absolutism
• Fascism
Communism
• 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 (e.g., mines, mills, and
factories) and the natural resources of a society.
Communism is thus a form of socialism—a
higher and more advanced form, according to
its advocates.
Anarchism
• cluster of doctrines and
attitudes centred on the
belief that government is
both harmful and
unnecessary.
• the methods or practices of
anarchists, as the use of
violence to undermine
government.
 Absolutism
• The political doctrine and practice of
unlimited centralized authority and
absolute sovereignty, as vested
especially in a monarch or dictator.
• A Clear-Cut Law of Nature (Or Law Of
God): This law must be obeyed.
According to this law, some people
are inherently better than others.
• A Natural Hierarchy (a power
structure in which some people have
the authority over others) exists.
Therefore, the superior should rule
the inferior. This general view is
called Elitism, or Elite Theory. King Louis XIV (1643–1715)
Fascism
• A mass political movement that
emphasizes extreme nationalism,
militarism, and the supremacy of both
the nation and the single, powerful
leader over the individual citizen.
• The word fascism comes from the Latin
fasces, which denotes a bundle of wooden
rods that typically included a protruding
axe blade.
• The first European fascist, Benito
Mussolini, adopted this symbol both to
recall the greatness of the Roman Empire
and to reinforce his authority as the
eventual dictator of Italy.
• Although fascist parties and movements
differed significantly from one another, they had
many characteristics in common, including
extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for
electoral democracy and political and cultural
liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy
and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a
Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people’s
community”), in which individual interests
would be subordinated to the good of the
nation.
End of the lesson... :)