Example Of Political Philosophy Essay

Describe, briefly, your earliest political memory. How did one or more agents of socialization influence your perception of that event and help to create your dominant political philosophy today? Be sure to describe, using the theory chapters and/or lecture material, that dominant political philosophy. You do not need to adhere to a specific label as long as you can adequately describe the philosophy in terms of the major theories or theorists discussed. In other words, you can agree with a Lockean perspective of politics without needing to label yourself as a liberal or, conversely, agree with transcendentalism without needing to align yourself with Emerson
My first political event was a General Election in 2001 which was contested by an incumbent party which had been in power for 16 years, six of them against the majority and a youthful exuberant Democratic Party led by a charismatic leader who was ready to take on the reins as a Prime Minister. The experience was a positive one since I was actively involved in the political discourse which was going on at the time. The Democratic party managed to win the election by a whisker and this meant that the country was ushered through a series of democratic reforms and change.
The dominant political philosophy that was being portrayed was socialism. The country was in a shambles regarding infrastructure and was suffering considerably from unemployment and other industrial strife. Political violence was also commonplace and this led the ruling Socialist Party to gerrymander the electoral district results so that they would not reflect the actual outcome of the popular vote. This also meant that the Democratic Party used Christian democratic political philosophies to achieve the change that was required in the country. Although this rallying cry was popular and appealed to the masses, the electoral result in itself was not a proper reflection of the actual feeling in the country, at least from my point of view.
This electoral and political experience affected my outlook during the period after the election since I aligned myself with the conservative wing as regards ideology yet liberal on the economic front. However that changed radically when the Socialist Party was again elected to government and a reappraisal of my political views had to take place. I realized that socialism and liberal ideology was not intrinsically bad and that the economic free market capitalist policy practiced by the Democratic Party certainly did not bring about a change for the better especially for the lower classes. However the slim majority in Parliament which had been gained by the Socialist Party was not enough to ensure stable governance and the government fell less than two years later.
The next election further refined my socialist liberal views as when the Democratic Party was returned to power they embarked on a neo liberal economic policy which was very harmful to the country and which created great social division. This was followed by another election win in which further reaffirmed my socialist and liberal economic views as the Democratic Party consistently stalled on social legislation and reaffirmed the status quo while a property boom ruined the country both socially and environmentally.