Knowt
Individualism and Collectivism
Principles of Individualism
Individualism: values placed upon the primacy of the individual - “me” before “we” (PRICES)
Private property
Lands and homes, businesses and intellectual property
1% of the English own 50% of the UK’s land.
Rule of Law
Everyone is subject to the law.
The government only has the powers that it is given by law.
Enforced by courts and the independent judiciary
Prevents harm to individuals
Individual rights and freedoms
Charter rights and the American bill of rights
Competition
No competition: telecom and airlines
Lots of competition: vehicles, clothes and food industries
Economic freedom
As individuals: to buy, sell and work as you want (labour, ideas and products)
As corporations: taxes and regulations can be seen as a restriction of economic freedom in respect to investment, buying and selling.
Consumer sovereignty: an example of economic freedom — e.g. Blackberry going bankrupt
Self interest
People do whats best for them because they benefit
Self interest works well when people are able to pull themselves up — thereby benefitting society because everyone takes care of themselves.
When people do not have assets, they are often limited and unable to work in their own self interest.
Principles of collectivism: CCCAPE
Cooperation
we all work together → cooperative corporations are working class people who work together to avoid exploitation by pooling resources
Collective interest
interests of the collective group; could be economic, political, humanitarian or environmental
especially when the interest can be reached more effectively by a group
Collective responsibility
holding the group responsible for the actions of individuals
e.g. MADD, authoritarian government, duty to assist
Adherence to collective norms
conduct/values/appearance standards imposed upon the group, what is normal
can become an echo chamber or reduce diversity
Public property
property that is owned by the state or community
an ongoing debate
Economic equality → a spectrum
progressive taxation
equal wages for similar work
social programs
guaranteed annual income
elimination of private property
Addressed by ideologies
interpretations of history
beliefs about human nature
beliefs about the structure of society
visions of the future
Marxism
Interpretative history
An ongoing class struggle of peoples, between the bourgeoisie and common peoples → a projection into the future
Human nature
Humans are intrinsically inclined to work alongside each other to overthrow inequality → therefore humans are good.
Societal structure
Factories, production, assets and property are to be owned by everyone - focusing these economics onto workers in an instance where privately owned property practically does not exist → creates equality for the working class
Visions for the future
Government will wither away and become redundant as workers work in the interests of each other — only accomplishable when capitalism is violently overthrown by a pro-worker dictatorship.
Social Contract: an agreement within society to accept government; emphasis on security and in return rights are given up
Philosophers & Theories
Thomas Hobbes
collectivist; focused on security
English and lived through the English Civil War
Had a negative view of human nature: in a state of nature, there would be conflict and violence
“and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
Therefore advocated for a strong, powerful government → a sovereign power like a king that would govern like a leviathan
the sovereign would have unlimited power in response to a threat: the priority: security.
in return, rights are given up in exchange for security.
use in discussions of political power and rights
John Locke
individualist; father of liberalism
People by nature are free and equal, rejecting the nature that people are naturally subject to monarchy
People are rational
People have inherent rights (born with them) to life, liberty and property
Therefore, individualist based on the focus on rights and individual autonomy (liberties)
Limited government
Some rights are given up to the government to ensure stability, comfort, liberty and property rights → therefore there are limited taxes
Government can only exist with the consent of the people
Promotion of common good and rights
Failure of the government means it can be replaced and resisted.
e.g. infrastructure and security
Secularism: separation between church and state; there would be no religious wars
Montesquieu
how to avoid corruption and despotism
separate powers into branches
all bodies are bound by the rule of law (constitution)
framed the American constitution
Legislative/Executive/Judicial
Adam Smith
to best meet our needs, we should practice “laissez faire” (leave alone) capitalism
no trade barriers
end of subsidies and government monopoly
free market, small government
market forces (e.g. supply and demand) regulate the economy
The Invisible Hand → supply and demand, consumer sovereignty
Father of Capitalism
we can buy and sell whatever we want based upon supply and demand — as long as its legal.
The Wealth of Nations
“not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from regard to their own interest”
John-Stuart Mill
Father of Liberalism → wrote a book called “On Liberty”
Importance of individual freedoms — government required to step in and protect
“power can only be used against 1 person to protect the many”
a person is capable of deciding for themselves unless society is affected
John Jacques Rousseau
“Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains”
alive during the French Revolution, where everyone had to work to support the lifestyles of the 2nd and 1st Estate
People are naturally good → wrote essay The Social Contract
Private property leads to corruption and selfishness
we should live together peacefully
when government fails, people can remove the government
however, it is not instantaneous
Karl Marx
Father of Communism
beliefs strongly in economic equality
abolishing private property
dictatorship of the proletariat
Working Class v. Bourgeoisee conflict leads to a revolution
“Let ruling classes tremble at the idea of revolution… the proletariat have nothing to lose but chains… the world to win… working peoples of the world unite!”
Other key terms
Beliefs/values: ideas and understandings that a person holds to be true, often influenced by such things such as culture, language, religion, gender, worldview; ideas and understandings that people hold to be important or who they are as individuals
Human interdependence: the idea that individuals do not live their lives in isolation, but rather depend on oneanother in many ways
Capitalism: an economic system based on free markers, fair competition, wise consumers and profit-motivated producers, in which a minimum of government involvement is factored.
Communism: a system of society with property vested in the community and each member working for the common benefit according to his or her capacity and receiving according to his or her needs
Socialism: an ideology that contains the belief that resources should be controlled by the public for the benefit of everyone in society, and not by private interests for the benefit of private owners and investors
Ideological spectrum: a diagram on which ideologies can be organized according to a particular set of criteria, such as the extent to which they emphasize collectivism or individualism, which appear on opposite ends of the spectrum
Radicalism: new/innovative, e.g. Theory of Evolution
Reactionary: back to the past, either actual past or an imagined past
e.g. the Aryan nation never existed
e.g. restricting womens education in Iran to 1950s levels
Facism: strong economic freedom for the elites, designed to destroy communism
Egalitarianism: ideology of equality
Elitism: ideology of the elites
Status quo: keep things the same
Progressive: make things better
Welfare state: where government provides some form of social services
Civil disobedience: peaceful/non-violent protest
Deregulation: removal of economic freedoms
