ISM'S

The various terms used in referring to ideologies and streams of political thinking have numerous meanings. There are some basic features that help identify each but the purity of each is often challenged and confusing. The "spectrums" referred to in class help to sort out what often goes on in classifying and labeling political thought patterns, that is, ideologies. It is not so important to be able to label everyone correctly but it is important to understand some of the underlying emphases within the various ideologies since these act as guides to political activity for most people either consciously or sub-consciously.

You should look up major terms such as liberalism, conservatism, socialism in my dictionary of terms at:

http://www.stetson.edu/~gmaris/polphiltq3.htm

The "ism's": How to sort them out?

Note two usages: "classical" and "contemporary". Makes it more confusing but important to sorting out lines of thinking.

For Example:

1. classical liberalism [Locke] is the basis for contemporary "conservatism" [minimal role for the state]

2. classical liberalism mixed with welfare socialism and democratic theory combine to provide a basis for contemporary  "liberalism" [willingness to use the state under democratic procedures to solve social problems]

3. classical conservatism [Burke] ends up in contemporary conservatism but, as opposed to Lockean classical liberalism, is willing to use the state but within functions developed over time within the tradition of the society. This willingness to use the state within traditional value concerns motivates many of the European contemporary "conservatives" to be supportive of welfare programs such as national health care than their more Lockean American conservative friends are less willing to support.

1. liberalism

a. classical [Locke]

b. libertarian [Nozick, many contemp. conservatives]

c. welfare liberalism [social democratic thought, Rawls]

d. economic liberalism

e. political liberalism [all of us?]

d. anarchism as extreme of libertarianism

e. state control of all economic production and distribution as extreme of welfare liberalism [This points towards socialism but socialism has many faces also with varying degrees of state control. Past identification with totalitarian communism in the Soviet Union and elsewhere also misleads since socialism contemporarily in Europe and most of the world's nations is a socialism with democratic political institutions. Even contemporary China is complex with a total control of the political processes but a loosening of control of the economic production and distribution.]

2. conservatism:

a. neo-liberal type of contemporary = classical libertarians

b. communitarianism [Aristotle as classical/Burke and tradition/ Sandel as modern "republicanism"]

c. neoconservative

d. social conservative

e. fascism as extreme

f. theocracy as extreme of social conservatism

3. Spectrums to help sort out the lines of thought represented by the "ism's"

a. economic: free market to state controlled economics

b. social issues: individual freedom to community control

c. government determination: decentralized to centralized

d. welfare provision: self alone to social solidarity

7. Purity is seldom -- mixtures are many!