...To what extent has New Labour abandoned its socialist ideologies? Socialism is an ideology that rejects the work of the individual and instead prioritizes the work of the collective and believes the products of the work by the collective should then be distributed equally. Socialism corresponds with equality of outcome which means that it stifles the opportunity for progress or wealth and Winston Churchill considered it “the equal sharing of misery”. In order to combat this negative image, Tony Blair implanted the third way; an amalgamation of the better elements of socialism and capitalism. However, in order to achieve this amalgamation, Blair had to reject several socialist beliefs. Prior to Blair’s leadership of the Labour party in 1994, the Labour party was exclusively a party for the working class and had been since its start in the 1900s. Founded out of trade unions and the socialist parties of the time, it was essentially a parliamentary pressure group at first, campaigning for the rights of what they believed were the majority. Because it was a party born out of industrialization, it is understandable that it would focus on conditions for the workers it represented which, particularly in the 1900s, were very poor. The Labour Party in England followed the doctrine of evolutionary socialism, perhaps because it identified there was efficiency in a capitalist market as well as the moral vision of socialism. Evolutionary socialism believed in gradualism and corresponded with...
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...|All Sociology Modules |Sociology Links |Government and Politics Home page |AS Government and Politics |A2 Government and Politics |Government and Politics Links | | Labour and Its Ideology 1945- 1979 Core Principles of Socialism: Positive attitudes to human nature; critical analysis of capitalism; class inequality and poverty, equality, justice, liberty, community, cooperation, internationalism, collectivism public ownership . Variants of Socialism: Marxism, Anarchist Socialism, Democratic Socialism, Social Democracy, New Labour? Revolutionary Socialism and Evolutionary Socialism Fundamentalist Socialism and Revisionism Democratic Socialism and Social Democracy Old Labour and New Labour Similarities and differences between Socialism and other ideologies 1945-51 Labour in Power The Labour Manifesto for the 1945 General election stated that “The Labour Party is a Socialist party and proud of it." In practice, however, numerous theoretical problems are involved in the definition of socialism and although the Labour Party has always contained socialists both in the Parliamentary Labour party and the extra-parliamentary party, it has been convincingly argued, despite the above pronouncement of the 1945 manifesto that the Labour party is described more accurately as a social democratic party where social democracy implies support for a relatively strong, interventionist and reformist state dedicated to the improvement of the life chances of disadvantaged groups...
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...Are parties becoming less ideological? Recently, political parties in many countries are becoming less ideologically attached and are beginning to move towards the centre ground. This is illustrated clearly with Fukuyama’s book, titled ‘the end of history and the last man’ which depicts how with the introduction of the 3rd way on the left, and many right wing policies now too extreme, the collapse of conventional ideology. He suggests there is now a final form of government since the end of the cold war. This is some what clear in the UK with the birth of New Labour in 1997, and the less extreme Conservatives, many argue they are simply both competing on economic grounds. The famous quote being ‘its economy stupid’, almost suggesting the economy is a new form of ideology. The same can be said for the US, but on less of a severe basis. Although Clinton is said to be most similar to Blaire, centering himself from extreme left wing policies, the rise of the TEA party in America, and to some extent Obama’s health care reforms can be said to be a revival of traditional ideology. Although to a less of an extent, Cameron’s Big Society can also said to be a revival of traditional Conservative policies. In terms of the economy parties are moving more centre-right and on social issues more centre-left. Although perhaps appearing very ideological in the US in particular American Politics is still very ‘catch all’. In terms of the economy it can be said parties and not becoming more ideological...
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...To what extent was the Chinese economy modernised by the First Five Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward? 1952-1962 (30) The Chinese economy in the years 1952-1962 aimed to modernise according to communist ideals. During this period the economy modernised to a significant extent, however consequences followed which hindered the social welfare of China. Modernisation was devised through adopting Western policies in order to improve the use of machinery and materials to enhance the position of agriculture, which would provide the growing work force with sufficient supplies. Mao desired an independent China which was self-sustainable without International support e.g. from the USSR and to minimise foreign economic interactions. Once the economy was established in 1952, Mao initiated his expansion of heavy industry through the First Five Year Plan and the Great Leap Forward. The First Five Year Plan (1952-57) was launched and resulted in 9% economic growth between 1953 and 1957, which was comparable with the Soviet Union’s performance in the 1930s. Agriculture and mass collectivization of peasants, who dominated 80% of the Chinese population in 1949, were targeted in order to form a socialist society. The Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance signed with Russia in 1949 supplied China with the money and technical assistance to modernise her industry. Though the money received from Russia was minimal ($300 million over five years), Russia did provide 10,000 engineers...
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...Social Inequality Unit 04 [pic] What are Marxist theories of inequality? Learning targets: • Marxism is concerned for the poor and powerless. • It claims that society is in conflict between the rich who control everything and the poor who must work for the rich and gain little in reward for their work. • The rich are able to maintain their position of power through control of the law, the police and other forms of authority. • The rich also control the manufacture of ideas about society through controlling the media and education so poor people are taught to believe that capitalism is a good thing. Key questions (AO1) What is the Marxist view of society? (AO1) What causes inequality according to Marxists? (AO2) What are the strengths of the Marxist view? (AO2) What are the weaknesses of the Marxist view of inequality? Summary of Key Points Karl Marx (1818 - 1883) was an economist, philosopher and journalist who was motivated by concern for workers who were experiencing terrible poverty while all around was great wealth and power. He was a revolutionary who believed in working for a classless society. Marxism was not a powerful force in sociology until the 1960s and 1970s when it formed the basis of a challenge to functionalism. It offered a better account of the divisions of society at that time than functional sociology did. Marxism also triggered many of the ideas that were...
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...Discuss the idea that there is little difference between the conservatives and labour party. The largest two parties in British politics; the Conservatives and Labour, are often considered the polar opposite to each other, however with a limited understanding, it can be seen that there is little difference in the ideology of modern day "Cameron's Compassionate Conservatism" and Miliband's "One Nation Labour", despite their aims to appeal to different classes and sectors. However they are considered now extremely similar due to their ideologies that can be taken from their manifestos in the 2005 General Election. A party's ideology is a set of promises or regulations that the party follows, this results in bills and policies being made that follow the party ideology to make the nation suit the electorate. Currently, the nation is run by the Conservatives under David Cameron, this involves uniting the people to lessen the amount of government influence over the people which is a departure from the original Thatcherism and One Nation Conservatism. A similarity between the Labour party and the Conservatives is their intentions to spread the wealth across the nation. The Labour party make it clear in Milliband’s 2010 manifesto that they would reform the system of how wages and wage brackets are organised and paid, the tax levels are also to be changed through reforms across different levels of income to accurately redistribute the levels of wealth for a more equal society. The...
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...Northern Consortium United Kingdom – Politics Past paper questions for June exam < Module 1 > Section A 1a What are the differences between Public Bills Committees and Select Committees? [5] Public Bills Committee is part of legislative process, whereas Select Committee is part of scrutiny process. In the former committee, the bill is examined by line by line to ensure that its wording and language is clear to allow any amendments on the bill. In the latter committee, there are two departments – governmental and non-governmental. They examine government departments’ expeditures , policies and policies. There are between 16 to 50 members in the PBC who are selected by Committee of Selection whose 7 out 9 members are ships. On the other hand, there are 11 members in the SCs and to eliminate “the conflict of interest, all the members are backbench members who are elected using the Alternative vote system. 2a What are the main functions of Parliament and how well does it perform them? [5] < This question is a 20-mark question > 3a What are the differences between direct and representative democracy? [5] In direct democracy, people are directly involved in decision-making processes, whereas in representative democracy, people elect MPs who will represent and form a government in Parliament. For instance, some qualified members of Athenian society were involved in decision-making and a referendum is a limited form of direct democracy. Also general elections...
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...development along capitalist and racist lines. Racist policies and practices ensured that control of the economy remained in White hands while severely limiting the diffusion of technological and scientific skills among Blacks. In the hierarchical order of Rhodesia, the Black stood at the lowest level, and the African worker stood under two interlocking handicaps. As an African, he was subjected to the overall system of discrimination; as a worker, he was also a victim of particular regulations which, prior to the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1959, prevented African workers from participating in the determination of their conditions of service by excluding them from the definition of 'employee'. African advancement was allowed only to the extent and in so far as it did not threaten the position of the Whites. Prime Minister Huggins explained: The European in the country can be likened to an island of White in a sea of Black, with the artisan and tradesman forming the shores and the professional classes the highlands in the centre. Is the native to...
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...To what extent did Hitler create a totalitarian state in Germany between 1933 and 1939? How would you define a totalitarian state? Well many would argue that it was a political system where the state, usually under one organisation, recognises no limits to its authority and strives to control every aspect of public and private life. This was what Hitler wanted for Germany under the control of the Nazi party. From 1933 to 1939 Hitler tried to control every aspect of Germany and its people. To create a totalitarian state Hitler would have to insure that one party and one party only controlled Germany. He would also have to ensure that he could keep the economy, the opposition, the media, the army and the police fully under his control. This essay will closely examine if he achieved this or not. Carl Freidrichs, a German historian believes that to have a totalitarian state all of these features are needed. In other words for a country to be a totalitarian state then the following features were essential. These included: suppression of all sources of opposition, total control of the media, total control of all groups in society, the total control of education, total control of the economy and finally total control of all civil life. If these things could be controlled then Hitler would have indeed created a totalitarian state. Firstly Hitler would have to crush all opposition to ensure that he could create his totalitarian state. Although Hitler had quickly established...
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...tAccess to History Online Edexcel Unit 1 – E3/F3 The Collapse of the Liberal State and the Triumph of Fascism in Italy, 1896–1943 Edexcel – AS GCE Unit 1: Historical Themes in Breadth Option E and F E3/F3 The Collapse of the Liberal State and the Triumph of Fascism in Italy, 1896–1943 General Advice for Unit 1 General Advice for Unit 1 Approaching Unit 1 Unit 1 answers require you to produce a reasoned, analytical essay that comes to a judgement as to extent, significance, importance etc. To reach a Level 5 answer of 25–30 marks you need to write an evaluative or integrated essay that answers the essay question set, showing direct understanding and backed up by detailed, accurate supporting evidence spread across the time period specified. You will almost certainly need to achieve at least one High Level 4 and a Level 5 answer to gain an A grade. Most candidates produce an essay which provides some of the above qualities but not all, achieving at least Level 3 (starting at 13 marks). You will almost certainly need to produce two Level 3 answers to gain an E grade. The key to gaining a good grade is to try to produce an essay with all the required qualities. However, before you can write your essay it is essential that you know your topic. In the specification (exam guidelines) each topic is divided into four bullet points across a specified period of time. You need to revise all the information for your topic because the questions asked can be about the whole topic...
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...KARL MARX AND THE CONCEPTS OF SOCIETY AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE BEING AN ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED BY EKOTT, IMOH BERNARD 1.0 INTRODUCTION The philosopher, social scientist, historian and revolutionary, Karl Heinrich Marx, is without a doubt the most influential socialist thinker to emerge in the 19th century. Although he was largely ignored by scholars in his own lifetime, his social, economic and political ideas gained rapid acceptance in the socialist movement after his death in 1883. Until quite recently almost half the population of the world lived under regimes that claim to be Marxist. This very success, however, has meant that the original ideas of Marx have often been modified and his meanings adapted to a great variety of political circumstances. In addition, the fact that Marx delayed publication of many of his writings meant that is been only recently that scholars had the opportunity to appreciate Marx's intellectual stature. Karl Heinrich Marx was born into a comfortable middle-class home in Trier on the river Moselle in Germany on May 5, 1818. He came from a long line of rabbis on both sides of his family and his father, a man who knew Voltaire and Lessing by heart, had agreed to baptism as a Protestant so that he would not lose his job as one of the most respected lawyers in Trier. At the age of seventeen, Marx enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn. At Bonn he became engaged to Jenny von Westphalen, the daughter of Baron von Westphalen , a prominent...
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...Russia 1. General Information: St. Petersburg, Russia is the country’s second largest city and is located in the Northwest Federal District. It is approximately 1400 square kilometers in size and has a population of 4.6 million people (as of 2005). The time zone is +3 GMT and +8 from the east coast of the United States. The government of St. Petersburg includes a governor, a city administration and a single-chamber legislative body, the City Legislative Assembly. In 2006, the governorship became an appointed position. The current governor, Valentina Matviyenko, was elected to the position in 2003, and then appointed by the President of the Russian Federation in 2006. The main airport servicing St. Petersburg is Pulkovo International Airport. If traveling by train, St Petersburg has five railway terminals – Baltiysky, Finlyandsky, Ladozhsky, Moskovsky and Vitebsky – within its borders. St. Petersburg features an extensive public transportation system consisting of an underground metro, trams and buses. The underground metro system, the most efficient of the options, opened in 1955 and features five color-coded lines. The fare for the underground transport system is always the same, no matter the distance traveled, and can be paid by token or metro pass. 2. Recent foreign investment: In 2009, the top five countries investing in St. Petersburg (categorized by percentage of total investment volume) were Belarus (15.8 percent), Switzerland (14.7...
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...CROSSING BORDERS IN THE NEW IMPERIALISM (published in Colin Leys and Leo Panitch (eds), Socialist Register, London: Merlin, 2004) Bob Sutcliffe In words which seem uncannily relevant today, two mid-nineteenth century fugitives (in today’s language asylum seekers) wrote that “the bourgeoisie has through its exploitation of the world-market given a cosmopolitan character to production and consumption in every country”[i]. This cosmopolitanization (or in today’s vocabulary globalization) turned out to be neither as continuous nor as complete as they expected. By the beginning of the following century other emigrant followers of these two men began to argue that the full economic integration of world capitalism would be prevented by strife between the industrialized countries. Imperialism in this sense seemed to mean that globalization would be a task for post-capitalist society. This appeared to be confirmed by the following half century of war, protectionism and deep economic crisis until, in the middle of the twentieth century, cosmopolitan capitalism made its big comeback. Globalization is more than anything else the feature of today’s capitalism which leads many to argue that there is a new imperialism, or even that imperialism has been replaced by something else (for instance, by “post-imperialism” or by “Empire”). The real newness of the present is, however, debatable. In trying to discern the character of an age, it is tempting to argue that everything...
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...never consistently applied, it is possible to distinguish a golden age for the model from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. In the 1970s and the 1980s, governments abandoned the restrictive macroeconomic means of the model and were thus unable to combine low rates of unemployment with low inflation and high economic growth. Since the early 1990s, Sweden has not met the requirement of full employment in the Rehn-Meidner model. Recent declarations by the EU to prioritise full employment once again but without giving up the objectives of price stability and growth legitimise a renewed interest in the model. __________________ JEL classification: E24; E31; E62; J23; J31; J62; O23 Keywords: Swedish model; Rehn-Meidner model; third way; labour market policy; solidarity wage policy; productivity growth, fiscal policy; unemployment; inflation Contact author: Lennart Erixon, Department of Economics, Stockholm University. Tel.: +46 8 16 21 36; fax.: +46 8 15 94 82; e-mail: lex@ne.su.se. 2 1. Introduction In the early post-war period, two Swedish trade-union economists presented a unique...
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...should be elected or appointed have not yet reached a decision, and it has taken over a decade for a devolved assembly to have the chance to be independent, it would appear that constitutional changes have gone as far as they are ever going to, however it ... gone far enough. Parts of the British political system were seen as undemocratic, especially during Labour’s terms in office in the late 1990’s, in particular the House of Lords (HOL). The Labour government set out to remove all hereditary peers in 1999; instead they abolished all but 92 and now promoted life peers as an alternative. Many Lords and Ladies are offered a place in the HOL either for service, such as previous MP’s, or due to their particular knowledge in a field, such as Alan Sugar as he has a vast amount of knowledge in business. However this was the last reform made, no more hereditary peers have been abolished, the question on whether or not to make the upper house elected is still on-going and previous conservative MP’s still hold more seats than any other party thus making the HOL unrepresentative and undemocratic. Therefore many argue this constitutional change has not gone far enough, although considering that the HOL has been reformed three times in the last century, it doesn’t seem to be quite so unforgivable. Devolution is perhaps the reformation most in favour of the constitution being adequately reformed. In 1997 and 1998 Westminster devolved a significant amount of its power to Scotland, Northern...
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