1 / 18

Ideology

Ideology. Background. An organized set of related ideas that modify one another Personal use: Helps us make sense of political questions Public use: Trying to attract allies to our position Major ideologies develop in Europe in 18 th and 19 th century What was life in medieval Europe like?

javier
Download Presentation

Ideology

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Ideology

  2. Background • An organized set of related ideas that modify one another • Personal use: Helps us make sense of political questions • Public use: Trying to attract allies to our position • Major ideologies develop in Europe in 18th and 19th century • What was life in medieval Europe like? • Bound to each other in systems of domination • Static

  3. So What are the American Ideologies? • Liberal v. conservative in the American context

  4. So What is Traditional Liberalism? • Invented by intellectuals • Limit power of nobility and church • High point of good society: • Ability of members to develop individual capacities to fullest extent • People must be responsible for their own actions • So what constitutes the liberal ideology? • Role for government? • Favor choice, not power

  5. And Conservatism? • Defenders of existing social arrangements • Society is more than collection of individuals • Let people know where they stand relevant to each other • High point of good society: • Maintenance of ordered community and of common values • Power is binding • So what constitutes the conservative ideology? • Role for government?

  6. And Socialism? • Working class tired of liberalism • Why? • More congenial to labor • How does it differ from liberalism? • Marx and classes • Marx’s view of history • How do communism and socialism differ? • Violence

  7. Then We Have Fascists • Hitler, Mussolini, Franco • No major elaborations…why? • Glorify a mythical war-based society from the past • Opportunist • Violence and terror

  8. And Now…The Dead White Guys • Plato • The Republic • Guardians • Aristotle • If unselfish… • But we are selfish… • St. Augustine • We need government because of human sin • Thomas Aquinas • Church v. Rulers • Machiavelli • Help kings resist the church • Ruthless and pragmatic—not sentiment or morality • Hobbes • State of nature • Leviathan

  9. The Modern State

  10. Background Typically, we do not think about ourselves in terms of the state to which we belong We pay more attention to central government as a result

  11. Development • Idea of a state is fairly recent…early 19th Century • Even then, people were not really sold on the idea • Relatively large territory with stable boundaries, whose people were bound together by intricate political ties and thought of themselves distinctively in terms of the state to which they belonged • Napoleon and his role from 1800-1815

  12. So Why Does it Develop? Industry and commercial arrangements It was a mutually dependent relationship, however

  13. Public Goods Public goods Free-riders Role of the state PBS example

  14. State v. Nation v. Nation-State • Nation • Large group of people who are bound together, and recognize a similarity among themselves, because of a common culture—a common language seems to be very important • State • Political unit that has ultimate sovereignty • Leaders try to link the two…why? • Nationalism • Where the two don’t link tend to be political hotspots • Quebec, Bangladesh, Basque, Belgium, PLO, Kurds, Chechnya, Darfur • Nation-States • Every state in the world tries to promote feelings of common nationhood among the people living within its boundaries

  15. State-Building • Complicated! Not fun or easy! • See: Iraq • We sometimes end up with failed states • Geographic entities with no effective central state apparatus, but controlled by various warlords and gangs in loose and fluid relationships with one another • Afghanistan and Somalia

  16. But What About Government? • When we talk about the actions of the state, we are referring to the government • Ultimate authority to act on behalf of the state • The Autonomous State • Government is a participant and claimant in politics • Relationship between state and society • Civil society

  17. Challenges to the State • World leaders seem to be moving toward creating structures that would operate over a wider geographic range than the state • The EU • NAFTA • IMF • Ethnic and regional separatist movements • Buy why? • Environmental issues • Appropriate scale of industry has expanded • Clumsy in response to local problems

  18. Alternatives • Regional integration? • The UN? • “World Culture” • International Law • Pinochet and Milosevic

More Related