Chapter 2 Political movements Parliamentary democracy page 90

Quiz 11 statements True of false

Liberals are in favour of low taxes. Question 1 True or False Liberals are in favour of low taxes.

Populists stress the importance of the EU. Question 2 True or false Populists stress the importance of the EU.

Question 3 True or false Social democrats say that the government should provide good education, healthcare and housing for every citizen.

Liberals think that social inequality is a bad thing. Question 4 True or false Liberals think that social inequality is a bad thing.

Question 5 True or false Christian democrats want the government to guarantee that a family can live on one income.

Populists stress that all political parties represent common citizens. Question 6 True or false Populists stress that all political parties represent common citizens.

Question 7 True or false Liberals are convinced that in most cases ‘the market’ can solve problems better than the government.

Christian democrats stress the value of equality. Question 8 True or false Christian democrats stress the value of equality.

Question 9 True or false Social democrats are convinced that a big government will lead to a waste of money.

Christian democrats stress the importance of simple solutions. Question 10 True or false Christian democrats stress the importance of simple solutions.

Left is right, right is wrong. Question 11 True or false Left is right, right is wrong.

Learning goals You are able to: mention the three basic elements of an ideology. describe the core ideas of the three centre ideologies. describe the features of populism. explain which ideology fits best with a given statement. describe the meaning of political left and right. describe the different meaning of progressive and conservative. explain if a given statement is left or right, progressive or conservative. argue if you agree or not with the core ideas of each ideology. explain which ideology is closest to your own preference.

2.1 Ideologies Ideology about man and the way society should develop” “A body of related ideas about man and the way society should develop” (p.90). Key questions that every ideology addresses: 1. How much personal freedom concerning moral standards? 2. What is a fair distribution of wealth? 3. What is a fair distribution of power?

Scheme p.92 Social democracy > Equality > “A fair distribution of income, knowledge and power” The different ideologies have different views on “fair”. It’s not that liberals and christian democrats are ‘unfair’, although… social democrats would think so… Correct phrasing: “Social democrats want a less unequal distribution of income, knowledge and power”

Comments on the scheme p. 92 All three give a similair answer to the three key questions: 1. How much personal freedom concerning moral standards? > a fair amount of personal freedom; 2. What is a fair distribution of wealth? > through private enterprise within a mixed economy; 3. What is a fair distribution of power? > through parliamentary democracy.

Relations between concepts Values Interests Ideology

How to typecast ideologies: Left & Right Progressive & Conservative (have two meanings!)

How to typecast ideologies Political Left = in favour of less inequality and government should take the lead in organizing less inequality. Political Right = in favour of individual responsibility and accepting inequality as a consequence. Government should have a limited interference in the economy.

How to typecast ideologies Progressive & Conservative have two meanings! 1. As relative concepts (“relatieve begrippen”): Progressive = in favour of change, ‘forward thinking’ (but what is ‘forward’?) Conservative = in favour of maintaining status quo

How to typecast ideologies Progressive & Conservative have two meanings! 2. As concepts with content (“inhoudelijke begrippen”): Progressive = in favour of personal freedom Conservative = in favour of more traditional values The concepts are mostly used in this second way.

2.3 Political movements Liberalism Socialism (with a distinction between social democrats and communists) Denominationalism (in Dutch: ‘confessionalisme’) (with a distinction between christian democrats and orthodox-christians) Populism (according to the course book not really an ideology but for now we will regard it as an ideology)

Liberalism Main ideas: personal and economic freedom, personal responsibility, tolerance. Liberals are against ‘big government’ because according to them it leads to an expensive bureaucracy, costs a lot of money due to high taxes and it makes people lazy. VVD and D66 are liberal parties. D66 is more progressive and has an explicit international orientation (positive about globalization and EU).

Socialism Main ideas: solidarity, equality of opportunities. The government should intervene in society and the economy to make sure that social inequality becomes less. Communists want a revolution to bring about more equality (and are against capitalism). Social democrats are in favour of parliamentary democracy as an instrument to bring about change. PvdA, SP and GroenLinks can be labbeled as social democratic.

Denominationalism (Confessionalisme) Main ideas: stewardship, harmony, shared responsibility, importance of traditional christian values concerning family and ethics. People should take responsibility for each other (the importance of the civil society – maatschappelijk middenveld) and the government should have a complementary role. CDA and ChristenUnie are christian democratic parties, the SGP is an orthodox-christian party. The ideal of SGP is a theocracy in which the state is obedient to the church.

Populism Main ideas: they claim they only say what the ordinary people want, they claim they are different than other ‘elite’ political parties, they suggest simple and decisive solutions for problems, they stress the national interest and national culture. PVV is a populist party. But the most distinctive feature of PVV is its anti-Islam stance.

Assignment 1 Political movements Questionnaire that says something about your LEFT of RIGHT political tendencies….