Unit 2



Unit 2

Is resistance to liberalism justified?

Chapter 4

To what extent have various ideas and events shaped liberalism over time?

Aboriginal Peoples and the Early Development of Liberalism

Prior to the Europeans coming to North America, Aboriginals in eastern North America already were practicing forms of liberalism.

The Haudenosaunee Confederacy was formed between 1400 and 1600 and consists of six different groups of Aboriginals.

Each nation has its own council and chief who address their own nations internal affairs.

The Grand Council deals with issues that affect all of the nations within the Confederacy. All chiefs are of equal rank and authority.

All nations share a common goal – to live in harmony.

See page 97, figure 4-3 for a map of the Confederacy.

The Haudenosaunee Confederation also had a constitution called the Great Law of Peace.

This constitution has been passed down orally from one generation to the next.

Originally, it was to bring harmony and unity between warring nations, divide powers between different levels of government, and establish equality among the people (including women) in government.

It also guaranteed certain rights, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the rights of the individual.

There are some who believe that the Great Law of Peace may have influence the American Constitution of 1787, which would later influence Canadian Confederation in 1867.

Others argue that what influenced the American constitution was European.

While there was a form of liberalism in North America prior to the contact of Europeans, in Europe there was a very different story.

Most societies in Europe did not practice democracy or liberalism. Power and the right to rule were meant only for the royalty, nobility and the church.

Citizens were meant to follow the laws set by their rulers.

Origins of Western Democratic Liberalism

Prior to the 1800s, many European countries were ruled with an absolute monarchy. This meant that the king and his court had complete power over the government. Absolute power was often abused and used to restrict individual freedoms.

By the early 1800s, many people started to challenge the idea of an absolute monarch.

Rousseau proposed that society should ensure civil rights and freedoms for individuals in France.

Many believers in liberalism believed in:

Protection of individual rights and freedoms

No one should be above the law

What is good for the individual within a community can also be good for the community as a whole

Most individuals can make good decisions for both themselves and their communities

Government intervention should be limited so that people have the freedom of choice in their lives

Individuals and companies should be allowed to create, market, purchase, and sell products with minimum government intervention (free-market economy)

Liberal Ideas on Political Systems

As a focus on the individual developed, liberalism also developed. This development can be seen in the 1700s with the American and French Revolutions.

Documents such as the Declaration or the Bill of Rights expressed liberal values.

Some essential rights and freedoms which the new governments of France and the USA were founded on are:

Participation in government

Free from excessive government control

No one is above the law

Protection and permission to exercise individual rights

Freedom to make ones own decisions

These new governments were also the beginnings of liberal democracy. This is a political system where all citizens are equal and that the election process is free. It would also allow for multiple parties, have political decisions made by a democratically elected body, and legal decisions made by a separate body.

John Stuart Mill wrote an essay called “On Liberty” to attempt to prove the benefits of allowing individual rights as possible by limiting the role of the government.

Mills believed that the role of the government was to preserve the rule of law, protect private property, and to ensure the security of the individual.

Evolution of Individual and Collective Rights

Feminism also came forth after the Industrial Revolution. Prior to this movement, the ideas of liberalism did not apply to women. They were not allowed to pursue certain types of careers or to vote.

Many women began to push for change. The “Famous Five” from Canada, fought to have women legally declared as persons. The feminist movement also showed the unequal treatment of people in society and helped bring forth change.

Because of the feminist movement, liberalism shifted to ensuring the basic needs, a decent standard of living, and safety and security for all citizens.

Human rights also became a major movement after World War 2.

After the horrors that people faced during WW2, many sought change so that no one would have to endure such tragedy again.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was created in 1948. It was to set the standard on how people were treated as citizens in their countries.

There are, however, many countries that do not follow the Declaration. Many choose to violate basic human rights. Today, other countries place economic sanctions on those who violate human rights. Or if needed, troops will be sent in to protect those who are in danger.

Today we live in modern liberalism. This is an ideology that addresses the concerns of inequality and injustices that have been created by capitalism, while at the same time focusing on individual rights.

Chapter 6

To what extent are socialism and Marxism responses to classical liberalism?

Robert Owen (1771-1885)

Was the first British business man who felt it was the responsibility of the owners to run profitable businesses while providing decent work conditions for the workers.

What he did: provided safe working environments, schools for children and adults, created markets with good, nutritious foods at decent prices, basic health care, and a voice in the operation of his textile mills.

Owens felt that if workers were treated better, that they would be more willing to make better products.

New Lanark (where Owens mills were established) is believed to be the birth place of socialism.

Socialism is an ideology based on the belief that collective values, such as collective responsibility, collective interest, co-operation, equality, etc, should be the foundation for political, economic, and social life.

Charles Fourier (1772 – 1837)

A French socialist who believed in the idea that the perfect place could be created where people could prosper and develop to their full potential. People who believe in this are called utopian socialists.

Fourier believed that with careful planning and organization, these utopian communities could provide the economic, political, and social needs of the citizens successfully.

Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)

Wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848 with Friedrich Engels.

He was influenced by the socialist movement and wrote about the failings of capitalism and its negative effects on the working class.

He wrote that the working class should rise against the business owners and seize control in regards to politics, economics, and social systems.

Marx also believed that society should be classless and that all people should be equal.

A social society would involve:

A shift from private property to public

All factories controlled by the government

Government controlled all banks through a national bank

Government controlled all means of transportation and communication

Free education for all children in public schools

Early Democratic Socialism

Democratic socialism came about in the late 1800s when socialists believed that modern liberalism would not meet the needs of the people.

Democratic socialism embraces some of the ideas provided by communism such as a classless society but without the violence.

Communism was thought to be brought about by revolution – by more violent means, while democratic socialism would bring about change without revolution.

Democratic socialists believe in some values from liberalism, such as democracy, freedom and individual rights.

At the same time, they felt that capitalism hindered workers’ rights and kept them from being free.

Democratic socialists believed that the government should have control in the economy so that everyone would be treated fairly.

In a democratic society, the government would control most key industries, support labour rights, and provide extensive social programs (unemployment insurance, health care, education, and child care).

Examples of Democratic Socialism in Canada

The Great Depression and the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

The Great Depression hit the world on October 29th, 1929. It began with the crash of the stock markets.

Many companies went bankrupt, investors lost their money, and many people lost their jobs.

Many felt that the reason behind the crash was the lack of regulation on the economy.

Due to these conditions, many began to feel that more government intervention was needed.

Co-operative Commonwealth Federation

The CFF formed in 1932 during the Depression in Calgary. In the Prairies were hit the hardest and the CFF was created to bring about change for the people.

The goals of the CFF were to:

Provide shelters for the jobless and homeless

Job creation programs

Pensions for those who had worked all their life

Health services that were subsidized

The CCF peaked in 1944 when Tommy Douglas was elected premier of Saskatchewan by a huge majority.

The CCF eventually became the NDP.

Even though the CCF or NDP have not had a lot of success in the federal system, a lot of their policies are seen in Canada’s government policies today.

Socialism in Quebec

After WW2, Quebec was ruled by Premier Maurice Duplessis. He was very anti-communist and anti-union, and he promoted laissez-faire policies.

He was also for Quebec sovereignty.

As time went on, his government began to implement more government involvement in the economy and it also promoted more public works projects (highways, schools, and hospitals).

After his death, Quebec sovereignty was tied to socialism. Many groups felt that the Canadian government was oppressive and did not look after the people.

The Parti Quebecois

Rene Levesque founded the new political the Parti Quebecois. It was a separatist party that came to power in 1976.

The PQ party introduced government social programs such as pharmacare (insurance for perscriptions), a $7-a-day universal child care, and a parental leave program.

Chapter 7

To what extent is communism or fascism a response to liberalism?

Soviet Communism

According to the communist ideology, the collective is more important than the individual.

It is believed, under communism, that the well-being of the individual is the responsibility of the government, not of the individual themselves.

Values of communism:

Collective ownership of the means of production

Elimination of private property

Economic equality

Communism also promotes change through revolution rather than democratic means.

In the last 100 years, communism has developed in different countries based on different interpretations.

In the Soviet Union, there was Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism

In China, Maoism developed.

These understandings of communism are defined by the beliefs of the leaders.

Communism focuses on the importance of collectivism to meet society’s basic needs.

Communism that developed in the 1900s believed that their needed to be a large amount of government involvement and control to meet society’s needs.

Marx, however, believed that a true communist society did not need a government.

Russian Revolution and the Beginning of Communism in the USSR

The Failure of Liberal Reform

By the 1800s, Russia was one of the least industrialized nations in Europe.

Russia was slow to develop economically because of its large size and its focus on subsistence agriculture – people only farm what they need to survive.

Over 90% of the population lived in poverty, while the remaining 10% lived in extreme wealth.

Russia at this time, was ruled by a czar (tsar), who had complete control over the political, economical, and social aspects of the country.

People did not have basic rights and the serfs were enslaved to the landowners.

In 1861, Czar Alexander II freed the serfs and began to introduce liberal reforms to the country.

He abolished capital punishment and created local government that included representatives from all classes (who made decisions on things like taxation and education).

Even though Alexander had began to bring reform to Russia, for some socialists, it was not enough. They wanted immediate change.

In March of 1881, he was assassinated by members of a radical group called the People’s Will.

After his assassination, many of his liberal reforms were reversed and the freedoms of the Russian people were restricted by the new czar, Alexander III.

The Rise of Socialism

During the 1800s, many industrialized European countries began to invest money to develop Russia.

They invested money in new roads and factories, and Russia was pushed into a period of sudden social and economic change.

Russia had began the Industrial Revolution later than the other European countries and needed to catch up.

The nobility, business owners, and foreign investors benefited greatly from this rapid change, while the working class did not.

Just like the working classes in Britain and America, those in Russia were also treated poorly and were overworked in poor conditions.

By the 1900s, many Russians felt that the working class was being treated poorly and began to turn to Marxism and The Communist Manifesto for change.

In 1898, a group of Marxists form the Socialist Democratic Labour Party but the czar banned the group. The members were forced into exile but kept the revolutionary spirit alive through an illegal newspaper called Iskra (Spark).

Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Joseph Stalin were the main components of the group.

Even though the social activists were exiled from the country, civil unrest grew among the people in Russia.

In January 1905, the people of St. Petersburg marched to czar Nicholas’s Winter Palace to demand for food and better working conditions.

When they arrived at the Palace, they were greeted by the czars soldiers, who opened fired on the crowd, killing hundreds of people.

After Bloody Sunday, mass strikes occurred across the country.

In October, Nicholas II agreed to allow an assembly of the people’s representatives and the St. Petersburg Soviet (council) was formed.

Then, Nicholas signed the October Manifesto, which allowed for the formation of political parties and the basic civil rights of the Russian people.

The events of 1905 led to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the abdication of the czar, civil war, and the establishment of a communist nation.

Leninism

After the forced abdication of Nicholas II, Russia was without a formal leader for the last years of WWI.

Alexander Kerensky led the temporary government but met very little success. The government refused to give land to the poor peasants in rural areas and also decided to continue fighting the war (which Russia was losing at the time).

While the temporary government lost the support of the people, support for communist and Marxist ideas grew.

In April 1917, Vladimir Lenin (leader of the Bolsheviks) called for the end of Russian participation in the war. The slogan of the Bolsheviks was “Peace! Land! Bread!”

Many people turned their support to the Bolsheviks and in October 1917, had the strength and power to take control of the government.

Lenin began to transform Russia into his interpretation of communism (called Leninism).

Lenin used many of Marx’s ideas for the foundations of his political and economical policies.

Leninism, however, differs from Marxism because Lenin believed that a strong government was needed while Marx believed that the people did not need a government to rule over them.

There were many people who did not support the Bolsheviks and shortly after their takeover of government, the Bolsheviks were faced with a civil war.

The Bolshevik Red Army and the Anti-Bolshevik White Army fought for approximately 5 years.

The White Army was supported by Britain, France, and the USA who feared Lenin and communism.

However, in the end, the White Army was defeated, and those among their ranks were exiled or executed.

In 1922, many republics joined Russia to create the Union of Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union), led by Lenin.

Some of the positive changes:

Land was redistributed to the people

Factories were given to the workers so that they could make decisions about wages and working conditions

Men and women were equal

Art and music flourished as there were no longer any restrictions on what one could create

Many people felt the benefits of Lenin’s changes to the country. However, Lenin still felt opposition from those who did not feel like their needs were not being met.

In 1924, Lenin died from a stroke and had been seen as the Father of the Soviet Union.

Stalinism

After Lenin’s death in 1924, Leon Trotsky was to be his successor. Trotsky was an ally of Lenin and had the same interpretation of communism as Lenin did.

However, Stalin also wanted to be leader of the Soviet Union and there was a struggle between Trotsky and Stalin for power.

In the end, Stalin won the power struggle and sent Trotsky to exile in Mexico where he was later assassinated.

By 1928, Stalin had complete control and had become supreme leader of the country.

While Stalin claimed to be a Marxist-Leninist, his interpretation of communism was formed by his desire for control and absolute power.

Stalin’s form of communism meant oppression and fear for the people, not revolution and freedom.

Stalin rejected all liberal ideas, feeling that they would only hinder the USSR and not help achieve its goals.

Some of the policies that Stalin enforced:

Creation of the Gulag to contain those who opposed him.

Use of the secret police (NKVD) to control people and instill fear in them.

The purges of 1936 and 1939 to eliminate all those in the Communist Party and the Soviet armed forces who opposed him.

Rewriting Soviet history and prescribing a state view of the history of the country. (see page 167 figures 7-8 and 7-9 for an example)

Collectivization of all farms to state or collective farms. All farms were taken by force.

The Ukraine (one of the Soviet Republics) opposed the idea of collectivization of the farms.

As a result, Stalin targeted the Ukraine heavily. In prior years, the Ukraine had experienced draught and had low grain output. Stalin increased the quota that the Ukraine needed to meet and withheld the grain, which resulted in the starvation of 7 to 10 million people.

It is said that Stalin did this to squash his opposition and to remove the resistance of collective farms.

Stalin also did this to help industrialize the Soviet Union.

After Stalin’s death in 1953, there were many successors. And there was a division of the world: those who supported the Soviet Union and those who did not.

This led to tension between the USA and the USSR, known as the Cold War.

By the mid-1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev became leader of the Soviet Union. He was the first leader to embrace liberalism. This could be seen in his policy of glasnost (openness and greater freedoms).

Gorbachev also introduced changes to the economic and political systems of the USSR.

He moved towards a market economy, private ownership of business, and multi-party elections. This was known as perestroika.

Fascism

The term fascism was first used by Mussolini (Italy’s leader) in 1922. It comes from the Latin word fasces which means sticks bundled around an axe, a symbol of power and authority in ancient Roman times.

Fascism is a dictatorship that includes extreme militaristic nationalism, a belief in the rule of elites, and a totalitarian society in which individual interests are not as important as those of the nation-state. Fascism also rejects the ideas of liberal democracy, communism and socialism.

Fascism began to grow after World War One, particularly in Germany, Italy and Japan.

Many felt that liberalism had failed them and that the war was a result of liberal values.

To fascists, democratic governments were weak, unstable, and unable to solve the social, economic, and political problems many countries faced after the Great War.

Some key principles of fascism:

Society as a whole has a shared purpose

Dominate other nations around the world

Aware of cultural distinctions

Their goal of dominating other peoples can only be achieved through discipline, obedience, and the creation of an all powerful state.

Many fascists also turned to social Darwinism – the idea that some individuals or groups achieve power and advantage over others because they are stronger and fitter.

They believed that there are “natural” inequalities among individuals and therefore there should be a division among the people.

Social Darwinism also looked at improving the human species through selective breeding and genocide.

Fascists used social Darwinism to justify policies that discriminated against other groups and to use violence against these groups.

Fascism and Germany

Germany became a unified country in 1871 with Otto von Bismarck as its leader. A unified Germany presented itself as a challenge to other European powers.

Germany entered World War One as an ally to Austria. The war did not go as Germany had planned and in the end, Germany lost.

With the end of the war, came a new liberal democratic government for Germany, called the Weimar Republic.

The Weimar Republic was forced to accept the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which included harsh punishments for Germany.

The Treat included the following terms:

Germany must give up some of its own territory and all of its colonies.

Germany must accept responsibility for causing all of the loss and damage to Allied governments

Germany must pay approximately US$4.5 billion (at the time) in reparations to the Allied governments between 1919 and 1921 and an additional US$18 billion after.

Even though Germany was forced to accept the terms of the Treaty, the government could not afford to pay the reparations that it demanded. By 1923, Germany stopped paying them.

At the same time, the German government had printed massive amounts of the German mark, which in turn made the value of the mark decrease. The people of Germany face hyperinflation.

The Weimar Republic face hyperinflation, massive unemployment, and a drop in the standard of living. These were things that a liberal democracy had never face before.

The 1930s brought the Great Depression, and nearly 5 million Germans were unemployed. Many people blamed the democratic government for their problems.

There was also political chaos at this time. The Weimar Republic had no strong leaders or clear leadership of the country. It also lost the support of many Germans because it had accepted the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

As support for the Weimar Republic dropped, support for new political parties began to rise. One of these parties was the Nationalist Socialist German Workers’ Party or the Nazi Party.

While economic and political factors contributed to the rise of Hitler and fascism, there was also an extreme fear of communism that led to his rise. The people did not want a communist revolution such as the one in Russia, so they turned to the other ideology that rejected liberalism – they turned to fascism.

Hitler and the rise of Nazism

Hitler began his rise to power in the Nazi party in the 1920s.

By 1923, he decided that the only way to gain power in Germany was to take it by force. After his attempt to take control of the government failed, Hitler was tried and sent to prison. At the same time, the Nazi party was banned.

While in prison, Hitler wrote his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle) which described his understandings of fascism and that would influence the fascist movement in Germany.

In 1925, Hitler was released from prison after promising to use legal means to promote his ideas and politics. At the same time, the ban on the Nazi party was also lifted and within 2 years, support for the party had grown.

Hitler blamed many people and groups for the troubles that Germany was facing. Some of the groups included the Weimar government, communists, the Jewish population, and other minority groups.

Nazi support continued to grow.

In January of 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Germany, leader of the democratically elected government.

One month later, the German Parliament building (the Reichstag) was on fire, and a member of the Communist Party was found inside.

Hitler used this chance to blame the Communists for the destruction of the Reichstag, and used the peoples fear of communism to take further control of the country.

Hitler made it out that the communists were planning a revolution with the burning of the Reichstag – the people feared this.

With the turmoil occurring, a snap election was called and the Nazi Party became the party with the most seats in parliament.

Hitler then passed the Enabling Act, and any opposition was wiped out, as well as many individual rights and freedoms.

Germany was now a dictatorship.

Nazism uses fascism but with the added belief that there was one superior race, the Aryans.

Hitler used many techniques to ensure the support of the German people such as propaganda, youth movements, elimination of the opposition, the use of terror and force (the SA – storm troopers and the SS – Schutzstaffel), and the use of scapegoats.

Hitler also encouraged the rejection of liberalism and its values.

He used fascism to take away the rights and freedoms from those who he deemed as not part of his ideal society. For example, he targeted the Jewish population, Roma, people with mental or physical disabilities, homosexuals, and those who opposed Hitler’s rule (communists, democratic socialists, feminists, etc)

The group that Hitler focused on most – the Jewish population.

The Jewish population was blamed for a lot of Germany’s hardships even though they only made up 1% of the whole German population.

Hitler believed that northern European “Aryans” were superior and that the Jewish peoples and others were inferior, therefore they needed to be removed.

In 1935, Hitler passed the Nuremberg Laws to define who was Jewish and who was not in order to preserve the “pure Aryan” or master race.

In November of 1938, the Night of the Broken Glass or Kristallnacht occurred and many Jewish people were sent to concentration camps.

After this night, many others were sent to the concentration camps and by the end of World War Two, approximately 6 million Jewish people were killed of the 9 million that had resided in Europe.

Hitler did not only target the Jewish population. In the end nearly 14 million people died in the camps. They included Polish people, Soviet POWs, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and anyone who opposed Nazi beliefs or values.

Nazism rejected the political values and beliefs of liberalism. It was a dictatorship that limited the rights and freedoms of individuals. The state was the primary concern of Hitler and the Nazi’s, not the people.

Similarities of Communism and Fascism

Both are anti-democratic and elitist in practice, in both the USSR and Nazi Germany the leader was glorified and given unlimited powers

Both emphasize the collective good over individual rights and freedoms

Both are willing to use force and terror and use secret police to enforce their one party rule

Both are willing to use scapegoating

Both used controlled participation. E.g. in both the USSR and Nazi Germany membership in the ruling party ensured success, and although elections were held regularly, the elections did not allow for free choice or a secret ballot.

Both used propaganda and indoctrination. E.g. in the USSR and Nazi Germany, totalitarian control was common. Media and education, as well as other areas of life were controlled by the government. All information was controlled by the government. Organizations for young people like the Hitler Youth or the Young Pioneers (USSR) helped to indoctrinate the youth.

Differences of Communism and Fascism

|Communism |Fascism |

|Based on ideas by Marx and Lenin |Based on the ideas of Hitler and Mussolini |

|A form of left wing dictatorship |A form of right wing dictatorship |

|Stresses reason and logic |Stresses emotion |

|Believes in equality |Believes in inequality |

|Emphasizes internationalism |Emphasizes nationalism |

|Stresses public ownership |Emphasizes private ownership |

|Emphasizes class struggle (rich vs. poor) |Emphasizes racial struggle (Aryans vs. others) |

|Appeals to the working class, especially the poor |Appeals to industrialists, militarists, middle class |

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download