Edexcel GCE Government and Politics:
Topic B – Political Ideologies
Andrew Heywood
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Advice on A2 assessment
As in the revised AS level (8GP01), marks in the A2 will be awarded separately by
each assessment objective, not holistically as before. This places a greater stress
on the need to understand the various assessment objectives and to be aware of
their implications for particular questions.
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Allocation of marks
Assessment objective 1 (AO1)


Knowledge (suggests breadth)
Understanding (suggests depth)
Demonstrated, for example, by:







Defining concepts
Describing institutions
Setting out features/characteristics
Naming something
Surveying information
Describing differences
Supplying examples
Marks for AO1 are awarded for:



Relevance
Accuracy
Whether the knowledge/understanding is appropriately detailed and developed
Assessment objective 2 (AO2)
2a Analysis (the ability to identify the component features of something and to show how
they relate to one another)
1
Demonstrated, for example, by:



Examining something closely
Providing explanations (setting out purposes or reasons, or highlighting causal
relationships)
Demonstrating interconnections
2b Evaluation (the ability to make judgements about something, either about the about its
importance or its value)






Assessing extent (judging how far something happens)
Measuring effectiveness (judging how far something fulfils its purpose)
Weighing up importance (judging the impact of something)
Assessing the coherence of an argument (judging the logic of an argument)
Assessing an argument/viewpoint in the light of available evidence (judging whether
an argument 'stands up')
Arguing to a conclusion (judging the respective strengths of competing viewpoints)
2c Identification of parallels, connections, similarities and differences
Demonstrated, for example , by


Showing how two or more things can be compared and/or contrasted
Judging the balance between similarities and differences
Synoptic assessment (AO2)
Awareness of competing viewpoints or perspectives
Demonstrated, for example by



Identifying alternative viewpoints or perspectives on a question
Awareness of the nature and extent of rivalry between these viewpoints
Awareness of the significance of the viewpoints for an understanding of the issue or
question
Assessment objective 3 (AO3)
3a Ability to construct and communicate coherent arguments
Demonstrated, for example , by

Organising points in a logical sequence
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


Having, through the answer, a clear and coherent line of argument
Having appropriate balance in the argument
(Where appropriate) reaching a conclusion, clearly linked to the foregoing argument
3b Use of appropriate political vocabulary
Demonstrated by the use of specialist terminology, relevant to the question
Question types
Short questions (Units 3 and 4)
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
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
AO1 = 5 marks
AO2 = 7 marks
AO3 = 3 marks
Total = 15 marks
Focus of questions:

Questions will have an narrower or more specific focus than essay questions.
Questions will not be open-ended
 Questions will require candidates to do more than describe or just present
information. The main intellectual skills assessed (AO2) will be analysis, evaluation
by importance, and the identification of similarities and differences. Debate and
discussion questions will be rare, but candidates may be asked to explain particular
political viewpoints or arguments.
 Questions will not require essay-style responses (introduction-argument-conclusion),
although clarity and coherence in presentation will be rewarded via AO3 marks.
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Essay questions (Units 3 and 4)
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
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AO1 = 12 marks
AO2 = 24 marks
Synopticity = 12 marks
AO3 = 9 marks
Total = 45 marks
Focus of questions:

Questions will have a discursive nature, in that they may permit two or more
legitimate answers, allowing synopticity to be assessed. As there will be no 'right' or
'wrong' response, candidates will be rewarded for the knowledge and skills they
deploy in supporting their chosen conclusion.
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

Questions will primarily test the AO2 skill of evaluation. No questions will require only
analysis or the identification of parallels, similarities and differences.
Questions will require essay-style responses, which have the following features:

Answers should have a beginning (introduction), a middle (argument) and an end
(conclusion)

Introductions should:
o
o
o

Arguments should:
o
o
o
o
o

define key terms used in the question
show an understanding of 'the point' of the question (the issue or issues it
raises)
(optional) outline the line of argument to be adopted, possibly indicating the
conclusion favoured
Make points in a logically related order
Consider contrasting viewpoints or positions as appropriate (for/against,
advantages/disadvantages, benefits/drawbacks, etc)
Support points with appropriate evidence (make a point and prove it)
Qualify points wherever appropriate (make a point and qualify it – 'However
…' 'On the other hand …')
Argue to a conclusion (do not 'sit on the fence', unless the question invites
you to)
Conclusions should:
o
o
o
Be clear and short
Start with a one-sentence answer to the question set ('In conclusion, …')
Briefly summarise the key factors that support this conclusion (new material
should generally not be introduced at this stage)
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Command words
The meaning of common command words (although command words will not always be
used)
Analyse
Argue
Assess
Compare
Contrast
Criticise
Define
Describe
Discuss
Distinguish
Evaluate
Examine
Explain
Break something into its component parts and show how they relate to one
another
Present a reasoned case
'Weigh up' a statement, showing arguments in favour and against
Identify similarities
Identify differences
Explain problems, limitations or weaknesses
Say what a word or phrase means
Set out features or characteristics
Examine an issue closely, taking account of differing viewpoints
Describe differences
Make judgments based on evidence
Investigate closely
Show how something works, usually by giving a clear and detailed account
of it
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CONTENT OUTLINE - TOPIC B
UNIT 3B – INTRODUCING POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
Examination structure:

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes)

Answer 3 short questions out of a choice of 5, and 1 essay out a choice of 3

Short questions = 15 marks

Essays = 45 marks

Total = 90 marks
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LIBERALISM
Key themes:
1. Individualism – Nature of individualism; (separate and unique creatures, not social beings);
methodological individualism and ethical individualism; egoistical individualism vs developmental
individualism (pleasure seeking vs human flourishing); implications for equality (foundational
equality; formal equality; equality of opportunity); implications for the state (state threat to
individual/individual responsibility/freedom, hence minimal state, but individualism can justify the
state – social contract theory).
2. Freedom – Link between individualism and freedom; link between reason and freedom; freedom
'under the law' rather than absolute freedom; 'negative' freedom (absence of external constraints)
vs 'positive' freedom (personal growth/fulfilment); implications of 'negative' and 'positive' freedom
for the state.
3. Classical liberalism – Egoistical/atomistic individualism (natural rights theory; utilitarianism; pursuit
of self-interest/pleasure, etc); 'negative' freedom (freedom of choice, privacy, harm principle);
minimal/'nightwatchman' state (necessary evil; maintenance of domestic order, etc); economic
liberalism (laissez-faire, self-regulating market, etc); individual responsibility/self-help (moral and
economic case for anti-welfarism).
4. Modern liberalism - Developmental individualism (human flourishing; heightening of sensibilities;
'higher'' and 'lower' pleasures, etc); 'positive' freedom (realisation of individual potential); enabling
state (enlarges freedom, not merely diminishes it); social reform and welfare (equality of
opportunity; freedom from social evils, etc); economic management (state rectifies imbalances of
capitalism; Keynesianism, etc); tensions within modern liberalism (qualified endorsement of
rolled-forward state – intervention can be ‘excessive’).
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5. Power/government – Corrupting nature of power (individualism plus power equals corruption);
external/legal checks on government (constitutions, especially 'written'; bills of rights, rule of law,
etc); internal/institutional checks on government – fragmentation/dispersal of power creating
checks and balances (separation of powers, parliamentary govt, cabinet govt, bicameralism,
territorial divisions etc).
6. Liberalism and democracy – Liberal arguments in favour of democracy (political equality;
protection against tyranny; personal development; builds consensus, etc); liberal concerns about
democracy (collectivism; tyranny of the majority; unequal political wisdom; over-government and
economic stultification, etc); strengths of liberal democracy (political stability; freedom and
prosperity; democratization; 'democratic peace' thesis).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

Nature and implications of individualism

Nature of freedom and differences within liberalism over freedom

Distinctive theories and ideas of classical liberalism

Distinctive theories and ideas of modern liberalism

Similarities and difference between classical and modern liberalism

Coherence of modern liberalism

Liberal views on power/government and how government power can be constrained

Advantages and disadvantages of democracy, from a liberal perspective

Nature of liberal democracy, and advantages of liberal-democratic rule
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CONSERVATISM
Key themes:
1. Tradition – Conservative arguments in favour of tradition (natural law; accumulated wisdom of the
past; stability and rootedness); New Right departures from traditionalism (neo-liberal radicalism
based on reasoned analysis; reactionary tendencies); neo-conservatism and traditional values.
2. Human imperfection – Psychological imperfection (limited, dependent and security-seeking
creatures; implications for tradition, authority etc) moral imperfection (base and non-rational
urges and instincts; implications for law and order, and sentencing policy); intellectually imperfect
(world largely beyond human understanding; implications for reason, tradition).
3. Property – Property supported because it provides security in an insecure/unstable world;
because it is the exteriorisation of individual personality; because it breeds positive social values
(eg, respect for law); property traditionally viewed as a duty (to preserve for the benefit of future
generations), but New Right advanced a liberal, rights-based justification.
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4. Organic society – The whole is more than a collection of its individual parts (clash between
organicism (organic communitarianism) and individualism); duty and obligation as social cement;
hierarchy (rejection of social equality as undesirable and impossible); importance of shared
values and a common culture (fear of diversity and pluralism).
5. One Nation tradition – Tory origins (neo-feudalism; tradition, hierarchy, organicism etc); reform is
preferable to revolution (pragmatism; enlightened self-interest; qualified case for welfare);
paternalism - duty as the price of privilege (noblesse oblige; the 'deserving' poor); 'middle way'
stance (pragmatic rejection of free market and state control; cautious social democracy).
6.
Liberal New Right – Classical liberal roots; free market economics (natural dynamism of market;
anti-statism; monetarism; rejection of Keynesianism; privatisation; deregulation and tax cuts;
supply-side economics; 'trickle- down'); atomistic individualism as basis for libertarianism
(individual/property rights; individual responsibility/self-help; anti-welfarism – dependency culture,
impact on taxation, welfare as legalised theft).
7. Conservative New Right – Roots in pre-Disraelian conservatism; restoration of order and
authority (social and state authoritarianism- punishment works etc); moral revivalism (antipermissiveness; 'new' puritanism; traditional/family/Christian values); resurgent nationalism
(national patriotism as a source of security and stability; insularity and xenophobia).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

Nature and implications of tradition, and extent to which conservative support tradition

Conservatism and human nature, particularly belief in human imperfection

Conservative opposition to the politics of principle, and extent to which it has revised its
opposition

Conservative view of property, authority and hierarchy

Conservative view of society and rival organic and mechanical views of society

Distinctive theories and ideas of traditional conservatism/One Nation tradition

Distinctive theories and ideas of New Rights

Similarities and difference between traditional conservatism and the New right

Coherence of New Right thinking
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SOCIALISM
Key themes:
1. Collectivism – Social basis of human nature (common humanity); 'nurture' emphasised over
'nature' (implications for person/social development; utopianism, etc); cooperation (moral and
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economic
benefits);
collectivism
in
practice
(statism;
common
ownership;
economic
management; welfarism); collectivism vs individualism.
2. Equality – Socialist view of equality (equality of outcome/reward; social equality); divisions over
desirable extent of equality (absolute vs relative social equality; common ownership vs
redistribution); arguments in favour of social equality (social stability and cohesion; social justice;
happiness and personal development); liberal equality vs socialist equality (liberal critique of
socialist view; socialist critique of liberal view).
3. Roads to socialism – Revolutionary socialism (theory of class state; rejection of bourgeois
parliamentarianism); revolution as modernisation project (pre-democratic origins; links to underdevelopment; modernisation 'from above'); implications of revolutionary 'road' (violence/force as
a political means, etc); evolutionary socialism (state neutrality; interventionism as means of social
change/reform); socialism and democracy (the inevitability of gradualism); implications of 'ballotbox' socialism (electoralism; 'catch-all' socialist parties; corruption of power/bourgeois state, etc).
4. Fundamentalist
socialism
('base/superstructure';
–
scientific
Marxist/communist
theory
of
analysis;
history/society);
historical
dialectical
materialism
change
(internal
contradictions in society; historical inevitability); class analysis (class conflict as motor of history;
surplus value; class consciousness); stages of history; collapse of capitalism (proletarian
revolution); transition from capitalism to communism (dictatorship of proletariat; 'withering away'
of state); nature of communism (politics of ownership; abolition of private property/capitalism;
absolute equality); 20th-century communism (vanguard party; state collectivisation; central
planning).
5. Revisionist socialism – Revisionist Marxism (failure of Marx's predictions; resilience of
capitalism); ethical socialism (absence of theoretical 'baggage'); Keynesian social democracy
(politics of social justice; 'humanise' capitalism; mixed economy; Keynesian economic
management; welfare state and redistributive mechanism; Croslandism); social-democratic
compromise (tension between equality and efficiency; highlighted during recession of 1970s;
'collapse' of traditional social democracy in the UK and elsewhere).
6. Neo-revisionist social democracy – Retreat from social democracy (globalization and end of
national Keynesianism; shrinking working class; collapse of communism); Third Way ((rejection
of 'top-down' socialism/social democracy and market fundamentalism; liberal communitarianism);
neo-revisionism and socialism (modernised social democracy or post-socialism?).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

Nature and implications of collectivism

Socialist view of equality and contrasts between socialism and liberalism over equality

Socialist view of human nature; contrasts between socialist and conservative views of human
nature
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
Socialist support for common ownership and extent to which this defines socialism

Distinctive theories and ideas of fundamentalist socialism

Distinctive theories and ideas of revisionist socialism

Similarities and difference between revolutionary and reformist socialism

Similarities and difference between fundamentalist and revisionist socialism

Nature of social democracy and coherence of 'new' social democracy/Third Way
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ANARCHISM
Key themes:
1. Anti-statism – Moral basis of anarchism (absolute freedom, political equality, personal
autonomy); state as concentrated evil (absolute corruptibility of human nature); all states are evil
(rejection of the proletarian state); government power cannot be tamed (constitutionalism and
consent (liberal democracy) as tools used by ruling class to render masses quiescent).
2. Stateless society – Utopian themes in anarchism (absolute freedom can co-exist with social
order/harmony; perfectibility of human nature); collectivist basis for spontaneous social harmony
(nurture not nature; sociability and cooperation; role of common ownership); individualist basis for
social harmony (individual rationality; self-regulating markets); rival views of future stateless
society; rival views of future stateless society (collectivist versus individualist models, eg,
anarcho-communism versus anarcho-capitalism).
3. Political practice – Political failure of anarchism; rejection of conventional means of political
activism (winning state power is corrupt and corrupting; opposition to hierarchical organisation
(eg, political parties)); spontaneous revolution (popular thirst for freedom/autonomy; viability?);
terror/violence ('propaganda of the deed'; revolutionary justice); direct action; moral example and
gradualism.
4. Individualist anarchism – Roots in liberal individualism (parallels with classical liberalism; 'ultraliberalism'); egoism (moral autonomy of individual); libertarianism (reconciling individualism with
natural order - consistent Manchesterism); anarcho-capitalism (laissez-faire economics taken to
its extreme; privatising the minimal state) differences between liberalism and anarchism (minimal
statism vs statelessness; constitutional government vs anarchy).
5. Collectivist anarchism – Roots in socialist collectivism (human sociability; mutual aid; 'ultrasocialism'); self-management and decentralisation (direct/participatory democracy);mutualism
(possessions as independence from the state; fair and equitable exchange); anarcho-syndicalism
(revolutionary trade unionism); anarcho-communism (parallels with Marxism; class system and
state as interlocking enemies); differences between anarchism and Marxism (over proletarianism,
vanguardism; proletarian dictatorship, 'withering away', etc).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:
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
Anarchist critique of the state

Grounds on which anarchists support a stateless society

The link between anarchism and utopianism

Anarchism as an extreme form of individualism

Anarchism as an extreme form of collectivism

Relationship between anarchism and socialism

Relationship between anarchism and liberalism

Similarities and difference within anarchist ideology

Practical difficulties of achieving anarchism
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UNIT 3B – OTHER POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES
Examination structure:

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes (90 minutes)

Answer 3 short questions out of a choice of 5, and 1 essay out a choice of 3

Short questions = 15 marks

Essays = 45 marks

Total = 90 marks
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NATIONALISM
Key themes:
1. The nation – Cultural dimension of national identity (language, religion, traditions, etc; organic
community; distinction between nations and races); political dimension of national identity
(aspiration to statehood; political community; distinction between nations and states);
psychological dimension of national identity (national consciousness; patriotism as lower/weaker
form of nationalism).
2. Civic vs ethnocultural forms of nationalism – Classic political nationalism (national selfdetermination; sovereign independence; inclusive view of the nation); cultural nationalism
(nationalism as vehicle for cultural regeneration, not necessarily linked to self-government);
ethnic nationalism (ethnic/religious/racial basis national identity; exclusive from of identity
politics).
3. Liberal nationalism – Nations as moral entities (national rights; parallels between nations and
individuals); national self-determination (intrinsic link between nationhood and statehood;
national sovereignty); nation-state ideal (only legitimate basis for political rule; recipe for
international peace and order); liberal objections to nationalism (human rights over-ride national
sovereignty; fear of international state of nature – hence liberal internationalism).
4. Conservative nationalism – National patriotism as basis for political order and stability
(psychological tendency to be drawn to one's own people); nations as historical communities
(common heritage; exclusiveness of national identities); insular and inward-looking nationalism
(defence of organic unity/identity; implicit racialism/xenophobia).
5. Expansionist nationalism – National chauvinism (national superiority/inferiority; explicit racialism);
reactionary character (myths of past national greatness); militarism and aggression (conquest
and expansion as proof national greatness; social Darwinian view of international politics);
parallels between expansionist nationalism and fascism (integral nationalism; 'palingenetic ultranationalism').
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6. Anticolonial/postcolonial nationalism – Nationalism as a vehicle for political liberation and social
development (colonialism as cause of under-development); Marxism-Leninism as guide for thirdworld nationalism movements (revolutionary 'road'; national liberation as overthrow of capitalist
exploitation); postcolonial nationalism (anti-Westernism; religious fundamentalism).
7. Objections to nationalism – Liberal internationalism (national interdependence; free trade;
regional and global governance); socialist internationalism (proletarian internationalism); rise of
cosmopolitanism (impact of globalization; global citizenship; world ethics).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

The nature of the nation; differences between nations and states

Differences between nationalism and racialism

Inclusive/exclusive and civic/ethnocultural nationalisms

The nation-state and it alleged benefits

Relationship between nationalism and liberalism

Relationship between nationalism and conservatism

Similarities and differences within nationalism

Expansionist/aggressive forms of nationalism and their ideological origins

Internationalist objections to nationalism

Progressive and reactionary forms of nationalism

Relevance of nationalism to modern world
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FEMINISM
Key themes:
1. Sex and gender – Biological and social/cultural distinctions between men and women (gender is
not destiny; possibility of sexual equality); patriarchy as systematic subordination of women
(sexual politics; institutionalised gender oppression); the public/private divide (confinement to
domestic/private sphere; exclusion from public/political life, hence from power).
2. Patriarchy – emphasis placed on gender divisions (society characterised by gender oppression);
gender inequalities are rooted in, and reflect, sexual (and generation) division of labour/power
within the family); radical feminists view of patriarchy (systematic, institutionalised and pervasive
oppression); liberal feminism and patriarchy (unequal access to public realm); socialist feminism
and patriarchy (links between gender and class oppression).
3. Liberalism and feminism – Individualism as basis for liberal feminism (personhood; gender
identity secondary); concern with the equal distribution of rights and entitlements (legal and
political equality, no restructuring of society); equal access to the public realm (defence of the
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public/private divide; 'private woman' natural); reformist approach (gender imbalance can be
overturned through constitutional and democratic pressure).
4. Socialism and feminism – Economic basis of gender inequality (reserve army of labour;
reproducing next generation of capitalist workers; training and incentivising male workers, etc);
orthodox Marxism (priority of class over gender; patriarchy a consequence of private property;
socialism/social revolution as a means of bringing about women's liberation); modern Marxism
(patriarchy and capitalism as interlocking systems of oppression; patriarchy can survive the
collapse of capitalism).
5. Radical feminism – Gender as the most politically significant of political divisions (priority over
class, race etc): patriarchy a systematic and pervasive form of oppression (operates in all
spheres of society and all societies); 'the personal is the political' (gender oppression can be
traced back to the structure of domestic/private life); sexual revolution (qualitative social change
not merely redistribution of rights or wealth); pro-woman feminism (essential differences between
women and men; feminist separatism; political lesbianism); difference feminism (rejection of
feminist egalitarianism as form of male identification; feminist form of identity politics).
6. Anti-feminism – Organic critique of feminism (sex is destiny – women are naturally designed for
domestic, family-based role); traditionalist critique of feminism (patriarchal structures have been
tried and tested by history); different but equal (women should be respected in terms of their
natural role and position); social cohesion (‘private’ woman as source of nurturing and stability
within the family).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

The nature of the political, from a feminist perspective

Role of sex and gender in feminist analysis

Nature of patriarchy, and its role in feminist analysis

Relationship between feminism and liberalism

Relationship between feminism and socialism

Nature of radical feminism and how it differs from both liberal and socialist feminism

Similarities and differences within feminist ideology

Egalitarian and anti-egalitarian forms of feminism

New trends in feminist theory
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ECOLOGISM
Key themes:
1. Views of non-human nature – Traditional anthropocentric view (nature, and other species, have
no intrinsic moral value – only a means of fulfilling human ends); critique of anthropocentricism
(vital balance between humankind and nature destroyed); ecology and intrinsic relationship
between species and their environment (ecosystems and natural equilibrium); differences
between 'shallow' or humanist ecology and 'deep' ecology.
2. Sustainability – Industrialism and the ecological critique of industrial society (entropy, resource
depletion, tragedy of the Commons, etc; economics of sustainability ('light' green economic
thinking, governmental regulation, global, regional or national; reduce carbon usage; green taxes,
etc); radical ecologic approaches ('dark' green solutions; post-industrial society; anti-growth, backto-nature movements).
3. Environmental ethics – Ecological critique of conventional ethical thinking; ecological ethical
theories (future generations; animal rights and animal welfare theories; biocentric equality;
intrinsic value of nature, etc); Postmaterialism and ethical thinking (freedom as self-actualisation;
environmental consciousness (rejection of self or ego; being not having, etc).
4. Modernist/reformist ecology – Balance between ecology and capitalist modernity (sustainable
development); liberalism and ecology (enlightened anthropocentrism, utilitarianism and animal
rights, etc); conservatism and ecologism (reactionary pastoralism; conservationalism; social and
natural traditionalism); green capitalism (market-based environmental solutions; carbon trading).
5. Social ecology – Ecology and radical social change; eco-socialism (socialist pastoralism; ecosocialist critique of capitalism (nature sacrificed for profit); tensions between red and green
priorities, etc); eco-anarchism (social ecology, ecological nature of decentralised self-managing
communities, etc); eco-feminism (eco-feminist critique of patriarchal society; essentialist feminist
critique ('cultured' males and 'natural' females, etc).
6. Deep ecology – Need for paradigm change (abandonment of anthropocentrism and acceptance
of ecocentrism); holistic perspectives on political understanding vs mechanical world-views
(eastern religions, and Buddhism in particular, quantum mechanics, Gaia hypothesis); deep
ecology and ethical thinking; deep ecology and economic thinking.
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

Concepts of non-human nature

The philosophical, moral and political basis for anthropocentricism

The nature of the ecology and its implications for political theory
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
Buddhism as an eco-centric philosophy

Differences between shallow/humanist and deep ecology

Basis for theories environmental ethics

Ecological/environmental economic thinking

Relationship between ecologism and feminism

Relationship between ecologism and anarchism

Relationship between ecologism and conservatism

Relationship between ecologism and liberalism

Similarities and differences within ecologism

Difficulties in translating ecological thinking into practical policy
_________________________________________________________________________________
MULTICULTURALISM
Key themes:
1. Roots of multiculturalism – Rejection of egalitarian roots to social advancement; postcolonialism
and the recognition of the legitimacy of non-western cultures); identity politics (liberal universalism
constructed on the basis of norms of dominant groups; liberation gained through cultural
regeneration); communitarianism (cultural belonging provides basis for authenticity).
2. Minority rights – Nature of minority/multicultural rights (special rights, positive discrimination, etc;
basis of minority rights (including compensation for present or past disadvantage); criticisms of
minority rights (drawbacks of positive discrimination; implications for freedom of speech, tensions
between group and individual rights).
3. Diversity – Need for both diversity and unity (different cultures live within same society); benefits
of diversity (recognition and respect for all; moral, social and intellectual debates and interaction);
cultural exchange and cultural mixing (implications for cultural embeddedness; tension at heart of
multiculturalism?).
4. Liberalism and multiculturalism - Forbearance (restraint from imposing one's own views on
others); liberal justifications for toleration - individualism (implies difference/diversity) individual
freedom (guaranteed by toleration), social progress (truth prevails in free market of ideas),
underlying balance/harmony (diversity/pluralism does not result in conflict/disorder); differences
between universalist liberalism, liberal multiculturalism and post-liberalism.
5. Plural/pluralist multiculturalism – Pluralism as a form of post-liberalism (value pluralism and its
political implications); pluralist multiculturalism and liberation politics; plural multiculturalism as
critique of liberal toleration (tainted by colonialism, racialism, etc); particularist multiculturalism as
plural monoculturalism.
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6. Cosmopolitan multiculturalism – Cosmopolitanism and cultural diversity (global consciousness,
etc); endorsement of cultural mixing (multiple identities and hybridity); contrasts with liberal
multiculturalism and pluralist multiculturalism.
7. Criticisms of multiculturalism – Universalist liberal critique (threat to individuality, human rights,
etc); conservative/nationalist critiques (threat to national identity, social cohesion, etc); feminist
critique (threat to women's rights); social reformist critique (threat to fellow-feeling and to the
politics of redistribution and welfare).
Themes that will provide the basis for questions will include the following:

The balance between diversity and unity within multiculturalism

Multiculturalism as the politics of identity

Multiculturalism and communitarianism

Multiculturalism and post-colonialism

Balance within multiculturalism between cultural embeddedness and cultural mixing

Relationship between multiculturalism and liberalism

Relationship between multiculturalism and ethical pluralism

Relationship between multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism

Conservative nationalist critique of multiculturalism

Social reformist critique of multiculturalism

Feminist critique of multiculturalism

Similarities and differences within multiculturalism
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Dealing with synopticity
Topic B – Political Ideologies
Question 1 – 'Common ownership is the core belief of socialism.' Discuss

Contrasting viewpoints are provided by fundamentalist socialism and revisionist socialism.

Fundamentalist socialists (such as Marxists, communists and collectivist anarchists) hold that any
economic system based on private ownership is bound to be fractured and corrupt. Capitalism is
therefore structurally defective and must be abolished. The cornerstone of any socialist society
must be a system of common ownership, however organised. Social democrats thus betray
socialism in trying to 'tame' capitalism though a system of economic and social reform.

Revisionist socialists (such as social democrats) regard common ownership as, at best, a means
not an end of socialism. They define socialism in terms of equality and social justice, and believe
that western social democracies have often been more effective to building equality than state
socialist societies. Indeed, common ownership may well be linked to political authoritarianism or
economic inefficiency.
Question 2 – Is conservatism merely a form of ruling class ideology?

Contrasting viewpoints are provided by socialists and other radicals and by conservatives
themselves.

Socialists, and especially Marxists, have generally portrayed conservatism as an ideological
instrument for the protection of wealthy or privileged sections of society. It does this in various
ways: by suggesting that inequality is inevitable; by presenting the status quo as legitimate
(tradition); by venerating property, and so on.

Conservatives, however, argue that they have either defended the interests of all members of
society or shown particular concern about the poor or less well-off. Libertarian conservatives
embrace a strict individualism that encourages them to support meritocracy rather the interests of
any ruling class. One Nation conservatives have placed a particular emphasis on the duty of the
privileged to look after the poor and vulnerable, something particularly emphasised by modern
compassionate conservatives.
Question 3 – To what extent is multiculturalism compatible with liberalism?

Contrasting viewpoints are provided by various forms of liberalism and by pluralist
multiculturalism.

Universalist liberals reject multiculturalism altogether, on the grounds that it is a form of
collectivism and also panders to the despotism of custom and conventional wisdom.

Liberal multiculturalists assert that liberalism provides the soundest basis for multiculturalism,
through it emphasis on both the vital importance of toleration and diversity and its belief in a
unifying citizenship

Pluralist multiculturalists argue that liberalism provides a weak and inadequate basis for
multiculturalism, in that it 'absolutises' liberal values that are culturally biased and so denies
legitimacy to many non-western cultural beliefs and practices.
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