KU Pols 301 Midterm

Dominant big political ideas of antiquity

Ancient Greece through Middle ages, but with important and continuing influences. Communities: groups and polities with which people most identify; local towns tribes and religious groupings Citizenship: Exclusive w/ stress on duties Community Structures: slavery and feudalism(often with theocracies,empires and kingdoms). Rulers: Guardianship (by state leaders like roman princes and religious leaders like islamic caliphs) Justice: Honoring natural inequalities Change: Cyclical and static The image of society: An organic whole with members unassigned unequal roles Human Nature: Just the motivation dimension; provided by God and Society, Humans are role seekers, finding their place in heaven and on earth.

Legal rights

Arise form legislative, administrative, and court decisions, and involve specifics about such matters as property rights (protection from seizure by government, though limited by originalist understanding about just compensation and by living constructivist ruling in Kelo v. New London, 2005), civil rights (Equal treatment in civil society. E.G., rights to public accommodations, to nondiscrimination in housing.), and welfare rights.

Nazism

Authoritarian replacement of dysfunctional Weimer Republic. Totalitarianism - total govt control for collective purposes. elitism. dismantle civil society, promote mass society. supremacy of Aryan race with racial policies culminating in Holocaust. Associated with Adolf Hitler (Fuehrer) and Mussolini.

Traditional Conservatism

Burke main author. Conserve "ancient regime". reject "liberal science" embrace tradition. reject natural rights for "real" rights. reject individualism for organic society. stress virtue over self-interest.

Human Rights

Widely accepted moral claims for specific universal provisions and protections. Specified in international agreements. Based on morals. The need for universality. Classes of human rights:( (1) Basic liberties (2) Equal treatment (3) Security (4) Due process rights (5) Economic rights. (6) Social or welfare rights (7) political rights. )

Right Libertarianism

Uphold absolute rights of property-holders; to own and exchange. Moral self-ownership. Key theorist: Robert Nozick. Key popularizer: Ayn Rand. Key politicians: Ron and Rand Paul.

Political (citizenship) obligations

(1) to ensure security and stability (2) To promote prosperity. (3) To promote justice. (4) To promote well-being of the current members. (5) to ensure political equality.

The Straussian approach to political knowledge

(a) It is an attempt to understand the nature of things; it's the quest for, rather than the possession of, truth. It seeks to replace opinions with knowledge, acknowledging at the same time that it is permissible to have opinions. Lastly, recognizes that it's limited to the human mind. His central criticism is that nothing important can be known if values are ignored.

Contemporary conservatism

(a) upset with weak liberal response to communist expansion and now inadequate liberal vigilance against islamic terrorism and resurgent authoritarian regimes like Putin's Russia. Upset at big govt. and high taxes flowing from contemporary liberalism and liberal social engineering. ' (b) characteristics: reject 'do-gooder' social and economic policies; bootstraps mentality. conserve classical liberalism economics, libertarian lifestyles, reject moral relativism and multiculturalism, conserve traditional cultural values. (c) Ronald Reagan (d) Conservative principles: fiscal responsibility and a balanced budget, reduce govt through more tax cuts and privatization. shift authority from central national govt to states and localities. Economic growth through supply side-policies stress traditional family values (oppose abortions, no-fault divorce, inheritance taxes, and "the nanny state") (e) Military superiority: build up and professionalize armed forces, break up of communist bloc, conduct and institutionalize a permanent war on terrorism. More economic liberty by attacking welfare state. Reduce tax obligations.

Contemporary liberalism

(a)individualism and pursuit of ones own goal, securing citizens from infringement of individual rights, social mobility, and equal opportunity, religious(and social and moral) toleration, securing liberal society from external enemies. (b) Revision in Liberalism: From classical to contemporary > Support capitalism, but now w/ concern for market failures. Anti-competetive practices(trusts), economic depression, externalities(neighborhood effects), Inadequate public goods, poverty. Supports reformed capitalism. (c) John Dewey, John Maynard Keynes, MLK, FDR, JFK, LBJ, Bill clinton, Obama. (d) From negative to positive liberty; Authority reconceived: From limited to active government. Encouraging more citizen involvement, expanding interest group system, embracing social movements for more inclusion, such as occupy wall street, and black lives matter. (e) New Deal, Medicar/aid, Civil Rights, Sexual Freedoms, Public investment in infrastructure, rebalanced political economy, attack economic inequalities, emphasize ecological priorities.

Dominant big ideas of post-modernity

Communities: Groups and polities with which people most identify; National identities should often be secondary to global or subnational ones (e.g. an indigenous national, or the "LGBTQ" community, the distinction between the "black" and "african american" community) Citizenship: inclusive w/ expanding human rights and duties Community structures: transnational, political, economic, social, and ecological networks Rulers: self-governance and participatory "strong democracy" (thick dem: sub-serves the requirements of thin democracy plus political participation and institutional inputs, electoral competition, adherence to institutional values such as equality, tolerance, and diversity and a focus on these things as policy outcomes) Justice: Defining and challenging oppressions Change: unknown, but probably transformative. maybe catastrophic, but hopefully wonderful. Image of society: Multicultural but with arbitrary inequalities

Dominant big ideas of modernity

Communities: Groups and polities with which people most identify; Primacy of Nations Citizenship: expanding inclusion, w/ stress on rights Community Structures: Democratic capitalism within nation Rulers: Accountable reps within 'thin' democracy(thin dem: conceptualized with minimal requirements such as free elections, free speech, universal suffrage, etc.) Justice: challenging unjustified inequalities, by expanding equal opportunities Change: steady progress The image of society: Aggregation of individuals formed by a social contract offering some equal rights and many unequal opportunities in free markets. Human Nature: Just the motivation dimension; provided by individuals own conception of good and then making hedonistic choices in accordance with that conception (humans are pleasure seekers, pursuing their own interests)

Fascism

Extreme Nationalists (rather than racism), needs of the state before all else, elitism(everyone has their place and role), freedom defined as duty(individuals will find their freedom while doing their duties to the state), power an end in itself, state corporatism; organization of society by industry or corporate groups. 4 reasons for the rise: treaty of versailles(axis found it unfair), great depression, effectiveness of types of govt, direct consequence from industrial revolution. associated with Giovanni Gentile.

Communism

For Marxist/Leninist Communism, there is an aim to retain Marxist vision of achieving 'the promise land' seeing that the end is not economically determined - it requires 'voluntarism' by a vanguard of the proletariat. There is a forced collapse of capitalism through a revolution. Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh. Emphasized imperialism in a differentiated world wide financial capitalist system, and lead to the adoption of alternative revolutionary models.

Orthodox Marxism

Marxism sees liberal society as temporary- a necessary and somewhat positive stage of history (better than slaveholding and feudal societies) but having deep flaws that will doom it (to replaced by socialism) Marxism seeks to theorize the decline of democratic capitalism, and the development of an ideal communist society. Foresees an ideal society at the "end of history" that is Affluent, classless, and absent of any oppressive state authority. Economic factors will cause changes leading to this end. Marxism predicts - rather than prescribes - an inevitable revolution against capitalism. He believes that Contradiction will doom capitalism; productive and poverty, class conflict between bourgeoisie and proletariat. Temporary "dictatorship of proletariat" and the socialization of the means of production.

Virtue

Notion of morality defined by religious traditions that lay base for traditional conservatism.

The role of human rights

Often lack legal enforcement mechanisms and they are increasingly a powerful basis for claims on govt, prompting efforts for govt to deliver the claimed human right to those lacking it.

Anarchism (Bakunin)

Only natural constraints should limit freedom, institutions repress freedom. Social order must be replaced by one that is highly decentralized, voluntary, and communal-injustices solved by human virtue. Radicalization of liberalism and pre-cursor to Marxism. Call for the abolishment of government and liberal, capitalist societies.

Constitutional

Provisions and protections with special guarantees against legislative and majoritarian infringements and abuses. EX: US bill of rights (includes religious freedom, right to bear arms, right to privacy). State constitutional provisions - Kansas' adequate K-12 education. people sometimes make "sloppy" constitutional rights claims. EX: Tea Party member claiming a constitutional right to cars that can't be violated to fight global warming.

Tea Party

Reduce(eliminate) public debt; lower tax. Key instrumental principle - constitutional originalism (stability over time)

Classical liberalism

The FIRST ideology. Main contributors: John Locke, Adam smith, thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer. Key ideas: (a) negative liberty, rule of law, laissez faire capitalism(a natural right to earned property), thought guided by science and logic and reason, social mobility and equal opportunity, religious toleration, representative democracy, limited (but not weak) govt.

democratic socialism

most comprehensive left radicals. Key Ideas: (a) initially in Europe in early 20th century (b) evolve toward Marx's promised land by democratic reform, rather than through a revolution. (c) More socialized production. Philosophical principles: (a)Political quality - campaign financing regulations. (b) social equality - residential and venue mixing (c) economic equality - progressive taxes for public provision.

Global neoliberalism

stress international free markets in trade, investment, and labor. key popularizer - Thomas Friedman. Political advocate - Margaret Thatcher

Left Libertarianism

view highly unequal property as due to govt rather than market forces. stress equal right to moral choice. Key theorists: Henry David Thoreau; Henry George.