Political Ideologies

Right wing

• Society is best served by the limited role of government and with the expanded rights of the individuals. 
• Government should focus on helping the expansion of market and creation of new wealth which will take care of the vulnerable. 
• Hierarchy is not advocated but abolition of hierarchies is not the goal. It accepts the hierarchy (far right wing even advocates the hierarchy)
• Market should be minimally controlled (or not at all controlled). Its the producer of new wealth (businessman and capitalists) whom government should help first, who in turn will create jobs and cheaper goods and services which will elevate the living standards of poor (ie. The trickle-down effect) 
• Emphasizes on the past glory and aims to revive the golden past.

Left wing

• Society is best served with the expanded role of government. 
• Government should focus on the social security for the vulnerable. 
• The absence of Hierarchy must be the goal of the government. 
• The market should be controlled against the opression of workers and should be directed to produce what is needed. 
• Do not create any ideal perception of past and reject the theory of glorious past and emphasize on creating a new, just and equal society.
• The redistribution of existing wealth is more important than the creation of new wealth as the new wealth is created by those who are already wealthy.

Mercantilism

Mercantilism was the primary economic system of trade used from the 16th to 18th century. 

• The system depends on the assumption that the amount of wealth in the world was static. 
• The goal was to increase a nation’s wealth by imposing government regulation that oversaw all of the nation’s commercial interests. It was believed national strength could be maximized by import substitution, limiting imports via tariffs and maximizing exports, thereby collecting precious metals, such as gold and silver. 
• Mercantilism replaced the older, feudal economic system in Western Europe, leading to one of the first occurrences of political oversight and control over an economy.
• At the time, England, the centre of the British Empire, was small and contained relatively few natural resources. Thus, to grow England’s wealth, England introduced fiscal policies, including the Sugar Act and Navigation Acts, to move colonists away from foreign products and create another incentive for buying British goods.
• The French, Spanish and Portuguese competed with the British for wealth and colonies. It was thought that no great nation could exist and be self-sufficient without colonial resources.
• Economic health of a nation could be assessed by the amount of precious metal, gold or silver it owned.
• Mercantilism led to the adoption of enormous trade restrictions, though, which stunted the growth and freedom of colonial business.

Liberalism

• The philosophy emerged in the later 17^th century with the rise of middle class against the privilege by birth ie. Nobility and Absolute monarchy. 
• The ideology believes in the private property, individual rights, consent of the governed and social & political equality.
• This was one of the foundational principle of the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the American Revolution of 1776 and the French revolution of 1789. 
• By the 19 century this became the basis of Nation’s wealth eg- Britain and France etc. Since the second half of 19th century it was the prime motivating factor behind the rise of small but ambitious Nations and their transformation into Empires. The new wave of colonialism by the end of 19th century was the result of this ideology which ultimately lead to the wars of 20th century. 

Libertarianism

• It is an extreme form of liberalism which gives individual Liberty far more Emphasis than liberalism. It seeks to maximize the political freedom, autonomy and individual freedom.
• It advocates minimum government or social security programs and according to it, the main driver of society is individual judgement rather than collective judgement. 

Capitalism

• Based on liberalism, ie private ownership of the means of production. The guiding force of capitalism is profit and reinvestment of profit. 
• It came to the forefront of the World system in the Industrial Revolution and dominated the Nations politics in the 19th century. 
• Karl Marx criticized Capitalism for being oppressive and against the labour theory of value and alienates the labour. He described capitalism as nothing but the dictatorship of Bourgeoisie. 
• Vladimir Lenin describes Capitalism as the originator of Imperialism (ie. ” Imperialism is the highest form of Capitalism”). In order to produce more that is in the search of raw material and markets, countries compared to acquire colonies and resort to imperialism.
• In 19th century, this Capitalist competition group fierce and led to the unification of Italy and Germany, which in turn grew into far more fiercer Imperialist competition and led to the World Wars.

Consumerism

An economic order which grew out of capitalism where acquisition of goods and services that is consumption is promoted by producer via advertisement etc. The consumers rate their quality of life on the basis of their own consumption pattern (ie. ” Consumption for the sake of it”) 

Democracy

• System where citizens choose their own representatives to Govern, ie equal political rights. 
• This ideology came from Humanism of the Enlightenment, ie from the rejection of the theory of divine rights. 
• In 18th century it became a major force of change and manifested itself in the American and French Revolutions along with Republicanism.
• In 19th century it was considered as sister ideology of Socialism, however, by the end of 19th century this ideology was accepted by liberalism/ capitalism instead, to maintain order and a safety valve against the chaos of Socialism/Communism. 
• Due to the extreme ideological basis of Socialism/ Communism, by the mid-20th century, Democracy was seen as an anti-thesis of these ideologies. 

Socialism

• System which advocates the Social ownership and the democratic control of the means of production. Ownership maybe public, cooperative or collective. Public ownership varies from State ownership to Citizen Ownership via equity. 
• Socialism allows more and more control by labour or say of labour in the means of production (eg- trade union). However socialism do not prescribe any exact path to achieve it (unlike Communism). Fabian socialism hopes that it can be achieved by negotiation and collaboration, hence called by Marx as Utopian socialism. 

Republicanism

System of government where the Sovereign is elected by the citizen. The revolution of America was based on it, whereas the turn of events made French Revolution a Republican one. Till the end of 19th century, term Republicanism was equivalent to the modern day “terrorism”, due to the fact that majority of states were monarchy. 

Hegelian dialectic

An idea called ‘thesis’ is contradicted by another conflicting Idea called ‘anti thesis’. The ‘syntheses’ of both the ideas takes the society forward. Therefore it is the conflict of Ideas which is the main force behind social advancement.

Darwinism

• In the context of this study, Darwinism means that society (or species) moves forward on the basis of the struggle between its components. Buy this struggle the changes occur. 
• Karl Marx took forward this idea and contradicted Hegel’s concept of the ‘struggle of ideas’ and suggested ‘struggle for material’, ie. Society transforms not on the basis of Ideas but on the basis of existing material condition. 

Class dialecticism

Marx suggested that in all Social systems, it is the different classes who struggle against each other eg- slaves versus slave-owners in the Slave mode of production, serfs versus feudal Lords in the Feudal mode of production. In Capitalism the two struggling classes are bourgeoisie (businessman, ie. Owners of the mode of production) and proletariat (workers or labour class) 

Marxism

• Emancipation of proletariat by a bloody Revolution to form a new classless society. 
• 3 stages of revolution- 

1. Dictatorship of bourgeoisie (capitalism) 
2. Bloody revolution (dictatorship of proletariat) 
3. The classless society 

• Internationalism, ie workers of the world have common interests and nothing to lose, therefore, they must unite to have a World revolution, in process, abolishing the National boundaries. 
• Control of the ‘modes of production’ by the workers (public) not by collaboration (utopian socialism) but by a Revolution (scientific socialism) ie. Class Struggle instead of Class Collboration.

Leninism

• The workers alone are not capable to overthrow the Capitalist class, therefore, the revolution would be guided by a party (Vanguard party) 
• Conceptualized the revolution as ‘dictatorship of proletariat’ and the use of terror in social transformation. 
• National/ cultural self-determination to the people.
• ‘Imperialism is the highest form of Capitalism’, therefore, any Imperial war should be boycotted. 
• Leninism is also called Bolshevism

Trotskyism

• Leon trotsky was the proponent of the Permanent Revolution, ie. no need for mandatory industrialisation before Communism. 
• World revolution, ie the revolution should not be confined into a single country. 

Stalinism

• Socialism in one country, ie a Country should first go through Revolution and should establish Communism inside its own territory. Only after strengthening of Communism in that country, the Revolution should be passed on to other countries. 
• Two stage theory (against Permanent Revolution) ie. Country must pass through industrialisation before achieving Communism. 
• Subordination of Communist of other countries to the Communist Party of Russia. 
• To increase the agricultural surplus he introduced collectivization of agriculture

Maoism

• Peasants of Colonies (or otherwise) are the original proletariat and therefore they (not industrial workers) are most fit for the Revolution. Mao included peasants for the first time in the theory of Communism, whom Marx declared unfit for the revolution due to holding the property. 
• Forced Industrialisation, ie Great Leap Forward
• Abolition of bourgeoisie ideology, ie Cultural Revolution. 

National dialecticism

• In the 19th century, the concept emerges that there are two types of nation in Europe. The bourgeoisie Nations, who already had attained colonies, like Britain and France. The Proletariat Nations, who are left behind in this process, like Germany and Italy. 
• The theory of national dialecticism was the basis of letter struggles between these Nations. 

Fascism

• Fascism rejects socialism and democracy in favour of an authoritarian political and economic system, dominated by a single leader.
• Subordination of entire Nation, individuals and resources for the national cause. 
• Path of the nation is to be identified by a National leader. 
• Fascism is the struggle of a proletariat Nation, therefore emphasizes on acquiring colonies 
• It advocates extreme/ultra-Nationalism and opposed to the doctrine of Internationalism, therefore, finds itself contradictory to the theory of Communism.
• It emphasises on extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites.

Nazism

• The Nazis called their ideology National Socialism, revolved around an all-powerful leader, a strong state, intense nationalism, a focus on militarism and military strength, the subordination of the individual to national interests and purity of race.
• The Nation is identified with a race instead of territory.
• Nazism sought to repair German supremacy by restoring the economy, putting the unemployed to work, reviving industrial production, rearming the military and ignoring foreign treaties.
• It believes in traditional 19th century values of authoritarian government, social conservatism and Christian beliefs, reinforcing these in rhetoric and propaganda.
• The Nazis desired strong government and extensive state power. They believed that government could not function effectively if it lacked the means to impose itself on society and enforce its policies. State power should have few limits and could extend into all aspects of political, social and cultural life. 
• Both Nazism and fascism considered themselves a ‘third way’, an alternative to both democracy and socialism and forever remained against both.
• The obsession with Eugenics and race separated Nazi ideology from fascism. Nazi belief of ‘master race’ made it far more evil.