The Experience of Politics Parties and Doctrines

Present this in a Quebec context (if you can …)

The names of political parties are opportunistic – they are mere names, not descriptions of doctrines - e.g., the Republicans and the Democrats -Liberal and conservative tendencies are basic -Except for Quebec … momentarily -Everything tends to reduce to two -It does not mean only two political parties but it does mean two main political parties -The ``one-party state`` does actually translate into dictatorship, as there is no one to debate with

-Like it or not, in every liberal democratic state there usually are two dominant parties, with several others on the margins of political power -a host of political sects that only compete / work during elections -Those parties are not acting alone – lobbying by pressure groups, interest groups, vocational organization, churches, other organizations -

Two-party -Pros: -Cons: Multi-party -Pros: -Cons:

Who wins what – do parties capture the power of the state or does the state capture the parties? -Government is a limited and responsible business (see Mayor Tremblay), while democratic politics is a game in which teams vie for victory -Competition and risk-taking – the electorate can throw the rascals out -Depending on their attitude towards progress, parties are identified as conservative and liberals – this does not always reflect the reality

democrats-are-back-in-the-ring-1/

Parties might be identified with interests, so that the rich are …, whilst the poor are … or … -again, unclear, as many workers vote for …, whilst rich people vote for … Reality: politics is about persuasion – whichever party is better at this, will win -No longer about political doctrines -No facts about voters tell us reliably how they will think or act

-The most plausible error in the understanding of parties: to identify them with doctrines, sometimes called ideologies -Principles and programs are important in politics, but they are trumped by circumstance

Spending Austerity Who are the TRUE liberals?

To explain the three main political ideologies, Minogue uses British history: -At first, 17 th c, there were the Tories (order and obedience) and the Whigs (the consent of a limited electorate as expressed through the Parliament) -John Locke was the philosopher of the Whigs -Gov`t must rest on the consent of the governed and men have a natural right to life, liberty and property -Echoed in the American Declaration of Independence: the inalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness

Liberalism has acquired two meanings: -A specific political tendency in modern politics to be contrasted with conservatism and other doctrines -The archetypical attitude to which all modern European politics belong

Conservatism: founded by Edmund Burke -Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke argued that liberalism, as a political doctrine of reform, found it hard to distinguish itself from the doctrines of social transformation which, in their search for a perfect society, would destroy politics altogether (French revolution, later on communism and Nazism)

-Politics is based on the concepts of preservation and reform -Politics takes off not from abstract ideas of social perfection, but from the circumstances of the present – the reality, rather than the ideal

Socialism -The fusion of two 19 th c phenomena: -The idea that society is basically a factory whose products ought to be equally distributed among those who work in it -The actual enfranchisement of the new class of industrial workers -Socialism: its concern for the poor -Legislate policies such as the redistribution of wealth or the state provision of welfare -Hostile to luxury -

The first reforms in favour of the new industrial workers class and the welfare state in Britain were initiated by: a.The Liberal Party b.The Conservative Party c.The Labour Party d.The PQ e.Who cares?

The first such measures were actually initiated by the Conservative Party because the CP realized that those measures were a necessity (acknowledged the need to change) and that it would make them popular -A case of `better us than them` -Parties steal each others` clothes and poach each others` supporters as part of the great game of politics, often with relatively little concern for doctrinal consistency

Actual politics: liberals broadly favour reform and conservatives stick with the tradition – this formula points us in the right direction, but nothing more -The problem of socialism: is it a political doctrine, just as liberalism and conservatism, or is it a movement that aims at something much grander than politics, namely a permanently better society? -Socialism may refer to either of the two: -The belief in a fully just society – movement -A political tendency to favour egalitarian and redistributive reforms when possible – doctrine

Socialism – a fully just society requires no politics – makes it an ideology, rather than a political doctrine Social democracy – the political partner of socialism -The political commitment which recognizes that the state is an institution that must respond to the current tastes and desires of its members -

To conclude Any conception of a finally perfect state is incompatible to the very activity of politics itself