...When Kramnick is speaking about Liberalism, he speaks much about Locke’s Libertarianism. Meaning they believed in everyone having equal rights without jeopardizing liberties. Kramnick states that there was a divide amongst the colony. As stated in the Federalist number 10, land was as the center of this divide; it broke people up into creditor and debtors. The Federalist also states manufacturing and money interests played a role in this divide (Kramnick 6). Locke was against this divide, he quotes “justice gives every Man a Title to the product of his honest Industry” (Kramnick 6). Locke Madison and the Federalist believed in a liberal society where everyone should be treated fairly, and be respective of their “private rights” and “property rights” (Kramnick 6). Kramnick refers to CIvic humanism as the government should provide a place for this equality. The government should represent equal rights. As Hamilton states, “The idea of an actual...
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...‘need’ and inequality have been at the centre of discussions and debates on social policy. Since the 19th century it has widely been accepted that the state has some responsibility towards attempting to fulfil some of civil society’s needs and the needs of those most at risk. Changing definitions and attitudes surround the concepts of need and inequality; this means any discussion of these instantly encapsulates the political and ideological debates which affect all aspects of social policy. Titmuss (ed. 1987) writes that ‘collectively provided services are deliberately designed to meet certain socially recognized ‘needs’; they are manifestations’ this means any changes within these are interrelated with those in society. Miller (1987) draws from Titmuss’s work explaining that the inequality which creates need is formed from the very nature of an advanced industrial society as ‘the costs of economic growth and stability are not evenly distributed’ he describes the welfare state as ‘compensation for the vulnerable who pay the prices of ‘progress’ (1987). This essay seeks to examine the concept of need within social policy by looking at how it became recognised in the 19th century and how it was defined in the 20th century. This will include looking at what social legislation has been borne out of its recognition. I will also look at the changing attitudes towards inequality and the left/right political and ideological debate over the relationship between inequality and need within society...
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...4 Anonymous Hacktivism and Contemporary Politics Christian Fuchs 1. INTRODUCTION It is Friday, August 6, 2012, on the Internet. Sixty-seven years earlier, on August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima. One hears a song by Trey Parker: "America. Fuck yeah. [. . .] So lick my butt and suck on my balls, America, fuck yeah! Whatcha' gonna do when we come for you now? (. . .) McDonalds, fuck yeah! Wal-Mart, fuck yeah!" Pictures of cats that look human are accompanied by the request, "I want to start a collection of my fetish catboys so post moar!" There is a link to a live cam on Times Square. One also finds an image showing a burning American flag that is accompanied by the logos of McDonald's and images of a can of Mountain Dew, the Statue of Liberty, a guitar player and a screaming bear. "You should kill yourself, fucking AMERRRICCAAA, you little fag- got." A rapper writes a new song and says that the first few minutes of the discussion in his thread will become part of the song. There is a story about a brother who tries to seduce his sister, but it turns out that his sister is a large arthropod. There is a thread with images of female but- tocks, accompanied by an announcement that one of the portrayed girls receives prank phone calls. One sees a picture of a couple having oral sex accompanied by the text "PORNO FUCK YEAH!" as well as a picture of a drunk sleeping man accompanied by the text "buddy passed out after 11 Coors...
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...LIBERALISM QUESTIONS – A2 (UNIT 4) Short Answers 1. Why do liberals support constitutionalism and consent? (Jan 02) Constitutionalism is a belief in limited government brought about through external (usually legal) and internal (institutional) checks on the exercise of power. Consent is the idea that govt power should be based on the agreement of the governed, usually expressed through regular and competitive elections. Liberals support constitutionalism and consent because they fear that govt may become a tyranny against the individual, based on the assumption that power is inherently corrupting and concentrations of power will lead to absolute corruption. This assumption is rooted in the liberal view of human nature: as individualism implies self- interest, those with power over others are apt to abuse it for their benefit and at the expense of others. Liberal constitutionalism is expressed through support for various external and internal devices, such as codified constitutions, bills of rights, the separation of powers, federalism or devolution, and so on. Liberal support for consent is evident in support for electoral democracy in general and, more specifically, sympathy for referendums and proportional representation. 2. Distinguish between negative freedom and positive freedom, and explain the implications of each for the state. (Jun 02) Negative freedom is the absence of external constraints upon the individual, usually understood as non-interference...
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...Mark Scheme (Results) Summer 2010 GCE GCE Government & Politics (6GP03) Paper 3B Edexcel Limited. Registered in England and Wales No. 4496750 Registered Office: One90 High Holborn, London WC1V 7BH Edexcel is one of the leading examining and awarding bodies in the UK and throughout the world. We provide a wide range of qualifications including academic, vocational, occupational and specific programmes for employers. Through a network of UK and overseas offices, Edexcel’s centres receive the support they need to help them deliver their education and training programmes to learners. For further information, please call our GCE line on 0844 576 0025, our GCSE team on 0844 576 0027, or visit our website at www.edexcel.com. If you have any subject specific questions about the content of this Mark Scheme that require the help of a subject specialist, you may find our Ask The Expert email service helpful. Ask The Expert can be accessed online at the following link: http://www.edexcel.com/Aboutus/contact-us/ Summer 2010 Publications Code UA024034 All the material in this publication is copyright © Edexcel Ltd 2010 2 6GP03_3B 1006 General Marking Guidance • All candidates must receive the same treatment. Examiners must mark the first candidate in exactly the same way as they mark the last. Mark schemes should be applied positively. Candidates must be rewarded for what they have shown they can do rather than penalised for omissions. Examiners should mark according...
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...Number 2 April 2007 121-146 © 2007 Sage Publications 10.1177/0090591706297642 http://ptx.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Is the liberal state entitled to intervene in the internal affairs of its nonliberal minorities to promote individual autonomy as a public ideal, or should it tolerate the nonliberal practices of such groups in the name of legitimate diversity? This problem can be fruitfully approached from the perspective of Isaiah Berlin’s notion of “value pluralism.” According to William Galston, value pluralism privileges a form of liberalism that is maximally accommodating of nonliberal groups and their practices. I agree that pluralism fits best with a liberal political framework, but I depart from Galston’s interpretation of what liberal pluralism involves. Taking value pluralism seriously, I argue, implies a form of liberalism in which personal autonomy is a central public ideal. Keywords: liberalism; autonomy; toleration; value pluralism; William Galston; exit; diversity Introduction: Diversity, Autonomy, and Value...
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...Justice of Michael Sandel: In 1884 the British ship Mignonette foundered in the South Atlantic. The four crewmen, including the captain, escaped in a lifeboat, with only two cans of turnips for sustenance. One of the survivors was the cabin boy, 17, an orphan, who soon took sick after drinking seawater. On the 19th day at sea, utterly desperate, the captain, Thomas Dudley, suggested drawing lots to determine who would be killed so that the others might survive by eating him. One man objected, and the plan was put off. The next day, however, the captain told the others to look away, offered a prayer, and slit the cabin boy's throat. Four days later, the crew spotted a ship "as we were having our breakfast," the captain later wrote. Back in England, two of the three survivors were charged with murder. By utilitarian logic—the greatest good for the greatest number—it's hard to object to the act. Yet many in the hall do object, and Sandel, stalking the stage, scanning the room, wants to know why. When one student suggests that the act would have been justified had the boy, Richard Parker, consented, Sandel replies, in an amused tone: "What would that scenario look like? Dudley is there, penknife in hand, but instead of the prayer, or before the prayer, he says, 'Parker, would you mind?'" Students seem to think the proposed lottery would have justified the killing. Sandel probes: Can a fair process sanction something so abhorrent? And what if the loser changes his mind after...
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...Kingdom and United States, but like neighbouring New Zealand, the 1980s saw the Australian Labor Party initiate Third Way economic reforms, which bear some familiarity to "New Right" ideology. After the John Howard Coalition defeated 13-year Labor government at the 1996 federal election, economic reforms were taken further, some examples being wholesale labour market deregulation (e.g. WorkChoices), the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), the privatisation of the telecommunications monopoly Telstra, and sweeping welfare reform including "work for the dole". The H. R. Nicholls Society, a think tank which advocates full workplace deregulation, contains some Liberal MPs as members and is seen to be of the New Right. Economic liberalism, also called economic rationalism in Australia, was first used by Labor's Gough Whitlam.[2] It is a philosophy which tends to advocate a free market economy, increased deregulation, privatisation, lower direct taxation and higher indirect taxation, and a reduction of the size of the welfare state. The politicians favouring New Right ideology were referred to as "dries", while those advocating continuation of the economic policies of the post-war consensus, typically Keynesian economics, or were more socially liberal, were called "wets" (the term "wets" was similarly used in Britain to refer to those Conservatives who opposed Thatcherite economic policies, but "dries" in this context was much rarer in British usage). Brazil[edit] In...
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...POLITICS, THEOLOGY AND HISTORY RAYMOND PLANT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Politics, Theology and History is a major new book by a prominent academic and an active politician. It ranges widely across the disciplines of theology, political theory and philosophy and poses acute questions about the basic moral foundations of liberal societies. Lord Plant focuses on the role that religious belief can and ought to play in argument about public policy in a pluralistic society. He examines the potential political implications of Christian belief and the ways in which it may be deployed in political debate. The book is a contribution to the modern debate about the moral pluralism of western liberal societies, discussing the place of religious belief in the formation of policy and asking what sorts of issues in modern society might be the legitimate objects of a Christian social and political concern. Raymond Plant has written an important study of the relationship between religion and politics which will be of value to students, academics, politicians, church professionals, policy makers and all concerned with the moral fabric of contemporary life. r ay m on d pl an t is Professor of European Political Thought at the University of Southampton and a Member of the House of Lords. He was a Home affairs spokesperson for the Labour Party from 1992 to 1996, and Master of St Catherine's College, Oxford, from 1994 to 2000. Lord Plant's main publications are Social and Moral Theory in Casework...
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...Doxastic Dilemma The debate between doxastic conservatism and doxastic liberalism has been a topic of controversy for quite some time. Two prominent figures in this respect are William Clifford whose support of doxastic conservatism is outlined in The Ethics of Belief and William James, who defend doxastic liberalism in his work The Will to Believe. Personally, I find Clifford’s position resonates better with my own process of accepting and discarding beliefs, however it is important to note that by saying this I am not rejecting the virtues of doxastic liberalism. Quite the contrary, I do believe that in some instances a liberal attitude can prove worthwhile, I simply find James’ reasons for applying a liberal attitude to be rather problematic. A discussion on whether or not James’ reasons for applying doxastic liberalism may go beyond the scope of this paper, so any such inquiry into this matter will be kept to a minimum. In his defense of doxastic conservatism Clifford offers the following argument: Before accepting a belief, we must ensure that there is sufficient evidence which supports said belief (1,5,10). If after examining the available evidence, we find that it does not support the belief, than that belief must be discarded (2-4). Additionally, there are instances where a belief “goes beyond our experience” and can be accepted based on inferences of similar experiences, assuming that the inference is drawn logically from reliable...
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...NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION: USE ONLY IN COMPLIANCE WITH COPYRIGHT: DAVID RISSTROM AN INTERPRETATION OF LAW IN CONTEXT Bottomley, S., Gunningham, N. and Parker, S., 1991, Law in Context, The Federation Press, Leichhardt. { } = additional material from lectures. ( ) = my comments. (See ‘x’) refers to book page number. A short (somewhat boring) message from the summary executioner before you dive in; These notes are an interpretation of the book Law in Context and the lectures given as part of the 1991 Course. They are not a satisfactory substitution for reading the text. You are only likely to get the maximum value out of this summary by reading it in conjunction with the text. The question of ‘the law in whose context’ may be worth keeping in mind as you read. This is an interpretation seen through my eyes, not yours. My comments are not unbiased, as it is as equally unlikely that yours may be. So my ‘advice’ is consider what is said here and in the book considering the need to understand the ‘mechanics’ that help make sense of the more involved themes that develop in the book as you progress through Law in Context. The observations, important in their own right, may be particularly useful for seeing how their often ubiquitous expression is taken as ‘normal’ in the areas of wider society, such as in discussions of economics and power. It is unlikely that you will find any ‘right answers’ from this summary, but I do hope it helps you in synthesising...
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...Why is the concept of freedom so contested in political theory? (Word maximum: 1,500) Freedom is an important concept in Western politics, strongly entwined as it is with ideas of liberalism. Yet, as suggested by the question, the concept is one which is hotly debated. Indeed, political agents attempt to control the political agenda through promotion of their particular definition. This essay will look at the ways freedom has been defined by different theorists over the years. It will also look at how freedom is linked with and explained through different theo-ries and ideologies. It will then go on to look at how these different theories and ideologies may shape the conceptions of freedom we find in our daily lives. Different political theorists, writing in different times, often of political turmoil, have considered freedom in many different ways. Three influential writers who took a normative approach were Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. An important part of their arguments turned on their notions of a ‘state of nature’ – where natural law applied in absence of any organised political state. Hobbes (1651, cited in Brown, 2005), writing shortly after the English Civil War, argued that in a ‘state of nature’ individuals would be fearful for their own interests, resulting inevitably in war of all against all. To obviate this, Hobbes suggested that individuals should voluntarily accept restrictions – and invest their will in an absolute power...
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...CONSERVATISM Key concepts 1) Hierarchy and organic society * The term ‘organic society’ refers to a belief, which became entrenched in traditional conservative thought in the latter part of the 19th century. * It was a reaction against the rise of liberal individualism. * It proposes that society is more than merely a collection of individuals, but it is a single entity. * We are connected to each other through our humanity and common membership of community. * Organic society is seen as a reality, which is superior to our own, individual interests. * The ideal organic society – where goals and aspirations of individuals coincide with the goals of the whole society. 1980s – Margaret Thatcher famously challenged this remarking that there “is no such thing as society”, implying that the goals of individuals are superior to those of society as a whole. * Traditional conservatives believe that there is a ‘natural’ order into which each individual fits. * It is normal and natural that society should be divided by a number of strata. * The very rigid feudal system had long since disappeared, but there remained a belief that some kind of class system was inevitable. * Hierarchy like this supports organic society in that it creates an order and stability, which the individualistic society lacks. * Different parts of the hierarchy have different roles that complement each other. * This implies inequality, but an ordered inequality, and one in which...
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...What are the main obstacles to international cooperation between states? Assess with reference to realism and liberalism. According to Kenneth Waltz, the way states behave is determined by the permanent state of anarchy in which the international system exists. The lack of an ordering sovereign authority to oversee relations between states dominates debate between scholars as to whether the world will ever be a peaceful, threat-free environment. In order to eliminate war and conflict, cooperation must characterize states’ behaviour towards one another, a system in which ‘the security of each [state] is perceived as the responsibility of all’ (Wendt, 1999). The question then becomes why, if cooperation leads to rewards for everyone, do states enter into conflict and war? International Relations theorists seek to explain this paradox by examining the obstacles to cooperation. For classical realists, the answer is simple; lust for power and a drive for conflict are rooted within human nature and, since humans are the operators of state actors, state behaviour mimics this nature in its approach to international relations. Neo-realists, by contrast, follow Waltz in his belief that the anarchic structure of the international system causes states to seek security and power, and therefore provides the ultimate obstacle to cooperation. While liberals disagree altogether, offering the counterargument that men are rational, and therefore states choose to engage in conflict in order to pursue...
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...Conservative or Liberal: My Choice Angela J Flemister Liberty University Conservative or Liberal: My Choice A political ideology is a closely linked set of beliefs about politics. Political ideologies offer their adherents well organized theories that propose goals for the society and the means by which those goals can be achieved. (Americian Government pg.18) The two most common ideologies that come to my mind are the conservatism and liberalism, to in nonprofessional terms Republican and Democrat. The two parties differ in what they believe. The beliefs of one are totally opposite to the next. George Lakoff (Moral Politics) penned this book which simply asks “How Liberals and Conservatives think. In my reading of some of the book I was able to easily identify my personal political ideology immediately. Professor Whitham instructed class to research the elected officials in my district. Phil Gingrey and David Scott. The two could not be anymore different than they actually are as Congressman Gingrey is white and Congressman Scott is black. The color of the skin really should not matter but honestly we all know that at some point in time when an issue is presented and needs to be addressed by a vote there is some wrangling be it truth or not, race intervenes. The voting records of my elected officials provided an insight to their ideologies. By viewing the many interest groups it became evident that there is not a non-partisan accumulation of the facts. Many...
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