Sample Summary #2

Lauren Conrad                                                          PS 106
9/26/08                                                                Summary # 2
Power & Choice: An Introduction to Political Science, chapter 2, by W. Phillips Shively

In chapter 2 of Power & Choice, author W. Phillips Shively defines and categorizes the ideas that shape our political viewpoints, called ideologies. According to Shively, ideologies are defined as a related group of ideas about politics that support one another. Ideologies can be used for two main purposes. From a personal standpoint, ideologies help an individual identify and compartmentalize various opinions within the political environment around them. Second, ideologies can be used in public with the intent of persuading another that our political views are what is best for society. This public usage of an ideology works best if it is defended impersonally as Shively explains that personal motives are not valid within a political argument. For example, a person advocating free college tuition cannot validate his position by simply stating that he himself is poor. On the other hand, this person’s argument can be defended ideologically through asserting that by eliminating college costs, citizens have the opportunity to cultivate skills that can maximize their contributions to society.

Shively proceeds to categorize the many global ideologies into three main groups: Liberalism, Conservatism, and Socialism/Communism. These political viewpoints emerged from the dominant social system of Feudalism, the hierarchical political structure existing in Europe during the middle ages in which people and land where bound to one another based on social status. The social depravity of the time, coupled with the industrial explosion of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century, caused people the restructuring of society and politics into these main ideological perspectives.

According to Shively, liberalism holds the idea that the chief ideal in society is the ability of its citizens to develop as individuals to their maximum capabilities. This objective, according to liberalists, can only be achieved through personal responsibility and choice, with the least governmental interference as possible. The American colonists that broke away from England during the seventeen century can exemplify this political perspective.

Conservatism contrasts significantly to this point of view. Where liberals believe in individual responsibility and choice, conservatives hold that society is best served if the interests of the group as a whole are maintained through governmental authority, instead of individual pursuits. This objective, according to conservatives, is facilitated best through government involvement and a shared sense of community values. Conservatives hold authority as the main factor in society as they are responsible for the advancement of the entire community.

Socialism/Communism originally developed to appeal to the displaced working class during the nineteenth century. Socialists agreed with the liberal sentiment that all people are politically equal, but felt that government should be involved in the worker’s lives in terms of providing services to humanize their working conditions, which were not the most agreeable in nineteenth century Europe. Shively highlights Karl Marx as the pioneer of this political ideology.

Communism is a more radical form of the socialist ideology in that communists see the objective of socialism only being attainable through revolution, by any means necessary. This caused a rift in the early twentieth century as the revolutionist set up communist parties, whereas the more democratic socialists established a more diplomatic and less extreme organizations.