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Acknowledgements

p.178, Rudolf Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism (1938), Martin Secker and Walburg; p.182, Murray Rothbard, Man, Economy and State (1962), The Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Photo credits

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Get the most from this book

Learning outcomes

A summary of the learning objectives for each chapter

Key terms

Concise definitions of key terms where they first appear

Key thinker

Feature boxes giving details of the key people covered in the chapter

Activity

Putting learning into practice

Debate

The two sides of a controversial question, set out to hone examination skills

Exam-style

questions Revision questions at the end of each chapter

Further reading

Websites, books and articles that are relevant to the chapter

Introduction

Four aspects of the course are considered here:

1  This part of the Government and Politics course is entitled ‘Political ideas’. While this may seem self-explanatory, it is vital to understand what is actually meant by the terms ‘ideas’ and ‘ideologies’ and to distinguish them from political policies.

2  Each section is divided into four dominant themes: human nature, the state, society and economy. Answers to questions should take into account these themes wherever they are relevant.

3  The specification requires you to have knowledge about the beliefs of a number of key thinkers. Below is information on how you should use this knowledge.

4  It is important to employ appropriate vocabulary. The study of political ideas will challenge students to come to terms with new language, but it is important to meet that challenge in order to add clarity to your meanings.

Ideas and ideologies

We are used to discussing specific political policies but these refer largely to short-term, pragmatic decisions made by politicians, parties and pressure groups. Policies are developed to deal with particular problems which arise from time to time. Ideas and ideologies, meanwhile, look at longer-term issues and consider fundamental solutions to such questions. Furthermore, they are based on strongly held principles rather than pragmatic responses to short-term issues. Two examples can help here.

Let us consider the levels of taxation in a society. A policy to reduce income tax may be a short-term method of pumping more money into the economy, increasing spending and boosting economic growth. It cannot be undertaken permanently but it solves a problem in the meantime. Meanwhile, a party or group of politicians might believe that tax levels are generally too high, are a threat to people’s economic liberty and individualism, and are a disincentive to work and enterprise, so they should be kept to as low a level as possible in the long term. A low-tax society is therefore a political idea.

Political ideologies are a stronger phenomenon altogether. Ideologies are sets of related political ideas which come together to create a vision of some kind of idealised society. Ideologies are based on strongly held, permanent principles and interlocking doctrines. In our example, the idea of a low-tax society connects with related doctrines such as opposition to high levels of welfare which, like high taxes, may be a disincentive to hard work, and free, unregulated markets which foster business enterprise. Put these three aims together — low taxation, low welfare and free markets — and we have an ideology, usually known as neo-liberalism.

We can now apply the same analysis to another set of ideas. These concern dealing with poverty and inequality:

•  Raising the minimum wage is a short-term policy to reduce poverty.

•  Reducing the gap in living standards between the rich and poor in the long term is a political idea.

•  Creating a more generally equal society with equal rights, empowerment for the working classes, intervention by the state to avoid the ‘excesses’ of capitalism and public ownership of major industries to spread the fruits of their production more evenly are interlocking ideas, forming an ideology, which we know as socialism.

Put another way, policies come and go, while political ideas and ideologies have more permanence.

This book deals with political ideas and political ideologies but not with policies. There are three ‘core’ ideologies and five ‘optional’ ideologies. Apart from the fact that students must study all three core ideologies to be able to tackle the examination questions but have to study only one of the options, there is another distinction to be borne in mind:

•  The core ideologies — liberalism, conservatism and socialism — have dominated western civilisation for more than 200 years. Political discourse and conflict therefore have largely been based on these three. However, they are largely based on western civilisation. Today we must look further afield in our study of political ideas, taking a world view and also considering those ideas that shape the relationships between minorities and the perspectives of alienated sections of society.

•  The optional ideologies — nationalism, feminism, anarchism, ecologism and multiculturalism — have generally shorter histories than the core ideologies but often take their inspiration from different forms of consciousness of the world, ranging from eastern mysticism to gender awareness to modern scientism. Some aspects of the optional ideas have also challenged the traditional ideas associated with liberalism, conservatism and socialism and as such can also be described as post-modern.

Four themes

These are guides as to how we can analyse and compare political ideas and the beliefs of the many key thinkers presented in this book. You do not have to apply them but you are advised to do so where you can. As a starting point they should be considered in the following ways:

•  Human nature. This concerns beliefs about the fundamental nature of mankind’s relationship with other people and with the world. In the political ideas presented here we will see that various thinkers have described human nature in enormously varied ways, from egocentric to social, from fundamentally good to fundamentally competitive, from gender obsessed to androgynous (having no gender identity), or from dominant over the natural world (anthropomorphic) to claiming to be only an equal part of nature.

•  State. Nearly all people live under the jurisdiction of one state or another. Political ideas and ideologies therefore have adopted principles about the nature of the state, what part (if any) it should play in society, how it should be controlled and whether it is a force for good or evil.

•  Society. All societies have a particular structure which has either evolved naturally or been imposed by the state and those who govern the state. Most ideologies therefore have developed some kind of vision of what their ideal society would look like. Sometimes this is very specific, as is the case with socialism, some multiculturalists and certain types of collectivist anarchism; sometimes it is more vague, as is the case with conservatism.

•  Economy. Not all political ideas and ideologies contain a strong economic perspective, but some do and this should be reflected in analysis where it applies. Again, socialism is a clear example, while neo-liberals, as described above, base most of the ideas on economics and economic principles. Even some socialist feminists have been able to link most of their analysis to economic relations between the sexes. Many ecologists also see capitalism as the main culprit in the degradation of the natural environment and so propose to control or even abolish it.

Key thinkers

There are usually five key thinkers specified for each of the political ideologies in the specification. This book describes their main work, beliefs and importance in the development of political ideas. They are not exhaustive and you should also have knowledge of other key thinkers, but you are certainly advised to refer to them in your examination answers. Directly quoting them is not necessary, though you should do so if you can and if it helps to illustrate your analysis.

Every ideology comprises different themes and variations. Often the different thinkers in the text illustrate these variations most effectively. Thus the distinction between, for example, the liberals John Stuart Mill and John Rawls tells us a great deal about how liberalism evolved between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Similarly, Marx’s fundamental version of socialism tells us much of how dramatically the ideology has been transformed by more recent left-wing thinkers such as Anthony Crosland and Anthony Giddens.

Political vocabulary

As we have said, you should use accurate and appropriate political vocabulary wherever possible. Fortunately, both this book and the examination specification contain key terms with their meanings. You should take time to understand these and practise using them wherever you can. They can also save you time in your writing as they have specific meanings, which will reduce the need for lengthy explanations.

You are strongly advised to learn those aspects of vocabulary with which you are not already familiar and to ensure that you are able to use them in the correct context.