1 / 10

The Political Values of Political Actors

The Political Values of Political Actors. Intro to Politics and Political Analysis POSC 120 Braunwarth. Key Questions:. Political Values: important beliefs about what goals, principles, and policies are worthwhile in public affairs

lily
Download Presentation

The Political Values of Political Actors

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. The Political Values of Political Actors Intro to Politics and Political Analysis POSC 120 Braunwarth

  2. Key Questions: • Political Values: important beliefs about what goals, principles, and policies are worthwhile in public affairs • How do the actual political values of political actors compare with civilized values such as peace, liberty, justice, and welfare? (we’ll look at these in turn) • Can political actors harmonize different, sometimes competing, values? • How do the values of political leaders differ from those held by common citizens (and why should they differ in a democracy)?

  3. Values of Nations: Security and Peace • Most nations say they believe in security in peace • Yet 30-40 wars at any one time • 87.5 million killed in 20th c. • Are all wars fought in self-defense? • Huntington focuses on the different values of different civilizations leading to a “clash of civilizations”

  4. Values of Nations: Liberty, Human Rights, and Democracy • Fundamental tradeoff between demands for safety and belief in basic individual rights and freedoms • Huntington predicted the development of democracies would ebb and flow with an overall increase • Democratization Impediments? • Culture • Poverty • Kleptocracy - no democratic institutions “frail democracies”

  5. Values of Nations: Justice, Equality, and Liberty • It’s the same tradeoff between order and freedom • Developed countries understand justice in terms of liberty • Developing countries understand justice in terms of equality • Some look at justice in terms of income distribution • U.S. is more skewed than other democracies • But is more skewed in the developing world, often as a result of consciously designed policies

  6. Values of Nations: Welfare and Economic Well-Being • Maslow notes that the values of people who make up political communities are rooted in, and correlate with, a hierarchy of human needs: • What do we need to satisfy before higher-order goals like love and freedom? • What do you give away for safety and security • What if you really are safe but you don’t feel safe? • How is this relevant to the situation in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?

  7. Basic Values • Among citizens of a given society, is there broad consensus or significant disagreement about certain basic values? • Is there consensus or disagreement in Iraq? • How about the U.S.?

  8. Culture Wars • In the United States there has been widespread agreement among Republicans and Democrats on some basic issues but a clear difference on government spending for services. • However, in recent years, it would appear that culture wars have become more evident in recent years. Issues of dispute include: Abortion Gay marriage Prayer in public schools Euthanasia Genetic research Sex education in the schools

  9. Interest Groups • Many political scientists are skeptical about national and popular values. For them, politics is a tug-of-war among competing interest groups. • There are various types of Interest Groups: Religious Ethnic and racial Professional associations Special interest and reform

  10. Class Some political scientists--those influenced by the egalitarian ideas of Marxism or socialism--call special attention to the interests held by each of the various classes, especially workers and capitalists. Class values are critical to understanding the political process.

More Related