Understand Politics
Page 7
There are a number of strands to feminist thought. Liberal feminism seeks to combat discrimination experienced by women in the public sphere and seeks equality of treatment. Measures to secure formal equality embodied in equal rights legislation (such as the United Kingdom’s 1970 Equal Pay Act, the 1975 Sex Discrimination Act and the 2006 Equalities Act) derive from this perspective.
Radical feminism seeks the liberation of women. It focuses not on inequality but, rather, on the system of sexual oppression which was termed ‘patriarchy’ (or ‘rule by men’). Radical feminists believe that patriarchy is the key power relationship in society and is reproduced in each generation by the family. They believe that sexual equality requires a revolution in cultural and social values and cannot be attained by providing additional legal rights for women within the existing social structure. Marxist feminism attributes the oppression of women to the operations of capitalism; this gives rise to economic dependency, which is viewed as the basis of women’s oppression. They assert that only in a communist society would this situation be remedied. Socialist feminism concentrates on the way in which the twin forces of patriarchy and class oppression interact in a capitalist society and place women in a socially subordinate position. Unlike radical feminists, however, they do not view the interests of men and women as being permanently opposed. Post-modernist feminism rejects the certainty and objectivity which underlay the Marxist view of class interests. It does not see all women as being subject to the same processes and believes that different groups encounter different experiences.
Feminist politics are especially associated with extra-parliamentary political action, although in some countries they are advanced by women’s political parties. One example of this is Iceland’s Women’s Alliance which was formed in 1983 to promote women’s and children’s issues.
The centre and centre-left of the political spectrum
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Insight
Social democracy and liberalism are associated with the centre/centre-left of the political spectrum. These ideologies seek to promote political, economic and social reforms within the basis of society as it is currently constituted.
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This section outlines the key aspects of liberalism and social democracy, which are identified with the centre-left and centre of the political spectrum. The parties based on these ideologies promote social, economic and political change, which they wish to achieve through the ballot box rather than through revolution.
SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
Social democracy rests within the reformist (or revisionist) tradition of socialism. It suggests that social inequalities can be addressed by an enhanced level of state intervention within the existing structure of the capitalist economic system. The influence of social democracy was increased after 1945 when capitalism was seen to be bringing many benefits to working-class people (such as a rising standard of living and social mobility) in a number of countries, which in turn tended to reduce the hostility between the social classes.
Lord John Maynard Keynes was especially influential in the development of social democratic politics. He argued that a market economy subject to an enhanced degree of state intervention to manage demand could provide an effective solution to the problem of unemployment. His policy of demand management was adopted by a number of socialist parties as an alternative to state control of the economy.
Social democracy also sought to remove social problems affecting the poorer members of society through the establishment of a welfare state. This was a mechanism to provide for the redistribution of wealth within society, since the Welfare State would be financed by public money obtained through the taxation of income, so that the rich would contribute towards addressing the health and welfare needs of the poor. Social democracy was also associated with other policies designed to improve the access of poorer members of society to a range of services such as housing and education.
There are a number of key differences between fundamentalists and social democrats. The latter have a negative view towards nationalization, viewing it as one means among many which may be used to secure state influence over the workings of the economy. This view is to some extent flavoured by a perception that state ownership of industry (where this occurred in countries such as the United Kingdom) resulted in bureaucracy and inefficiency without substantially improving the position of the working class. Fundamentalists assert that social democratic policies such as the welfare state serve not to create a socialist society but, rather, to hinder the development of class consciousness, thereby perpetuating capitalism and its essentially exploitive nature.
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The third way
The ‘third way’ embraces the goals of opportunity and social inclusion within the framework of a capitalist economic system. It is especially associated with the UK sociologist, Anthony Giddens, who wrote The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy in 1998. Many social democratic parties in Europe (such as the United Kingdom Labour Party and the German Social Democratic Party) shifted towards the ‘third way’ during the late 1990s and its approach also influenced the policies pursued by President Bill Clinton in America (1993–2001).
The first way was the approach of new right (or neo-liberal) governments of the 1980s, in particular those in America and the UK, headed by President Reagan (1981–89) and Margaret Thatcher (1979–90) respectively. The emphasis which they placed on the free market intensified social divisions and enhanced social exclusion. Much of the wealth that had been created was not invested, which meant that it failed to percolate throughout society and instead had created an ‘underclass’ who felt themselves to be permanently excluded from society, deprived of work, power and prospects.
The second way consisted of that form of socialism which placed considerable importance on the nationalization of key industries and public utilities. Third-way theorists regarded this approach as an ‘exhausted project’. They endorsed private ownership (further developing the new right privatization and deregulation agendas) and the profit motive within the framework of a competitive market but attempted to reshape the way private enterprise worked by advocating that a company’s responsibilities to its shareholders should be combined with responsibility to the wider community, which included their customers, the workers they employed and the localities where they operated. The third way is also associated with policies seeking to promote sound money, fiscal stability and lower taxes.
The third way is associated with the centre-left of the political spectrum and is underpinned by stakeholding directed towards the pursuit of social justice and the provision of wider opportunities for all within a market economy. It sought to equip individuals with the skills and capacities necessary to succeed in the highly flexible and constantly changing labour markets of modern capitalism but could also be depicted as a reform which was essential to the smooth operations of a market economy. A dynamic market required flexibility, which was hindered by a permanently excluded underclass. The stakeholder economy was thus an approach which would provide for economic efficiency at the same time as dispensing a measure of social justice. In addition to these objectives, stakeholding has also been associated with political reforms, covering issues which include the empowerment of citizens (secured by policies that include the decentralization of power) and the insistence that government should be both accountable and responsive to its citizens.
The third way has, however, been criticized for the importance it has attached to wooing business leaders and for failing to exert adequate controls on the operations of multinational companies. It has also been asserted that insufficient progress in eliminating social and economic inequality has been made by governments endorsing the third way.
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Question
What are the key features of social democratic politics?
LIBERALISM
Modern liberalism emerged from the fight for religious freedom waged in late sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Western E
urope. The close link which existed between Church and state ensured that the objective of religious freedom was associated with political dissent. Liberal theorists argued that the social order was a compact (or contract) voluntarily entered into by those who were party to it rather than being a structure handed down by God. Social contract theory was developed by liberal theorists such as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. The belief that government emerged as the result of rational choice made by those who subsequently accorded their consent to its operations ensured that the rights of the individual were prominent concerns of liberal philosophers. The people were viewed as the ultimate source of political power and government was legitimate only while it operated with their consent.
As a political doctrine, liberalism emphasized individualism and asserted that human beings should exercise the maximum possible freedom consistent with others being able to enjoy similar liberty. They sought to advance this belief through their support for limited government and their opposition to the intervention of the state in the everyday lives of its citizens, arguing that this would dehumanize individuals since they were not required to take responsibility for their own welfare but instead became reliant on others, whom they could blame if personal misfortunes befell them. As an economic doctrine, liberalism was traditionally associated with the free market, laissez-faire capitalism and free trade.
The perception that social problems such as unemployment and poverty were not the fault of the individual but, rather, were dependent on factors such as the workings of the economy over which the individual had no control resulted in significant changes to liberal ideology. In many countries liberals advocated state intervention in welfare provision and economic management. In the United Kingdom, this approach was especially associated with Lord William Beveridge and Lord John Maynard Keynes, and in America with the ‘New Deal Liberalism’ pursued by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Traditional liberal principles, however, subsequently influenced the new right in the 1980s.
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Freedom
Freedom suggests that individuals are able to live their lives as they see fit with no impediments being placed on their actions. However, this assertion would find little support outside anarchist thought: other ideologies suggest that some form of regulation needs to be applied since unrestrained freedom would enable some members of society to harm others. A key issue affecting freedom, therefore, is the relationship between the individual and the state and under what circumstances it is acceptable for the state to undertake interventions which intrude on some or all of its members.
Liberal thought saw a close connection between freedom and rights. Freedom was especially associated with civil liberties and was defined in a negative sense whereby individuals were deemed free to undertake actions unless the interests of others required that constraints should be placed upon them. Freedom was equated with privacy and minimal state activity since this would limit an individual’s freedom of action.
The concept of freedom was later developed in liberal thought into that of positive freedom, which viewed a more vigorous form of state activity as essential to enable individuals to exercise freedom which was defined in terms of self-fulfilment. Industrial capitalism had created conditions whereby large numbers of individuals lived in poverty and distress and were thus not able to exercise freedom. Socially and economically deprived individuals thus needed state action (typically in the form of a welfare state and intervention in the management of the economy) to create conditions in which they regained autonomy over the conduct of their lives.
A reaction against state intervention occurred in a number of liberal democratic countries in the later decades of the twentieth century. Neo-liberals focused on an economic definition of freedom which was equated with the advocacy of free market capitalism and the reduction of state interference in social and economic affairs. It was asserted that state intervention had eroded freedom by constraining consumer choice, by transforming recipients of state aid into a position of dependency whereby they lost the freedom to exercise control over their everyday lives, and by sacrificing individual autonomy to the power wielded by large-scale bureaucracies.
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PROGRESSIVISM
Progressivism is generally identified with the centre-left of the political spectrum and seeks social and political reform, which is deemed to be beneficial to the majority of the population. These reforms are put forward within the existing framework of capitalist society and thus exclude those groups that seek revolutionary change or upheaval. Constitutional reform is a particular concern of progressive movements, whose objective is to bring government closer to the people.
In America, the progressive movement initiated a number of political reforms between 1890–1920, many of which affected state government. These included the use of the referendum, which typically took the form of the petition referendum, enabling a predetermined number of signatories to suspend the operation of a law passed by the state legislature, which would be placed before the public at a future state election. A further reform was the initiative petition, which enabled a set number of a state’s voters to put a proposed law on a ballot paper, which became law if approved by a majority of voters regardless of whether the state legislature chose to enact it. Most states have adopted some form of referendum and around half utilize the initiative petition.
Other reforms associated with American progressivism included enabling a set number of electors to recall an elected representative at either state or federal level (which has the effect of ‘de-electing’ this person) and the introduction of direct election of senators, civil service examinations, a method to enable popular choice to determine the selection of candidates put forward by political parties (termed ‘primary elections’) and the long ballot. In Congress progressive pressure succeeded in drastically reducing the power of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to control its actions. Progressive parties have also stood in presidential elections in 1912, 1924 and 1948, the most successful of which was the ‘Bull Moose Party’, led by former President Theodore Roosevelt. This was a splinter from the Republican Party and obtained 88 electoral college votes in 1912.
In the United Kingdom progressive opinion is not located in one political movement but has historically been spread across the major parties. It is currently identified with the Liberal Democrats and Labour Party and left-wing Conservatives.
Right-wing political ideologies
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Insight
Conservative and fascist ideologies are located on the right wing of the political spectrum. They oppose fundamental changes to society and its institutions advocated by left, centre-left and centre political ideologies.
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This section discusses the main aspects of ideologies on the right of the political spectrum.
CONSERVATISM
The essence of conservative ideology is scepticism towards change and a disinclination to support reform unless this prevents more radical reforms from being implemented. The desire to ‘retain things as they are’ is especially concerned with what are deemed to be the key institutions and values on which society is based. These include support for private property ownership. This results in opposition to any form of social (including moral) upheaval, support for firm (but not despotic) government and a belief that political institutions should evolve naturally rather than being artificially constructed from an abstract theory or blueprint. Conservatism rejects the goal of equality achieved by social engineering, believing that the differences which exist between people are natural and should not be tampered with. Conservatism is often equated with nationalistic sentiments, seeking to safeguard domestic values and way of life against foreign incursions.
Conservative thought developed in the eighteenth century and was especially influenced by the events of the French Revolution. Conservatism in the United Kingdom was considerably influenced by Reflexions on the Revolution in France, written by Edmund Burke in 179
2. Although he had initially been sympathetic to the French Revolution, he subsequently turned against it when the scale of the destruction of the established order became apparent. He explained this alteration in the direction of his thought by providing a summary of the ‘British way’, which constituted a classic statement of conservatism. He argued that an Englishman’s freedom was a national inheritance which was most effectively secured by a government that balanced democracy, aristocracy and monarchy. His defence of traditions and institutions was coupled with the advocacy of evolutionary change. He accepted that change would sometimes be necessary, but advocated that this should be minimal and should seek to preserve as much of the old as was possible. In France, Joseph de Maistre contributed to conservative thought by providing a defence of established authority against revolutionary ideas and emphasizing the need for order.
In practice, conservative parties are often pragmatic: that is, they show a willingness to fashion policies in order to respond to pressing problems rather than seeking to advance a specific ideology.
New right
The term ‘new right’ refers to a body of ideas that underpinned the policies pursued by a number of conservative parties in the 1980s, most notably in governments led by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom and Ronald Reagan in America.
New right policies were based on two specific traditions. The first of these was termed ‘neo-liberalism’. This version of economic liberalism was rooted in classical liberal ideas and sought to reduce the activities of the state, whose frontiers would be ‘rolled back’ by the application of policies such as privatization and reduced levels of government spending on functions such as welfare provision. This aspect of new right thinking voiced support for private enterprise and the free market and led to Keynesian economics (which regarded unemployment as the key problem to be addressed by economic policy) being replaced by alternative economic methods such as monetarism, which identified inflation as the main social evil. This resulted in policies that included controlling the money supply and keeping a tight rein on interest rates. It was argued that government intervention in the economy led to inefficiency, but that economic growth, employment, productivity and widespread prosperity would be secured if it ceased its attempts to regulate wages and prices.