KEY

INTERNATIONAL
CONCEPTS
Ali Haider
 WHAT IS IDEOLOGY?

First thing to be clear on is that there really is no clear and

agreed upon definition of ideology. It is a difficult term to
really define properly.
However, Ideology influences all of our lives, but it
works in such a way that we are often unaware of its
influence!
So, What basically is Ideology?
 SOME ATTEMPTED
DEFINITIONS OF ‘IDEOLOGY’
 An action-orientated set of political ideas

An officially sanctioned set of ideas used to legitimize a political system

or regime
The world view of a particular social class or social group

An all-embracing political doctrine that claims a monopoly of truth

Ideas that propagate false consciousness amongst the exploited or
oppressed
The ideas of the ruling class
THINK OF IDEOLOGY AS A
PAIR OF GOGGLES!  Ideology as Pair of Goggles
 Whichever pair of goggles you put
on, changes the way which you
see the world. It allows you to
interpret the world and to make
decisions! Now you must work
out, which ideology has already
influenced your way of thinking
and looking at the world!
 IDEOLOGY FROM A SOCIAL-
SCIENTIFIC VIEWPOINT
 An ideology is a more or less coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized
political action, whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing
system of power relationships.
 All ideologies therefore:
 Offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a ‘worldview’,
 Provide a model of a desired future, a vision of the Good Society, and
 Outline how political change can and should be brought about.
 Ideologies are not, however, hermetically sealed systems of thought; rather, they are
fluid sets of ideas that overlap with one another at a number of points.
 FEUDALISM
 A social system that existed in Europe during the
Middle Ages (9th and 15th) in which people worked
and fought for nobles, who gave them protection and
the use of land in return.
 The Nobles were self-interested. Their tyranny led to
the sufferings of commoners and serfs. Serfs were the
victims of violence.
 No stability, peace, and order

 led to the overtaxing of common people

 The loyalty of the people was restricted to the feudal

lords
 Feudalism increased the gap between the rich and the
poor
 MERCANTILISM
 Mercantilism states that there is a limited
amount of wealth in the world. It is in a nation’s
best interest to accumulate it. Through wealth, a
nation can achieve power.
 A country achieves wealth by producing and
exporting more goods than it imports. These
goods must be sold at a profit for wealth to
accumulate.
 Profits are large when a country spends a small
amount of money on raw materials needed to
create a product and sells the finished product
for a high price
 MERCANTILISM
 Mercantilism became popular in Europe in the
1500s and was the primary reason behind
Europe’s desire to colonize new lands
 Mercantilism was meant to serve the interests of
the empire, not the colony. Colonies existed for
the benefit of the home country.
 It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and
subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal.
 IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM: MEANS
OF POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC DOMINATION
 Imperialism is a policy or ideology of  The foreign administrators rule the territory in
extending the rule over peoples and other pursuit of their interests, seeking to benefit from
countries, for extending political and economic the colonized region's people and resources.
access, power and control, often through
 Both are tools of dominance but Colonialism is
employing hard power, especially military
force, but also soft power a practice and imperialism is the idea driving
this practice
 Colonialism is a practice or policy of control
by one people or power over other people or  Colonialism means creating an empire by
areas, often by establishing colonies and subjugating the other territories, While
generally with the aim of economic dominance. imperialism means expanding the dominance in
neighboring regions.
 In the process of colonization, colonizers may
impose their religion, language, economics,
and other cultural practices.
 SECULARISM: A DOCTRINE THAT
REJECTS RELIGIOUS CONSIDERATIONS
INTO PUBLIC LIFE.
 Secularism is a system of social  Secularism Provides Freedom to practice
political and economic organization one's faith or belief without harming
and education where religion is others: It protects both believers and non-
not allowed to play a part in civil believer
affairs.  Secularism seeks to defend freedom in
 It’s a movement towards the separation religious choice and tolerance
of religion and government. The  Secularism is about democracy and
purpose is to reduce ties between a fairness
government and a state religion,  Secularism provides equal access to public
replacing laws based on scripture with services
civil laws, and eliminating
discrimination on the basis of religion.  Secularism protects free speech and
expression: Individual have rights, not
ideas
 CAPITALISM
 An economic system in which private individuals or  The essential feature of capitalism is the motive to
businesses, rather than the government, own and make a profit
control the factors of production: Assets—such as
factories, mines, and railroads—can be privately owned  Pillars of Capitalism:
and controlled through Entrepreneurship.
1. Self-interest
 Capitalism's success is dependent on a free-market
economy, driven by laws of supply and demand. 2. Competition
 Invisible Hand: Unintended social benefits resulting 3. A market mechanism
from individual actions
4. Freedom to choose with respect to consumption,
 Capitalism is based on individual initiatives and favors production, and investment
free market mechanisms over government intervention.
In a capitalist economy, labor is purchased for money 5. Limited role of government
wages, capital gains accrue to private owners
LIBERALISM

Liberalism:
The belief in protecting the rights of the individual, to ensure their maximum
freedom within the State.
This political ideology arose out of the transition from feudalism to industrial
capitalism
 In its earliest form, liberalism was a political doctrine. As reflected in the ideas
of thinkers such as John Locke, it attacked absolutism and feudal privilege,
instead advocating constitutional and, later, representative government
 By the early nineteenth century, a distinctively liberal economic creed had
developed that extolled the virtues of laissez-faire and condemned all forms of
government intervention
KEY IDEAS
Individualism: Freedom:
The liberal goal is therefore to  Liberals advocate ‘freedom under the
construct a society within which law’, as they recognize that one person’s
liberty may be a threat to the liberty of
individuals can flourish and others; liberty may become license. They
develop, each pursuing ‘the good’ therefore endorse the ideal that individuals
as he or she defines it, to the best of should enjoy the maximum possible
his or her abilities liberty consistent with a like liberty for all
KEY LIBERAL IDEAS
 Reason:  Equality:

Faith in the ability of individuals to make Commitment to equal rights and

wise judgments on their own behalf, entitlements, notably in the form of legal
being, in most cases, the best judges of equality (equality before the law’) and
their own interests. political equality (‘one person, one vote;
one vote, one value)
Believe in progress and the capacity of
human beings to resolve their differences Liberals do not endorse social equality or
through debate and argument, rather than an equality of outcome. Rather, they
bloodshed and war favour equality of opportunity (a ‘level
playing field’)
KEY LIBERAL IDEAS
 Toleration:  Consent:
 the willingness of people to allow others  Authority and social relationships should
to think, speak and act in ways of which always be based on consent or willing
they disapprove) is both a guarantee of agreement.
individual liberty and a means of social
 Government must therefore be based on
enrichment
the ‘consent of the governed’.
 Believe that pluralism, in the form of
 authority arises ‘from below’ and is
moral, cultural and political diversity, is
positively healthy always grounded in legitimacy
 Favor representation and democracy,
 It promotes debate and intellectual
progress by ensuring that all beliefs are notably in the form of liberal democracy
tested in a free market of ideas
KEY LIBERAL IDEAS
 Constitutionalism:  believe in limited government.
 Government as a vital guarantee of order  Can be attained through the fragmentation
and stability in society of government power, by the creation of
checks and balances amongst the various
 Aware of the danger that government may
institutions of government,
become a tyranny against the individual
 Through the establishment of a codified or
 ‘Power tends to corrupt’ (Lord Acton)
‘written’ constitution embodying a bill of
rights that defines the relationship between
the state and the individual
CLASSICAL VERSUS MODERN
LIBERALISM
 Commitment to an extreme form of  Characterized by a more sympathetic
Individualism attitude towards state Intervention
 Meaning non-interference, or the absence  In the USA, the term ‘liberal’ is invariably
of external constraints on the individual taken to imply support for ‘big’
government rather than ‘minimal’
 Tom Paine’s words, the state is a
government
‘necessary evil’
 Born out of the recognition that industrial
 In the form of economic liberalism, this
capitalism had merely generated new
position is underpinned by a deep faith in forms of injustice and left the mass of the
the mechanisms of the free market and the population subject to the vagaries of the
belief that the economy works best when market
left alone by government.
CLASSICAL VERSUS MODERN
LIBERALISM
 From this perspective, freedom does not
 Capitalism is thus seen as guaranteeing
prosperity, upholding individual liberty,just mean being left alone. Freedom means,
the ability of the individual to gain
and, as this allows individuals to rise and
fall according to merit, ensuring social fulfilment and achieve self-realization
justice.  Recognition that state intervention,
particularly in the form of social welfare,
can enlarge liberty by safeguarding
individuals from the social evils
 prosperity through managed or regulated
capitalism
 Government intervention has always been
conditional
 CONSERVATISM
 Ideas and doctrines first emerged in the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century as
a reaction against the growing pace of economic and political change
 Conservatism stood in defense of an increasingly embattled traditional social order
 To restore authority and return to traditional values, notably those linked to the family,
religion and the nation.
 Authority is seen as guaranteeing social stability, on the basis that it generates discipline and
respect, while shared values and a common culture are believed to generate social cohesion
and make civilized existence possible
 This conservatism was starkly autocratic and reactionary, rejecting out of hand any idea of
reform
 Experience, Tradition and History
CONSERVATISM: KEY
IDEAS
 Tradition:  Pragmatism:
 The central theme of conservative  Emphasized the limitations of human
thought is, ‘the desire to conserve’ rationality
 Believed in perceived virtues of  Abstract principles and systems of
tradition, respect for established thought are therefore distrusted
customs, and institutions that have
endured through time  Instead faith is placed in experience,
history and, above all,
 Tradition reflects the accumulated
wisdom of the past, and institutions  pragmatism: the belief that action
and practices that have been ‘tested by should be shaped by practical
time’, circumstances and practical goals,
that is, by ‘what works’
 Tradition also has the virtue of
promoting a sense of social and  Reject the idea that this amounts to
historical belonging unprincipled opportunism
 CONSERVATISM: KEY IDEAS
 Human imperfection:  Organicism:
 Human nature is broadly pessimistic  Viewed society as an organic
 Human beings are limited, dependent, whole, or living entity
and security-seeking creatures, drawn  Society is thus structured by
to the familiar and the tried and
tested, and needing to live in stable
natural necessity, with its various
and orderly communities institutions, or the ‘fabric of
society’ (families, local
 Individuals are morally corrupt: they
communities, the nation and so
are tainted by selfishness, greed and on), contributing to the health and
the thirst for power.
stability of society
 Requires a strong state, the
enforcement of strict laws, and stiff  The whole is more than a
penalties collection of its individual parts.
CONSERVATISM: KEY IDEAS
 Hierarchy:  Authority:
 Social position and status are natural and  Authority is always exercised ‘from
inevitable in an organic society. These above’, providing leadership
reflect the differing roles and
 Guidance and support for those who lack
responsibilities
the knowledge, experience or education to
 For example, employers and workers, act wisely in their own interests (an
teachers and pupils, and parents and example being the authority of parents
children over children)
 Hierarchy and inequality do not give rise  Freedom must therefore coexist with
to conflict, because society is bound responsibility and willing acceptance of
together by mutual obligations and obligations and duties
reciprocal duties
CONSERVATISM: KEY IDEAS
 Property:  In this view, we are, in a sense, merely
custodians of property that has either been
 Property ownership as being vital because
inherited from past generations (‘the
it gives people security and a measure of family silver’), or may be of value to
independence from government, and it future ones
encourages them to respect the law and the
property of others
 Property ownership involves duties as well
as right
MARXISM/ SOCIALISM
 Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of
historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations
and social conflict as well as conflict perspective to view social transformation.
 It originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich
Engels.
 All constituent features of a society such as social classes, political hierarchy and ideologies
are assumed to stem from economic activity, forming what is considered as the base and
superstructure.
MARXISM/ SOCIALISM
 Criticism of capitalism as it creates different Social classes and exploited masses for the
benefit of few
 View historical development as clash between classes: among those who own means of
production and those who’s labor were exploited to produce final commodities
 Class structure could only be altered through revolution and proletariat revolution
 USSR and China: Abolition of Private Property or agriculture reforms, Centrally Planned
economies, Extreme Control of Personal and Public sphere of life.
 Three distinctive ways socialism is understood: As an alternative to capitalism, socialism as an
instrument of the labor movement, as a political creed or ideology, characterized by a
particular cluster of ideas, values and theories.
SOCIALISM: KEY IDEAS
 Community:  Fraternity:
 Vision of human beings as social  Human beings share a common
creatures linked by the existence of a humanity, they are bound together by
common humanity a sense of comradeship or fraternity
 No man is an Island entire of itself;  This encourages socialists to prefer
every man is a piece of the cooperation to competition, and to
Continent, a part of the main’ favor collectivism over
individualism
 Human nature is ‘plastic’
 regard selfish, acquisitive,
materialistic or
 aggressive behavior as socially
conditioned rather than natural.
SOCIALISM: KEY IDEAS
 Social equality:  Marxists have believed in absolute social
equality, brought about by the
 Form of egalitarianism, the belief in the
collectivization of production wealth,
primacy of equality over other values social democrats have favored merely
 Socialists emphasize the importance of narrowing material inequalities, often
social equality, an equality of outcome as being more concerned with equalizing
opposed to equality of opportunity opportunities than outcomes
 measure of social equality is the essential
guarantee of social stability and cohesion,
encouraging individuals to identify with
their fellow human beings
SOCIALISM: KEY IDEAS
 Need:  Social class:
 Sympathy for equality also reflects the  Socialism has often been associated with a
socialist belief that material benefits form of class politics
should be distributed on the basis of need,
 Nevertheless, class divisions are
rather than simply on the basis of merit or
work remediable: the socialist goal is either the
eradication of economic and social
 From each according to his ability, to each inequalities, or their substantial reduction.
according to his need’. This reflects the
belief that the satisfaction of basic needs
(hunger, thirst, shelter, health, personal
security and so on) is a prerequisite
SOCIALISM: KEY IDEAS
 Common ownership:
 it is a means of harnessing material
resources to the common good, with
private property being seen to promote
selfishness, acquisitiveness and social
division.
 Modern socialism, however, has moved
away from this narrow concern with the
politics of ownership.
HISTORICAL MATERIALISM
FASCISM
 Fascism is a child of the twentieth century
 Combination of economic crisis and political instability that often followed the collapse of
communism or, more widely, of increased anxieties over immigration and multiculturalism
fuels Fascism
 Fascism constituted a revolt against the ideas and values that had dominated western political
thought since the French Revolution: in the words of the Italian Fascist slogan, ‘1789 is dead’
 Values such as rationalism, progress, freedom and equality were thus overturned in the name
of struggle, leadership, power, heroism and war
 It is defined largely by what it opposes: it is a form of anti-capitalism, anti-liberalism, anti-
individualism, anticommunism, and so on
FASCISM
 Core theme is an image of ‘organically unified national community’.
 ‘strength through unity’. The individual, in a literal sense, is nothing; individual identity must
be absorbed entirely into that of the community or social group.
 The fascist ideal is that of the ‘new man’, a hero, motivated by duty, honor and self-sacrifice,
prepared to dedicate his life to the glory of his nation or race, and to give unquestioning
obedience to a supreme leader.
 Italian Fascism was essentially an extreme form of statism, that was based on unquestioning
respect and absolute loyalty towards a ‘totalitarian’ state. As the Fascist philosopher Gentile
put it, ‘everything for the state; nothing against the state; nothing outside the state’.
 Nazism was constructed largely on the basis of racialism. It two core theories are: Aryanism
and Anti-Semitism
FEMINISM
 A Vindication of the was published which advocated for Rights of Women and greater share for
women in social, political and economic right.
 Women’s suffrage movement in the 1840s and 1850s that feminist ideas reached a wider audience,
in the form of so-called ‘first-wave feminism’. First Wave Feminism
 Achievement of female suffrage in most western countries in the early twentieth century deprived
the women’s movement of its central goal and organizing principle.
 Second-wave feminism’, however, emerged in the 1960s. This expressed the more radical, and
sometimes revolutionary, demands of the growing Women’s Liberation Movement (WLM).
 Unifying feature of all feminist theories are a common desire to enhance through whatever means,
the social role of women.
 The underlying themes of feminism are therefore, first, that society is characterized by sexual or
gender inequality and, second, that this structure of male power can, and should be, overturned.
 Feminist thinking has traditionally been analyzed in terms of a division between liberal, socialist
and radical schools of thought.
LIBERAL FEMINISM
 A feminist tradition whose core goal is  It is concerned more with the reform of
equal access for women and men to the the ‘public’ sphere; that is, with enhancing
public realm, based on a belief of the legal and political status of women,
genderless personhood. and improving their educational and career
prospects, than with reordering ‘private’ or
 Liberal feminists, such as Wollstonecraft
domestic life.
and Betty Friedan, have tended to
understand female subordination in terms
of the unequal distribution of rights and
opportunities in society. This ‘equal-rights
feminism’ is essentially reformist.
SOCIALIST FEMINISM VS. RADICAL FEMINISM

Socialist Feminism Radical Feminism

 A feminist tradition that seeks to  A feminist tradition that aims to

restructure economic life to achieve gender overthrow patriarchy through a radical
equality, based in links between patriarchy transformation of all spheres of life, but
and capitalism. especially ‘the personal’.
 Highlight the links between female  Radical feminists believe that gender
subordination and the capitalist mode of divisions are the most fundamental and
production politically significant cleavages in society.
 Drawing attention to the economic  In their view, all societies, historical and
significance of women being confined to a contemporary, are characterized by
family or domestic life where they, for patriarchy
example, relieve male workers of the
 The institution whereby put it, ‘that half
burden of domestic labor and help to
educate the next generation of capitalist of the population which is female is
workers, and act as a reserve army of labor. controlled by that half which is male’.
SOCIALIST FEMINISM VS. RADICAL FEMINISM

 “The personal is the political”

 Radical feminists therefore proclaim
the need for a sexual revolution, a
revolution that will, in particular,
restructure personal, domestic and
family life.
GREEN POLITICS
 A new ideology that is linked to the emergence of the environmental movement since the
late twentieth century
 Its roots can be traced back to the nineteenth-century revolt against industrialization
 The damage done to the natural world by the increasing pace of economic development
(exacerbated since the second half of the twentieth century by
 The advent of nuclear technology, acid rain, ozone depletion, global warming and so on),
and anxiety about the declining quality of human existence and, ultimately, the survival of
the human species
 Ecology is the study of the relationship between living organisms and their environment.
It thus draws attention to the network of relationships that sustain all forms of life.
IDEOLOGIES INTERLINKED WITH ENVIRONMENT
 Eco-conservatism links the cause of conservation to the desire to preserve
traditional values and established institutions.
 Eco-socialism explains environmental destruction in terms of capitalism’s
rapacious desire for profit.
 Eco-feminism locates the origins of the ecological crisis in the system of male
power, reflecting the fact that men are less sensitive than women to natural
processes and the natural world.
POST COLONIALISM
 Post-colonialism is a trend in literary, cultural and political studies that seeks to
expose and overturn the cultural and psychological dimensions of colonial rule.
 It recognizes that ‘inner’ subjugation can persist long after the political structures of
colonialism have been removed.
 A major thrust of post-colonialism has been to establish the legitimacy of non-
western, and sometimes anti-western, political ideas and traditions.
 For example: Gandhi’s attempt to fuse Indian nationalism with ideas rooted in
Hinduism to forms of religious fundamentalism.
 It sought to give the non-western world a distinctive political voice separate from, in
particular, the universalist pretensions of liberalism and socialism.
 Ideologies Emerged in response to Post-Colonialism are: Non-aligned Movement
and Religious Fundamentalism
RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM
 The idea that an intense and militant faith that Islamic beliefs constitute
the overriding principles of social life and politics. Islamism in general has
been a vehicle for expressing anti-westernism, reflecting both antipathy
towards the neo-colonial policies of western powers and anxiety about the
‘imposition’ of permissive and materialist values.
Non-aligned Movement
 An organization of countries, founded in Belgrade in 1961, that sought to
avoid formal political and economic affiliation with either the capitalist
West or the communist East.