Key Aspects of the Competing Political Ideologies - Essay Example

Analysis of Political Ideologies Several ideological perspectives and political perspectives greatly influence society today. An ideology is a group of thoughts and ideas concerning the society, politics, nature of humans, and moral values that are commonly associated with political parties, movements, and regimes. The term ideology has varied meaning depending on its application. According to Heywood (2007), the definition of ideology denotes a tradition of thought usually related to politics, but that does not involve the science and philosophy of politics (5). An analysis of the political ideologies presents knowledge of their effect on social welfare. Ideologies affect the formulation of social policies. Understanding their features, functions, and implications in the political and social scenes is crucial in examining whether they are of significance or are empty thoughts expressed without any form of practical activity. This paper will analyze some ideological perspectives critically and examine the role they play provision of social welfare and delivery. Ideologies have some common features. All ideologies make claims that they reflect the truth, as it is real life. In addition, ideologies present a partial view of things. The goals of these ideologies seek to address the needs of the self and rarely the entire society. Ideologists rarely adjust their views and thoughts to match the changing times. Instead of being dynamic enough to address the needs of the emerging society, ideologies are likely to hold onto previous ideas for longer periods. Research shows that an ideology requires totalitarianism for it to reach its goals. Collectivism and Individualism Collectivist and individualist ideologies have dominated the thinking of many individuals in society. Collectivism is an ideology that supports the existence of welfare. According to the thoughts of collectivists, the goals of a society, nation of group deserve the first priority (Jeffery, 2011:86). Collectivists argue that there should be equity in society. The collectivist ideology suggests that the society should bear responsibility for each individual in society. Implication of this ideology to the state is that it should ensure that all individuals have equal opportunities. Collectivists advocate for public provision. This implies the existence of policies geared towards this. Collectivists argue that the social welfare deserves institutionalization. According to this school of thought, the collective that may denote tribe, race or state must have guidelines and rules that help them coexist peacefully. The collectivist thinking has its limits. It is virtually impossible to attain uniformity in a society (Fitzpatrick, 2011:28). Achieving equality in society has proven to be difficult over time and inequality has been prevailing in society. Collective ideologists insist on the involvement of state in improving the welfare of all individuals. The state should contribute at a higher level. Collective ideologies include communism and socialism. Collectivism targets to achieve fairness. On the other hand, individualism advocates on the freedom of the individual to autonomously on his or her actions. Concerning equality, individualists believe in the equality of opportunity. Individualists advocate for minimal sate activity in regulation of individual activity. Individualistic ideologies include liberalism and capitalism. Individual action has power vested in it that results to agency. Agency denotes the potential of an individual to have autonomy over the choices made. There are factors of individualistic ideologies that enhance the existence of agency. These include the higher freedom of choice advocated by individualists. In addition, agency increases with increasing freedom of choice in the market. Individualistic ideologies have a greater will that drives their action and this increases agency as well. Deacon and Mann raise their criticism against issues of agency and structure. They highlight the main issues that have served to hinder agency and welfare provision. According to their criticism, it becomes evident that agency has its limits (Deacon, and Mann, 1999:413-415). In addition, they highlight the ideological emphasis of either structure or agency limiting welfare. Political Ideological Perspectives There are several political perspectives that affect the provision of welfare and delivery. Socialism is one of the political perspectives. Socialism is an ideology that advocates for collectivism in the ownership of and management of the means of production. In addition, the collective society controls the distribution of goods. In this system, privatization does not exist. In this school of thought, the society determines the welfare of the people economically. The unique characteristic of socialism is the effect of social control exerted by society. The socialism perspective ranges to liberalism. However, socialism tends to lie at the transition point between communism and capitalism (Eccleshall et al. 2003:74). Capitalism is an ideology that explains that, in each society, there is the presence of a social class that proves itself dominant over the other classes. This class exercises hegemony and is taking the responsibility of controlling the means of production. This class exerts control over the lower class, ideologically called the proletariat. According to capitalism ideology, power is the basis of controlling the welfare of the proletariat (Alcock, May, and Rowlingson, 2011:81). In capitalism, the upper class controls the state. The state makes policies that favor the upper class because of the power of wealth. In capitalist states, the lower class faces exploitation. Capitalism presents unequal opportunities for people. The upper dominant class amasses wealth for itself while the lower class suffers due to inaccessibility of opportunities (Chang, 2010:256). An additional ideology in the political scene is conservatism. Conservatism supports the presence of social order evident through their upholding of traditional values (Alcock, May, and Rowlingson, 2011:66). For the majority of conservatists welfare receives a secondary priority. However, critics argue that conservatism results to actions that may hinder the presence of a contented welfare. This is because they consider a revolution a good way to seek the order they want. However, critics argue that conservatism does not readily accept new ideas. Other politicians hold onto liberal individualism. This ideology has had great influence on society. This ideology has its basis on the fact that every person has a right to exercise his or her rights. Politicians believing in this tradition of thought rise against any form of abuse of authority. Liberalism values freedom and advocates for freedoms such as freedom of speech, assembly, and worship. Other liberals lack trust in institutions such as then state because they consider state functions to bar freedom in one way or the other. Politicians have relied on this ideology in their bid to fight for the rights of citizens from oppressive governments. The oppression that results from excessive power of the state has led to the rise of classical liberalism, a political ideology that seeks to reduce the capacity of the state power and emphasize on the freedom of individuals. This school of thought advocates for the prevailing of free markets. In addition, it supports the accordance of respect to private property. There is an ever-widening gap between the poor and the rich in society. The poor lack access to opportunities in an economic world dominated by policies that protect the rich merchants. These economic policies represent an additional school of thought of neo-liberalism. This ideology prevails coldly but has had influence in most societies especially in the United States. It denotes a new form of liberalism but only favors the rich in society. The welfare of the poor keeps getting worse. Neoliberals seemingly are content with the bureaucratic systems in society and support trends of globalization. Neoliberals do not acknowledge the function of the state in controlling markets. On the contrary, the ideology holds that in an age of globalization markets are beyond the control of the state. The ideology believes that competition is the only way through which a society can adjust itself without the use of force. In its application in political systems, neoliberals believe that the lower class needs incentives to encourage them to work hard. It has a set of new policies aimed at improving the welfare of the poor. However, majority of these policies only widen the gap between the upper and lower class (Fives, 2007:197-198). All political perspectives seek to provide a more productive and contented welfare for the people. Time has proved majority of these wrong. There are multiple ideologies in place promising to alter the conditions of the social welfare. However, inequality prevails (Dorling, 2010:2). Each of the ideologies becomes a thought of winning votes to pursue personal interests. These ideologies have made the condition of the class system worse (Wilkinson, and Pickett, 2010:165). Most of the ideologist claim to have action-oriented ideas that can improve balance the difference in the societal classes. In the political scenario, partiality and unfairness has prevailed as individuals pursue the interests of their ideologies. In the majority of political institutions, the people lack trust in the leaders who implement policies. The institutions consist of people that hold fast to different ideologies. In the end, it becomes difficult to pursue the interests of one’s ideology and remain partial in implementation of policies. It is evident that multiple ideologies exist in society today. Most of these ideologies remain just that, they are empty thoughts without any outcome in society. Others have influenced the social policies in different ways. Other politicians only use ideologies to persuade people but result to no outcomes in society. The current state of social welfare is far from desirable. The blame is both on the ideologies of the class in leadership and at times on the subjects (Hoggert, 2001:37). The term ideology has brought out debates in society. However, inequality prevails, and the upper class gets wealthier while the poor get poorer. A redefinition of these ideologies is necessary. Bibliography Alcock, P., May, M. and Rowlingson, K. 2011. The Student’s Companion to Social Policy 3rd Edition. Oxford: Blackwell. Chang, H. 2010. 23 Things They Don’t Tell You About Capitalism. London: Penguin. Dorling, D. 2010. "Inequality: the antecedent and outcome of injustice", Dorling, Daniel, Injustice:Why social inequality still exists, The Policy Press ©, 13-32. Eccleshall, R et al. 2003. Political Ideologies An Introduction. 3rd Edition London: Routledge. Fitzpatrick, T. 2011. Welfare Theory an introduction to theoretical debates in social policy. 2nd Edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Fives, A, 2007. "In defence of state welfare", Fives, A, Political and philosophical debates in welfare, Palgrave ©, 195-219. Heywood, A. 2007. Political Ideologies An Introduction 4th Edition Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Hoggett, P. 2001. ‘Agency, Rationality, and Social Policy’. Journal of Social Policy, 30(1): 37-56. Jeffery, L. 2011 "Agency and structures: individuals in society", Jeffery, L., Understanding agency :social welfare and change, 75-94, Policy Press ©. 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