Politics and Political Choices: a beginner’s guide

By Tim Sandle (timsandle@aol.com)

Writing an introduction to political choice is not an easy task. The first stumbling
blocks are simply ‘what is politics?’ and, in turn then, ‘what is a democracy?’, and the
answer to these is still area of debate amongst political scientists. However, one cannot
begin a discussion on political difference until the nature of politics itself has been
examined.

The reader should be aware then, that the whole subject of politics is one of
considerable debate and discussion. But this is good – there are no universal
definitions. My interpretation is biased from my own beliefs and experiences, just as
yours is. It is being able to recognise this, to hear the counter argument, and then to
take a view that is the important thing.

What is democracy and politics?

The idea of politics has been around since Ancient Greece (particularly Athens),
approximately 5 B.C. The Greeks developed the concept of democracy, translated
from ‘demokratia’ meaning demos (people) and kratos (rule). Democracy is a system
of government, which is different to monarchies or aristocracies, because the ‘people’
rule. It is one of the most contested concepts in the world today. During the Cold War
both the USA and the USSR claimed to be democratic states. It does not necessarily
mean a good thing. Democracy, for instance, could mean mob rule, anarchism, or
having a small parliament to take all the decisions without referenda (like the UK,
which certainly has no resemblance to the idea of democracy – where all people vote
on all of the issues – practised in Ancient Greece). Does a democracy require all its
citizens to be educated? Does it require relatively equal social status between its
peoples? As you can see, we all ready have a contrast between ‘direct democracy’,
parliamentary democracy and anarchism.

After the fall of Athens democratic ideas did not surface again until eighteenth century
Europe and the French Revolution. They were very much part of a cultural and social
movement called ‘The Enlightenment’. Democracy as a world wide idea is less than
one hundred years old (Held, 1987). For example, it was not until 1970 that all adults
over the age of eighteen could vote in the USA because certain southern states
excluded blacks; free elections were banned in Spain under Franco until 1975; and
women in the UK were excluded until 1928 despite New Zealand allowing women to
vote thirty years before!

For me politics is about three main concepts: power, democracy and a framework to
view and describe society. An individual cannot escape from politics (however much
they wish they could), because politics is all embracing. It is about the economy,
society, the way we interact as citizens. It is about choice, for instance, where we
choose to shop or the way men and women treat each other. Those who decide not to
bother with politics (‘I won’t bother voting’) are making a political choice not to get
involved – their apathy merely leaves the power and decision making to others and
often reinforces the status quo.
It is clear from all this that politics is not just about party politics. In the UK, three
political parties stand clustered around similar policies, often only distinguishable by
sound bite or in minor distribution of the nation’s wealth or an attitude towards
Europe. Politics, on the other hand, is about the way we organise and shape human life
– our laws, work, the way money is distributed, class, the borders of a nation, war,
famine, community, the environment, sexuality, laws and so on. These are the big
questions and decisions. We do not have the option of no politics.

Where are we now?

There are lots of different perspectives and views on politics including religion,
ecologism, feminism and so on. The self-imposed space restrictions of this essay does
not allow a full discussion of all these ideas, nor does it allow a detailed study on the
ideologies that have formed many of the ideas we hold today.

Most of the world lives in what political scientists term a ‘capitalist liberal
democracy’. This does not apply to all states, particularly those which live under a
certain religious culture or are under developed and under one-party rule. However,
with the collapse of the Soviet system in the 1980s, and with it an alternative model to
liberal democracy (represented by state socialism), liberal democracy is the dominant
force in world politics. Note the stress on recent events. Liberal democracy is a new
way of organising society and has only really developed since the Second World War.
There is not sufficient space to describe how democracy came about. However, one
popular theory is that Kings had to allow some form of democracy as a trade-off for
needing to raise taxes so that they could go to war. But this is just one point of view.

There are various definitions of liberal democracies, but there are some shared
features:
a) Capitalist economies (i.e. generalised commodity production) and powerful
businesses, often represented by Multi (or Trans) National Corporations
b) Some form of representative (parliamentary) democracy with regular voting
through universal suffrage.
c) Pluralist (i.e. allow different views and for people to organise as interest groups,
e.g. an environmental protest group, a professional body or a trade union)
d) A class system
e) Security complexes, which are often secret.

So, it is within this liberal democratic framework that the UK, USA and other so-called
‘developed’ nation states fall. With this in mind, what political choices are there?

Political Choice Today

There are lots of different models of politics applicable to the UK today. I have picked
four: Conservatism, Liberalism, Social Reformism and Marxism. This is a political
choice. The first three are found – to a degree – in all the three main political parties:
Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat. BUT they are all mixes, for example, the
Conservative Party has stronger links today with Liberalism than with Conservatism.
Marxism remains an outside critique of society.
Each one of these models of society or strands of social thought will be examined in
turn, and then linked to today’s political parties.

Four models of social thought

Conservatism

Conservatism is about tradition and opposing changes that are seen as destabilising or
threatening. Conservatives disapprove of State intervention in the economy but believe
that the State should look after moral standards, e.g. promote family values.

Basically, conservatism believes:

1. Dislike of theories and social engineering. Society has a natural order that should
not be tampered with. Society is bad because of disorder arising from a loss of
religious morals and personal selfishness.
2. Life is full of imperfections. Unlike liberalism, not everyone can be equal and it is
pointless trying to build a perfect society. Some people are superior to others and
they are the ones to govern.
3. Dislikes rapid social change. See the Church of England and the Monarchy as
champions of the social order,
4. Generally, supports the market economy (but has no real economic theory of its
own – it needs to borrow from liberalism).
5. Social inequality is inevitable – there will always be poverty and misery in
complex societies. What is needed is strong leadership and it is important to keep
this social order.
6. The ‘family’ is the natural social order. Homosexuality, single parents,
homelessness etc. go against this natural order and must be resisted.
7. The State is necessary to keep this social order and keep minimum standards.
Political authority and the rule of law are very important.

Liberalism

Liberalism is a very contested term, for there are left wing and right wing liberals.
Traditionally a liberal favoured State intervention into the economy, but opposed it for
other issues like moral issues. However, liberals can also favour a free-market
economic system. During the 1980s an attempt was made to combine liberalism and
conservatism under the banner of the ‘New Right’. This was championed under the
terms ‘Thacterism’ and ‘Reganism’. Here the belief in free economic markets was
combined will a belief in social morals, however, many liberals felt uncomfortable
with the social authoritarianism of conservatism.

The key pillars of liberalism are:

1. Liberals belief in the rights of self-interested individuals. It promotes freedom of

speech, thought and action (but not economic freedom, such as, the right for all to
live at a good standard because this goes against free competition).
2. Society is composed of individuals pursing their own ends, and provided that they
do not unduly harm others they should be allowed to do so.
3. The State should exist to protect individual freedom and liberty. It should stay out
of other areas, like welfare, and should only tax for defence purposes.
4. The world is divided into the ‘public’ and ‘private’ spheres, with the ‘private’ more
important than the ‘public’. The State should stay out of the ‘private’.
5. Liberals are uneasy about too much democratic government. Governments should
not ‘over govern’ and rights of the majority should not be imposed over the
minority.
6. Liberalism promotes private property. Generally, all services should be privately
provided.
7. For economics, the market is the best way to run the economy. The State should
not intervene, unless it is to stop monopolies and promote competition. This means
there will be winners and losers – those who are stronger and more competitive
will survive.

Social Reformism

Social reformism arose out of liberalism. It believes that a more equal and prosperous
society is possible, but does not believe that free markets alone can delivery this.
Instead people must come together in a ‘collectivist’ way in order to create social
change and there is a need for the State to intervene in the economy. Social reformists
include socialists and liberals.

Social reformism is about:

1. A pluralist society – society is made up of different ‘interest groups’ who can act
together to create a better world, like, the green movement, women’s groups, trade
unions and so on.
2. The market alone creates inequality and selfishness. State intervention is needed,
e.g. taxation in order to hand out welfare to give individuals a chance to get out of
poverty (in freeing people from deprivation so that they can develop their own
potential); promoting a fit and health population, and for the Sate to promote job
creation. It has a concern for the general welfare of all the people in society. This is
also away to stop revolution and Marxism – keep the working classes content.
3. There are no simple solutions to building a better society.
4. The role of Government is to balance the market economy with planning. The
public and the private are both important. The Government has social
responsibility.
5. It promotes tolerance of differences – all cultures can contribute to society.
6. It aims to extend democracy further, e.g. more voting such as electing judges and
the head of the police force.
7. Acknowledges that reform takes time. Its approach is incremental and careful.
Focus on the manageable problems first.
8. Things like freedom of speech and the environment are important but these should
only be examined once everyone has good standard of existence.

Marxism

Marxism arose out of the ideas of the economist and sociologist Karl Marx. Marx
wrote at a time when liberalism was dominant in the nineteenth century, where
markets created widespread wealth for a tiny minority and misery and poverty for the
majority.

Marx believed that history is all about progression and that society moves from a
primitive state to feudalism to capitalism (market economy) and then to some form of
socialism that would eventually become communism. Of the four traditions discussed
Marxism attempts to take a scientific approach. Marx considers that such change could
only come about, through struggle and conflict, in this order. Today there are many
different types of Marxism (Marx himself said, before he died in 1883 that he wasn’t a
Marxist) so the list below is very general.

The basis of Marxism is:

1. Marxism rejects liberalism’s focus on the individual, and instead sees social
relationships as important.
2. Marx saw the way society is structured as determining the way things develop, e.g.
capitalism makes people act in a certain way e.g. competitive and individualistic,
whereas socialism could promote co-operative and altruistic behaviour.
3. Society is about social relationships, particularly between two classes (many
Marxists only see a working and a ruling class, a middle class is seen as a
subsection of the working class).
4. Historically, societies have always been divided between those who work and
those who live off the work of others. This creates conflict between social classes.
5. Capitalism is essentially ridden with permanent crisis (dialectic) e.g. the way the
economy goes up and down, boom and bust and leading to monopoly (Bill Gates
and Microsoft, for example). Marx saw the working class as the force which would
eventually replace the capitalist system. However, the State and the ruling class are
good at suppressing the working class and making them think that there is no
alternative and that they should be happy ‘with their lot’. The National Lottery is a
good example of this.
6. Inequality is based on private property, including the unequal relationship between
men and women.
7. Under communism there would be no State. People would only work to produce
the necessary goods for themselves.
8. The final choice people face is “socialism or barbarism”.

Having looked at these models of influence, we can now turn our attentions to the
three main parties in Britain. It will be clear that the main philosophy for all three is a
mix of Conservatism, Liberalism and Social Reformism. Marxism is the ‘outsider’
belief. It is important to emphasise that the names of the Parties does not link directly
to a political theory. The models discussed above are ‘ideals’.

The main parties today

Conservative Party

The Conservative Party is the oldest party in Britain and was formed as a pro-
monarchist group in Parliament (the Tory Party). Traditionally it was the Party of the
land owning aristocracy, but over time it widened its base and replaced the Liberal
Party as the party of business.
The Conservative Party is the main Party of the Right in the UK. It is a (sometimes
unsteady) mix of the Conservative and Liberal social thought. It stands for the
monarchy, to protect the middle class, nationalism, law and order and free enterprise.
The different strengths of this beliefs depend on the degree of Conservative or Liberal
influences at anyone time. The Liberalism of the Conservative Party increased under
Margaret Thatcher who pushed through programmes promoting business and
decreasing the role of the State in the economy. Thatcher was a very different
Conservative to those who had gone before. Instead of resisting change, she pursued
aggressive policies, such as, anti-trade unionism and privatisation of state industry.

Under John Major, the Conservatives steered a course towards the middle ground,
however, under William Hague the party has swung further to the Right and is
becoming aggressively anti-European, aiming to decrease welfare and promote
military strength.

The Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are the result of a merger in 1987 between the Liberal Party
(which dates back to the seventeenth century) and the Social Democrats, who split
from the Labour Party in 1983. As a consequence, Liberal Democratic policy can be
muddled due to the mismatch between liberals (avoid intervention of the state) and the
social democrats (pro-state intervention). Therefore, like the modern Labour Party, it is
a mix of Liberalism and Social Reformism. Unlike the Labour Party, it will normally
give preference to the markets and individual liberty over the State intervening.

With the current dominance of the Labour and Conservative Parties, some question the
viability of the Liberal Democrats and predict a future merger with the Labour Party.

The Labour Party

Of all the political parties, the Labour Party is the ‘broadest church’ containing today
trade unionists, co-operators, Marxists, liberals, social reformers and political
pragmatists. This is related to its origins in 1900 when a coalition of groups came
together because they felt that they were not being properly represented in parliament
by the Conservatives and Liberals. This group was mainly the working classes who
sought to build their own party, the party of labour.

However, the Labour Party today has long since abandoned a working class focus,
socialism and left-wing ideology and ‘New Labour’ seeks to build on the centre
ground. The balance has shifted from social reformism to liberalism, however, it is
still the most social reformist of all the parties. This is the main way in which Labour
sought to become electable. British society has changed so much that merely appealing
to the working class constituency or liberal Guardian readers was not enough to get
elected.

Labour still has a strong sense of social justice and helping the needy in society, but
this has changed from ‘equality of outcome’ to ‘equality of opportunity’, i.e. helping
people to help themselves.
What Labour stands for today and be easiest seen by what the 1997 Labour
Government has done.

The current position of new Labour is that of economic neo-liberalism. Both Tony
Blair and Gordon Brown (Chancellor of the Exchequer) have openly avowed a belief
in their inability to control the forces of globalisation and consequently have
taken a non-interventionist approach to the UK economy, whilst continuing
the Tory policy of stealthily dismantling public services and subsidising
the private sector.

In terms of welfare provision they have been attempting to move away from
universal benefits and towards the targeting of benefits, particularly they
have been moving to subsidise (and ultimately encourage) companies paying
low wages with welfare to work schemes. They are also moving towards
individuals providing their own welfare and pension provision, and have
already introduced tuition fees to a once free higher-education system. This is
primarily because of a commitment not to raise direct taxes.

Whilst they attempting to reduce state expenditure on the one hand, they are
increasingly attempting to take control and to dictate in many other
sphere's such as strong state control of Education..

In terms of foreign policy New Labour are very much pro-European economic union,
pro-single currency and pro-further political integration, although they are much better
at obfuscating the issues than the Tories were; but on the other hand Blair
particularly is very keen to tie himself to the coat tails of American
foreign policy finding himself at odds with many European counterparts -
particularly France, and especially over Iraq. The rest of the world does
not exist, except to buy military hardware and to provide cheap labour for
western consumption.

The ‘progressive’ things done by New Labour, however, are the introduction of the
minimum wage, a freedom of information act, signing up to the European Social
Chapter, improving trade union rights and introducing devolution. We now have a
parliament in Scotland and an assembly in Wales and will soon have a new
authority for London with the UK first ever directly elected official
(Mayor).

To conclude

In some ways this analysis could be seen as depressing. What choice is there between
three parties of (now) similar philosophic roots? If one does not ascribe to Liberalism,
is there any point in voting? None of the parties and traditions are equipped to promote
women’s rights, religious values or ecology. While it is true that those who want an
communal society, an age without industry or a fascist regime cannot see their visions
fulfilled through these parties, there are a number of differences like taxation, Europe,
the family model and so on. In the Party in Government can make a difference.
Neither should the reader leave with the idea that democracy is a ‘dead duck’. Politics
continues to evolve and new forms of democracy may be emerging. For example, co-
operatives are becoming popular again in housing; new social movements, like road
protestors, present new challenges; industrial democracy in workplaces; Green MPs in
the German Parliament do not vote on their own decisions for they hold referenda in
their constituencies and vote the way the majority want, and so on.

The key thing I hope I have achieved with this brief examination of politics today is
that different political approaches are very different and that there are many arguments
to be had in this vibrant area of social discourse.