History 1C

Lecture 4:

New Ideologies

Background

Early to mid-19th c. Europe saw a number of political, social and cultural ideologies come into being, gain force, and become recognizable as the ideologies that continue to animate political and social discussion today.

Certain "cartoon views" -- ways to organize these ideologies and note their relationship to what had gone before.

William H. McNeill, Outline of Western Civilization.

key ideologies an expression and extension of the French Revolution slogan "liberty, equality, fraternity."

liberty - liberalism

equality - socialism

fraternity - nationalism

However, it would be wrong to view these movements as derived purely from just one of these roots.

Interlinkages are important.

socialism, for example, owed much to the French Revolution and Enlightenment as well as the Industrial Revolution.

As we proceed through these ideologies, bear in mind the roots of the ideas.

note directions in which they lead

balance of course will be, in no small measure, the working out and refinement of these ideas and their translation into practice.

Children of the French Revolution

Right and left wings -- as political labels they go back to the arrangements of French political factions in post-1815 legislative assemblies.

Important not to impose our modern concepts of "conservative" and "liberal" on the original concepts.

Conservatism:

not opposition to change. That would be reaction. But believed in slow, measured change, with deep respect for the hidden wisdom of custom and tradition.

Somewhat influenced by romanticism -- rejection of the idea that you could reason your way to a new society.

Many romantics began as revolutionaries, ended as conservatives.

Best-known conservative: Edmund Burke

Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Written well before the Terror. Burke predicted that the rejection of tradition and the reliance on reason would lead to something like the Terror and the eventual emergence of a military dictatorship. Right on both counts.

Frequently misunderstood or misappropriated as reaction.

Liberalism:

rather vague. Not necessarily similar to modern liberalism. Indeed, what we think of as modern conservatism is really very much like classical liberalism.

Interested in limited government, individual freedom, etc., but

Economically laissez-faire

Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations (1776)

Free trade -- attack on mercantilism.

Law of supply and demand

Self-regulating economy

Prosperity assured if government did not interfere.

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham

"greatest good of the greatest number"

very influential; if pressed, most people's logic is utilitarian.

analogy of gunman holding innocent hostage; must shoot through hostage to save others.

J.S. Mill

Extended utilitarianism to embrace questions of government.

Generally, "that government is best which governs least."

"The only purpose for which government can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others."

But "harm to others" eventually considered to involve harm based on imposed poverty.

"wage slave"

Mill finally came to believe government must intervene to protect children and improve living and working conditions.

also championed vote for women.

Mills' ideas reflect the outer limit of mid-19th c. liberalism.

Nationalism

Recognizably modern nationalism appeared 1789-1815 France.

Germans further developed the idea as they began their movement toward unification.

Recap of nationalism definition

ethno-cultural concept of a distinct people: pre-existing, but Germans refined concept.

Volk

Language becomes critical identifier of culture/ethnicity and main criterion when determining appropriate boundaries.

political theory of people: French Rev.

self-determination: Kant

State as a moral force in history: some of this appears in French Revolution; explicitly espoused by Hegel.

Secular religion of nation-state

"individual freedom and self-fulfillment lay only in service to nation-state."

distinct from patriotism; a movement beyond the orange ribbon stuff.

would later fire Italian, German unification.