Politics Exam Notes

Definition of Politics

• Hannah Arendt's Definition:
  • "Working in concert".
  • Linked to conflict and cooperation.
  • Involves rival opinions, different wants, competing needs, and opposing interests.
  • A process of conflict resolution, but not all conflicts can be resolved.
  • Diversity and scarcity ensure politics is an inevitable part of the human condition.
  • Involves making, preserving, and amending general social rules.
  • Statistics and data analysis have become the dominant mode of studying politics (Empirical, behavioralist approach).

Politics as an Arena

• Location:
  • Behavior becomes political because of where it takes place.

Politics as a Process

• Mechanism:
  • 'Political' behavior exhibits distinctive characteristics or qualities and can take place in any social context.
• Easton (Behavioralist):
  • Definition refers to institutions in politics rather than individuals (institutionalism).
  • "Authoritative allocation of values".
  • Authoritative values are widely accepted and considered binding.
  • Politics is associated with policy.
  • Allocation of benefits, rewards, and penalties by the government.
  • Separation of private and public sphere.
• Robert Dahl (Behavioralist):
  • Defines politics as mostly institutionalist but can include individuals.
  • "A political system is any persistent pattern of human relationships that involves, to a significant extent, power, rule, or authority."
  • Does not aim to separate the private and public sphere.
• Feminists (Radical):
  • Believe institutions are inherently patriarchal.
• Hunaswell (Behavioralist):
  • Elections operationalize power - inclusive of individuals.
  • "The study of shaping and sharing power".
• Weber (Institutionalist):
  • Does not believe in individuals but the bureaucracy.
  • Enforcement of order within a given territory through the application of threat and force (those who control legitimate violence; army, police).
• Setan (Marxist):
  • One must consider where conflict comes from.
  • No individuals, only classes.
  • The division between them creates politics.

HimAppithdytics

• Analysis of the relations between individuals, groups, states (IR), and individuals and institutions.
• Determined by factors of power, authority, and legitimacy.
• The state and government should be the main units of analysis.
• Study of government departments and legislature in public policy administration.
• In systems analysis, distinguish between an object and the analytic system used to understand its operations.

The Privateblic re:

• Politics concerns what goes on in the public sphere rather than the private sphere (from an eclectic stance).
• Eclectitions:
  • John Locke wants to protect the economic state.
  • Protects the idea of private property (free market system).
  • Liberal theorist.
• Public Sphere:
  • Where government institutions exist; state actors seek to advance their ideological beliefs through membership of formal organizations.
• Private Sphere:
  • Where civil society exists, realm of personal choice, freedom, and individual responsibility.
  • People like John Locke believe politics does not interact with the private sphere.
  • This distinction identifies the arena within which politics takes place (identification of politics with institutions).

Participation of Citizens in Politics:

• Hannah Arendt sees politics as the most important form of human activity.
  • Involves interaction amongst free and equal citizens which gives meaning to life and affirms the uniqueness of each individual.
• Liberal theorists view the authoritative state as unwanted interference.
  • Aiming to narrow the public sphere and keep politics out of private activities.

Resolvin fict:

• Compromise, conciliation, and negotiation (rather than force, coercion, or violence).
• Reflects liberal-rational principles; faith in the efficacy of debate and discussion.
  • Does not consider one-party states or military regimes.
• Politics as a civilized and civilizing force.

Minisanmer:

• Politics takes place at every level of social interaction.
• Politics is power, "the ability to achieve a desired outcome, through whatever means."
• Politics is a struggle over scarce resources, and power is the means through which the struggle is conducted.
• Politics is about oppression and subjugation (Marxists, Feminists).

Broad Definitions of Politics

• Politics as an Art of the Government; Authoritative, the state, binding values, policy
• Politics as Public Affairs; Division between private and public affairs, politics as a public activity
• Politics as Compromise and Consensus; conflict resolution, compromise, conciliation, and negotiation
• Politics as Power; the personal is political, oppression, subjugation, scarcity.

Approaches to the Study of Politics

• (Prescriptive hilosophicNomination)"Political philosophy"
  • Involves preoccupation essentially ethical, prescriptive, or normative questions: What ought or "must" be brought about rather than what is.
  • Concerned with "the ideal" or "the good society;" how do we arrive at a common good truth.
  • Traditionally the analytical study of ideas doctrines that have been central to political thought through literary analysis.
  • Describes the nature of the ideal.
  • Studies ideals, ideologies and ideas beyond history that isn't affected by culture.
  • Deals with normative questions and therefore cannot be objective in any scientific sense.
  • Key Figures: Plato (attempted to describe the nature of an ideal society) and Aristotle.
• Positivist Approach:
  • Idea of procedural rules that then become operative.
  • The idea that you can form a hypothesis, and if you can prove it, it constitutes a theory.
• Mmmmdtion:
  • Institutional approach to the discipline of politics, which developed into the dominant tradition of analysis.
  • Characterized by attempt to offer a dispassionate and impartial account of political reality.
  • Seeks to analyze and explain (descriptive).
  • Done through the process of experimentation-relationship with hypothesis.
  • Verification of political theories through hypothesis, observation, and descriptive forms of analysis.
  • Doctrine of Empericism: Advanced the belief that experience is the only basis of knowledge; all hypotheses and theories should be tested through a series ofobservation.
  • Proclaimed all social sciences should adhere strictly to the models of the natural sciences (resuof science being perceived as the onlyreliable menis).
• BimiApph:
  • Gave politics reliably scientific credentials through the founding of objective and quantifiable data against which hypothesis could be tested.
  • Quantitative research methods; voting behavior, behavior of legislators, behavior of municipal politicians and lobbyists.
  • Reflects positivism and the scientific method.
• Critiques:
  • Constrains scope of political analysis, preventing it from going beyond what was directly observable.
  • Many political scientists turned their backs on the tradition of normative thought-concepts like liberty, equality, justice, and rights were sometimes discarded because they are not empirically verifiable.
  • Describing political arrangements legitimizes the status que (value-bias).
• ↳inthinney:
  • Draws on the economic theory of rational self-interest; provides a useful analytical device which provides insights into the actions of voters, lobbyists, bureaucrats, politicians, and the behavior of states within an international system.
  • Institutional public choice theory, game theory.
  • Quantitative data with a focus on how actors make their choices.
• Critiques:
  • Overestimates human rationality; ignores the fact that people rarely possess clear and set goals.
  • Pays insufficient attention to social and historical factors. Human rationality may be socially conditioned, not innate.
• Institmimalism:
  • Political structures are thought to shape political behavior, these institutions being sets of rules which guide or constrain behavior of individual actors.
  • These rules can be formal or informal arrangements-emphasize that institutions are embedded in a particular normative and historical context.
  • The institution itself operates within a larger and more fundamental body of assumptions and practices-actors within an institutional setting are socialized to accept key rules and procedures.
• Critiques:
  • Accused of subscribing to a structuralist logic, where political actors are viewed as prisoners of the institutional context in which they operate.
• **Tiproces:
  • Seek to contest the political status quo by aligning themselves with the interests of marginalized or oppressed groups.
  • Seeks to uncover inequalities and asymmetries that mainstream approaches tend to ignore.
  • Post-positivist approach, emphasizing the role of consciousness in shaping social conduct and the political world.
  • Expose biases that operate within mainstream approaches and examining their implications.
  • Marxism Postmodernism: Structuralism, Feminology, Post-structuralism.

Power, Authority, and Legitimacy

• Power Forces: Mass citizens, state, government, bureaucracies.
• Weber: Introduced ideas of bureaucracies, main theorist in regards to power.
• Pintioner: "Ability to achieve a desired outcome".
  • Power "to".
  • Can be done through elections, military power, etc.
• Relationship between two elements (state vs society).
• The exercise of control by one person over another.
• If A gets B to do something A wants but which B would not have chosen to do, A has exercised power.
• Capacity of shaping the political agenda; who determines the agenda of the state.
• Coercive and persuasive; influence through media, debate, violence.
• Ability to reward punish someone; benefits and sanctions.
• Manipulation Influence; propaganda.
• Oppression and domination Persistence.
• Power is the capacity to make formal decisions that are in some way binding upon others (ie. government ministers in relation to the whole of society).

Three Faces of Power

• **Decisioninger:
  • Power as the ability of an "agent" to affect the behavior of a "patient" (Thomas Hobbes); being pulled or 'pushed' against one's will.
  • Ability to influence the decision-making process and make binding choices (Dahl) which is believed to be objective and quantifiable.

Robert Dahl's Method of Studying Power:

• Select Key decision-making areas, identify the actors involved + their preferences, analyze the decisions made and compare them with those preferencesElitist Thesis:
  • Suggestion that in the US, power was concentrated in the hands of a ruling elite. The elite operate within these bureaucracies and influence political decisions.
• Is Trump influential because of his personality or republicanism?
  • Ruling elite must be a well-defined group.
  • A number of key decisions must be identified that favor the preferences of the elite over any other group.
  • There must be evidence that the preferences of the elite regularly prevail over those other groups.

The Pluralist View:

• Power is widely dispersed throughout society, there are many centers of power (Supported by Dahl's study in New Haven pluralist conclusions are not built into the decision-making understanding of power nor it's methodology for identifying it.
• Different groups that constitute political decisions, participation of groups (such as the GNU), depends who has the power to influence.

Critiques:

• This approach only recognizes one face of power and ignores those circumstances in which decisions are prevented from happening.
• The hypothesis about the distribution of power are based on arbitrary factors (what is the basis for key decisions ?)
• Focuses exclusively on behavior and the 'exercise of control, and ignores the extent to which power is a possession but not exercised.

2 Setting Power:

• Ability to set the political agenda, highlights how political organizations may block the participation of certain groups and the expression of particular opinions.
• Accounts for the dominant values and political myths, rituals, and institutions which tend to favor the interests of certain groups.
• "Mobilization of bias" Lex Nuclear Arms race where Western parties did not examine options of unilateral disarmament.
• Interest groups usually represent the well-informed and prosperous stand better chance at shaping the political agendaLegitimizes the elitist thesis, as the 'mobilization of bias' operates within the interests of privileged/elite (eg elitists tend to keep radical proposals to liberal-democratic politics off the political agenda.

Critiques:

• At times popular pressures prevail over the interests of the elite.
• Does not account for instances where power can be yielded through manipulation of what people think.
• Power as decision-making and agenda setting share the assumption that what individuals groups want is what they say they want; it is only possible to know who has power when groups have clearly stated preferences. They treat these actors as rational and autonomous

3 Tughtflikwer:

• Influencing Shaping what individuals or groups want.
• Radical view of power suggests that absence of conflict in society is due to a process of indoctrination and psychological control.
• Distinction between subjective (felt) interests and objective (real) interests; people do not always know their own minds.
• Marcuse: Suggests that advanced industrial societies can be regarded as totalitarian, due to the manipulation of society's needs and wants. A comfortable, smooth, reasonable democratic unfreedom
• Marxists: Find this conception to power attractive, as they argue that capitalism is a system of class exploitation.
• Power is controlled by the ruling class (bourgeoisie) through economic and ideological control.
• Postmodernism (Mitchell Foucault): Power is ubiquitous (found everywhere), operating through discourse and knowledge (like defining what is 'normal' and not normal

Critiques:

• It is impossible to argue that people's perceptions and beliefs are a delusion without a standard of truth against which to judge them.
• Conceptions of Power
  • Intentionalist: Deliberate exercise of influence by individuals or groups to achieve certain goals.
  • Structuralist: Power is embedded within institutional and social structures, often shaping behavior unconsciously.
• Who has the right to exercise power (coercion/violence
• Authority Whrity. Form of power, the right for one person to influence another. The right to rule and the duty to obey authority is the guarantee of order and stability. Authority is legitimate power (Weber),.: a government obeyed can be said to exercise authority. In the absence of willing compliance, government can only maintain order by force. When governments exercise authority, its citizens obey the law willingly, and when obedience is not willingly offered, government is forced to compel it Authority is rarely exercised in the absence of power

Max Weber's 3 Ideal Types of Authority

• Traditional Authority: Based upon respect for long established customs and traditions. Constrained by a body of concrete rules, fixed and unquestioned customs that are legitimized because they reflect how things have always been.
  • Found amongst tribes and small groups in the form of patriarchalism but few have survived in modern times (vestiges are found in current monarchies
• Charismatic Authority: Based upon the power of a persons charisma, owing nothing to a person's status. Not confined by any rules or procedures thus may create 'total powers. Operates in political life because all forms of leadership require the ability to communicate and inspire loyalty -Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Ledong orchestrated a cult of personality through propaganda Demands not only willing obedience but also devotion.
• Legal-Rational Authority: Characteristic of large-scale, bureaucratic organizations, operates through a body of clearly defined rules. Attaches entirely to the office and its formal powers.
  • Dominant mode of organization in modern industrial societies, arises out of respect for the "rule of law"; those who exercise power do so within a framework of law. Weber believes bureaucratic authority is less likely to be abused, and bureaucratic order is shaped by efficiency and rational division of labor.
  • *De jure Authority: Operates according to a set of rules and procedures that designate who possessess authority and over what issues (in authority). Powers can be traced back to a particular office.
  • De Facto Authority: Authority is exercised but cannot be traced back to a procedural set of rules. (an authority, charismatic authority). Based on a person's personality.

Justification for Authority

• Argue that a state of nature' (without authority) would be barbaric and lack justice as individuals struggle against one another to achieve their various ends.
• Animalist View: Authority arises from below and is based on the consent of the governed.Authority from above creates a sphere of unchecked power and restricts individual freedom.otive View:
  • Authority is exercised from above to benefit those below: authority promotes social cohesion Much Arendt: Argues that society is held together by respect for traditional authority; strong traditional norms are reflected in standards of moral and social behavior provides individuals with a sense of identity The collapse of authority leaves individuals weak, leaving them susceptible to dictators Legitimacy Wis incitimacy: Quality that transforms naked power into rightful authority; ensures duty is obeyed out of duty rather than fear. A right to rule', In the absence of legitimacy government can only become authoritarian

Bmmmm's Conditions for Legitimacy:

• Power must be exercised according to established rules (formal legal codes or informal conventions
• Said rules must be justified in terms of the shared beliefs of the government and the governed
• Legitimacy must be demonstrated by the expression of consent on the part of the governedPostined:
  • Through ensuring that government power does not go unchecked and exercised in accordance with the wishes, interests, and preferences of the general public -Constitution; rules which govern the government-ensure individual liberty is protected and government power is constrained Makes government a rule-bound activity, constitutional governments exercise legal-rational authority3 liberal-democratic -Election; basis for popular consent, legitimacy is founded upon the willing and rational obedience of the governed. Mobilisation of consent. one-party states maintain elections in hope of generating legitimacy, but this does not offer citizens meaningful choice

Critiques;

• Marxists are reluctant to accept the legitimacy of such regimes as they serve to uphold capitalism (unequal class system). Believe indoctrination is a major factor they argue that liberal democracies are dominated by a bourgeois ideology, propagating falsehood and delusion political competition exists but is unequal, as ideas that challenge the capitalist system are crushed bourgeois hegemony-the domination of bourgeois ideas in every sphere of life
• Sociology of knowledge describes knowledge as 'socially determined', human beings see the world not for how it is but for how they think it is (ideological manipulation) implies individuals cannot be independent and rational actors, and therefore cannot distinguish legitimate forms of rule.
• Naom Chompsky's Manufacturing Consent; news and political coverage are distorted through series of filters. Lemphasises the degree to which mass media can subvert or deter democracy, helping to mobilize popular support

Representation and Democracy

• Etymology Demopeoare Foundations of Modern Democracy
• TritonalSciety: Found in Athens, Greece. In order to be a citizen (participate in affairs of society) you had to own a certain amount of property and be a certain age -women and slaves could not participate in society Polities were fairly small in size, and control the agenda-polity. This was viable because of the small population In the 18th century, the process of direct voting revived
• Primacy: "Rule by the people", and has come to be identified with liberal principles and practices
  • Form of representative government which follows majoritarian decision making processes-meant to maximise the common good. Sometimes ensures the domination of majority interests because democracy is a numbers game Enhancement of citizens individual knowledge of public affairs
• MinDemocracy: Status quo in Athen, citizens directly participated in the administration of their affairs. This was only achievable because of the small population
• Merestmtivemracy: Indirect rule through a process of representation. A way of organizing political power and a mechanism to secure some accountability of rulers. Follows majoritarian decision making processes (which sometimes favours minority interests, whites, the rich) associated with the political, economic, and social organisation of liberalism and capitalism.

Forms of Democracy

• ↑mini petotemoy: Direct participation of citizens in democratic processes; active participation founded on the model of direct rule in Athenian rule, and implemented in modern representative democracy to ensure the substantive participation of citizens in decision making processes and preventing abuse of power by elected officials Implemented in South Africa at the national and local level of government to ensure the accessibility and accountability of elected officials to the citizens Key issues; can only be implemented in small-scale setups, and presupposes a process of dialogue amongst equal individuals
• HibertimeDemmy: Founded on the idea that all individuals are capable of forming rational judgements based on the information they encounter. Discussion and debate on a specific issue. Viewed as a way of enriching institutions of representative democracy (state, legislature, jury) Process that requires individuals to give reasons and arguments to support a particular decision or view. This encourages decisions to be made through reasonable argument and persuasion rather than fighting guarantees legitimacy of decisions due to a deliberative process where different viewpoints were considered provides individuals with information they may not have access to through listening to different arguments, as well as the medial providing information The media is also a means for individuals to articulate their views or raise their demands. Furthermore, the media is a means of information and self-expressionShares Schumpters view that there is nothing intrinsic about democracy, argues that to ensure the legitimacy of decisions, popular democracy supports the principles of liberal democracy
• Spinmemory: Schumpter describes democracy as primarily a system of competition, and does not believe it has any substantive value; contradicting the position of theorists who support deliberative or participative democracy. Forsakes democracy as an ideal Emphasises elite competition for leadership rather than direct rule of the people, arguing democracy is about choosing leaders through elections Institutionalised competition where political leaders gain power by persuading voters in elections; a method in selecting rulers PietDemny: Born from the idea of the people ruling themselves as free and equal beings rather than being ruled by a selected power. Ruling by popular will and committed to its outcomes Aligns with liberal principles,
  and requires constants to uphold them must concede that any constraints on popular rule are undemocratic even if they are justified
• miDomacy: Extends the logic of liberal democracy to civil society private sphere (family, business, the church) and addresses inequality from the liberal systems. Seek to democratize the private Incorperates Marxist principles in liberal democratic processes, with it's main objective being to mitigate inequality caused by the free market system -done by means of free subsidised education, social grants, etc. neDamary Places more emphasis on personal freedom autonomy rather than popular rule. Liberal ideals are foundational to the models of all other forms of democracy recognises a set of basic liberties(freedom of speech, voting equality, autonomy, etc) that take priority over popular rule and it's conditions. may restrict outcomes of popular will all other forms of democracy are meant to enhance the legitimacy of liberal democratic institutions and process. Aim is to guarantee the operation of the public will, placing emphasis on the ideal of free and equal human beings

The Modern State

• Withe Ente: Heywood debunks the idea that the role of the state should be reduced to the public sphere, rather relating it to the private sphere "A collection of institutions, a territorial unit, a philosophical idea, an instrument of coercion and oppression". Ultimate model of representation and power Objectification of the individual, founded on the autonomy of the individual. mmmmnern State. Emerged in the transition from the medieval era in Europe (16th century, and is defined by territorial sovereignty. (principal of absolute and unlimited power

Approaches to the State

• HintAppah: (G.W.F Hegel) State as the embodiment for the common good; described in relation to it's ethical functions. An ethical regime underpinned by mutual sympathy, universal altruism. State takes formation from civil society, however then it fails to clearly distinguish institutions that are part of the state and outside of the state
• monatproach: Understanding of the state in relation to it's functions and purpose of state institutions, the central function being to maintain social order. Been adopted by neo-marxists who have been inclined to see the state as a mechanism through which class conflict was extubated to ensure the survival of capitalism It's weakness comes from it's tendency to associate any institution that maintains order with the state (family, mass media, church,etc
• Dimininationamach: Conceptualises that the state is a bureaucratic organisation, and rules and functions in which it operates; as a set of institutions that are recognizably public Lunder Max Weber's theory of bureaucracies Recognizes the state as responsible for the collective organisation of social existence and funded at the public's expense focuses on the distinction between the public and private sphere. The state identifies with an entire body politic allows us to analyse the expanding or contracting of responsibilities of the state. The state is sovereign, recognizably public, legitimate, instrument of domination, and a territorial associationHernational ch:
  • Views the state primarily as an actor in the world stage; a basic unit within international politics. Deals with the state's relation with other states and it's ability to provide protection against external attack. A defined territory, permanent population, effective government, international relations 5 Things that make a state Legitimate

Legitimate

1. Defined Territory
2. Permanent Population
3. Effective Government
4. Ability to Enter Relations with other States and higher orders (UN, IMF) stAbility to Defend Itself Against External Threats

The Role of the State

• Minimawatstate: Ideal of classic liberals, who aim to protect individual autonomy. The value of the state is that it has capacity to restrain human behaviour, preventing humans from encroaching the rights and liberties of others. Views the state as a protective body, with it's core function being to provide a framework of peace and social order-called upon only when orderly existence is threatened. It's 3 core functions are to maintain domestic order, ensuring contracts or voluntary agreements between private citizens are upheld, and to provide protection from external attack.
  • Therefore, this view only supports police systems and forms of military and is against an interventionalist state. economic, cultural, moral, and other responsibilities belong to the individual and are part of civil society Supports a free market system Key Proponents; John Locke, Robert Nozick, Friedrich von Hayek, Milton Friedman

The Modern State II Colonialism and the Modern State

• Traditionally, historians believed that modern states were formed mainly due to internal factors within Europe; wars between European nations, economic shifts (like capitalism) and cultural changes (like the Renaissance). However recent studies argue that colonialism-particularly European expansion into new lands -was equally important in shaping the modern state.
• EmmBranch: Contests the idea that modern states have their origins in European cultural history. Rather, supporting the idea that European states borrowed practices from their colonies. Believes that the modern system of clearly defined borders comes from colonial practices- territoriality (the way land is controlled and divided Supports the belief that European states actually borrowed and applied ideas they first experimented with in their colonies, Colonial Reflection'

Territoriality:

• Before European colonization, European territories were defined by Feudalism (land and power were controlled by lords) Timiriality: Emerged from Columbus' invention of the idea of the New World (the Americas), which initiated a new spacial order for Europe and the world territorial authority (geographical boundaries) were comprehensively implemented during the moment of conquest In the medieval era, territoriality depended on kinship and feudal bonds, but with the invention of the New World, territoriality became structured around linear divisions The consolidation of Ptolemaic Cartography made possible the linear division of the world according to abstract lines (through the coordinate system of longitude and latitude Technique demanded from European rulers' desire to make political claims over the unknown spaces of the New World The USA is defined geographically and territorially by cartographic lines, and the New World Americas were the first to implement geometric territoriality. The method of geometric totality was used to define and claim new territory-marking the shift from traditional ideas of territory. -show particular ways in which political authority is exchanged, claimed, or transferred
• immeh of Terra Nullis: The language of peace treaties and charters which defines territoriality were based on the idea that land in the new world and Africa were terrares nullis /land belonging to no one founded on the idea that the New World lands lacked political authority, legal titles, and humans - it was believed they had no political authorities that could be included in a treaty Although Indigenous communities had lived there for centuries, Europeans argued that these groups had no formal, written property rights or recognised political institutions This justification allowed Europeans to claim land without recognising Indigenous sovereignity. European rulers needed a clear system for claiming and controlling large, unfamiliar territories.

The Formation of the Postcolonial State

• Postcolonial states are shaped by legacies of colonialism and conquest, rather than modern European forms of statehood. SimColonicities Europe: Ideas of the nation-state, nationalism, and sovereignty were influenced by colonial encounters. In the 18th century, European states began adopting the same rigid territorial structures they had imposed on colonies -by the 19th century, clear borders and national identities became essential parts of European statehood. Nummations: Initially, Christendom functioned as the basis for political life -but the presence of non-Christians complicated the question of who was human/non-human and citizen/non-citizen Influenced European political thought, leading to new ideas about race, nationality, and political belonging Legacy of Colonialism in Postcolonial States
  1. borders
  2. structure

Political Ideas and Ideologies

• (What is a Political Ideology?)
  • minideKFrmmphither: Used it to refer to a new science of ideas that set out to uncover the origins of conscious and unconscious thought and ideas Abstract system of thought used to describe political reality consists of sets of collective beliefs, attitudes, values, norms and representations justified by reasoning, theorisations, and doctrinal constructs that are more or less from a logical and scientific point of view.
    As a mode of power, it is used as a means to create subjects or individuals Can be used to understand the political behaviour of individuals or collective groups with a social formation. Gives people a coherent explanation of their place and role in society-they reflect the interests and aspirations of a social class
• HarIdeology amounts to the ideas of the ruling class' ideas that therefore uphold the class system and perpetuate exploitation. The liberal democratic capitalist ideology is responsible for exploitation and oppression. It does not want to promote people's knowledge of the political process but rather mystifies the contradictions and antagonisms on which all social relations are based The function of an ideology is to reconcile subordinate classes to their exploitation and oppression by propagating myths,
  delusions,
• The bourgeoisie mentality creates a false consciousness and tries to conceal its exploitative means to the worker. -used as an instrument of social control to ensure compliance and subordination Marx insisted his works and ideas were scientific rather than ideological because science is an action orientated belief system and he takes the notion of cause and effect into consideration thus, for Marxists, Marxism is not an ideology but a thought theoretical system. Piemon, and Arendt: Views ideology as an instrument of social control to ensure compliance and subordination by dictorial,totalitarian , or facist regimes. A closed system of thought to monopolise truth and refusal to tolerate opposing ideas and rival beliefs
• Fukuyama believes the fall of the Berlin Wall was the end of an ideology, seeing it as the triumph of capitalism over socialism - this was accompanied by the emergence of technocratic politics and neoliberal economics. We can say ideology is used by those in power to justify their discourses of power and those in opposition use it as discourse for a new political order We can also say that there is always a paradox of ideology which orders society, human relations, or the individuals relationship to power and the state at NOTE OTHER CONCEPTIONS OF IDEOLOGIES WHEN STUDYING

Kusialogie

• Arose out of the transition from feudalism to industrial capitalism (classical ideologies developed as contrasting attempts to shape emerging industrial society Had a strong economic focus, usually a battle between capitalism and socialism -class of the free men Liberalism Domination:
• The central theme is a commitment to the individual and the desire to construct a society in which people can satisfy their needs and achieve fulfilment. The ideology of the industrialised West, and is sometimes portrayed as amet ideology that is capable of embracing a broad range of rival values and beliefs. Early liberalism reflected the aspirations of a rising industrial middle class, and liberalism and capitalism have been closely linked Challenged the legitimacy of monarchal absolutism and feudal aristocratic rule

Structures of Modern Representative Democracy

• The structures of modern representative democracy, the modern state, and capitalism free market system
• Thandis em citationism: Liberal democracy relies on the notion of the 'ideal of equality and the ideal of freedom' as the underpinning values of democracy under the principles of the modern liberal constitutional state -according to Gamble the English Revolution resulted in the first modern state based on liberal principles. -Estate of Liberty Edmund Burke; the freedom from arbitrary arrest, search, and taxation, I equality before the law, right to a trial by jury a degree of freedom of thought, speech, and religious belief freedom to buy and sell -The private sphere of liberty was not to be protected from arbitrary state intervention. Kitmism: Commitment to an extreme form of individualism-human beings are seen as egoistical, self-seeking, self-reliant creatures. < possessive individualism lowing nothing to society or other individuals) Atomistic view on society underpinned by a belief in negative liberty labsence
  ofexternalconstraintsontheindividual).Minimalpublicownershipandstateintervention-impliesanunsympatheticattitudetowardsthestateandgovernmentinterventionintheprivatesphere,alignmentwithaminimalrightwatcharianstateE conomically, there is a deep faith in the free market system; laissez-faire capitalism (allows individuals to rise and fall according to merit
• low levels of taxation and public spending weak role for trade unions Modernism:

Equality

• The state is an active participant in helping to rectify the imbalances and injustices of a market economy with a focus on the equitable/just distribution of wealth. An attempt to eradicate poverty and reduce inequality, featuring Keynesianism and social welfare.

Humanism

• The individual is central to all of the categories of liberal democratic practices; it's main principles are those of constitutionalism and consent Emerges from the breakdown of feudalism and the market economy. Rises from the middle class which were opposed to the absolutist tendencies of monarchs and landed property
• Individualism; belief in the supreme importance of the individual as opposed to any social group or collective body Humans are of equal moral worth and possess separate and unique identities The liberal goal is to construct a society within which individuals can flourish and develop Under liberal democracy, rational and scientific explanations replaced religion as the central viewpoint to understanding the organisation of society Atomistic individualism= views society as a collection of rationally behaving, self-interested individuals; the individual is independent of society and owes it nothing.
• Freedom.Liberty; Belief in the individual and desire to ensure that each person is able to act as they please choose without infringing on the liberty of others Rationalism; belief that the world has a rational structure that can be uncovered through human reason and critical enquiry, also believes in the capacity of human beings to resolve
• Equality-individuals are born equal in terms of moral worth, placing emphasis on legal equality and political equality-but still valuing meritocracy. modern liberals prefer equality of opportunity, seeking to correct unchosen disadvantages. Associated with social democracy
• Toleration: ensures all beliefs are tested in a free market of ideas, where there is a balance natural harmony between rival views and interests Consent; authority and social relationships should always be based on consent or willing agreement, therefore government must be based on consent of the governed Constitutionalism; stems from awareness that government may become a tyranny against the individual, constitution provides guidelines that defines the relationship between the state and individual

Conservatism

• Mination: Arose as a reaction against the growing pace of economic and political change, opposed to the formation of a republic after the French Revolution. Alignment with the monarchy and traditional social order-although it came to accommodate Keynesian social democracy in its early years In Europe, conservatism was autocratic and opposed to any idea of reform, however in the USA and UK it was associated with Edmond Burke's utilitarianism Hudsserim -Tradition; respect for established customs and institutions, accumulated wisdoms of the past -Pragmatism; action should be shaped