Hi everyone, last I write about what is Politics and Governance, its importance and meaning. I hope that you learned a little bit about politics and governance.
Now, I'm going to post what is the Different Political Ideologies and how Government adopt such ideologies to manages a country or how government used such ideologies in his country. And please tell me if what political ideology your country is using or adopting.
Please take a little time to read below👇
Political ideology shapes our understanding of the society. It guides people on what they should think, how and why they should respond to certain issues, concerns or events happened in the country whether these issues affect them directly or indirectly. Political ideology shapes individual opinion about the society. It dictates how an individual should act and respond when certain issues, events or policies are implemented. Political ideology is a person’s political belief and his/her belief about society as a whole. It influences an individuals’ perception about the government’s nature, role and function. Thus, it determines whether the individual participates or not, and even his belief on the necessity of having a government at all.
Communism
Also known as “Revolutionary Proletarian Socialism” or “Marxism,” is both a political and economic philosophy. Communism is enclosed in two primary writings: The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx in 1848, and (2) Principles of Communism, by Friedrich Engels. According to Marx and Engels (a follower of Marx), a person’s view in the world depends on its class membership. Socialization among people now determines the limit and extent of a person’s world of view and members of each class should act and think according to their class membership (social construction of reality). Furthermore, according to Marx, material production or economic relationships are basic to all life. People must produce goods before they can do anything, they must produce themselves. However, they cannot even do that unless they are capable of feeding themselves.
Marx and Engels together authored The Communist Manifesto. The main goal of The Communist Manifesto was to focus on class struggle and motivate the common people to riot. Even more so, it was designed to envision a model government, whose economics would destroy the upper class-freeing the lower class from tyranny. According to The Communist Manifesto, Communism has ten essential planks:
Abolition of Private Property
Heavy Progressive Income Tax
Abolition of Rights of Inheritance
Confiscation of Property Rights
Central Bank
Government Ownership of Communication and transportation
Government Ownership of Factories and Agriculture
Government Control of Labor
Corporate Farms and Regional Planning
Government Control of Education
Socialism
Socialism existed as a result of communism.it is a necessary transition stage from communism since it is concerned with the change the mental and spiritual outlook of the people. Socialism emphasizes that human beings are social but nature, and individualism are fatal. Society, not individuals, should own the property. Common ownership would mean that all should be given the opportunity to participate on how resources should be used and thus nobody should solely take control of the resources. Further, this means the right to participate in the social decisions that affect them, that is production of goods and services and the sole objective of production would be to meet human needs. This would mean now that nobody will sell, buy and have money. The government then should plan the economy; there is no free market (an economic system in which prices are determine by unrestricted competition between privately owned businesses) so that all citizens will have roughly the same level of prosperity.
Moreover, President Hugo Chavez (President of Venezuela, 1999-2003) mentioned the elementary triangle of socialism, that is:
Social ownership of the means of production – The means of production is owned by the community. Social ownership does not mean state ownership. It means the people are both the producers and members of the society are the ones that determine the result of their labor.
Social production organized by workers (leads to cooperation and solidarity).
Satisfaction of communal needs and purposes – It emphasizes the necessity of letting go of personal interest and think for the community and society.
Liberalism
Liberalism is traced in the English Revolutions of the 17th century. Liberalism originated from the writings of John Locke (1632-1704) who developed the arguments for consent, majority rule, and rights, particularly property rights. Most recent liberals trace their roots to John Stuart Mills’ (1806-1873) “On Liberty” (1859) that stressed freedom of thoughts and speech.
According to John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) “if by liberal” they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares the welfare of the people, someone who believes that we can break through the stalemate and suspicions grip us in our policies aboard, if that is what they mean by a “liberal”, then I’m proud to say that I’m a liberal.”
Liberalism emphasizes a tendency to favor change. People should keep trying to improve human society. Change is brought about by the conscious action of men and women. They tend to favor social experimentation, but they want it within framework of the current political, legal and economic system. Furthermore, liberalism believes that people should be willing to use the government to improve their condition. Some people must be helped to live better lives and fulfil individual potential. Such can be achieved with the help of the government which will enhance individual freedom. Liberals prefer individual freedom but are ambivalent about economic freedom. Most problems are derived from impersonal, social and economic forces acting on humanity. The role of the government must be limited (that it cannot invade rights and freedoms of individual). Human beings commits mistakes, but committing mistake is better than suppression of error.
Conservatism
The founder of modern conservatism is Edmund Burke (1729-1797). He authored Reflections on the French revolution (1970) in which he said that “society is a complex web of relationships among the past, present and future.” Furthermore, he said that as time passes, social institutions evolve to fit their needs and conditions which further alters tradition that brought more conflict than development. Thus, he believes that slow and gradual change should be adopted.
Conservatism emphasizes that change is not good. Something that has worked, even if not very well, is better that something untried and unknown. Tradition is very important; no human reason can undo it. Conservatives do not reject human reason completely but they would rather trust tradition because they believe that tradition contains the accumulated wisdom of past generations. The world changes and so does conservatives. They do not want to conserve all the past; Conservatives believes that human reason can devise a solution to human problem’s. Only with faith in human reason that conservatives accept the use of government power to improve human condition.
Freedom is necessary but too much freedom is bad for the society. According to Russel Kirk (1994), “genuinely ordered freedom is the only sort of liberty worth having: freedom made possible by order within the soul and order within the state.” The government, as a whole, cannot improve human condition, and the people can do better if they are left alone by the government.
Fascism
Benito Mussolini, an Italian WW1 veteran, founded the fascist party. Fascism’s basic assumption is that human are not rational beings, thus, they can only be led and manipulated. Nations and races have to compete to survive. An ideal fascist see himself as part of a nation and never as a separate entity. According to Benito Mussolini (1883-1945), the carrier of the culture and spirit of the nation are the past, present and future. It represents the “immanent conscience of the nation”; and that it educates the citizens in all the virtues. This statement means that it is hardwired or inherent on the very nature of the individual’s values and culture of the nation. Further he added that the individual is the nation and the success of the nation lies on his continuous obedience to the state. Moreover, he said, “the keystone of the fascist doctrine is the conception of the state, of its essence, of its functions, its aims. For fascism the state is absolute, individuals and groups are relative.” The nation is embodied in the state, and therefore the state must be glorified. The state enforces fascist beliefs, to which the people owe absolute obedience. The leader of the state is expected to reflect the collective will of the people. According to Huber (1939), “his will is not the subjective individual will of a single man, but the collective national will.” Therefore, the leader’s authority is absolute.
Other important political ideology.
Feminism
This political ideology focuses on the position of women in the society and the roles they play. However, they also believe that improving the status of women will also benefit all human beings whatever their gender is. Feminism believes on the need to replace what they say as the system of male dominance, or patriarchy that affects all social institution. According to the feminist, political needs have to redefined. In the family, for example, the men work outside the home for wage. If the ma’s wage is enough, the woman does not work, but if the ma’s wage is not enough to pay for the helpers, the woman has to work in the house without pay. If the woman works outside the home, she still has to do the housework.
This situation explains that even if some men are working in the house, these traditions remain the same. Furthermore, feminism argues that women should be given equal opportunity of socialization as the men; this means that if men can drive a car, women should drive a car as well.