PLSC 261 Midterm Review Sheet - Terms & Themes to help guide study (Spring
Quarter, 2015)
You are responsible for the material covered in lecture. You're also responsible for the
material in Chapters 1, 2, & 3 in the Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal text, as
well as the readings we have covered from the Ideals and Ideologies text (Aristotle,
Hobbes, Locke, Mill, etc.).
Terms & themes to review
Four functions of an ideology
Normative knowledge vs. Empirical Knowledge
The 3 ideologies that shaped World War II (liberalism;
socialism/communism; fascism)
Aristotle’s six-fold classification of governments (oligarchy vs. aristocracy,
etc.) (See Chart in Powerpoint Notes)
Machiavelli’s conception of republicanism (his rediscovery of ancient
roman republicanism during Italian Renaissance)
Tocqueville’s views on Democracy (what are its benefits, what are its problems)
John Stuart Mill’s position on Democracy (what are its benefits, what are its
problems)
Majority tyranny (acceptance of & conformity to majority opinion) in a
democracy
Importance of Protestant Reformation to the emergence of liberalism
Importance of Capitalism to the emergence of liberalism
Thomas Hobbes: his approach to social contract theory
John Locke (founder of liberalism): his approach to social contract theory
Thomas Paine: his approach to revolution, liberalism, & the role of
government
Importance of liberalism to the French Revolution
1 question on Mercantilism (See ppt slide/discussion in textbook)
Adam Smith’s argument for Free trade, Specialization of Labor & Theory of
Comparative Advantage
Basic definition of Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill’s Harm Principle
Importance of diversity, creativity, eccentricity, & freedom of
thought/expression for John Stuart Mill
Social Darwinism
Positive Liberty vs. Negative Liberty. Importance of “positive liberty” for
welfare liberalism
Welfare Liberalism (aka Social Liberalism; New Deal Liberalism)
Differences between Welfare Liberalism & Neo-Classical Liberalism
Be able to identify the importance of TH Green, John Maynard Keynes & John
Rawls to welfare liberalism
John Rawls (1971 A Theory of Justice) - “Original Position,” “veil of
ignorance,” & MAXIMIN example from class
Be able to identify the importance of Freidrich Hayek, Milton Friedman, & Robert
Nozick to neo-classical liberalism
Donald Allen’s Libertarian argument against Paternalism (Written in 1990 –
note strong resemblance to the classical liberalism of John Stuart Mill in
1859)
FDR’s New Deal & Strong Popular Support vs. Obama’s “new New Deal”
Liberalism as Impartial Referee. Liberalism’s emphasis on constitutional
procedure (John Rawls’s Political Liberalism).
How essential is tolerance for liberalism? Should “everything” be
tolerated?
Communitarian Critique of Liberalism
Liberalism as 1 ideology: Why is it considered one ideology despite its
division into 2 separate traditions of neo-classical lib & welfare lib?