Chapter Two

Selected Political Thoughts

Nationalism

State nationalism
Ethno-nationalism
 Nationalism…
• It refers to love, loyalty and allegiance to a nation and a belief
that the interest of the nation or nation-state surpass the
interests of individuals and groups.
• Nationalism holds that each nation should govern itself, free
from outside interference (self-determination), that a nation is a
natural and ideal basis for a polity, and that the nation is the
only rightful source of political power (popular sovereignty). 
• It further aims to build and maintain a single national identity
based on shared social characteristics such as culture, language,
religion, politics, and belief in a shared singular history and to
promote national unity.
 Nationalism…
Types of Nationalism
According to Lewellen (2003: 171), nationalism manifests in several
different forms (e.g. economic, racial, territorial, religious, left-wing
(socialist), liberal, anti-colonial, etc), but state nationalism and
ethno-nationalism are the most common types of nationalism.
1)State (Civic) Nationalism
•In state nationalism bounded state assumes a loyalty that
transcends that of family, kinship, culture group, or ethnicity.
•The nation-state was conceived in Europe in the 19th century, it was
closely linked with the rise of industrial capitalism and founded on
the ideal of the French Revolution.
•Such Enlightenment values as secularization of government,
citizenship, equality, and jurisdiction over a clearly defined territory
were part of the original of nationalism.
 Nationalism…
• Civic nationalism defines the nation as an association of
people who identify themselves as belonging to the nation,
who have equal and shared political rights, and allegiance to
similar political procedures.
• Civic nationalism is normally associated with liberal
nationalism,  although the two are distinct, and did not
always coincide.  According to the principles of civic
nationalism, the nation is not based on common ethnic
ancestry, but is a political entity whose core identity is not
ethnicity. This civic concept of nationalism is exemplified by
Ernest Renan in his lecture in 1882 “what is nation?” 
 Nationalism…
2) Ethno-nationalism
– Ethno-nationalism is often in conflict with the nation-state.
– However, ethnicity is not nationalism, nor is nationalism
ethnicity. What brings the two together is the claims of an
ethnic group to its own state or, at the minimum, to
sovereignty within a state.
– Thus, there are different demands of ethno-nationalist
movements, which include recognition, autonomy, self-
determination, secession (a demand ethno-nationalism to
become a state).
 Nationalism…
• Ethnic nationalism, also known as ethno-nationalism, is a
form of nationalism wherein the "nation" is defined in terms
of ethnicity.
•  The central theme of ethnic nationalists is that nations are
defined by a shared heritage, which usually includes a
common language, a common faith, and a common ethnic
ancestry.
•  It also includes ideas of a culture shared between members
of the group, and with their ancestors. 
 Nationalism…
The Origin of Nationalism
• Rousseau: His idea of “general will” and “popular
sovereignty” laid the foundation for modern nationalism. The
French Revolution also emphasized on sovereignty of the
people and the nation, establishing the idea patriotism.
• Nationalism did not become a widely-recognized concept
until the 18th century.  There are three theories for
understanding the origins and basis of nationalism.
– Primordialism:  views nationalism is a natural phenomenon. 
– Ethnosymbolism: views nationalism as a dynamic, evolutionary
phenomenon and stresses the importance of symbols, myths and
traditions in the development of nations and nationalism.
– Modernism: proposes nationalism as a recent social phenomenon
that needs the socio-economic structures of modern society to exist.
 Nationalism…
Post-national: rise of the region state?
• Post-national? Two trends – rise of nationalism and
transnational developments
• Examples: European Union, Latin America? Pan-Arab
nationalism
• Glocalisation: the connection between local and
global
 Nationalism…
Challenges to Nationalism
• Common international norms, values, and Laws
• Creating national fragmentation
• Enhance strong states
• Environmental standards
• Cosmopolitanism: citizens of the world having
universal values. Common standards that apply to all
individuals regardless of their place of residence.
Fascism & Nazism

(Glorification of Power)
 Fascism...
• An ideology opposed to liberalism, socialism,
conservatism, and communism, socialism,
conservatism, and communism, because they
brought economic depression, political betrayal,
national weakness, and moral decline.
• Aggressively nationalistic ideology.
• Italian dictator Benito Mussolini coined the term in
1919, referring to the Roman symbol for “power
through unity”, a bundle of reeds called “fasces,”
individually weak but collectively strong.
 Fascism...
 Fascist ideology is totalitarian, which means a
political system that controls every aspect of life, so
that there is no private sphere of life and
independent organizations.
• Fascism extols aggressive nationalism and Fascism
and dominion of the totalitarian state over the
individual.
• Mussolini argued that citizens were empowered
when they were subordinated to the state. By blindly
obeying the state, they helped the state thrive,
which benefited them.
 Fascism...
Fascist Principles
►Anti- -individualistic
►Anti- -democratic
►Anti- egalitarian
►Anti- -capitalist
►Anti- -pacifist
►Anti- -internationalist
►Anti-conservative
►Anti -intellectual
 Nazism
► Fascism taken to its extreme form.
► Racist and anti-Semitic elements that did not appear in Italian
appear fascism.
►Germany had been hard-hit by its defeat in the First World
War, the hyper inflation of 1923, and the Depression.
► Germans blamed socialists, Jews, and foreigners for their
troubles.
 Nazism...
 Hitler considered himself superior, even though he
was a drifter & failed artist during his youth.
 He started his political career at age 30, joining the
German Workers Party.
 He had exceptional speaking skills. He was chosen
its leader in 1921, and renamed it the National
Socialist German Workers Party.
 Nazism...
Mein Kampf (1924)
• Hitler wrote this while serving a 9 month prison
sentence after the unsuccessful coup attempt.
• The title means My Struggle, and it expounds on
Hitler expounds on Hitler’s anti-Semitism, worship
Semitism, scorn for morality, and plan for of power,
and plan for world domination.
 Nazism...
Nazi racial theory
• Three races:
►Aryans (Germanic)–culture creating
►Jews–culture destroying
►Middle–culture maintaining (At various levels of
hierarchy between Aryans and Jews)
 Nazism...
• The belief that Germans were threatened the most
from an internal led to the Holocaust, the
extermination of 6 million Jewish people in Europe.
• Holocaust means the state-sponsored systematic
persecution and annihilation of European Jews by
Nazi and its collaborators between 1933 and 1945.
• Everything was sublimated to the need to purify the
German race.
 Nazism...
• The Nazis also persecuted and killed Gypsies (non-
Jewish Polish people), homosexuals and people with
disabilities as racial purity reasons.
• They killed political dissidents, Soviet prisoners of
war, Freemasons and Jehovah’s Witnesses for
political reasons.
 Nazism...
The Jewish “Problem”
• Seek to pollute Aryan blood.
• Cunning (not smart), with strong will to survive.
• Seek to destroy higher cultures.
• Not “ “idealistic” no selfless or noble attitudes.
• No original contributions to art or science.
• In league with communists.
• Betrayed German state during WWI.
• Not human but subhuman.
 CONSERVATISM

(Maintain long-established traditions,

and the Status Quo)
 Conservatism...
• Conservatism is a political thought committed to long-
established traditional values and ideas with opposition
to radical change and innovation. They support
gradualism.
• Conservatism generally refers to right-wing/aganist
radical chenge or revolution/ the vs is true for left wing i-
e revolution is must/ politics which advocate the
preservation of traditions, personal wealth and private
ownership (It emphasizes maintaing traditions, self-
reliance and Individualism).
• It was emerged as a reaction to political, social and
economic changes, particularly the French Revolution
(1789).
 Conservatism...
• Conservatives are those who hold political views that
favour private ownership of property, socially
conservative ideas.
• Edmund Burke, an 18th century British political
thinker who opposed the French Revolution, is
credited as a father of political conservatism.
• It is a political thought that tend to promote
traditional institutions in the context of culture and
civilization. Its main preoccupation is to maintain the
existing socio-economic, cultural and political order.
 Conservatism...
Sometimes portrayed as a ‘negative philosophy’,
conservatism desires to resist change, and
conservatives have traditionally eschewed the ‘politics
of principle’. It principally values:
•Marinating the existing traditions and institutions
•Human imperfections
•Organic society (as opposed to atomistic society)
•Hierarchy and authority
•Private property
 Conservatism...
• There are two very different types of change: organic and
artificial.
• The former, which the conservative would be inclined to
accept, refers to change in societal arrangements that can be
conceived of as bottom-up, in that it is driven by voluntary
decisions made incrementally by large populations.
• The latter refers to top-down change implemented by a small
number of political leaders or planners to which a general
population must, often in a relatively short period of time,
simply adapt.
• Thus we can conceive of organic change as ‘demand driven’
and artificial change as ‘supply-driven’ (O’Hara 2011: 74).
 Liberalism

(Individualism...private property, and

representative and limited
government)
 Liberalism...
• According to Das (2009: 310), the word liberal is derived
from Latin word “liber” which means free men. Hence,
the central idea of all these words is freedom or liberty.
• Liberalism is concerned with mainly with limiting the
coercive powers of all governments, whether
democratic or not. Liberal also denotes generously and
open-mindedness.
• Liberalism was born in England during the middle of the
seventeenth century.
 Liberalism...
Causes for the origin of liberalism
• The collapse of feudalism: this has contributed for the
emergence of the middle class and the decline of the power of
church and landlords.
• Enlightenment period: the thinkers and philosophers of the
Enlightenment period advocated for the rational reconstruction
of society so that the individuals can get through freedom.
• Major historical events: Declaration of American Independence
(1716) and the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789).
• The writings of philosophers: some of them were Thomas
Hobbes, Benedict de Spinoza, John Locke, Tom Paine, Robert
Nozick, J.S. Mill.
 Liberalism...
Elements of Liberalism (Das, 2009)
• Liberalism has been branded by many as meta-ideology
which means that it encompasses many principles, values
and elements.
• Individualism
• Freedom
• Reason
• Toleration
• Consent
• Constitutionalism
• Justice
 Liberalism...
Types of Liberalism
• Liberalism is a political doctrine or ideology is in the process
of change or evolution.
a) Classical liberalism: some of the basic elements of classical
liberalism include:
(1) extreme of form of individual interest and individualism;
(2) independent activities in economic field (laissez-faire);
(3) negative freedom (liberty), which means absence of
restrictions that would curb the freedom of individuals;
(4) state is a necessary evil. This idea is stated by Thomas Paine,
who was the advocate of classical liberalism.
 Liberalism...
• Modern Liberalism
– Classical liberalism was forced with a powerful challenge in the
mid-fifties of the 19th century.
– After the Industrial Revolution, with the creation of fabulous
amount of wealth by the capitalist class, common people were
deprived of income and wealth.
– Uncontrolled liberalism and absolute non-interference of the
state in the economic affairs had created poverty and
inequality. State must play a positive role to alleviate poverty
and misery (state intervention in the economy).
– Revision of the old or classical liberalism started in the hands of
John S. Mill. Mill’s attitude on trade unions, nationalism
represent the decisive breach in the intellectual fabric of the
liberal tradition (Gray, 1986).
Marxism
• Class Struggle
• Socialism
• Communism
 Marxism...
• Marxism is a very controversial analysis and vast aspect of
socialism.
• According to Marxism, in every epoch or mode of production,
there were two main classes in society: exploiting class and
exploited class.
• The first is numerically small but economically powerful, and
the latter was numerically big but economically weak.
• The economically powerful class controls the economy and
state.
• Because of the material reason, there are always conflicts
between the two opposite classes and the conflict reaches its
zenith in the industrial society.
 Marxism...
• The numerically greater class because of its weak economic
and political position continue to be exploited by the
powerful class.
• Marx and Engels devised a system or type of society which
would be able to emancipate/natsa mawutat/ the common
people from exploitation, alienation/magilel/ (from nature,
society and self) and oppression.
• This system is popularly known as socialism. For them, only
socialist society could bring relief for the workers.
 Marxism...
• This socialism is based on “scientific principles” and
that is why it is also called scientific socialism.
• The scientific principles are the materialist
conception of history and, dialectical materialist.
a) Historical materialism: the course of history is the
ultimate cause and the great moving power of all
important historic events in the economic
development of society. It refers to changes in the
mode of production.
 Marxism...
2) Dialectical materialism: a very important element of
Marx’s theory of socialism is dialectical materialism.
• Dialectics is defined as the union of opposites.
• Hegel (1770-1831) used the term to explain the
“world spirit”. According to Hegel, world spirit
moves through thesis which means proposition, the
antithesis denies or in Hegelian term negates and
synthesis embraces the truth which contains in both
thesis and antithesis.
• Marx rejected
Marxism...
Hegel’s application of dialectic of idealism but
accepted the central idea of dialectic, that is thesis,
antithesis/teqarani/ and synthesis.
• Applying dialectic to the study of society and its stages of
development, Marx said that originally there were no classes and
such a society in the account of Marx was thesis. The emergence of
classes led to the division of society into opposite classes that
resulted in class conflict.
• This was due to the clash of interests between the classes and it is
antithesis.
• Through class struggle the proletariat class/workers/ will capture
state power, abolish class structure and finally establish classless
society is synthesis./mewahad/ The political vision of marxism is
to create utopian Society
 Marxism...
U to p i a n S o c i e ty

C o m m u n is m

F e u d a lis m C a p it a lis m S o c ia lis m

B o u rg e i o s i e /P ro l e ta ri a t E m e rg e D i c ta to rs h i p o f th e P ro l e ta ri a t
 Communitarianism

• Community (Common good)

• Individualism (Private property)
 Communitarianism...
• In the 1980s, a number of political philosophers (mainly
Michael Sandel, Charles Taylor, and Michael Walzer)
challenged the predominant contemporary political theory,
liberalism, for ignoring the significance and value of
community.
• “Communitarianism” is the label under which this critique
became known. The communitarian critique comprises a
number of distinct theses.
• Methodological and descriptive level, liberal theory was
criticized for its mistaken individualism and for neglecting the
communal sources of practical reasoning.
 Communitarianism...
• On the normative level, liberals were charged with putting
too much value on autonomy at the cost of community.
• Thus, communitarianism has emerged both as a critique of
contemporary liberal theory and as a diagnosis of
contemporary liberal society. communitarianism, as a political
thoughts, tries to balance the value of community (common
good) and the value of individualism (private interest).
 Communitarianism...
Value of communitarianism
1) Community: The notion that human beings can
flourish only within the context of a community has
been labeled “communitarianism.”
• Families, neighborhoods, nations, as well as
churches, are referred to as communities; political
philosophers write about moral and political
communities; there is also talk about the scientific
community.
 Communitarianism...
• Communities may usefully be characterized by the
following three features.
1) Members of a community are united by shared goals and
values, where these are not just their coinciding individual
interests.
2) Members of a community value their relationships for their
own sake, not just for their instrumental value in pursuing
their own ends.
3) Members of a community consider their membership as part
of their identity. When asked who they are, most people will
mention their nation or at least the place they are from.
 Communitarianism...
2) Common Good: Just as liberals are accused of neglecting
community, they are charged with neglecting the common
good. Where this is not just the popular, but quite mistaken,
view of liberalism as a sort of egoism.
• Common good include language, culture, social stability, and
public security.
• We all benefit from a shared language, from external and
internal safety, as well as from a social climate (social capital)
where we can generally trust one another.
3) Individualism: individual autonomy and interests are
respected including private property.
 Republicanism
• Freedom as non-domination
• Mixed constitution
• Contestatory citizenry
 Republicanism...

• The word "republic" derives from the Latin noun-

phrase res publica, which referred to the system of
government that emerged in the 6th century BC.
• The republican ideas that emerged in the thought of
thinkers (such as James Harrington, John Milton)
became a dominant political thought in eighteenth-
century Britain and America.
 Republicanism...
Types of Republicanism
• Classical republicanism: include Athens, Sparta and others were there was
extensive popular participation in politics and decision making).
• Renaissance (enlightenment) republicanism: also called Civic Humanism,
developed by early modern thinkers conceived of an ideal republic, in
which mixed government, virtue, common good were considered as
central to good government. These included, among others, the Italian
city-states of Florence, Genoa and Venice who were controlled by
commercial elites);
• Neo-republicanism: is the effort by current scholars to draw on a classical
republican tradition in the development of an attractive public philosophy
intended for contemporary purposes.
– Prominent theorists in this movement are Philip Pettit  and Cass Sunstein,  who have
each written several works defining republicanism and how it differs from liberalism.
Michael Sandel, a late convert to republicanism from Communitarianism, advocates
replacing or supplementing liberalism with republicanism
 Republicanism...
• Three ideas stand out as landmarks on the terrain of
republican thought. All are concerned with securing the
freedom of citizens.
1) Freedom as non-domination: the freedom that goes with
not having to live under the power of another, is the primary
concern of the state or republic.
2) Mixed constitution (mixed government): If the republic is to
secure the freedom of its citizens then it must satisfy a
range of constitutional constraints associated broadly with
the mixed constitution/government.
• Mixed government (or a mixed constitution) is a form
of government that combines elements of democracy
(polity), aristocracy and monarchy, making impossible their
respective degenerations which are conceived as anarchy,
oligarchy and tyranny.
 Republicanism...
• The mixed constitution was meant to guarantee
– a rule of law under which each citizen would be equal with
others,
– a separation and sharing of powers that denied control to
any one governing individual or body, and
– a degree of representation, whether by rotation or lottery or
election, that gave each sector a presence in government.
3) Contestatory citizenry: the contestatory citizenry was the civic
complement to this constitutional idea. It refers to demanding
society.
• Among the three ideas associated with the republican tradition,
the conception of freedom as nondomination is the most
distinctive.
 Utilitarianism
(Greatest happiness for the greatest
number of people)
 Utilitarianism...
• Utilitarianism (consequential ethics=the consequence of an
action is the only measure of right and wrong) refers to an
action that maximizes utility, which is usually defined as that
which produces the greatest well-being of the greatest
number of people.
• For utilitarianism, happiness is an end for kinds of actions
(individual, group, state, etc actions on political, social,
economic, and cultural issues).
• According to Bentham, the founder utilitarianism, described
utility of as a sum of all pleasure that results from an action
minus the suffering (pain) of anyone in the action.
•
 Utilitarianism...
Types of Utilitarianism
1) Act Utilitarianism: a action should be chosen based
on their likely results.
2) Rule Utilitarianism: moral agents should conform to
rules that maximize utility.
 Utilitarianism...
• The three great utilitarian thinkers-Jeremy Bentham (1748-
1832), James Mill (1773-1836), and J.S. Mill (1806-1873)
conceived of a state whose chief function would be to protect
the democratic rights of the citizens and ensure the free
functioning of democracy.
• The utilitarian thinkers argued that the individual is the
ultimate determiner of the policy and decisions of the
government.
• The Utilitarian philosophers have said that every piece of law
or decision must he judged by its capacity to provide
satisfaction to individuals (the litmus test of any government
is promoting the greatest happiness for the greatest number
of people).
 Utilitarianism...
• That is, to what extent the law and governance are
capable of the fulfilling the demand of the citizen.
• The implication is very simple. The utility is a
criterion which impose restrictions upon the
functions of the state.
• The utilitarian philosophers had no faith on social
contract, natural rights and natural law. It is because
all these do not deal directly with the utility or
necessity of government for individuals.
 References
• Battomore, Tom (2000). A Dictionary of Marxist Thought. 2nd Edition.
• Bernard Crick (1998). Socialism: World View.
• Das, P. G. (2009). Modern Political Theory. Delhi: New Central Book
Agency.
• David Held (1991). Political Theory Today. Polity Press.
• Ebenstein, William (1969) Great Political thinkers. Oxford.
• Heywood, Andrew (2004). Political Theory: An Introduction. 3rd Edition.
• Lewellen, T. C. (2003). Political Anthropology: An Introduction. 3rd
Edition. London: Praeger.
• Larrain, George (1979). The Concept of Ideology.
• Thompson, David (1966). Political Ideas.