Social Studies: Issue 1

To what extent should ideology be the foundation of identity?

John Locke

• people are inherently good

  • blank slate, formed by experience

• everyone is born with natural rights and freedoms

• small government influence, just there to protect the people

• a LEGITIMATE government is a government that acts in the people’s best interest

• LIBERTY

(classical liberalism)

Thomas Hobbes

• people are inherently evil

  • (grew up among the civil war, brutality and violence)

• people should live in a safe, structured society—guided by a string LEADER or government

  • proponent of absolute monarchy, but one that can be overthrown if power is abused

• legitimate government controls vulnerable citizens

  • wellbeing of the individual is equal to the wellbeing of the group

• Levithan

(absolutism)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• people are born good, society corrupts

  • “noble savages”

• small government control (picked by the people)

• direct democracy

  • no representatives

• equality (titles of rank/nobility should be abolished)

• private property = greed and misery

• Social contract

• equality for the masses is more important than individual freedoms

John Stuart Mill

• people are mostly good and trustworthy

  • “HARM PRINCIPLE”

  • freedom to do whatever until it hurts others

  • (freedom is only limited when it is done to protect rights and freedoms of others)

• Utilitarianism

• free will, small government power

• freedom = risk

  • liberty and risk is required for self-actualization

  • risk leads to growth

Baron de Montesquieu

• Separation of Power

  • legislative—executive—judicial

  • SEPERATE court of law

    • government can be fairly challenged

    • makes checks and balances

  • people are equal

DECENTRALIZE

Adam Smith

• economic self-determination

• economic prosperity is good

• Lasseiz Faire (hands off) economy

  • controlled by “invisible hand” (supply, demand)

  • small government influence

    • represent the free will of the people

CAPITALISM

Karl Marx

• communist party

• no social classes

• no private property

• public ownership

• equality

• focus on the struggles of the working class

anarchism

a political theory advocating for the elimination of government

• people can live in a state of total freedom

authoritarianism

political doctrine advocating for the principle of absolute rule

• leader is typically a dictator

capitalism

an economic system characterized by

• competition

• personal incentive

• supply and demand

• little to no government involvement

  • private property

democracy

type of government the values equality and basic rights/freedoms

fascism

an authoritarian form of government, an extreme version of conservatism.

• willing to use violence to get what they want

• collectivist (strangely)

• values traditions, powered by a wish to re-establish “status-quo”

• typically racist, with dominant ethnic groups

• extreme nationalism

  • reactionaries

communism

combo of political and economic ideas related to the establishment of an egalitarian classless and stateless society

• publicly owned property

  • equal distribution

nationalism

collective, shared sense of belonging to people who identify themselves as part of a nation

modern liberalism

balancing freedom with collective security

• equity, equality, safety

classical liberalism

limited government influence, focus of individual rights and freedoms