Ideologies

1
Ideologies

• Ideologies are not static or set in stone. They
  respond to political events, as much as they
  affect political events.

2
History of modern ideologies

• Classical liberalism rose in the Enlightenment.
  Important thinkers
• John Locke
• Adam Smith
• de Montesquieu
• Rousseau
• The framers of the Declaration of Independence
• and, later, John Stuart Mill
• The U.S. is a classical liberal democracy.

3
History, continued

• Conservative thought arose in response to the
  excesses of the French Revolution of 1789.
  Important thinker Edmund Burke.
• In the U.S., conservative thought also blended
  with classical liberalism.

4
History, continued

• In the 19th century, socialism, communism and
  anarchism were responses to the economic
  distresses brought by industrial capitalism.

5
History, continued

• Fascism and its most extreme form, Nazism,
  developed in the early 20th century as a reaction
  against the perceived failings of liberalism,
  conservatism, socialism and communism.

6
History, continued

• New ideologies emerge in response to new needs.
  Developing out of (and in reaction to) liberalism
  in late 20th century were
• Environmentalism
• Postmodernism
• Feminism

7
Classical liberalism key ideas

• Human beings are rational and equal
• Small limited government is best
• Government rules with the consent of the governed
• Individual rights important
• tolerance of dissent freedom of conscience
• free marketplace
• ideal of political equality democratic process

8
Why is the U.S. considered a classical liberal
government?

• Those key ideas show up in the founding
  documents, particularly the Declaration of
  Independence.

9
Liberalism in the Declaration

• All human beings are created equal. Ideal of
  political and legal equality.
• They are endowed by their Creator with certain
  unalienable rights,
• among them life, liberty the pursuit of
  happiness.
• Governments are instituted to protect those
  rights.
• Government derives its powers from the consent of
  the governed. Political authority is in the
  people, acting through representatives.
• When a government becomes destructive of those
  rights the people have a right to alter or
  abolish it. When a long train of abuses and
  usurpations... evinces a design to reduce them
  under absolute despotism, it is their right, it
  is their duty, to throw off such government, and
  to provide new guards for their future security.

10
Absolute despotism once had to be accepted

• Before classical liberalism, the dominant idea
  was that God created political society, not
  people.
• Monarchs ruled through divine right.
• If people suffered under a bad king, it was Gods
  will.
• Therefore, people had a duty to accept and obey
  (view of Robert Filmer).

11
John Locke

• In a State of Nature, people have natural rights,
  but there are no courts, police or laws to
  protect them.
• People create government to protect those natural
  rights. Sovereignty belongs to the people, and
  the government is just a useful tool.
• If government fails to protect those rights and
  becomes tyrannical, then the contract is null and
  void. People return to a State of Nature, free
  to make a new government. The Second Treatise on
  Government

12
Adam Smith

• His famous work, The Wealth of Nations,
  provides the theoretical basis for capitalism.
  What makes him liberal? The emphasis on
  rationality, the ability of individuals to make
  decisions to advance their own self-interest.
  The idea that government should leave people
  alone to make their own economic choices.

13
Evolution of liberalism

• But the result was laissez faire capitalism.
  Terrible economic social conditions for
  workers, including children. Government
  powerless to act.
• This led to rethinking the principles of
  liberalism. A good society might need more than
  right procedures. It also needed certain
  outcomes.
• The result Utilitarianism. Governments should
  pursue policies that create the greatest good (or
  utility) for the greatest number of people.

14
Further developments

• After utilitarianism (which never caught on in
  the U.S.), liberalism developed into Social
  Justice or Modern Liberalism.
• Modern liberalism is not fearful of government
  power. Instead, government power can be a force
  for good, limiting the worst conditions of
  poverty, illiteracy, racism, exploitation, etc.
• The basis of progressive or liberal politics in
  the U.S.

15
A different view of freedom

• T.H. Green
• Government responsible for creating the
  conditions for freedom.
• Freedom means the ability as well as the right to
  do something.
• This view implies an active government.
• Example in text about Mary Smith. If Smith is
  unemployed and homeless, is she really free to
  make choices?

16
An activist view of government

• Jane Addams
• Founded Hull House to serve
• the poor in Chicago in 1889.
• Pushed for laws to improve
• working and living
• conditions for the poor.
• Promoted education, better
• sanitation, womens
• right to vote.

17
Evolution to modern liberalism

• J.S. Mill
• Harriet Taylor

18
John Stuart Mill

• (1806-1873) The most influential
  English-speaking philosopher of the nineteenth
  century. His views are of continuing
  significance, and are generally recognized to be
  among the deepest and certainly the most
  effective defenses of a liberal political view
  of society and culture. The overall aim of his
  philosophy is to develop a positive view of the
  universe and the place of humans in it, one which
  contributes to the progress of human knowledge,
  individual freedom and human well-being.
• From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

19
Harriet Taylor Mill

• (1807-1858) A British social and political
  philosopher and the great love of John Stuart
  Mill, whom she married toward the end of her
  life. She was especially interested in women's
  rights and co-authored with Mill the long essay
  Subjection of Women in 1869, a powerful defense
  of gender equality. John Stuart Mill not only
  lavished praise on her intellect, emotional
  depth, and moral character, but also credited her
  with exerting a tremendous influence on his
  thought, with making major intellectual
  contributions to many of the works published in
  his name, and even with having been intimately
  involved in the composition of some of his most
  important works.
• From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

20
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

• English political theorist
• Wrote this book in 1859
• Also wrote a book in favor of womens rights
• He is considered a bridge between classical
  liberalism and modern liberalism

21
On Liberty

• Mill argues that diversity in ideas and in
  conduct is a good thing, one that society ought
  to encourage, not discourage. He is a strong
  defender of nonconformity.
• Mill especially argues in favor of freedom of
  thought and discussion. "We can never be sure
  that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is
  a false opinion, and if we were sure, stifling it
  would be an evil still."
• He is concerned with tyranny, both political and
  social. What is social tyranny?

22
On Liberty

• The tyranny of the prevailing opinion and
  feeling, ... the tendency of society to impose...
  its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct
  on those who dissent from them, ... to prevent
  the formation of any individuality not in harmony
  with its ways.
• In our times, from the highest class of society
  down to the lowest, everyone lives as under the
  eye of a hostile and dreaded censorship.

23
Social tyranny conformity

• The individual has a sovereign right over his or
  her self, body and mind, a right to be free of
  societal interference in our lives.
• Does that mean that society can NEVER interfere
  in our choices?
• If not, when can it? What is the guiding
  principle?

24
From On Liberty

• The sole end for which mankind are warranted,
  individually or collectively... in interfering
  with the liberty of action of any of their
  number, is self-protection."

25
From On Liberty

• Society can interfere, but for one reason only
  to stop harm to others. Society may protect
  itself and other individuals.
• But society may NOT interfere in order to protect
  us from our own bad choices.
• So, is does a behavior affect others? Or only
  ourselves?

26
Can society interfere?

• 1. A 75-year old man who is slowly and painfully
  dying of cancer decides to end his life.
• 2. An NMSU student reads Mein Kampf and thinks
  that Adolph Hitler had some great ideas.
• 3. Two adult gay men decide to set up a home
  together.

27
Can society interfere?

• 1. A 75-year old man who is slowly and painfully
  dying of cancer decides to end his life. NO
• 2. An NMSU student reads Mein Kampf and thinks
  that Adolph Hitler had some great ideas. NO
• 3. Two adult gay men decide to set up a home
  together. NO

28
Can society interfere?

• 4. That NMSU student who likes Hitlers ideas
  organizes an anti-Semitic rally outside the home
  a local rabbi at 2 a.m.

29
Can society interfere?

• 4. That NMSU student who likes Hitlers ideas
  organizes an anti-Semitic rally outside the home
  a local rabbi at 2 a.m. YES
• Why?
• A. In conduct, the individual must not make
  himself a nuisance to other people.
• B. This conduct might lead to an act of violence.
  Mill gave the example of publishing the view
  that corn dealers starve the poor, which is a
  protected activity, versus a speech before an
  excited mob outside the home of a corn dealer,
  which is not.

30
Can society interfere?

• 5. A 14-year-old decides to drop out of school
  in order to get a job.

31
Can society interfere?

• 5. A 14-year old decides to drop out of school
  in order to get a job. YES
• Why? People who are under the legal age of
  adulthood are excluded society may regulate them
  for their own good.

32
Can society interfere?

• 6. Two men are boating on Elephant Butte without
  life jackets.
• 7. Two men are boating on Elephant Butte without
  life jackets and they are drinking heavily.
• 8. The two men are now on shore, somewhat
• sober. One man, who cant swim, slips into
  the water and drowns. The other man just stands
  and watches.

33
Can society interfere?

• 6. Two men are boating on Elephant Butte without
  life jackets. NO
• 7. Two men are boating on Elephant Butte without
  life jackets and they are drinking heavily.
  YES. WHY?
• 8. The two men are now on shore, somewhat
• sober. One man, who cant swim, slips into
  the water and drowns. The other man just stands
  and watches. YES. WHY?

34
Can society interfere?

• 7. Two men are boating on Elephant Butte without
  life jackets and they are drinking heavily.
• THEY POSE A RISK TO OTHERS
• 8. The two men are now on shore, somewhat
• sober. One man, who cant swim, slips into
  the water and drowns. The other man just stands
  and watches.
• WE ARE ACCOUNTABLE FOR OUR FAILURE TO ACT TO STOP
  HARM.

35
Mill and Foreign Policy

• Would Mill have agreed with U.S. military
  intervention to throw out a dictator and help
  establish a democracy?

36
Mill and Foreign Policy

• I am not aware that any community has a right to
  force another to be civilized. So long as the
  sufferers by the bad law do not invoke assistance
  from other communities, I cannot
• admit that persons entirely unconnected with
  them ought to step in...
• So probably NO depends on the meaning of
  invoke assistance.