Lecture.

Comparative Politics
Definition :Political Ideologies
 Defining Political Ideology:
 In social sciences, a political ideology is a set of ideas and principles that
explain how the society should work and offer the plan for a certain social
order.
 From the current political analysis, a number of defining as follows:
 Ideology presents ideas and knowledge in away which entails kinds of
beliefs and actions.
 It claims to have an explanatory power, to make the world comprehensible
to its believers, although if fact it twists the truth by selection, interpretation
, or pain falsification.
 Ideology has persuasive force.
 Modern ideology often claims to be scientific, based on patterns of
arguments like those of science, or invokes scientific evidence, as the Nazis
did trying to improve Aryan superiority.
 Ideology provides solidarity for communities, and a basis for authority in
newly emergent nations.
 The major political ideologies
 Liberalism
 Socialism
 Social Democracy
 Communism
 Origins of Liberalism

 Enlightenment philosophers ( During 17th and 18th century) are given credit for
shaping liberal ideas, especially John Locke ( Father of Modern Liberalism) , and
Thomas Hobbes.
 Other prominent figures of Liberalism:
- John Locke (1632-1704): every person has rights to life, liberty, and property.
- John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): each person is sovereign over himself and must be
left free to act unless his actions threaten harm to others.
- John Rawls (1921-2002): equal basic liberties.
 Term Liberalism is sometimes used as synonymous with
individualism.
 The individualism which to John Sturat Mill meant the right to
think, speak, and worship freely, became instead the right to buy,
sell, and manufacture without societal or governmental restraint.
 This materialization of individualism was mainly the product of
Adam Smith’s classical liberalism.
 In the mid-nineteenth –century, the natural rights and classical
economics advocates were reinforced by those who interpreted
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution as a mandate for economic
Laissez Faire.
 Herbert Spencer, an English sociologist, interpreted Darwin’s theory to mean that
the state must refrain entirely from intervention in socio-economic affairs, the
fittest survive in the struggle for wealth and power.
 According to Spencer, the state ought only to provide national defense, punish
crimes, and enforce contracts. It should not support public education, give
economic assistance for any kind, or maintain public health or charitable
facilities.
 Principle of Laissex-faire is main of capitalistic system.
 Liberalism assumes the individual to be rational.
 The assumption of rationality also determines the form of political organization
chosen, Justifying participatory, rather than authoritarian government.
 Rational economic man, according to classical economists, maximizes profits,
political man maximizes his benefits through purposeful participation and choice.
 Main Ideas of Liberalism.

(1) Liberty: individuals should have freedom.

(2) Liberal freedoms: conscience, speech, association, etc.
(3) Equality: every member of society should have these freedoms, not just some.
Forms of Equality: equal rationality, equal self-interest, equal voting rights, and
equal rights before the law).
 By doing this, liberal theory formally equalizes individuals although real
individuals have differential levels of wealth, competence, and intelligence.
 Liberals wish to prove that competition between individuals takes place in a
context of equality of opportunity which guarantees a fair outcome, with the
most meritorious individuals gaining the rewards.
 Needles to say that the natural inequalities of talent and energy would make
equality of opportunity a myth.
 Political Arrangements of Liberalism
(1) Government is needed to secure liberty for all.
(2) But government itself is may be a threat to liberty and must be
restrained. And that could happened through the following:
A.Constitutional government: is defined by the existence of a
constitution—which may be a legal instrument or merely a set of
fixed norms or principles generally accepted as the fundamental law
of the polity—that effectively controls the exercise of political power.
B. Separation of powers: Is a constitutional law under which the
three branches of government ( executive, legislative, and judicial)
are kept separate.
C. Bill of rights: list specific prohibitions on governmental powers.
D. Representative democracy: also known as indirect
democracy or representative government, is a type of
democracy founded on the principle of elected officials representing
a group of people, as opposed to direct democracy.
 Criticism of Liberalism.

Liberalism is being criticized for following:-

(1) Providing “Too much freedom”: For Instance, it gives the

person the rights to take drugs, practicing prostitution, gambling,
etc.

(2) Too much “rationalistic “ : Relies on reason and abstract

thinking, and off course not all people is rational as that.

(3) Too much “individualistic” : it concentrate on the individual

rights and ignore the value of community.