Key Political Thinkers – Liberalism

Key Ideas
Social contract theory – society, state and government are based
on a theoretical voluntary agreement.
Limited government – that government should be limited and
John Locke based on consent from below.
(1588-1679) Developed the notion of innate rights (which was very influential
in shaping the US constitution).
Based government on the notion of consent and the individual’s
right to withdraw that consent.
Reason – women are rational and independent beings capable of
reason.
Formal equality – in order to be free, women should enjoy full
Mary civil liberties and be allowed to have a career.
Woolstonecraft Championed the case for women to have educational rights which
(1759-1797) would then in turn advance their social and economic position to
be equal with men.
Once educational provision was made available to women other
civil rights would follow and gender equality advanced.
Harm principle – that individuals should be free to do anything
except harm other individuals.
Tolerance – belief that the popularity of a view does not
John Stuart Mill necessarily make it correct.
(1806-1873) Wished to advance individual liberty with the notion of the ‘harm
principle’ and the so called ‘self-regarding right’.
Favoured tolerance and plurality in that out of a wide range of
ideas the best ones would triumph.
Theory of justice – opinion that society must be just and
guarantee each citizen a life worth living.
The veil of ignorance – a hypothetical scenario where individuals,
John Rawls agree on the type of society they want from a position where
(1921-2002) they lack knowledge of their own position in society.
Supported a positive role for the state in supporting individuals.
Aimed to achieve social justice from a platform of opportunity in
line with liberalism.
Legal equality – women are as capable as men and that
oppressive laws and social views must be overturned.
Equal opportunity – women are being held back from their
potential because of the limited number of jobs that are
‘acceptable’ for women.
Betty Friedan
As Wollstonecraft argued for education to be advanced to
(1921-2006) women, Friedan wanted career opportunities to be advanced for
them.
Argued that women should have the right and opportunity to
break the confines of domestic life to play a fuller and equal role
in public life.
Key Political Thinkers – Conservatism

Key Ideas
Order – an ordered society should balance the human need to
lead a free life.
Human nature – humans are needy, vulnerable and easily led
Thomas Hobbes astray in attempts to understand the world around them.
(1588-1679) Views social breakdown and civil war as the biggest danger to
society; therefore prizes law and order (even by a tyrant) above all
other principles.
Thinks that humans are limited, vulnerable and easily led astray.
Change – political change should be undertaken with great
caution and organically.
Tradition and empiricism – practices passed down for
Edmund Burke generations should be respected.
(1729-1797) Feared change but came to accept ‘change in order to conserve’
society had to have some flexibility or it would not survive.
Strong belief in organic society and the importance of customs
and traditions to bind and create unity.
Human imperfection – suggestion that society is unpredictable
and humans are imperfect.
Michael Pragmatism –belief that conservatism is about being pragmatic.
Oakeshott Re-asserts the imperfect nature of humanity and the limits to their
(1901-1990) abilities.
Sees life as a constant battle and struggle with no fixed
destination.
Objectivism –this advocates the virtues of rational self-interest.
Freedom – this supports a pure, laissez-faire capitalist economy.
Ayn Rand Re-asserts support for limited government and reduction of the
(1905-1982) state in preference for individual reliance.
Strong belief in individuals pursing self-interest in a rational and
progressive manner.
Libertarianism – based on Kant’s idea that individuals in society
cannot be treated as a thing, or used against their will as a
resource.
Self-ownership – individuals own their bodies, talents, abilities
Robert Nozick and labour.
(1938-2002) Expresses concern over the role of the state, he is particularly
against any form of wealth distribution which he sees as flawed
and counter-productive.
Believes in giving as much autonomy as possible to the individual
over economic and personal life.
Key Political Thinkers – Socialism

Key Ideas
The centrality of social class – the ideas of historical
materialism, dialectic change and revolutionary class
Karl Marx consciousness.
Humans as social beings – how nature is socially determined
(1818-1883) &
and how true common humanity can be expressed only under
Friedrich Engels communism.
(1820-1895) Views revolution as the only way to transform society.
Views his interpretation of socialism as ‘scientific’ alongside his
view of history and the process of the dialectic.
‘The inevitability of gradualness’ – the gradualist
parliamentary strategy for achieving evolutionary socialism.
The expansion of the state – that this, and not the overthrow of
Beatrice Webb the state, is critical in delivering socialism.
(1858-1943) Supports the ‘Parliamentary road’ to socialism with the working
class driving this through their political emancipation.
Wishes to use the state as the main engineer of social change in
planning and welfare projects.
Evolutionary socialism and revisionism – this is not possible as
capitalism is based on an economic relationship of exploitation.
Struggle by the proletariat for reform and democracy – this
Rosa creates the class consciousness necessary for the overthrow of
Luxemburg the capitalist society and state.
(1871-1919) Wishes that the working class continue to become aware of its
exploited position and thus become revolutionised.
Feels that capitalism cannot be reformed and it must be
overthrown.
The inherent contradictions in capitalism – does not drive social
change and managed capitalism can deliver social justice and
equality.
Anthony State managed capitalism – includes the mixed economy, full
Crosland employment and universal social benefits.
(1918-1977) Supports revisionist socialism in a clear rejection of Marxism by
seeking to accommodate capitalism.
Supports capitalism to pay for social justice and welfare, sees a
limit to the operation of the state.
The rejection of state intervention – acceptance of the free
market in the economy, emphasis on equality of opportunity
over equality, responsibility and community over class conflict.
Anthony The role of the state – is social investment in infrastructure and
Giddens (1938- education not economic and social engineering.
present) Continues to revise socialism still further by accepting the free
market reforms of the Thatcher era.
Associated with the emergence of New Labour and the Blair
‘Third Way’.
Key Political Thinkers – Feminism

Key Ideas
Sex and domestic economics are hand in hand – for women to
survive, they were reliant on their sexual assets to please their
husbands.
Charlotte Societal pressure – young girls are forced to conform in society
and prepare for motherhood through playing with toys that are
Perkins Gilman marketed to them and wearing clothes that are designed for
(1860-1935) them.
Gender roles created by society hamper the progress of women.
To achieve freedom women have to break out of these and
achieve economic parity with men.
Sex versus gender – ‘one is not born, but rather becomes, a
woman’.
Simone de ‘Otherness’ – men are perceived as the ‘norm’ and women
Beauvoir deviants from this norm.
(1908-1986) Attacks the gender roles created by nurture onto women.
Rejects the feminine stereotypes associated where women have
to please men as another example of patriarchy.
Family – undoing the traditional family was the key to true
sexual revolution.
Portrayal of women in art and literature – she showed how
patriarchal culture had produced writers and literary works that
Kate Millett
were degrading to women.
(1934-2017) Took a radical view of the traditional family and wished to see it
replaced.
Saw feminism being reinforced in all aspects of society which
included the arts and literature.
Capitalism – capitalist economy oppressed women as they are
forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to
support their husbands and children.
The family – not just an instrument for disciplining and
Sheila subjecting women to capitalism but a place where men took
Rowbotham refuge from alienation under a capitalist economy.
(1943-present) Capitalism is the major enemy of women and has to be removed.
It exploits women in two core ways:
 firstly, it uses them as a cheap source of labour.
 secondly, women have to take the brunt of family life as they
cushion men from its impact.
Women of colour – she brought the cultural concerns of women
of colour into the mainstream feminist movement.
Intersectionality – the mainstream feminist movement had
focused mostly on the plight of white, college-educated,
bell hooks middle/upper-class women who had no stake in the concerns of
(1952-present) women of colour.
Took the feminist cause to women of colour.
In widening the cause, she attempted to broaden the feminist
movement to women of different classes, religions and
ethnicities in society.