POL 103 Study Guide - Spring 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Terrorism, International Law, World War Ii
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
POL 103
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
COMMUNISM
•Communism is an ideology that seeks to create human equality by eliminating private property and market forces.
HISTORY
•Karl Marx (1818 – 1883)
–Hated the conditions that the Industrial Revolution had brought to workers – Created “Marxism” = aka “Communism”
•Frederick Engels (1820 – 1895)
–Co-authored
The Communist Manifesto
with Marx
•Marx and Engels met in Paris in 1844 – Shared a hatred of current European industrial society – Shared an
interest in reform
•This ideology can be traced primarily to Karl Marx. Marx believed that there was inherent conflict between what he
termed the base (the economic system of society, made up of technology and class relations between people) and the
superstructure (institutions like religion, culture, and national identity) that Marx saw as exploiting the base.
•Marx and many other communists rejected liberal democracy because they believed it purported to allow people into the
political process, when in fact those with wealth truly controlled politics.
Engels founded Marxist theory together with Karl Marx and in 1845 published
The Condition of the Working Class in
England
, based on personal observations and research in Manchester. In 1848, Engels co-authored
The Communist
Manifesto
with Marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with Marx) many other works. Later, Engels supported
Marx financially to do research and write
Das Kapital
.
DIALECTIC
•Marx disagreed with ideas of Hegel
•“Dialectics” is a term used to describe a method of philosophical argument that involves some sort of contradictory process
between opposing sides.
•Plato presented his philosophical argument as a back-and-forth dialogue or debate between Socrates and a group of
interlocutors
•Dialectical method, is at base a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but
wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments. “Hegel’s dialectics” refers to the particular dialectical method of
argument employed by the 19th Century German philosopher, G.W.F. Hegel (see entry on Hegel), which, like other
“dialectical” methods, relies on a contradictory process between opposing sides.
HEGEL’S DIALECTICS
• Being-Nothing-Becoming
– Thesis-antithesis-synthesis pattern
•Marx incorporated this into philosophical materialism
–Contrast to Idealism
•Within Hegelianism,
dialectic
acquires a specialised meaning of a contradiction of ideas that serves as the determining
factor in their interaction; comprising three stages of development: a thesis, giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis, which
contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis.
•Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that all
things, including mental aspects and consciousness, are results of material interactions. In Idealism, mind and consciousness
are first-order realities to which matter is subject and secondary.
REVOLUTION & THE TRIUMPH OF COMMUNISM
•Human history moved through a series of phases
–Economic conflict leads to revolutions that would move the world from feudalism though capitalist democracy, and
ultimately a communist utopia.
•This process is known as dialectical materialism.
•In Marx’s theory, the communist utopia would be a world without states, and he envisioned a world of total equality
without the conflicts of nationalism.
find more resources at oneclass.com
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DIALECTIC MATERIALISM
Marx claims to have turned Hegel on his head:
1. The Individual and Particular Have Priority Over the Universal (Materialism replaces Idealism). Start from the
individual and particular. Basic Empirical Facts: modes of production and relations of production and exchange. History is
the history of the development of the division of labor. Forms of property are a symptom of the underlying facts.
2. Basic empirical facts have priority over ideas (e.g., laws and philosophical theories. Laws and all religious, moral, and
philosophical speculation is part of a superstructure that is determined by the sub-structure of basic empirical facts.
3. Purely descriptive has priority over the Ethical (Normative). There are no ethical relations independent of the basic
relations of production and exchange.
4. Invisible Hand Explanation of History. History is the product of causal relations and class conflict, not dialectical conflict
between ideas.
Although Marx denies objective moral truths, his account is an account of the elimination of alienation, oppression and
exploitation. Marx claims to be able to explain them purely descriptively. But in this he fails. His account seems to make
use of universal ethical categories.Moreover, history has a teleology. Its goal is human emancipation (Hegel's goal).
COMMUNISM IN PRACTICE
•Marx argued that communism would emerge where capitalism was strongest and thus most prone to collapse.
•However, Lenin in Russia and Mao in China led communist revolutions in states with low levels of economic development.
•Communist Party in both cases strove to remake all facets of society
–Led to totalitarianism. They repressed all competing organizations and ideologies.
–Relied on co-optation, giving government positions to people in exchange for loyalty to the party, to maintain control.
–The party structure resembled a state—general secretary as the executive, a Politburo as the cabinet, the Central
Committee as the legislature, and even local cells of supporters—but these institutions usually merely approved whatever
party leadership desired.
Communist ideology shaped state policy making and legitimized authoritarian control.
these states gathered high levels of autonomy and capacity, often leading to totalitarianism
Some organizations, like unions, were allowed to exist, but they were controlled by the Communist Party.
COMMUNIST POLITICAL ECONOMY
•Communist political-economic systems featured elimination of markets and private property. Free markets were replaced
with central planning, where the state controlled the type and amount of goods produced.
Economic Issues with Central Planning:
•Difficult for leaders to adapt to changing levels of supply and demand.
–Because entities in an economy are interdependent, small problems with over- or underproduction can have a huge effect
on the entire economy.
•In addition, some argue communist economies stagnated because workers did not have incentives to produce high-quality
goods, as employment was guaranteed and their work was evaluated on quantity over quality.
SOCIETY & COMMUNISM
•Communism sought to remake social institutions that it saw as part of the exploitive superstructure. This included
suppressing religion, envisioning the elimination of marriage, providing greater work and political opportunities for women,
and eliminating ethnic and national identities.
•Women held leaderships positions, but not upper ranks
•Still better than the United States1987, Eastern Europe has 26.6% women legislators United States- 4%, Global Average-
9.7%
COLLEGE OF COMMUNISM
•During the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev initiated political and economic reforms in the Soviet Union due to the internal
economic stagnation and because of increasing U.S. dominance.
•These reforms included glasnost (openness of public debate) and perestroika (actual institutional reforms).
•What motivated Gorbachev to initiate reform of the communist system?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Communism: communism is an ideology that seeks to create human equality by eliminating private property and market forces. Hated the conditions that the industrial revolution had brought to workers created marxism = aka communism : frederick engels (1820 1895) Co-authored the communist manifesto with marx: marx and engels met in paris in 1844 shared a hatred of current european industrial society shared an interest in reform, this ideology can be traced primarily to karl marx. Engels founded marxist theory together with karl marx and in 1845 published the condition of the working class in. England, based on personal observations and research in manchester. Manifesto with marx and also authored and co-authored (primarily with marx) many other works. Marx financially to do research and write das kapital. Hegel"s dialectics refers to the particular dialectical method of argument employed by the 19th century german philosopher, g. w. f. Hegel (see entry on hegel), which, like other.
