Chapter 2 - Politics 6th Edition

Ideology

A coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized political action, whether intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing system of power relationships.

Rationalism

The belief that the world can be understood and explained through the exercise of human reason, based on assumptions about its rational structure.

Pragmatism

A theory or practice that places primary emphasis on practical circumstances and goals; pragmatism implies a distrust of abstract ideas.

Meta-ideology

A higher or second-order ideology that lays down the grounds on which ideological debate can take place.

Atomism

The belief that society is made up of a collection of largely self-sufficient individuals who owe little or nothing to one another.

Economic liberalism

A belief in the market as a self-regulating mechanism tending naturally to deliver general prosperity and opportunities for all.

Big government

Interventionist government, usually understood to imply economic management and social regulation.

Welfare

Interventionist government, usually understood to imply economic management and social regulation.

Redistribution

A narrowing of material inequalities amongst members of a society by programmes that transfer wealth from the wealthier to the poor.

Nanny state

A state with extensive social responsibilities; the term implies that welfare programmes are unwarranted and demeaning to the individual.

Reactionary

Reactionary politics is that which opposes social, political and economic change, and/or seeks to return society to some previous state of affairs.

Paternalism

An attitude or policy that demonstrates care or concern for those unable to help themselves, as in the (supposed) relationship between a father and a child.

Noblesse oblige

(French) Literally, the 'obligations of the nobility'; in general terms, the responsibility to guide or protect those less fortunate or less privileged.

Toryism

An ideological stance within conservatism characterized by a belief in hierarchy, an emphasis on tradition, and support for duty and organicism.

Natural aristocracy

The idea that talent and leadership are innate or inbred qualities that cannot be acquired through effort or self-advancement.

Christian democracy

An ideological tendency within European conservatism, characterized by commitment to social-market principles and qualified interventionism.

Permissiveness

The willingness to allow people to make their own moral choices; permissiveness suggests that there are no authoritative values.

Revisionism

The modification of original or established beliefs; revisionism can imply the abandonment of principle or a loss of conviction.

Historical materialism

The Marxist theory that holds that economic conditions ultimately structure law, politics, culture and other aspects of social existence.

Bourgeoisie

A Marxist term, denoting the ruling class of a capitalist society, the owners of productive wealth.

Proletariat

A Marxist term, denoting a class that subsists through the sale of its labour power; strictly speaking, the proletariat is not equivalent to the working class.

Dictatorship of the proletariat

A temporary proletarian state, established to prevent counter-revolution and oversee the transition from capitalism to communism.

Leninism

Lenin's theoretical contributions to Marxism, notably his belief in the need for a 'vanguard' party to raise the proletariat to class consciousness.

Stalinism

The structures of Stalin's Soviet Union, especially a centrally placed economy linked to systematic and brutal political oppression.

Fundamentalist socialism

A form of socialism that seeks to abolish capitalism and replace it with a qualitatively different kind of society

Anarcho-capitalism

An anarchist tradition which holds that unregulated market competition can and should be applied to all social arrangements, making the state unnecessary.

Mutualism

A system of fair and equitable exchange, in which individuals or groups trade goods and services with one another without profiteering or exploitation.

Anarcho-communism

An anarchist tradition which takes common ownership to be the sole reliable basis for social solidarity, thereby linking statelessness to classlessness.

Social Darwinism

The application of the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin to human society, suggesting that only the fittest peoples, races, nations or groups should survive.

Liberal feminism

A feminist tradition whose core goal is equal access for women and men to the public realm, based on a belief of genderless personhood.

Socialist feminism

A feminist tradition that seeks to restructure economic life to achieve gender equality, based in links between patriarchy and capitalism.

Radical feminism

A feminist tradition that aims to overthrow patriarchy through a radical transformation of all spheres of life, but especially 'the personal'.

Ecologism

A political doctrine that stresses the essential link between humankind and the natural world: humans are part of nature, not its 'masters'.

Anthropocentrism

The belief that human needs and interests are of overriding moral and philosophical importance; the opposite of ecocentrism.

Holism

The belief that the whole is more important than its parts, implying that understanding is gained only by studying relationships among its parts.

Sustainable development

Development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Secularism

The belief that religion should not intrude into secular (worldly) affairs, usually reflected in the desire to separate the state from institutionalized religion.

Fundamentalism

A style of thought in which certain principles are recognized as essential 'truths' which have unchallengeable and overriding authority.