Social 30-1

Thomas Hobbes

• Against individualism

• Believes that we need security more than freedom

• Freedom and security cannot coexist

• Everyone must give up their personal freedom to one person, who is responsible for everyone’s security

• Government ensures collective security

• Absolute authority and order

• People are selfish by nature

John Locke

• “Father of liberalism”

• Tabula Rosa: at birth, the mind is a blank slate

• Supports individualism

• Governments are created to protect life, liberty, and property

  • Government only has power that people consent to give

  • Government actions should by justifies by popular consent

  • If government fails to protect people, people have the right to change the government

• His ideas led to democracy and capitalism

• Limited government intervention

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• People are naturally good but have been corrupted by civilization

• Private property leads to jealousy and corruption

• Collective good and equality

• Government where will of the people was absolute authority

• Direct democracy > representative democracy

• Citizens should make laws directly

• Influenced socialism, welfare states, and collectivism

Adam Smith

• “Father of capitalism”

• Wrote in response to mercantilism

• Free trade and limited government intervention

• Free market and laissez-faire

  • People act out of self-interest

• Specialization of countries; globalization

• Believed nation’s wealth depends on its productivity, not gold

• Believes in the “invisible hand” where supply and demand naturally guide the economy

Milton Friedman

• Main responsibility of a business is to maximize revenue and increase returns to shareholders

• Classical liberalism

• Laissez-faire

• Free markets

Industrial Revolution

• Agrarian and handicraft economics transformed into industrial urbanized ones

• Urbanization led to very overcrowded, unsanitary cities, and poor development, leasing to slums and diseases

• Mass production, driven by innovation and mechanization of industries

• Increased production and efficiency while reducing costs and expanding markets

• Used unpaid orphans as child labour

• Industrial accidents and deaths were common

• Oppression of children

• Production and profit at all costs

• long days with little pay

• New classes based on wealth

• Created monopolies

Classical Liberalism

• Elitist and exclusive

• Believed freedom shouldn’t apply to all but only those who has privilege (white, male, and upper class)

• Supports individualism and individual rights

• Believed in equality of opportunity, but ignored privilege

  • Everyone technically has the same opportunity to succeed, as there are no potential obstacles to overcome.

Classical Conservatism

• Focused on the political issues of the time

• Emerged as a reaction to what happened during the French Revolution, where they expanded suffrage to all men

  • believed it went to far, that chaos and revolution gave too much power to people not ready for it

• Believe the most efficient society is one that limits suffrage

  • Only certain people, educated and wealthy, should have political power.

Luddites

• Response to Industrial Revolution

• New technology meant skilled workers were losing their jobs and wages were sinking

• English handicraftsmen who rioted in protest to textile machinery taking them out of business

• Destroyed thousands of pieces of machinery until 1817 when governments were finally able to control riots and declared machine-breaking a capital offence (punishable via death)

Chartists

• The working class in Britain

• Focuses on political and social reform

• Called for:

  • Universal suffrage for all men over 21

  • Equal-sized electoral districts

  • Voting via secret ballots

  • An end to require property to be a Member of Parliament

  • Pay for Member of Parliaments

  • Annual elections

• Working class can’t vote so the government only had people representing interests of the elite

• Largest strike seen at the time

• Were a persecuted group, but most demands were met in the Reform Acts of 1867 and 1884

• Provided training and political activism that was used by former chartists in forming early trade unions and socialist groups

Labour Unions/Factory Acts

• Wealth disparities as a result of industrialization

• Government intervened and passed several acts to increase minimum wage, shortened working day, increasing age of child labourers, and improved working conditions

• Factory Acts

  • Laws passe by British Parliament to make better and fairer working conditions

• Labour unions

  • Group of people trying to improve working conditions and wages for either a specific group of workers or an entire industry

Feminism

• belief in social, economic, and political equality of women

• Suffrage movement = first wave of feminism

Karl Marx

• Envisions society with equality, fairness, and absence of exploitation

• Believed proletariats takes advantage of Bourgeoise

• Believed capitalism was unstable (i.e. business cycle and depressions)

  • Capitalism indoctrinate people to believe they can enrich themselves while creating a system that makes it impossible

• Need for violent revolution

• Collective ownership

• Centralized government

  • Would eventually dissolve itself and society would run itself through cooperation

Communism

• Collective ownership

• No private property or hierarchy

• Centralized government speaking for the people

  • Would eventually dissolve through cooperation

• Pool everyone’s resources together to succeed

The USSR - Tsar Nicholas

• Disagreed with classical liberalism: anti-industry and anti-individual freedom

• Suppressed Dissent

WW1

• Tsar Nicholas entered the war with the intention to unite his people through war

  • Horribly backfires with hundreds of thousands dead within weeks and grain shortages/starvation ravaging the country

Stalin and the Soviet Union

• Stalin took over after the death of Lenin

• Rejected all liberal ideas (individuality, freedoms, rights, competition, etc)

• Created a cult of personality and used fear to fulfill an adherence to public norms (must support the party, must reject capitalism, must not complain too much or too openly)

Business Cycle

Expansion phase

• Rapid growth

• Interest rates are low, more people borrow money, production increases, purchases increase, inflation pressure builds

Peak Growth

• Economy is unstable and needs to be corrected

• Peak inflation

Contraction phase

• Growth slows or stagnates

• Employment falls

• Interest rates increase, making it harder to borrow, production decreased, and purchases decrease

Trough

• Economy begins to recover as purchases and production increase

Great Recession of 2008

• 2001: increase in unregulated mortgages and decrease in inerest rates, making borrowing easier. Increased demand for houses, people began borrowing more money to pay off mortgage and pushed home prices higher

• 2005: Interest rates begin to increase, making it difficult to buy, demand and house prices went down. Banks used their own customer’s money to give out loans, meant less money for banks, so they stopped giving out loans.

• Impact: businesses could no longer get loans, so they reduced their expenses and investments, including employees (widespread job loss)

  • Many businesses went bankrupt

2 ways two solve a recession

Monetary Policy:

• Controlled by the Bank of Canada, which raises or lowers interest rates. Regulate foreign exchange rates, regulate banks, and buy or sell bonds(loans)

Fiscal Policy:

• Controlled by the government. They raise or lower austerity (government spending)

  • Raise or lower taxation

Trickle Down Economics

• Increased supply of goods = economic growth

• Government must cut taxes, lower borrowing rates, and deregulate industry to grow the economy

• Believed businesses need incentives to make stuff (government needs to step back) to prevent something like the Great Depression

• Money from the rich trickle down to the lower class

Keynesian Economics

• Increase demand for goods = increase the economy

• Governent can generate demand for goods and services when businesses are unable to do so

• Believed insufficient demand caused the Great Recession (people list jobs, so they bought less, so bbusinesses stopped makig stuff)

• Heavy government spending during times of recession to generate demand, putting money in pockets of low and middle class

Neoliberalism

Reaction against modern liberalism

Want to return to the economic freedoms of classical liberalism

Neoconservatism

Want to return to economic freedoms of classical liberalism AND traditional family values and militarism.

Economic crisis of 1970s

• 1970: USA abandond gold standard

• 1973: OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exorpting Countries) stop trade with Western nations for supporting Isreal in the Arab Isreali war

  • Price of oil quadrupled, leading to staglation (infaltion and a recession)

• Solution: Use Freidman and Hayek economics

  • Free markets balance Supply and Demand, and government needs to shrink

Austerity Measures

Reducing government spending during a recession.

• Limits unemployed benefits

• Extend the eligibality age for retirement and health care benefits

• Freeze or reduce government employee wages

• Decrease funding for social or welfare programs

• Lower minimum age

Ronald Reagan

• President of US

• Cut tax rates significantly for the rich

• Believed in Trickle Down economics

• Raised Capital Gains Tax (government fee on profit from seeling certain types of assets)

• Believed in reducing government regulation and spending

• increased military spending though

• Idea is that the wealthy would use their new freedom to create more jobs and therefore employ more people.

Enlightenment

• Scientific revolution, growing out of ideas of rationalism and empiricism

  • Belief that reason and logic are primary sources of knowledge, not god

  • Belief that knowledge comes from observation

• Philposphers (John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau) began to question the current system (divine rights of the kings) and imagine alternative ways to governance

Characteristics of political liberalism

• Rights of the indiviual and personal freedom

  • Freedom of speech and religion, right to private property, right to dissent and absence of coercion

• Consent of the governed

• Decentralized government

  • Government is to serve society not be in charge of it

• Equality before law

French Revolution

• Response to massive poltiical, social and economic inequalities

• Had class based fuedal system with very limited political representation as kings’ power was absolute law

• Enlightenment philosphers like Rousseau and Locke heavily influenced the revoluion

Edmund Burke

• Founder of classical conservatism

• Critques French revolution, as it destroyed age old institutions without a system to replace it

• Revolution leads to dictatorship and destruction

• Change should cme from gradual change of tradition, not deliberate thought

• Order and stability are more important than liberty

• Strong Authority is needed

• Freedom without control leads to chaos

Montesquieu

• Used Enlightenment idea of empiricism (knowledge comes from experience) to determine how to organize government

• Humans are naturally ambitious and self serving

• Therefore seperation of powers is needed

  • Prevents too much centralized power from ending up in the hands of one or a few, leads to corruption

• Legislative (make law), executive (enforce law), and Judicial (judges disputes)

Checks & Balances

• Created by Montesquieu

  • Each branch has some oversight over each other branches

Nazi Germany & Fascism

Facism: an authoritarisn system of government that demands individual interests are below the needs of the state

• Treaty of Versailles punished Germany economically and socially (Germans thought they were winning the war and suddenly the new democratic government gave up)

• There was depression and hyperinflation, the democracy (i.e. elected officials) were unable to solve this problem

• Hitler promised to solve all these problems, used fear mongering (blames vesrailles, communism, Jews, etc to explain the problem) and propaganda

• Nazi’s consolidates power: accused govenrment officials of being communists and enacted the Emergencies Powers Act so Hitler got all the power.

• Creates secret police and a large police force, looking like an army although it was illegal under the Treaty of Versailles

• All media was controlled by state for propaganda (i.e. education, movies, books, etc)

• Eliminates high unemployment rates (i.e. “disappearing” the homeless, Jewish, and disables

Conscription

Case of illiberalism

World War 1:

• At first, in 1914, patriotic fervor caused volunteers to flock to recruiting stations

• After 3 years of fighting, there was an increasing number of dead and wounded

• Voluntary enlistment dropped drastically

• In 1917, Conscription became the law through the Military Services Act

World War 2:

• PM Mackenzie King promised to not implement conscription in 1939

• 1940: INtroduces the National Resource MObilization Act

• 1942: He held a direct vote to be released of his promise. Majority voted yes and conscription was implemented

Japanese Internment

• Since the mid 1800s, Japenese has suffered from racism in Canada

• Laws were passed to prevent them from voting and working in certain industries

• In December 1941, Japan attacked American Military base, Pearl Harbour

  • Anti-asian fear and racial centiment became very prominent

• Early 1942, the Canadian government detaines and dispossessed more than 90% of japanese Canadians

• They were detained under the War Measures Act

  • Allowed government to remove and detain “any and all persons” from any “protective area” in the country.

• Their homes and businesses were sold by the government to pay for the detention

• Trains carried Japanese detainees to different places in B.C. and were offered the option on working on sugar beet farms where they would be able to keep their families intact

  • Overcrowded and poor conditions; no electricity or running water

• If you resisted, you were sent to prisoner of war camps

USA Patriot Act

September 22, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center led to the passing of the law

• Uniting and Strenghtening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

• Allowed for surveillance, wiretapping, breaking and entering warrants, tougher penalties for convicted criminals, more power to detain and deport immigrants suspected of terrorism, and making it harder for individuals to enter the USA

• Criticism: biased watch lists, racially motivated targetting, government overreach (CIA semmed to be listening to everyone), and attack on the first amendment

• Security in exchange for privacy

John Stuart Mill

• Bentham, (founder of ultitarianism where rules and laws should be created and followed to maximize happiness) seemed too okay with the tyranny of the majority

• Created the harm principle

• Humans are free in three ways: thoughts/speech, pursue tastes, unite

  • But people shouldn’t be allowed to say things that could lead to harm

  • Shouldn’t do things that could lead to harm to others

• Society should be ruled by government that creates rules that maximize happiness and considers the harmful effects of doing so

USSR and USA - WW2

• Originally allied with Nazi Germany, but when they invaded the USSR, Stalin turned to the allies

• After the war the allied powers started to plan what Europe would look like after the war

• Agreed on the unconditional surrender and demilitarized Germany

• Disagreed on other values such as the implementation of the ideological conflict

Yalta Conference

• Feb 1945, before WW2 actually ended in August

• Plan to end the war and “redraw the map” of Europe

• Agreed to divide Germany into 4 zones

  • British, French, American, and Soviet

• Agreed to liberate Germany and impose liberalism

Potsdam Conference

• December after WW2 ended

• Believed to be the start of the Cold War

• America and Britain had new leaders than those in the Yalta Conference

• Goal was to decide how to administer post-war Germany

• Liberal democracies called for elections in all the territories

  Problem

• Stalin had already set up communists governments where the Red Army had ended up and established governments

• Relations deteriorated from there

Timeline of the Cold War

1945 - Yalta conference and Potsdam Conference

1947 - Truman Doctrine

1948 - Marshall Plan and Berlin Blockade

1949 - Formation of NATO

1950 - Korean war

1956 - Hungarian Revolution

1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis

1965 - Vietnam War with US involvement starts

1972 - SALT 1

1979 - USSR invades Afghanistan and SALT 2

1983 - Reagan proposed the Strategic Defence Initiative - deterence

Post WW2 Japan

• Had originally joined Nazi Germany as democracy failed in their country post-WW1

• Problems for liberalism:

  • Japan’s population and economy destroyed by war

  • Worried about Japan becoming another Nazi Germany

  • Worried about the spread of Communism

• Solution: impose democracy and embrace capitalism to make Japan an ally and a buffer to communism

• General MacArthur sent to occupy and “liberalize” Japan

• The end the occupation, Japan needed to remake their constitution so the Emperor didn’t have any power, economic reforms like the “new deal”, create democracy, ban old imperial symbols.

• They censored news critical of American occupation as they needed people to think that Americans will help make the country better

• After Japan adopts American system, they quickly became a n economic and political powerhouse

• Japan’s economy quickly caught up to the USA in term of GDP

Afghanistan

• 1979: Soviets began attempts to influence Afghanistan’s politics and move governments towards communism

• Unpopular and Soviets were kicked out through american aid

• After 9/11, America invaded Afghanistan to seek out those responsible and to bring democracy and liberal allies (make them an ally)

• They were worried about unfriendly groups retaking the country so they wanted to impose American-style dmocracy

• They reduced Taliban control, but weren’t able to eliminate all insurgent groups, caused guerilla war

• America failed as insurgent groups continues to put pressure on people to reject democracy, they were seen as occupiers, not liberaltors, failed to build good infastructure

Globalization

World Bank

• Provides loans and grants to governments of low income countries

• Idea that wealthy nations act as bank to help developing countries develop

• To be approved for a loan a country must:

  • Promote democracy

  • Promote capitalist endeavours

  • Promote free trade

• They have always put pressure on countries to use austerity measures to reduce spending

  • government policy designed to reduce budget defivits and debt by cutting spending or raising taxes

PACCCE

Public property

Adherence to collective norms

Collective interest

Collective responsibilities

Cooperation

Economic equality

PRICES

Private property

Rule of law

Individual rights and freedoms

Competition

Economic freedom

Self-interest

Five Year PLan

• Stalin decided Russia was 50-100 years behind the world in terms of industrialization

• PLanned to catch up in five years

  • Force economic growth through quotas

    • Set expectations for each indstry based on government estimates

  • Collective agriculture: created gigantic industrial farms

• Led to Russia becoming a superpower, competing with USA (economically and militarily)

• Spread communism around the world

• Estimated 20 million deaeths through purges, starvation, concentration camps, and executions

2 reasons to impose liberalism

1. Democratic peace theory

   Democracies rarely fight one another, so more lieral societies there are, the more allies you have

2. Humanitarian

   Want to help people living in dictatorships and give them rights and freedoms

USSR - Vladimir Lenin

Uses Marx’s idea to build a political platform

• Peace, land, bread

• Nationalize all key industries (take ownership from the bourgeoisie and give ownership to the people)

• Took power by force

• Removed the aristocracy and killed the Tsar

• However, industrial and agricultural output plummeted (5+ million Russians died of famine)

• Started the “Red Terror” where they eliminated dissent, and “disappeared” those who weren’t loyal

Truman Doctrine

• US foreign policy, established in 1947, committed the United States to providing political, military, and economic assistance to democratic nations threatened by authoritarian forces, particularly communism.

• Shifted US away from isolationism

Vietnam War

imilar to Korea, the North attempted to take over the South, so the US got involved. Again, the USSR did not get directly involved but provided supplies to cripple their superpower opponent. Not only were the Soviets able to ensure a defeat of the Americans in Asia, it also served to demoralize the Americans back home.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the United States and the Soviet Union, when the Soviets deployed nuclear missiles to Cuba, posing a direct threat to the United States and Canada. This standoff brought the world to the brink of nuclear war and is widely considered the closest the US and USSR came to nuclear conflict during the Cold War.

SALT agreements

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were a series of negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, primarily focused on limiting their nuclear arsenals and preventing an all-out arms race. The talks resulted in two agreements, SALT I (1972) and SALT II (1979), aiming to freeze the number of strategic offensive weapons and limit the development of anti-ballistic missile system

Marshall Plan

• Pst-World War II initiative by the United States

• Provide economic aid to Western Europe, primarily to help rebuild war-torn economies and prevent the spread of communism

• Attempt to expand sphere of influence and get rid of Soviet Unions

Red Paper

• Proposed to abolish treaties, the Department of Indian Affairs, and everything else that kept First Nations and Inuit people distinct form the rest of the people of Canada.

• Belief was that by ending unique status, First Nations and Inuit peoples would be able to “catch up” with the rest of society.

• Aboriginal people were not consulted, and many viewed this as a final step to assimilation.

White Paper

• In response to the White paper, the National Indian Brotherhood published “Citizen plus” also known as the Red Paper

• Some of the proposed policy changes included:

  • FMNI people have access to same services as Canadians plus additional rights and privileges as established under the BNA act

  • The government thins that FNMI an only own land in the Old World, European sense of land ownership.

    • FMNI people should be allowed to control land in a way that respects their historical and legal rights.

  • Any changes in the Indian Act should be settles through consensus.

Korean Wars

The US got UN support to stop the spread of communism after North Korea invaded the south. While the USSR didn’t get directly involved, they supplied weapons to the North Koreans and after, the Chinese. Therefore, the battle over communism versus capitalism was fought in Asia, with the US and USSR sacrificing to promote their ideology

Orange Revolution

• Triggered by widespread accusations of fraud in the 2004 presidential election, in which Viktor Yanukovych, who was considered pro-Russian, was declared the winner despite being highly unpopular among many Ukrainians

• Period of mass protests and political upheaval in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005

• led to Yushchenko's victory, helping Ukraine diverge from the authoritarianism of Russia's Vladimir Putin

Brinkmanship

• Pursuing dangerous political policy to the limits of safety to pressure another country

• Playing political chicken

  • Two cars coming together and eventually one car moves to the side, if they don’t, then they blow up

Containment

• US Foreign policy during the Cold War of stopping expansionism of communism by establishing strategic allies around the world using both trade and military alliances

• Opposing expansionism

Detente

• Easing of hostility or strained relations

  • I.e. reducing nuclear arms or signing treaties

Deterrence

Political act attempting to discourage a foreign power from taking certain actions due to threat/fear of consequence

Expansionism

Political and military policy of taking over additional territory by violation of another country’s sovereignty

• Both the Soviets and Americans wanted to establish a sphere of influence that would support their ideological viewpoints. When Stalin tried to block access to Berlin, or when the Americans created West Germany and encouraged East Germans to migrate, that is expansionism.

Proxy Wars

An armed conflict between two states which act on the instigation or behalf of other parties that are not directly involved

• I.e The Korean and Vietnam Wars were both Cold War-era conflicts fueled by the ideological struggle between communism and capitalism. The Korean War involved North Korea, backed by communist China and the Soviet Union, invading South Korea, which was supported by the United States and other nations. The Vietnam War pitted communist North Vietnam, backed by China and the Soviet Union, against South Vietnam, supported by the United States and other anti-communist governments. Both wars ended in stalemates, with the Korean Peninsula divided at the 38th parallel and Vietnam unified under communist rule

Non-Alignment

Both the Soviets and Americans had many alliances and organizations to protect and expand their sphere of influence. However many newly independent nations did not want to trade their colonial rulers for ideological control, so they established a conference where they all agreed to support each other in their quest to avoid being dragged into conflict.

Sphere of influence

The countries and territories over which a more powerful country dominates

• Canada is under the American sphere of influence

• Soviet Union and America fighting to keep spheres of influence

Berlin Blockade

The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier built by East Germany in 1961 to separate West Berlin from East Berlin and the rest of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), lasting until 1989. Its primary purpose was to prevent East Germans from fleeing to the West. The wall became a powerful symbol of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain, representing the division between communist and democratic nation

Hungarian Revolution

Freedoms started to be established; this was tolerated by the Soviet government until they requested to leave the Warsaw Pact, and then the Soviet army was sent in to quash the revolution. Thousands were killed in the two weeks of fighting. 

Prague Spring

Similar to the Hungarian Uprising, with freedoms being introduced. This time the fighting did not last as long, and Brezhnev passed the Brezhnev Doctrine that bound the Warsaw Pact members to get involved if liberal revolutions started to spread within the Communist Bloc.

Civil Rights Movement

Mass protest movement against racial segregation and discrimination in the Southern United States that came to national prominence during the mid-1950s

Controlled Participation

Only one party is legally allowed to form a gov -- all other powers are either outlawed / only allowed minimal participation in elections.

Indoctrination

Process of inculcating (teaching by repeated instruction) a person or people into an ideology, often avoiding critical analysis.

Oligarchy

Form of government in which power rests with a small number of people

Containment

• Both sides wanted to prevent the other from expanding their influence, for example, when the East German governments built the wall around West Berlin or when the Americans used the airlift to demonstrate to Stalin that they would not back down to him.

Berlin Airlift

A humanitarian mission launched by the Western Allies (primarily the US and UK) in 1948-1949 to counter a Soviet blockade of West Berlin. The blockade, imposed in June 1948, cut off road, rail, and water access to the Allied sectors of Berlin, which was located within the Soviet zone of occupied Germany. The airlift involved a massive aerial operation, delivering vital supplies like food, fuel, and medicine to the people of West Berlin

Iron Curtain

The Iron Curtain was a metaphorical and political term, while the Berlin Wall was a physical structure. The Iron Curtain, coined by Winston Churchill, referred to the division of Europe after World War II between the Soviet-influenced Eastern Bloc and the Western democracies. The Berlin Wall was a concrete and barbed wire barrier built in 1961 by East Germany to seal off the city of Berlin, a visible representation of the Iron Curtain's divide, according to multiple sources.

Jim Crow Laws

• Several Southern states created laws called “Black Codes”

• Maintained similar status to slavery

• Jim Crow Laws were a collection of state and local laws that legalized racial segregation. Were in effect until 1968

Montgomery Bus riots

• Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give her bus seat to a white passenger, as required by the city’s segregation

• Caused African Americans to boycott the buses across the Southern US

March on Washington

• During the Civil Rights Movement there was a proposed civil rights bill outlawing segregation in public facilities and discrimination in employment

• Bill faced opposition from Southern members of Congress

• In response, Civil rights leaders organized a massive march on Washington, D.C. in 1963

• Hundreds of thousands of Americans traveled to the nation’s capital to demonstrate for civil rights