The Government

Week 4 – PPGC 211 Lecture

 Early Attempts of Classifying
• Attempts of
Classification of
Political Institutions
• Aristotle – classified
government (ideal
versus perverted)
• Examined 158
constistutions
Early Attempts of Classifying
• Charles Baron de Montesquieu: French Philosopher of
the 18th century
• 3 Species of Government:
1. Republican: divides power between the many or the few
2. Monarchical: rule by one but regulated by laws
3. Despotic: worst form of government, power in the hands of one
man
 Purpose and Necessity of
Government
• For the benefit of the people governed
• For the protection of society and its members
• For the preservation of the state
• For the advancement of the well-being of the people
• For the proper administration and for public welfare
• ESSENTIALLY: To prevent anarchy, disorder, fear, and
insecurity in the society
Classification of Governments
1. As to the Number of Persons Exercising Sovereign Power
2. As to the Extent of Powers Exercised by the Central or
National Government
3. As to the Relationship between the Executive and
Legislative Branches of Government
 1. As to the Number. . .
NONE ONE FEW ALL
Anarchy Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy
Tyranny Oligarchy Direct
Dictatorshi Representat
p ive
 1. As to the Number. . .
• Monarchy: final authority is in the hands of 1 person
1. Absolute Monarchy: by divine right
2. Limited Monarchy: acts in accordance with the Constitution
• Tyranny: autocratic rule where 1 individual exercises
power without legal restraint
• Dictatorship: authoritarian type where there is absolute
control by 1 person
 1. As to the Number. . .
• Aristocracy: by few privileged classes; From Greek
“aristokratia” meaning 'rule of the best'.
• Oligarchy: by a group of people who has all the power in the
government
• Democracy: by majority of the people
1. Direct or Pure: will of the state is formulated or expressed directly &
immediately by the people
2. Indirect, Representative, or Republican: will of the state is
formulated & expressed thru a select body of persons chosen by the
people as their representatives
 2. As to Extent of Powers…
• Unitary Government: the control of national and local
affairs is exercised by the central or national government.
Ex: Philippines
• Federal Government: powers of government are divided
between the national and local governments. Ex: U.S.A
 3. As to Relationship. . .
• Parliamentary Government
• in which the state confers upon the legislature the power to
terminate the tenure of office of the real executive
• Legislatures called parliaments operate under a parliamentary
system of government in which the executive is constitutionally
answerable to the parliament
• Parliaments usually consist of chambers or houses, and are
usually either bicameral or unicameral.
• Ex: Japan, Great Britain
 3. As to Relationship. . .
• Presidential Government
• The Executive is constitutionally independent of the legislature as
regards to tenure to a large extent.
• President is both head of State and of the Government
• Executive exists independently from the Legislative
• Legislative, usually, cannot dismiss a President. (Exemption:
Impeachment)
 Political
Ideologies
Week 4 – PPGC 211 Lecture
 ‘The philosophers have only
interpreted the world in various
ways: the point is to change it.’

KARL M ARX , Theses on Feuerbach (1845)

 Meaning of Ideology

Ideology is a comprehensive set of normative beliefs,

conscious and unconscious ideas, that an individual, group
or society has. An ideology is less encompassing than the
ideas expressed in concepts such as worldview, imaginary
and ontology.
 Meaning of Ideology
From a social-scientific viewpoint, an ideology is a more or less
coherent set of ideas that provides a basis for organized political action,
whether this is intended to preserve, modify or overthrow the existing
system of power relationships. All ideologies:

1. Offer an account of the existing order, usually in the form of a

‘worldview’
2. Provide a model of a desired future, a vision of the Good Society
3. Outline how political change can and should be brought about
 Meaning of Ideology

Political ideologies can be proposed by the dominant class

of society such as the elite to all members of society as
suggested in some Marxist and critical-theory accounts.
In societies that distinguish between public and private life,
every political or economic tendency entails ideology,
whether or not it is propounded as an explicit system of
thought.
 Meaning of Ideology

Louis Althusser’s Ideological State Apparatuses (2010) in

essence defined ideology as “the imaginary relation to the
real conditions of existence”.
 Ideological Analyses
• Meta-ideology - the study of the structure, form, and
manifestation of ideologies.
• Recent analysis tends to posit that ideology is a coherent
system of ideas, relying upon a few basic assumptions
about reality that may or may not have any factual basis.
• According to most recent analysis, ideologies are neither
necessarily right nor wrong.
 Classical Ideological Traditions
• Political ideology arose out of the transition from
feudalism to industrial capitalism.
• In simple terms, the earliest, or ‘classical’ ideologies –
liberalism, conservatism and socialism – developed as
contrasting attempts to shape emerging industrial society.
• This meant that the central theme in ideological debate
and argument during this period and beyond was the
battle between two rival economic philosophies:
capitalism and socialism.
Major Political
Ideologies
Week 4 – PPGC 211 Lecture
 Major Political Ideologies
1. Anarchism
2. Absolutism
3. Liberalism
4. Conservatism
5. Socialism

Note: These political ideologies are mutually exclusive.

 I. Anarchism
• The belief that the best government is absolutely no
government is known as anarchism
• This ideology argues that everything about governments is
repressive and therefore must be abolished entirely.
 II. Absolutism
• Absolutism: the belief that a single ruler should have
control over every aspect of the government and of the
people’s lives.
• Absolute rulers had a variety of titles, including chieftain,
king, shah, pharaoh, emperor, sultan, and prince
 II. Absolutism
• In some cultures, the absolute ruler was seen as a god in
human form. Other peoples believed that their ruler had
the divine right of kings, meaning that God had chosen the
ruler to govern the rest.
• As a result, many cultures with absolute rulers practiced
some form of caesaropapism, the belief that the ruler is
head of both the governmental authority and the religious
authority.
 Emphases of Absolutism
1. A strong sense of order: everything should be carefully
structured, including society. Disorder and chaos are generally
considered to be dangerous.
2. A clear-cut law of nature or Law of God: this law must be
obeyed. According to this law, some people are inherently better
than others.
3. A natural hierarchy: a power structure in which some people
have authority over others exists. Therefore, the superior should
rule the inferior. This general view is called elitism, or elite theory
 III.Liberalism
In the early modern age of the Western world (beginning
roughly in the early 1500s and running for about 200 years),
a number of changes occurred that led to new ideologies:
• The European discovery of the Americas
• The rise of Protestantism
• The beginnings of the free-market economy, and
• Tthe early stages of the scientific revolution fundamentally altered
Europe.
 III.Liberalism
• Classical Liberalism: developed when such thinkers as
John Locke (in his Second Treatise of Government in
1690) rethought the relationship between the individual
and society, as well theorized about the rights and
responsibilities of the individual.
• This type of liberalism, which began in England in the
1600s, differs from American liberalism.
 III.Liberalism
Emphases:
1. Individualism: the individual takes priority over society
2. Freedom: Individuals have the right to make choices for
themselves. This freedom is not absolute, and some
behaviors, such as murder, are prohibited. Freedom of
religion is a particularly important freedom to come out
of liberalism because so many governments at the time
were very closely tied to a particular religious creed;
 III.Liberalism
3. Equality: No person is morally or politically superior to others.
Hierarchies are rejected;
4. Rationalism: Humans are capable of thinking logically and
rationally. Logic and reason help us solve problems;
5. Progress: Traditions should not be kept unless they have value.
New ideas are helpful because they can lead to progress in the
sciences, the economy, and society;
6. The free market: Liberalism and capitalism go hand in hand.
Liberals like the free market because it more easily creates wealth,
as opposed to traditional economies, which often have extensive
regulations and limits on which occupations people can hold.
 IV. Conservatism
• Conservatism (also known as classical conservatism)
began as a reaction against the liberal ideas taking hold of
Europe during the French Revolution in the late
eighteenth century.
• Edmund Burke, a British Member of Parliament, observed
the early stages of the French Revolution with great
distress and predicted the violence and terror that would
ensue.
• Warned against revolutions and their utopian schemes for human
perfectibility
 IV. Conservatism
Emphases:
1. Stability: Stability is a precious thing, and change must be made
gradually in order to preserve it. Undermining stability is very
dangerous because societies can easily fall into chaos and violence.
2. Concreteness: Liberalism is too abstract. It focuses on freedom and
equality, not on the concrete way people live every day
3. Human fallibility: Liberalism overestimates human beings. Humans
are frequently ignorant, prejudiced, and irrational. By ignoring these
defects, liberalism becomes unrealistic;
4. Unique circumstances: There is no universal answer to the problems
of society; the circumstances are unique in each country.
 V. Capitalism
• Capitalism is a political and economic ideology which states
that individuals are free
• Private actors own and control property in accord with their
interests, and demand and supply freely set prices in
markets in a way that can serve the best interests of society.
• Emphasis within capitalist countries is on the role of
individuals rather than the state.
• Essential Feature: To make Profit
 Pillars of Capitalism
1. Private Property
2. Self-interest
3. Competition
4. Market Mechanism
5. Freedom to Choose
6. Limited Role of Government
 The Ideology of State
Capitalism
• The ideology of state capitalism initially was fashioned
during the 19th century as groups in various European
countries advanced plans for reorganizing society along
state capitalist lines and for raising their own social status
in the process.
• Transformed these ideas into doctrines and dogmas to
maintain status quo
 VI. Socialism
Socialism: an economic system in which the factors of
production are valued in relationship to their usefulness to
people.
A mantra of socialism is, "From each according to his
ability, to each according to his contribution."
 Socialist Beliefs
1. Collectivism: Human beings are social by nature, and society should
respect this. Individualism is poisonous.
2. Public Ownership: Society, not individuals, should own the property
3. Central Economic Planning: The government plans the economy; there
is no free market
4. Economic Equality: all citizens have roughly the same level of prosperity.
5. Need: ‘From each according to his ability, to each according to his need’,
which means that material benefits should be distributed on the basis of
need, rather than simply on the basis of merit or work.
6. Social Class: the socialist goal is either the eradication of economic and
social inequalities, or their substantial reduction.
Socialism vs. Capitalism vs. Communism
vs. Fascism
Attribute Socialism Capitalism Communism Fascism

Factors of Production Individuals

Everyone Individuals Everyone
are owned by:

Factors of Production
Usefulness to people Profit Usefulness to people Nation building
are valued for:

Allocation decided by: Central plan Demand and Supply Central plan Central plan

From each according

Ability Market decides Ability Value to the nation
to their:

To each according to
Contribution Wealth Need Value to the nation
their:
 Class Warfare
According to socialists, liberalism fails to live up to its
promises of freedom and equality. Socialists blame the free
market for liberalism’s failings.

Under a capitalist system, money and means of production

are the measures of power. The haves (the bourgeoisie, in
Marx’s terms) and the have-nots (whom Marx calls the
proletariat) are locked into a fight that Marx called class
warfare.
 Evolution of Socialism
Socialism evolved in a variety of ways. Communism and
democratic socialism are the two most prominent evolutions
of socialism.

Democratic socialism: A peaceful and

democratic approach to achieving socialism.
As an ideology, democratic socialism also
emphasizes a classless society in which all
members jointly share the means and output
of production. But unlike communism,
democratic socialism attempts to achieve its
goals peacefully via the democratic
processes.
 VI.Communism
Communism is an authoritarian and revolutionary
approach to achieving socialism. As an ideology,
communism emphasizes a classless society in which all
members jointly share the means and output of production.

The regimes of the Soviet Union and communist China

embody this ideology.
 VI.Communism
Authoritarian and violent measures are often required
because the defenders of capitalism will fight ferociously to
stop socialism from coming into being.
 Five Common Features of
Communism
• The monopoly of power (‘leading role’) of the Communist
Party;
• Intra-party relations which were highly centralized and
strictly disciplined (‘democratic centralism’);
• State, rather than private, ownership of the means of
production;
• The building of communism as the ultimate, legitimizing
goal; and
• A sense of belonging to an international Communist
movement.