political science 206 midterm

identity

a person's sense of self shaped by social categories (race, gender, religion, class), personal commitments, and political membership. this influences how individuals experience power and authority

authority

the legitimate right to rule or command. Authority is accepted when people believe it is legitimate/ the ruler or institution has a justified claim to power

natural rights

the idea that all men are created equal through certain unalienable rights which are endowed to us by our creator (life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness)

unjust laws

• a law that is a code out of harmony with the moral law.

• a law is unjust if it degrades human personality or is imposed without democratic participation (Jim crow laws, segregated bathrooms)

• unjust laws give the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority.

weberian state

Any human community that successfully claims a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory

forms of legitimation through domination

• tradition (people obey bc it’s always been this way and adhere by tradition)

• charisma (people obey because they believe an extraordinary, heroic individual is leading them, they don't believe because of a formal position or hierarchy)

• legality (people obey because they believe a system of rules determines how force will be used, aka they believe in the validity of legal statue and functional ‘competence’ based on rationally created rules

model of the state

• the state’s central characteristic is that they’re the only organization that can use force in a legitimate way they're the only ones who can make violence legitimate; this is the only thing separating them from criminalization

• most activities are carried out by bureaucrats (professional government officials) who follow generalized rules even if they don't personally approve of them)

• decisions about these rules are made by elected leaders (presidents, representatives, senators, etc) who are able to persuade people of their fitness to lead (charisma)

Anarchism

A political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy

• it rejects the state as unnecessary and harmful, and believes humans can cooperate through voluntary, non-coercuve associations

• Peter Kropotkin

Religious toleration

The principle that government should not impose religion upon us or punish religious belief/ those who practice religion.

• John Locke believed that civil government has no authority over the soul

Liberalism

The idea that laws and policies should treat people as equally as possible, protect individual rights, and be as neutral as possible toward the myriad things people want and value

Liberal neutrality

The idea that the state must remain neutral among competing conceptions of the good life/others’ comprehensive doctrines

• government should not favor one moral, religious, or cultural worldview

Originalism (Scalia)

A form of interpreting the constitution that gives it the original meaning it had when it was adopted

• the constitution should be understood according to its original public meaning at the time it was written/adopted

Living constitution

The notion that the constitution grows, and that it is a living organism that must grow with the society it governs or it will become rigid and outdated

• the view that the constitution’s meaning evolves over time as society changes. Judges may interpret the broad principles of the constitution in light of contemporary values

Moral reading of the constitution

Dworkin’s view that the constitutional interpretation requires appealing to moral princioles, especially equality and liberty, embedded in the text

Political liberalism (Rawls)

• focuses on law and political processes with tolerance and neutrality being the central values

• a just society must be based on political principles that all reasonable citizens can accept despite deep moral or religious disagreement

• It centers on political tolerance and neutrality/ political tolerance and neutrality are its central values

Public reason

-Citizens in political activities have the civil duty to justify their decisions on fundamental political issues by reference only to public values and public standards

• we should prevent political leaders from making decisions that don't adhere to public values and standards

public political culture

• fundamental ideas that influence political culture (the declaration of independence, the US Constitution, etc)

• All citizens are free and equal, and the government should be a fair system

legitimate and stable

the need to impose a unified law on a diverse citizenry raises the fundamental challenges of the legitimate use of coercive political power, and why a citizen would obey the law if it's imposed on them by people who they don't hold the same values with/why they would obey the law at all

legitimacy

the legitimate (legal and reasonable) use of coercive political power

• brings up the question of how it’s legitimate to coerce everyone to follow just one law if everyone has different worldviews

stability

looks at political power from the receiving end/ those who are the receivers of/have been impacted by political power

mutual endorsement

people must endorse the laws set for them by the authority for the greater good of society

• reasonable citizens want to live in a society where others can feel at home/legitimate

comprehensive doctrine

each citizen has their own views about the world (about morals, religion, etc.)

• however, reasonable citizens don’t impose their own comprehensive doctrines (their own views about life and the world) onto others

comprehensive liberalism

form of liberalism that promotes autonomy as the basis for political decisions (focuses on society as a whole)

• centers on ensuring the autonomous choices of individuals throughout society as a whole

• government intervention is accepted when it’s believed to facilitate autonomy/autonomous choices

• chambers believed that sometimes the state must promote equality/authority even if it conflicts with comprehensive doctrines

• a comprehensive liberal is someone who believes that the liberal principle of autonomy should be understood as something like a virtue. they believe that for everyone above a certain age and mental capacity, life is better if they live it autonomously

further explanation on political liberalism

• laws will only be legitimate if it remains as neutral about comprehensive doctrines as possible

• to reach neutrality, political leaders should justify laws on through public reasons that draw on the public political culture of their society (political argument should be like Supreme Court discussions?)

• the state can promote only political values like justice, fairness, equal basic liberties, democratic legitimacy

• it is not a specific moral ideal of how people should live

the core difference of political versus comprehensive liberalism

political liberalism limits the state to neutral political principles that all reasonable citizens can accept

comprehensive liberalism allows the state to promote a specific moral ideal of what a free society looks like

social tyranny (mill)

mill’s idea that society — not just the state — can oppress individuals through norms, stigma, and pressure to conform

• if society issues the wrong mandates instead of right, or any mandates about things they shouldn’t meddle in, it practices social tyranny

how society is more coercive than the state

• society can be more coercive than the state when it polices behavior through shame, exclusion, and moral judgment

• society can punish difference even when no law is broken,

• society can silence minority views by making them socially unacceptable,

• society limits individuality by rewarding conformity

freedom of speech

the right to express ideas without government punishment

utilitarianism

utilitarians believe that we should maximize the amount of happiness over the long term, even if this lets harm come to some individuals in the short term

• mill argues from the social consequences for happiness arising from different ways of relating to one another

experiments of living

mill’s idea that individuals should be free to try different ways of life, as long as they are not harming others

• diversity of lifestyles strengthens society

harm principle

classical liberalism

the belief that private property is fundamental to realizing the aspirations of liberalism (property is believed to be important)

• a political philosophy emphasizing limited government, free markets, individual rights, and strong protections for private property

entitlement theory of property (nozick)

• property is just/people right ownership of a property if it is acquired fairly, transferred voluntarily, or rectified after injustice

property rights are explained using 3 rules:

• if you acquire property fairly, you have the right to own it/you’re entitled to it

• if somebody who already owns something gives it to you fairly, you’re entitled to it

• only 1 and 2 create entitlement

• if each person’s holdings are just, then distribution of property is just

rectification

• when past injustices (theft, coercion, discrimination) distort holdings, society must correct them to restore legitimate ownership

• fixing past wrongs in acquisition or transfer

• nozick admits no one has fully worked this out

citizen corruption

the idea that extreme inequality can corrupt democratic citizenship by undermining equal political influence and civic standing

citizens’ moral character or civic virtue can be corrupted by unjust institutions, coercive redistribution, or violations of rights

• citizens can be forced to support patterns they didn’t choose, taxed coercively, or voluntary exchanges are restricted

recent liberalism

private property often hampers achievement of the aspirations of liberalism, even if it remains an important part of a free society

what are the two kinds of distributive principles for how to justly distribute property?

• entitlement or natural rights based property holdings

• time slice or patterned theories

entitlement or natural rights based property holdings (historical)

outcomes are just if processes of acquisition and transfer are just, regardless of overall distribution

• whether a distribution is just depends upon how it came about

• nozick believed that principles for property distribution must be deeply historical

time slice or patterned theories

outcomes are just if they meet some kind of overall pattern, regardless of how they came about

• whether a distribution is just is determined by how things are distributed (who has what) as judged by some structural principles of just distribution

central planning

• an economic system in which the government (rather than individuals or markets) makes the major decisions about production, distribution, prices, and resource allocation

• hayek critiqued this. he said that when the state directs economic production and distribution, it becomes inefficient and threatens individual freedom

• this is because no central authority can know all local information needed to plan an economy

market economy

decisions about production, distribution, prices, and resource allocation are made/decentralized by individuals and firms

socialism (American railway union)

when property is controlled through central planning

republican party (Thomas Jefferson)

the republican party ensures wide distribution of property to maintain citizen virtue

Jefferson on controlling property

the descent of property of every kind to all children, brothers and sisters, or other relations equally is practical and a political measure

welfare state (roosevelt)

political means are used in order to ensure sufficient resources and stability for all

system where the government provides social safety nets such as healthcare, unemployment insurance, pensions, to ensure the basic well-being of its citizens and reduce inequality

• true individual freedom can’t exist without economic security and independence

second bill of rights

FDR’s proposal for economic rights (housing, healthcare, education, a job) necessary for real freedom and security

FDR’s 4 freedoms

freedom of speech

freedom of worship

freedom from want

freedom from fear

difference principle (rawls)

using political means to maximize the condition of the worst off

• social and economic inequalities are just only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society

• inequalities are permitted but ONLY when they improve the position of the worst-off group compared to any alternative arrangement

rawl’s second principle

social and economic inequalities are to satisfy 2 conditions:

• they are to be attached to offices and positions open to all under conditions of fair equality of opportunity

• they are to be the greatest benefit of the least-advantaged members of society