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Politics Lesson I -- Basic Introduction Category: Tutorial - Politics A brief introduction of politics. Explaining to you the common terminologies that you might have come across. Objective : To promote interest in politics, common knowledge of types of government. Scope
Socialism is a system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. In an economic perspective, socialism is linked with state or collective ownership of the means of production. This control may be exercised through popular collectives such as workers' councils, or exercised on behalf of the people by the state. The modern socialist movement originates largely from the working class movement of the late-19th century. "Socialism" was first used in connection with European social critics who rejected capitalism and private property. For Karl Marx, who helped establish and define the modern socialist movement, socialism meant the abolition of money, markets, capital, and labor as a commodity. Due to lack of consensus, the movement has split into different branches, particularly between moderate socialists and communists. Since the 19th century, socialists have differed in their vision of socialism as a system of economic organization. Some socialists have supported entire nationalization of the means of production, or decentralized collective ownership in the form of cooperatives or workers' councils. Social democrats have proposed selective nationalization of key industries within the framework of mixed economies. Stalinists emphasised on the planned economies coming under strong central state direction. Others advocate "market socialism," in which social control of property exists within the framework of market economics and private property. Communism is an ideology which seeks to create a future classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production and the absence of any forms of private property. Early forms of human social organization have been described as 'primitive communism' by Marxists. However, communism generally is a conjectured form of future social organization. There is a variety of views among communists, including Maoism, Trotskyism, council communism, Luxemburgism, and various currents of left communism, which are generally the more widespread varieties. However, various offshoots of the Soviet and Maoist interpretations of Marxism-Leninism comprise a particular branch of communism that has the distinction of having been the primary driving force for communism in world politics during most of the 20th century. The competing branch of Trotskyism has not had such a distinction. Karl Marx held that society could not be changed to the communist mode of production all at once, but required a transitional period , the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat. The communist society Marx envisioned emerging from capitalism has never been implemented, and it remains theoretical; Marx, in fact, commented very little on what communist society would actually look like. However, the term 'Communism', especially when it is capitalized, is often used to refer to the political and economic regimes under communist parties that claimed to embody the dictatorship of the proletariat. After the success of the October Revolution in Russia, many socialist parties in other countries became communist parties, signaling varying degrees of allegiance to the new Communist Party of the Soviet Union. After World War II, Communists consolidated power in Eastern Europe, and in 1949, the China Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China, which would later follow its own unique ideological path of communist development. Among the other countries that adopted a pro-communist government at some point were Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Angola, and Mozambique. By the early 1980s almost one-third of the world's population lived in Communist states. With the decline of the Communist governments in Eastern Europe from the late 1980s and the breakup of the Soviet Union, communism's influence has decreased dramatically in Europe. However, around a quarter of the world's population still lives in Communist states, mostly in the People's Republic of China. <Fascism is a radical political ideology that combines elements of corporatism, authoritarianism, nationalism, militarism, anti-anarchism, anti-communism and anti-liberalism. The word "fascism" comes from fascio (plural: fasci), which may mean "bundle," as in a political or militant group or a nation, but also from the fasces (rods bundled around an axe), which were an ancient Roman symbol of the authority of magistrates. The original fascist (fascismo) movement ruled Italy from 1922 to 1943 under the leadership of Benito Mussolini. In time, the generic term fascism came to cover a class of authoritarian political ideologies, parties, and political systems. The most notable of these parties, created after World War I, are the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis) under Adolf Hitler but also Hungary's Arrow Cross Party, Romania's Iron Guard, Spain's Falange and the French political movements led by former socialists Marcel Déat and Jacques Doriot and others. Some authors reject this broader use of the term or exclude certain of these parties and regimes.
The definition of democracy is made complex by the varied concepts used in different contexts and discussions. Political systems, or proposed political systems, claiming or claimed to be democratic have ranged very broadly. For example:
Main varieties include: Direct Direct democracy is a political system where the citizens vote on all major policy decisions. It is called direct because, in the classical forms, there are no intermediaries or representatives. Current examples include many small civic organizations (like college faculties) and town meetings in New England (usually in towns under 10,000 population). Critics note that it sometimes emphasises the act of voting more than other democratic procedures such as free speech and press and civic organisations. That is, these critics argue, that democracy is more than merely a procedural issue. All direct democracies to date have been relatively small communities; usually city-states. Today, a limited direct democracy exists in some Swiss cantons that practice it in its literal form. Direct democracy obviously becomes difficult when the electorate is large--for example some 30,000 or more citizens were eligible in Athenian democracy. However, the extensive use of referenda, as in California, is akin to direct democracy in a very large polity with over 20 million potential voters. Modern direct democracy tries accommodate this problem and sees a role for stricly controlled representatives. It is characterised by three pillars; referendums (initiated by governments or legislatures or by citizens responding to legislation), initiatives (initiated by citizens) and recall elections (on holders of public office). RepresentativeRepresentative democracy is so named because the people select representatives to a governing body. Representatives may be chosen by the electorate as a whole (as in many proportional systems or represent a particular district or constituency), with some systems using a combination of the two. Some representative democracies also incorporate some elements of direct democracy, such as referenda. LiberalLiberal democracy is a representative democracy (with free and fair elections) along with the protection of minorities, the rule of law, a separation of powers, and protection of liberties (thus the name liberal) of speech, assembly, religion, and property. Conversely, an illiberal democracy is one where the protections that form a liberal democracy are either nonexistent, or not enforced. The experience in some post-Soviet states drew attention to the phenomenon, although it is not of recent origin. Napoleon for example used plebiscites to ratify his imperial decisions. Ealchemy eBooks. Advanced Philosophy, Puzzles, Global Politics, Free downloads In politics, left-wing, the political left or simply the left are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of, to varying extents, socialism, anarchism, communism, social democracy, progressivism, American liberalism or social liberalism, and defined in contradistinction to its polar opposite, the right. The term originates from the French Revolution, when liberal deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right. It is still the tradition in the French Assemblée Nationale for the representatives to be seated left-to-right (relative to the Assemblée president) according to their political alignment. As this original reference became obsolete, the meaning of the term has changed, and is now used to denote a broad variety of political philosophies and principles. In contemporary Western political discourse, the term is most often used to describe forms of socialism, social democracy, or, in the sense in which the term is understood in the United States, liberalism. The United States Congress continues the left-sitting tradition in the House of Representatives with the Democratic Party occupying the seats to the left side of the center aisle. The left-wing attribution is very broadly employed as a political descriptor, and a single definition is elusive. For example, the use of the phrase in the democratic West is quite distinct from the usage in most Communist states - where the term has connotations associated with Bukharin and the democratization of all human activities.. Communism, as well as the Marxist philosophy that many base it on, and most currents of traditional anarchism are often considered to be radical forms of left-wing politics. Though some left-wingers reject any association with communism or anarchism, others say that those who don't follow strict socialist or communist philosophies can't possibly be leftists. The left generally claims to be dedicated to personal liberty and social justice. The left is often seen to include secularism, as in the United States, India, the Middle East, and in many Catholic countries, although religion and left-wing politics have at times been allied historically, such as in the U.S. civil rights movement, or in the cases of liberation theology and Christian socialism. Many on the Left describe themselves as "progressive", a term that arose from their self-identification as the side of social progress and openness to change. Old Left refers to the strands of left politics current in the first half of the twentieth century, such as the Communist parties. These tended to emphasise class, sometimes in an economic determinist way, and tended to follow rigid organisational forms. New Left refers to the strands of left politics that emerged in the 1950s and especially 1960s, which tended to follow more democratic organisational forms, emphasise the cultural and personal as well as the economic, and were open to the new social movements. Examples of the new left include Students for a Democratic Society and New Left Review. Centre-left, left of centre and left liberal refer to the left side of mainstream politics in liberal democracies. These tend to support liberal democracy, representative democracy, private property rights and some degree of free market, as well as high social spending, universal provision of social welfare and some state regulation of the economy. Examples would be the British Labour Party, some of the American Democratic Party or the German SPD. Soft left refers to socialist rather than liberal positions, but thoroughly reformist, democratic or parliamentary forms of socialism. Examples would be Irving Howe or Michael Foot. Hard left refers to socialists who are more explicitly in favour of fundamental change in society, but often through existing democratic structures - e.g. the Militant Tendency. Ultra-left refers to more extreme forms of left politics, often Marxist, which are particularly intransigent - e.g. Italian autonomism. Right-wing In politics, right-wing, the political right or simply the right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum often associated with any of several strains of conservatism, the religious right, fascism, or simply the opposite of left-wing politics. The term originates from the French Revolution, when liberal deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of the Second Estate, generally sat to the right. In the successive legislative assemblies, monarchists who supported the Ancien Régime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side. It is still the tradition in the French Assemblée Nationale for the representatives to be seated left-to-right (relative to the Assemblée president) according to their political alignment. As this original reference became obsolete, the meaning of the term has changed as appropriate to the spectrum of ideas and stances being compared, and the point of view of the speaker. In recent times, the term almost always includes some forms of conservatism. Some consider the political Right to include those forms of liberalism that emphasize the free market more than egalitarianism in wealth, but many free-market advocates, including most libertarians, share certain political ideologies with the left-wing and conceive of a two-dimensional political spectrum that they say more accurately portrays their political position. Many anarchists (including libertarian socialists) also avoid placing themselves on the classic political spectrum. |
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