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Political ideologies reflection paper
Political ideologies reflection paper
The influence of ideologies on politics
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Position Paper: Political Ideology
Upon entering my first semester at Southern Nazarene University I could not have told you my political ideology. I knew what my opinions, observations, expectations, and ideals were, but did not know the proper ideology that would define them. Through several courses that I have taken, I have become more informed as to the role that I would like to see the government take throughout society as a whole and in the economy. Upon reading the section of ideology in American Government and Politics Today: the Essentials I learned that the correct term for my ideology is right-wing Conservatism. I would like to see the government take action if necessary in the economy, yet let capitalism and the economy regulate itself if possibl...
Leading up to the year 1981, America had fallen into a period of “stagflation”, a portmanteau for ‘stagnant economies’ and ‘high inflation’. Characterized by high taxes, high unemployment, high interest rates, and low national income, America needed to look to something other than Keynesian economics to pull itself out of this low. During the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan’s campaign focused on a new stream of economic policy. His objective was to turn the economy into “a healthy, vigorous, growing economy [which would provide] equal opportunities for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination.” Reagan’s policy, later known as ‘Reaganomics’, entailed a four-point plan which cut taxes, reduced government spending, created anti-inflationary policy, and deregulated certain products.
When it comes to my political beliefs, I am indecisive between being a Republican or a Democrat. The reason for this, is because I never really showed enough interest into learning more about politics. As for my politically ideology, I feel that I am more liberal than I am conservative. In theory, ideology is defined in two ways, “(1) Organized set of political attitudes based on underlying principles”, and “(2) a cohesive set of beliefs that form a general philosophy about the role of government” (McAtee). An Individual’s political ideology can be formed from public opinions and agents of socializations (McAtee). According to the quiz I took on “Politopia.com”, the results showed that I was “Centerville”, which means that I am in between of being a Democrat or a Republican, or that I support both sides and yet oppose to both sides.
Individualistic in that government is supposed to maintain a stable society but at the same time intervene as little as possible, and has a faith in idividual initiave. For example, Texas has a favorable support for private business and has limited government with restricted powers. On the other hand, the traditionalistic aspect of the state politics are exemplified by the long history of one-party dominance in state politics, the low level of voter turnout, and social and economic conservatism (Explaining, web). The conservative ideology (right-wing) according to Dr. Kim, is opposing government regulation of economiclife and supporting government regulation of personal life. In other words, a individual is considered a conservative when believes in personal responsibility, free markets. They believe the government should give the people a certain amount/the necessary of freedom in order to persue their own goals and interests. On the other hand, the liberal political ideology (left-wing) is known as an ideolgy that 100% supports government regulations on its citizens’ economic life. But, opposes completely on government regulation of personal life. Liberals, see as an necessity for governent to solve problems, and believe the role of government must be
- It takes the traditions of that time and only changes them gradually and not very
By adding social issues to the conservative agenda, the New Right weakened the establishment’s movement, contradicting and discrediting its fundamental principles. The new social agenda contradicted Old Right’s belief in limited government and individual rights. Today, the New Right continues to grow and the Christian Right continues to gain political power. Republican candidates are considered politically dead unless they secure the support of the Christian Coalition. Before the New Right comes to embody “conservativism” within American political discourse, Old Right conservatives must discard the dissenter’s social initiatives and reclaim the establishment’s conservative agenda: remove the New Right’s social agenda, return to establishment’s conservative ideals, and develop policies based on limited government, free market, and individual liberty.
The conservative movement has played a crucial role in American politics in the post war era. Ronald Story and Bruce Laurie indentify various elements of the American conservatism. These elements include challenging authoritarian governments and modernist culture, upholding tradition, Christian religion and the rule of law, defending western civilization, and supporting republicanism. American conservatism has been characterized by competing ideologies and tension throughout history. The Americans who are politically liberal and economically conservative favor free trade, minimal state intervention, low taxes, and a small government. On the other hand, conservatives hold the view that American traditional values are normally undermined by secularism. Social conservatives have always opposed same-sex marriages and abortion, and instead have been supporting the idea of integrating prayer into the school curriculum (Story and Laurie 1).
I feel my political ideology most closely aligns with classical conservatism as described by Karger and Stoesz. This is because classical conservati...
Aristotle, Locke, and Hobbes all place a great deal of importance on the state of nature and how it relates to the origin of political bodies. Each one, however, has a different conception of what a natural state is, and ultimately, this leads to a different conception of what a government should be, based on this natural state. Aristotle’s feelings on the natural state of man is much different than that of modern philosophers and leads to a construction of government in and of itself; government for Hobbes and Locke is a departure from the natural state of man.
Modern liberalism and modern conservatism are both political outlooks that involve acceptance or support of the balance of the degree of social equality and social inequality; while they tend to avoid political changes that would result in extreme deviation of society to either side. Modern liberalism and modern conservatism tend not to be as centrist or middle-of-the-road ideologies as they once could be. Ideology is a set of ideas and beliefs that guide the goals, expectations, and actions of a group (Webster’s Dictionary). Individuals who are conservative or liberal tend to have views that align within a political party, whether it be Republican or democratic, but this is not always the case. There are conservative democrats, such as, Jim Costa and Jim Cooper and there are liberal republicans, such as, Nathaniel Banks and George Washington Julian. Another name for conservative democrats would be blue dog democrats while the nickname for liberal republicans is the Rockefeller republicans. These two ideologies tend to be more of the centrist ideologies. Modern liberals tend to be members of the Democratic Party because they support a wide range of welfare programs and government support of the public sector and tighter corporate regulations (PP Modern Liberalism). U.S. Conservatism evolved from classical liberalism, which makes them similar, yet there is many differences between modern conservatism and modern liberalism. There are principles and tenets that govern each ideology. A tenant is a belief or idea that is held as being true from a group (Webster’s Dictionary). In understanding both ideologies, it is imperative to have an understanding of classical liberalism. Classical liberalism was built on ideas from the seventeenth ...
At the outset, in terms of competing ideologies and why there is not one consistent world view for everyone, Rory Varrato perhaps best explains this, saying ‘Often, though, holders of an ideology believe that they have the whole truth rather than a partial truth; they assume that their ideological lens is clear, correct, and complete (or they don’t even realize that they have a lens), and they think that others’ lenses are varying shades of wrong. This fact, in a nutshell, is the source of all political conflict, as holders of different ideologies clash over their seemingly incompatible views of the world and how it ought to be.’ (Varrato)
Libertarians support extreme freedom in economic and personal. I support a much smaller government administration; one that is restricted to protect people from oppression and violence. I prefer individual responsibility; thus, I don’t feeling comfortable with government administration and taxes. Right-libertarianism primes on the strong support of private property and free-market capitalism, while declining in most state functions.
Political Philosophy is typically a study of a wide range of topics such as, justice, liberty, equality, rights, law, politics and the application of a codified law. Depending on what the philosophy is, it usually tends to be a very sensitive and a personal ideology that an individual holds within the reality of their existence. Several of the fundamental topics of political philosophy shape up the society that we live in as these specific topics and their implementation by the state ensures a legitimate government. In Political Philosophy, the aforesaid concepts or topics are evaluated and analyzed with tremendous depth in context to their history and intent. Furthermore, in a rather colloquial sense, political philosophy is generally a point of view which after some deep thinking asks questions such as, what are the government’s duties? Is it legitimate? What makes it legitimate? What are the duties of its citizens? What are their rights? Are they protected? So on and so forth. In the following paper, I will canvass my political philosophy and elaborate on my reasoning behind it.
Conservatism is an ideology consisted of ideas and beliefs that value social order and tradition. The question of whether or not conservatism is a coherent ideology is a highly debated topic. Conservatism can be seen as a disbelief to its critiques against other political ideologies such as liberalism. (Ruth, 2017) However, I believe the ideas of conservatism do make up a coherent ideology. Throughout this essay I will explain the reasons why I believe the ideas of conservatism make a legitimate ideology. The Oxford Dictionary defines an ideology as “a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.” Meaning that in order for a viewpoint to be deemed an ideology it must contain a
Ideology is defined as being a set of ideas and beliefs of a group of people or a political party. Ideology is a collection of ideas that could be considered as bias because ideology is based on beliefs with facts that only support those beliefs. There are many different avenues within ideology. Ideologists are divided into different political groups based on their beliefs and political ideas. Examples of ideologies consist of Anarchists, Communists, Fascists, Liberals, Populists, Conservatives, Socialists, Libertarians, and Authoritarians. The main purpose of ideology is to provide ideas and goals that will assist in making changes in society as needed. Ideology also involves finding the correct approach to achieve its goals. I generally
Schumaker Paul, Dwight C. Kiel, Thomas Heilke, Great Ideas/Grand Schemes: Political Ideologies in the 19th and 20th Centuries, New York, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., 1996. Schumaker Paul, Dwight C. Kiel, Thomas W. Heilke, Ideological Voices: An Anthology of Modern Political Ideas, New York, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1997.