To What Extent Should We Embrace An Ideology

“the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter” -Churchill

meaning: acknowledgment that democracies are flawed

Why did the people not revolt against the monarchy during the dark ages?

had the belief of “divine right of rule” meaning that the king and god were connected and to go against the king was to go against god. bad because all they had back then was religion

classical conservative

* philosopher that is in favor of a monarchal government, during French Rev would be the people that want to go back to the way things were (King Louis XIV)
* reaction to classic liberalism

Plato

* greek philosopher
* believed that everyone is born with special skills and they should only do things that are catered towards their set of skills
* thought that people who are not born to lead a country should not tell those who are how to do it
* **against** democracy

Machiavelli

* italian philosopher
* wrote “The Prince” in which had two principles “do the ends justify the means” and “is it better to be feared then loved” (chose feared)
* **antidemocratic**

Thomas Hobbes

* wrote “The Leviathan” which is about structure and order
* did not think yu can have both freedom and safety--thought that the role of government was to protect oue safety
* you should surrender your freedom to a monarch for safety
* negative view of humans: nasty, brutish, constant state of war. believed that sovereign would provide structure and order

Edmund Burke

* english classical conservative who saw the events of the french rev that proved Hobbes to be correct (reign of terror)
* sovereign provide chaos

Age of Reason

• shift in how society thought

• scientific revolution

• not every questions answer is going to be “because god…”

classical liberal

writers, philosophers, and thinkers who wrote about enlightenment

John Locke

• thought humans inherently good and born with natural rights (life, liberty, and private property)

• purpose of government was not to keep us safe but to preserve these natural rights

popular consent

voting

John-Jacques Rousseau

* enlightened philosopher
* “man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
* best type of learning is through action
* challenge authority
* people are the government
* came up with the social contract
* advocater for the “general will”

Voltaire

* “i may not garee with what you say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it”
* thinks we should have the freedom to criticize the government without the fear of persecusion

Montesquieu

* thought of branches in government (legislative, executive, and judicial)
* system of checks and balances

JS MIlls

* harm principal
* first to think of restrictions to our freedom

Maslow

* hierarcy of needs
* “how can we reach our full potential”
* to what extent should the government play a part in how we reach our full potential

Left (left and right spectrum)

• collectivist

• lots of government involvement

• public service eg. healthcare

• high taxes

Right (left and right spectrum)

• individualist

• no government involvement

• the more money you make the more preveleges and rewards you should get--people denied public servies like healthcare due to a lack of income

• want lower taxes

spectrum

way of classifying an ideology

ideology

set of beliefs

left side (rate of change)

* complete and immediate change
* willing to use violence
* no more monarch

right side (rate of change)

* no change
* willing to use violence
* want to keep monarch

liberals (rate of change)

* slightly to the left
* in favor of change but slow and gradual
* non violent
* workiing within the system

conservatives (rate of change)

* keep things the way they are
* maintain the status quo

left (economic spectrum)

* classical conservatism
* lits of government involvement in the economy
* goal is economic equality
* no private property
* no economic freedom
* communism

right (economic spectrum)

* no government involvement
* laissez fair--everyone for themselves
* fascism
* classical liberalism (more to the middle)
* neo conservatism
* **capitalism**

left (political spectrum)

* anarchism
* libertairian (harm principal)
* lots of freedom
* mordern liberal (more towards the middle but still left)

right (political spectrum)

* strict government control
* authoritarian
* communism and fascism
* hobbes, machiavelli
* classical conservatism

quadrant 1 on combined spectrum

* in favor of government involvement in the economy
* in favor of very strict laws
* communism
* stalin

quadrant 2 on the combined spectrum

* little government in the economy--private businesses
* very strict laws
* fascism
* Hitler, Mussolini

quadrant 3 on the combined spectrum

* little government involvement in the economy
* lots of freedom
* Rand Paul, anarchism
* very few laws both economically and politically

quadrant 4 on the combined spectrum

• lots of government involvement in the economy

• lots of political freedom

• Gandhi

key to combined spectrum

the further away someone is from the middle, the more extreme their views ae