What is liberalism and what are the alternatives?

What is an ideology? “Political ideologies are the beliefs and practices that guide political actors in political communities. These ideologies reflect the underlying vision of political actors.... These ideals—of course—are not always fully achieved, but they help to explain the purposes, principles, and rules of politics.” Neal Reimer, et al. Example: Should we invade Syria or Iran? What’s your worldview, and how does it shape your answer to these questions?

What are the central principles of liberalism? Secularism. Why are Americans all “liberals”? Liberalism was a response to conservatism (What was Edmond Burke’s logic) and challenges to the power of the Catholic church and—eventually—hereditary feudalism.. It’s core assumption is that good people will find the write answer over time Consent. What are social contracts and popular sovereignty (T. Hobbes, J. Locke)? Why did J. J. Rousseau attack this idea from the left? Toleration of pol. minorities. What are the advantages of republicanism (James Madison) over pure democracy? In what sense was republicanism a compromise position bw the left and the right of that era? Constitutionalism. What is constitutionalism and federalism (The Federalist), separation of power, & checks and balances (The Magna Carta, 1215)? What costs & benefits do these mechanisms have in the US? Individualism, freedom, equality. Why place so much emphasis on the individual? (natural law, liberties, and more recently citizenship, political rights (including “direct democracy,” and civil rights)… And where do the new ideas contradict the old?

What objections have been made to liberalism What objections have been made to liberalism? By (Classical) Conservatives? Too much individualism is bad (Burke, Founders, today’s social conservatives) It’s morally ambiguous (Plato, right and left) It’s anti-revolutionary (Rousseau, VI Lenin) Too much private property leads to extreme inequality that thwarts democracy (Rousseau, contemporary populism) It lets government come into your house w/out properly you fearing it (Libertarians) It holds individuals responsible for collective failures and allows suffering to occur by those who have no fault (the modern left) It allows institutions to be dangerously overloaded with demands (Edmond Burke & Samuel Huntington)

What are the main alternatives to liberalism in theory? What’s supposedly wrong with govt. that maximizes indiv. rights? Plato’s objections; Fascism (a type of nationalist corporatism) vs. totalitarianism (including theocratic versions of it) Why is a free-market economy and the democracies that historically accompany it supposedly doomed? Marx’s Communism What important things did Karl Marx say about: historical change, the nature of private property and accumulation, states/superstructures/hegemony Why Marx he see liberalism as a valuable and important middle-step in the inevitable move from feudalism to communism? For Marx anyways, what’s wrong with relying on supply and demand and the democratic state to address most of society’s big issues? The end goal of utopian communism: No state or family necessary… we all live Libertariansm and anarchy… Not much of the latter; the former best embodied by Thatcher, Chile, and the Chicago school, but not Reaganism as practiced

What are the main alternatives to liberalism in the world today? Marxist-Leninist revisions to Marixm: Lenin’s Democratic centralism, vanguard party, anti-imperialism “Communism” as practiced in the real world today: (1) Socialist command economies (North Korea Stalinism; Cuba sometimes) vs (2) party states with state capitalism (China and Venezuela) (3) democratic socialism (Western European democracy) Theocratic totalitarianism (ISIL, Iran?) Run of the mill, self-serving authoritianism