Chapter 2 Political Theory and Political Beliefs Political behavior or micropolitics are the combinations of political beliefs and actions Normative Political Theory answers the should questions should we go to war blah blah Some political theorists are Thomas Hobbes Monarch has absolute power with voice of people to be heard Adam Smith Division of labor with gov t control Karl Marx communism Empirical Political Theory relies on observation to develop descriptive knowledge of the political world Political Ideology A set of beliefs about the political world The individual Nature v Nurture and how one may react Thomas Hobbes People are always working for their own interests Individual State and Society Wealth of the entire nation mentality like Adam Smith OR individual rights above all Equality Everyone equal under the law OR equal opportunity benefits goods THREE MAJOR WESTERN IDEOLOGIES Conservatism Slows transition away from society based on traditional values social hierarchy Individual Individuals are not inherently rational and tradition religion is needed to guide as well as that we are not all of equal intelligence Individual State and Society Individual liberty but no one has absolute freedom Equality Limited and dangerous to seek egalitarianism Classical Liberalism Highest value on individual freedom and posits that the role of government should be limited John Locke Adam Smith Jeremy Bentham John Stuart Mill Individual The freedom to pursue natural rights is of the highest value and each individual is rational and responsible Individual State and Society People can choose to be governed and if they do they accept a minimal government Equality Equality before the law is important but the government should not try to create material equality Keep in mind that as Americans we tend to get this mixed up since the word liberalism was redefined during the Great Depression Socialism The goal is to provide high quality and equal conditions of life for everyone Individual According to this people are giving and caring by nature but social conditions can change this Individual State and Society Because the good of the society as a whole is most important some individual interests have to be put aside to help the overall interests Equality complete and total equality in every aspect of life Has 2 main variants Marxist Leninist Socialism states that the elite must be violently overthrown to begin transformation to socialism Democratic Socialism That people will willingly turn to socialism and there is no need for force Individual Political Beliefs Types of Political Orientations Cognitive Orientations an individual s knowledge about the political world Affective Orientations Feelings or emotions evoked by politics someone burning Evaluative Orientation synthesis of facts and feelings into judgment about a flag politics Identifying Specific Beliefs Survey Research Public Opinion Polls gathering of the many attitudes of people in order to determine their political stances and beliefs Belief Systems Configurations of an individual s political orientations To figure this out you ask about the content salience complexity consistency stability and motivation of the beliefs Research on belief systems include facts and opinions on the lowest level Constraint Knowledge is next which includes values and beliefs Philip Converse concluded in the 1960s that only 15 of people had a good level of political knowledge and that the masses were based on superficial information Recent research has put this into question however Political Culture The configuration of a particular people s political orientations It isn t really micropolitics National Character Studies studies that attempt to capture the essence of a people s political culture in terms of broad adjectives Essentially a stereotype Survey Research Analysis a systematic and scientifically acceptable way of getting information