PolSci

IDEOLOGIES - set of beliefs about the proper order of society and how it can be achieved

- Is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized political action,
whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power
relationships.

CHARACTERISTICS OF IDEOLOGY

1. Ideology must have power over cognition

2. It must be capable of guiding one’s evaluations

3. It must provide guidance towards actions

4. It must be logically coherent

GOAL OF IDEOLOGY

TO PROVIDE plans of action for public policy making in an attempt to justify, explain, contest, or change the social
and political arrangements and processes of a political community.

Liberalism
It is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, and equality before the law.

Conservatism
It is a political and social philosophy promoting traditional social institutions in the context
of culture and civilization.

Compare and contrast

Liberalism conservatism
- Left side of the spectrum - Right side of the spectrum
- Encourages individuality - Encourages conformity
- Believes in government action - Believes in personal
- “It is the aim of politics to responsibility
preserve individual rights, and to - “The commitment to traditional
maximize the freedom of values and ideas with opposition
choice.” – Iain McLean to change or innovation. It is the
- “Liberalism allows change, such preference for the historically
as new behavior and opinion. A inherited.” – Terence Ball
liberal is someone who is open- - “It expresses the instinctive
minded and progressive in their human fear of sudden change,
views.” and tendency to habitual
actions.”
SOCIALISM
- A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production,
distribution, and exchange should be owned and regulated by the community as a whole.

- Based on the idea of cooperation and social responsibility.

Marxism
- The political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, later developed by their followers
to form the basis for the theory and practice of communism.

- Is a method of socioeconomic analysis that views class relations and social conflict using a materialist
interpretation of historical development and takes a dialectical view of social transformation.

Ownership in Socialism/Marxism
• Ownership of most of the means of production is public rather than private.

• The government, not the individual is the center of the economy.

Birth of Socialism/Marxism
• Came about after the industrial revolution.

• The rich got richer and the poor got poorer.

• Great suffering by workers.

CAPITALISM
• An economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners
for profit, rather than by the state.

• An economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for
profit.

Fascism
• It is a far-right political ideology which glorifies nation and puts race above than the individual. Its policy
centers for state ownership of businesses & education and suppresses free press and individual rights.

Characteristics of Fascism
• Absolute Power of the State

• Rule by a Dictator

• Corporatism
 • Extreme Nationalism

• Superiority of the Nation’s People

• Militarism and Imperialism

Goal of Fascism
Fascism aims to use the country's assets to increase the country's strength in order to achieve national greatness
(Montague) and puts nation and race above than the individual.

Anarchism
• political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and
advocating a society based on free association of individuals and groups

Characteristics of Anarchism
• Anti-Authoritarianism

• Apathy to Civil Rights

• Regarded as an Extreme form of Individualism

Feminism
• Organized activity on empowerment of women's rights and interests

• An ideology that believes women should have the same rights, power, and opportunities as men.

Environmentalism
• political and ethical movement that seeks to improve and protect the quality of the
natural environment through changes to environmentally harmful human activities; through the adoption
of forms of political, economic, and social organization that are thought to be necessary for, or at
least conducive to, the benign treatment of the environment by humans; and through a reassessment
of humanity’s relationship with nature.

Fundamentalism
• a sect or movement within a religion that emphasizes a firm uphold to what it conceives of as the core
principles of its faith, usually resulting in a denouncement of alternative/contemporary practices and
interpretations.

Influences Political Attitudes and Behavior

• Ideology and partisanship (which typically has an ideological thrust) are among the strongest and most
consistent predictors of political preferences.

• Ideologies shape the way people think, thus affecting the behavior.