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Summary A* essay plans for all core ideologies in Edexcel Politics
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A* essay plans for all core ideologies in Edexcel Politics - socialism, liberalism, conservatism
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other because they are capable and individuals they do not need tradition tobenefit them.
TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVES: humans are inherently selfish, destructive and
brutish. For example, key thinker Hobbes argued that individuals were governed by
ruthless self-interest. So, human nature was shaped by a restless desire for the
acquisition of goods, an immovable distrust of others and a constant fear of violent
death. Furthermore, human beings are dependent and security seeking creatures
which means they cannot exist with some form of social security in society. Social
conservatism is the idea that society is fashioned and based on a network of
relationships. Emile Dirkheim described the negative effect of humans not having this
community as ‘anomie’ in which people would become isolated, lonely and feel
meaningless without some form of community. Burke talked of ‘small platoons’ that
made up society. They therefore believed that because humans were dependent
on community and were inherently selfish and brutal, that they would favour
consistency and tradition, and react best to what they already knew and
recognised since they were equally unintelligent beings.
NEW RIGHT CONSERVATIVES (neoliberal) : they agree that humans are inherently
selfish and driven by self interest. Human nature is self indulgent and self driven and
therefore self fulfilling. For example Ayn Rand said that we are all and should remain
to be guided by self-interest and ‘rational self-fulfilment’. They therefore believed that
community, society, did not exist collectively but was instead atomistic. This meant
human nature had no moral obligation to help one another, only to help themselves.
There was no dependency in human nature, no communitarian drive- rather only
brutal self interest and self drive. Margaret Thatcher for example famously said
‘society does not exist’ and Ayn Rand supported this idea that society was
individualistic rather than communitarian. They therefore believed that
traditionalism was not necessary, ultimately because they viewed humans as
self interested and individualistic, that preservation would not facilitate all their
interests and it was unfair to declare a negative reaction towards change, when
humans were more rational beings.
This is a fundamental disagreement because they have polar opposite views but also
because they clearly disagree on a number of issues that manifest themselves
through a pragmatic perspective. Moreover, their inability to agree about whether
pragmatic benefits society or not, ultimately fragments their views on society as a
whole and therefore is a bedrock disagreement that will create problems.
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