POLITICAL IDEOLOGY CONSERV AND ABSOLUTES

FOR EDUCTION PURPOSES ONLY

1. POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

2. Absolutism the political doctrine and practice of unlimited centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator. The essence of an absolutist system is that the ruling power is not subject to regularized challenge or check by any other agency, be it judicial, legislative, religious, economic, or electoral.

3. The most commonly studied form of absolutism is absolute monarchy, which originated in early modern Europe and was based on the strong individual leaders of the new nation-states that were created at the breakup of the medieval order By the 16th century monarchical absolutism prevailed in much of western Europe, and it was widespread in the 17th and 18th centuries

4. The most common defense of monarchical absolutism, known as “the divine right of kings” theory, asserted that kings derived their authority from God. This view could justify even tyrannical rule as divinely ordained punishment, administered by rulers, for human sinfulness

5. The most elaborate statement of this view was made by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes in Leviathan (1651). A monopoly of power also has been justified on the basis of a presumed knowledge of absolute truth. Neither the sharing of power nor limits on its exercise appear valid to those who believe that they know—and know absolutely—what is right

6. This argument was advanced by Vladimir Ilich Lenin to defend the absolute authority of the Communist Party in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

7. CONSERVATISM Conservatism, political doctrine that emphasizes the value of traditional institutions and practices. Conservatism is a preference for the historically inherited rather than the abstract and ideal In The Devil’s Dictionary (1906) , the American writer Ambrose Bierce cynically (but not inappropriately) defined the conservative as “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.”

8. The term conservative was introduced after 1815 by supporters of the newly restored Bourbon monarchy in France, including the author and diplomat Franƈois -Auguste-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand

9. The originator of modern, articulated conservatism (though he never used the term himself) is generally acknowledged to be the British parliamentarian and political writer Edmund Burke, whose Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) was a forceful expression of conservatives’ rejection of the French Revolution and a major inspiration for counterrevolutionary theorists in the 19th century

10. CHARACTERISTICS Preservation of tradition : Conservatives value tradition and the wisdom of past generations. Resistance to change : They are skeptical of rapid or radical changes in society. Limited government : Conservatives advocate for limited government intervention in the economy and individuals’ lives. Individualism : People accept responsibility for their actions. Organic society : Those in positions of power have an obligation to help the community.

11. CHARACTERISTICS 6. Conservatism is as much a matter of temperament as of doctrine. It may sometimes even accompany left-wing politics or economics—as it did, 7. Conservatism has often been associated with traditional and established forms of religion

12. In contrast to the Enlightenment philosophers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, each of whom conceived of political society as based on a hypothetical social contract among the living, Burke argued that Society is indeed a contract. But the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born…