1. Introducing the Ancient Debate: The Ideal versus the Real

1. 1. Introducing the Ancient Debate: The Ideal versus the Real

2. The Ideal versus the Real • The clash between the ideal and the real drives many fictional plots. • Batman • The Untouchables • Star Wars

3. The Ideal versus the Real The Ideal Versus the Real • REALISM • What we can and must do • Han Solo • Holding political office • IDEALISM • What we would like to do • Luke Skywalker • Campaigning for political office

4. The Ideal versus the Real • Politics must balance the tension between the real and the ideal, between the dreams of what could be and real-world limitations. • What kinds of compromises might legislators, revolutionaries, or peace negotiators have to make as they try to achieve their larger goals?

5. The Ideal Versus the Real in Plato’s Republic • Thrasymachus is a realist: • Concerned with tangible personal gains with little regard for ethics or the good of society. • Socrates is an idealist: • The purpose of politics is the happiness of the citizenry. • Who has the stronger point? • If we ignore reality, we may be manipulated. • If we fail to challenge reality, we fail to make the world a better place.

6. The Dollhouse • Conceptual frameworks are what we use to make sense of the world. Our conceptual frameworks include: • Personal experiences • Preferences • Expectations • These frameworks are particularly important when we interpret political phenomena. • Everyone uses a unique conceptual framework; we all have different experiences that result in differing preferences and expectations. • Fiction can help transcend these frameworks.

7. Fiction as a Tool for Exploring Politics • Why might fiction be useful for examining politics? • It allows us to transcend our own individual perspectives. • It can give us a taste for political situations that we will likely never experience firsthand. • It exaggerates political phenomena, highlighting forces we might not otherwise identify. • It is engaging and interesting. • It encourages an active exploration of the material.

8. Utopias in Fiction and Politics • Utopias are subjective interpretations of the perfect world. • In politics, utopias are useful for examining the flaws of political ideas when taken to their extremes and for envisioning a path toward a better future. • Marx extended capitalist ideas to their logical extreme to point out inherent fundamental flaws and consequently provided an alternative vision of utopian communism.

9. Utopias in Practical Use • Utopian theorizing reached a pinnacle during the idealist period following the unbelievable carnage of World War I. • President Wilson proposed the League of Nations: • The proposal was built on the hope of spreading liberal democracy across the globe. • The idea was not supported, even in the United States.

10. Political Theories and Ideologies • Political theories are aimed at developing knowledge. • Complex and logically robust • Written for a select audience • Political ideologies are about organizing and directing action. • Simple and dramatic calls to action • Written for the masses

11. Classical Liberalism Based on the theories of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Based on the idea that individuals should be largely free from governmental constraints. Very influential for the American insurrection from Great Britain. Thomas Jefferson said, “The government that governs best, governs least.” Adam Smith added economic freedom as a key variable.

12. Classical Conservatism Associated with eighteenth-century parliamentarian Edmund Burke. Reaction to excesses of the French Revolution. Based on the idea that social institutions embody a wealth of knowledge that has evolved and endured over centuries. Objects to the idea that individual human reason could know better.

13. Classical Conservatism Asserts that it is dangerous to change or eliminate treasured institutions carelessly. Such change may unleash unintended consequences, such as the havoc following the French Revolution.

14. Communism Based on the ideas of Karl Marx. Key problem is class divisions. The bourgeois class controls the machinery of the state and exploits the labor of the proletariat. The proletarian class is paid only a fraction of the worth of the goods it creates.

15. Communism Capitalism may bring industrialization and modernization, but it will be prone to overproduction and economic depressions. Eventually the workers will become aware of their exploitation, cast off the rule of the capitalists, and institute a communist society.

16. Communism Intended to apply to industrial capitalist societies. Lenin applied to semifeudal agrarian Russia. Lenin shifted focus from exploitation of the proletariat within capitalist societies to the exploitation and colonization of poor countries by advanced capitalist countries.

17. Democratic Socialism Shares communist vision of social, political, and economic equality, but believes this can be achieved by democratic means. Advocated by Eduard Bernstein (1850–1932). Social Democrats, by contrast, merely seek to modify capitalism with the infusion of some elements of socialism.

18. Reform Liberalism • Like classical liberalism, believes government should remove obstacles to individual competition: • Negative freedom • Unlike classical liberalism, believes government should also provide basic necessities (education, health care, safety net) to ensure all can compete equally: • Positive freedom

19. Fascism Twentieth-century ideology. Emphasis on the superiority of a particular group (rather than the individual, class, or society). Charismatic leader comes to power during economic hard times with promises for recovery. Democracy discouraged, as it could weaken the dominance of the superior group.

20. Fascism Ruling party controls all aspects of social and cultural life. Public spectacles reinforce traditions and motivate support. Nationalism is important, along with a strong military rule and vigilance against enemies at home and abroad.

21. Other Ideologies There are many other ideologies out there. Virtually any vision of utopia can become an ideology by offering a simplified version of how and why people should work toward that utopia.

22. What Is Politics? Applies to so many situations and contexts that it defies a precise and complete description. Defined here as goal-directed actions with public consequences. Political tools, actors, tactics, and goals are always changing. Even not participating can be political.

23. What Is Political Science? Similarly difficult to define. Difficult or impossible to isolate and manipulate relevant variables. Political scientists rely heavily on statistics. This overlooks important concepts—beliefs, expectations, and so on—that can’t be counted.

24. What Is Political Science? There are a variety of reasonable and effective methods for pursuing an understanding of politics.

25. What Is Political Science? All science depends on fully documented and published research that is done openly and transparently so that it can be replicated, critiqued, and possibly even falsified. Creates an agreement reality (Babbie) in which we can accept the validity of findings without experiencing them directly (experiential reality).