MAJOR POLITICAL THEORIES

MAJOR POLITICAL THEORIES
LiberalismLiberalism emerged from the Enlightenment, the Glorious revolution in England, the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. It has been with us as the political philosophy of the capitalist West. The French Revolution gave the cardinal ideas of ‘Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity’ and the American War of Independence a little earlier (1775-76) laid emphasis on the declaration of human rights.

Meaning: According to Koerner, “Liberalism begins and ends with the ideals of individual freedom, individual human rights and individual human happiness”.

Features of Liberalism:Individual Liberty - Its love for individual liberty is unquestionable. It has become libertarianism.
Individual- centered Theory - Liberalism begins and ends with individual.
Capitalistic Economy - Liberalism advocates free-market economy.
Limited State - The liberals view the state as a means for attaining the good of the individual. They oppose every type of totalitarian state.
Opposed to Traditions/Superstitions -As against the feudal model of man as a passive being, liberalism favours a model of man who is more active and more acquisitive.
Democracy - Liberalism is an exponent of democratic government. It seeks to establish a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
Welfarism - Welfarism, as a state activity, is the idea that state works for the welfare of the people. The liberal concept of state activity is one where the state serves the people.

Weaknesses:

• It is a philosophy full of tensions.
• On the one hand, it unfurls the flag of liberty, and on the other, it argues for equality.
• On the one hand, it works, within the framework of market society, it promises equal opportunities to all.
• On the one hand, it asks for unlimited rights to acquire property, and on the other, it demands a share of profit for the welfare of those who are unemployed and the needy.
• On the one hand, it builds a capitalistic economy, ending up ultimately in inequalities, and onthe other, it endeavours to establish an egalitarian society.

MarxismMarxism rose as a reaction against the early-capitalist exploitation. With the disintegration of the USSR in 1991, the last major socialistic/Marxist state, Marxism has lost much of its popularity.

Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, proponents of communism, were moved by the adverse effects of erstwhile capitalism, which was rapacious and inhumane. Their intellectual revolt against the capitalist exploitation resulted in a theory of communism i.e. Marxism, which was name of after Karl Marx. 

The major contributors to the Marxian philosophy after Marx and Engels include Lenin (Russia) and Mao Zedong (China), among many others.

Basic Postulates:

• Nothing happens in the world on its own; there is always a cause -effect relationship in what we see around.
• The real development is always the material development (i.e., the economic development). The progressive development of productive forces indicates the progressive level of development.
• The material (i.e. economic) factor is the dominant factor in both individual life and social life.
• Human beings are born in history, but they make history.
• every subsequent society is better than the preceding society
• Revolutions mean total and wholesome changes; they are not a negative force, but are what Marx had called- the locomotives of history. When launched and successful, revolutions take the society to a higher stage of development.

Highlights of Marxism:Dialectical materialism - All development takes place through struggle between opposites and because of factors which are economic.
Historical Materialism - History is that it is a record of the self-development of productive forces; that the society keeps marching on its path of economic/ material development; that each stage of development indicates the level of development attained; that history is the history of numerous socio- economic formations.
Theory of Surplus Value – The labourer gets the wages; the employer, the profit. This surplus value makes the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. It is through surplus value that capitalists thrive.
Theory of Class Struggle - In the classless societies, there is no class struggle because there are, in such societies, no opposing/ antagonistic classes. Class struggle, in class societies, (i.e., in slave-owning society, the feudal society, the capitalist society) is of mainly three types: economic, ideological and political.
Dictatorship of the Proletariat - The rule of the working class. It is a state of the workers in the socialist society which follows the capitalist society. It is the dictatorship of the workers in the socialist society in the sense there is the dictatorship of the capitalists in the capitalist society.

Weaknesses:

• Material factor is not the sole factor in explaining the whole complex of society’s intricacies. Man does not live by bread alone, but it is also true that he cannot live without it.
• Marxism has underestimated the worth and strength of national/ patriotic Individual and the State sentiments.
• Marxism also underestimated the importance of the state.
• The Marxian formulations, in practice, have been really disappointing. Marxism, as a practice, has failed, whatever be the reasons.

GandhismWhile challenging the ideals of both liberalism and Marxism, presents not only a critique of both these ideologies, but also provides relevant alternative theories. Gandhiji was a liberal among the Marxists, and a Marxist among the liberals; he was a democrat among the individualists and an individualist among the socialists.

Highlights

• It’s complaint against western materialism is that it destroys the very essence of spiritualism.
• He regarded the western type of man as an atomistic individual, with all flesh and no soul.
• As against the state that existed in the West, Gandhiji advocated what he called, the Ramrajya; as against the western style of managing things through the centralizing forces, he stood for a decentralized polity. As against materialism, industrialization and capitalism, he made a strong plea for Swadeshi, cottage industries and the theory of Trusteeship.
• Gandhism stands for a non-violent state based on (i) the consent of the people (ii) the near unity in the society. Gandhiji advocated decentralization of power: both political and economic.

DecentralizationThe devolution of power at each level beginning from individual/ local unit and reaching the apex