communism

• history

  • theory that originated from writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

  • they concentrated on the negative effects of capitalism and saw history as a record of the struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed

  • had economic equality as ideal but did not think that this would come about due to cooperation of groups sharing property voluntarily but by violent conflict because those holding power wouldn’t want to give it up

  • the theory states that the proletariat (workers) of the world need to unite and violently overthrow the bourgeoisie (owners) and destroy the capitalist system

  • a new system would gradually progress through numerous stages with the final and permanent stage being communism, which included the withering away of government and disappearance of public property

  • desire of this theory is to create a classless society ( no rich class and poor class)

  • all property would be owned by the public and there would be no private property

• reality

  • first communist revolution occurred in czarist Russia, instead of in industrialized western Europe as Marx had predicted

  • in modern communist countries the government has not withered away and instead intrudes into every aspect of intellectual and economic life

• traits

  • classless society

  • total economic equality

  • no government

  • no one leader

socialism

• history

  • also inspired by the writings of Karl Marx

  • however ideas that gave rise to socialism can be traced to Plato, the Greek philosopher

  • modern socialism is also attributed to the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henri de Saint-Simon, and Robert Owen

  • term “socialism” first became used in the early nineteenth century in the commentary upon the Industrial Revolution - during this manual tools were replaced by powerful machines and manufacturing operations were concentrated in large factories

  • social theorists of that time believed that the community should own these industrial enterprises instead of wealthy individuals/small groups of individuals

  • theory arose in response to injustice and exploitation of workers in society

  • they believed that government intervention in the economy would produce economic equality, which would make the individual truly free

• traits

  • believed government itself could make individuals free (economic equality)

  • economic equality was highly valued (regulation of wages and prices, gov in enterprises, public education and universal healthcare)

  • taxation for collective good

liberalism

• history

  • comes from Latin adjective “liber”, which means free

  • liberalism is a broad term for many centrist political views

  • term liberal first came into common use in the late eighteenth century in western Europe

  • reform liberalism has its roots in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (definition of liberalism in today’s world is reform liberalism)

  • change in liberal ideology was affected the most by the writings of John Maynard Keynes, who was an economist who argued that the government should be involved in the economy by controlling the supply of money, even if this meant that the country could be spent into debt. the spending was seen as necessary to ensure that all citizens would have access to the basics of life (decent food, housing, and employment)

• classic liberalism

  • - government should not get involved in the economic and intellectual life f the community any more than necessary

  • economic and intellectual freedom and progress were valued highly

  • economic and intellectual equality were not of great importance

• reform liberalism

  • stronger commitment to economic equality compared to classic liberalism (supporters believe that this can be brought about with limited government intervention)

  • intellectual freedom and progress are highly valued

  • seen as an important focus of the modern Liberal Party of Canada

conservatism

• history

  • comes from the Latin verb consevare, which means to save

  • emerged in the late eighteenth century in Britain, as a reaction against the excesses of liberalism

  • one of the major thinkers of the conservative tradition was the British statesman Edmund Burke

  • early thinkers like Burke believed that the monarch should have authority over the elected Parliament and that the traditional organization of politics and society should be preserved

  • later, conservatives agreed that gradual, progressive change was acceptable but radical abrupt change should be avoided

• traits

  • strong sense of tradition and reluctance towards changes and progress

  • intellectual equality

  • economic freedom: citizens decide how to spend their own money, not government

  • low taxes

  • moral issues are sometimes a matter of public, not merely private concern

  • can favor censorship to protect perceived community standards

  • less of a commitment to intellectual freedom

fascism

• history

  • widely regarded as a phenomenon of the period from the early 1920s to the end of World War II in 1945

  • the word itself is Italian in origin, was first used by the Italian leader Benito Mussolini who headed Italy’s government from 1922-1943

  • virtually all countries of Europe except the Soviet Union had fascist movement of between the early 1920s and 1945

  • Italy was the first self proclaimed fascist state, but the most notable one was Germany, where Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist Party took power in 1933

  • regime of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte who took over the government of Chile in 1973 is used as an example of modern day fascism

  • ideology is based on the notion that a mythical, ideal age once existed and can be reborn

  • in this supposed era, citizens were “racially pure” and ranked in a strict social order ruled by a strong father figure

  • Nazis saw the Germans as a superior race descended from ancient Aryan warriors

  • Nazism was to be a process of recreating the ethnic purity and military supremacy which Germany had lost since said mythical era

• traits

  • strong and unified nation with one culture (no multiculturalism and foreign influence) → no intellectual freedom, little intellectual equality

  • authoritarian - enforcing strict obedience to authority (government) at the expense of personal freedom

  • militaristic, disciplined

  • totalitarian - centralized and dictatorial government that requires total subservience to the state

  • very little economic freedom, as private properties and business were strictly regulated by the government which they were supposed to serve

  • all economic and intellectual resources were to be directed towards the building of a militarily strong and fiercely proud united country

  • individual freedoms were only permitted if they contributed to the good of the nation

  • considered certain people inferior compared to others