In order to ensure peace and prosperity of a country, most governments have employed the use of stringent rules and regulations to govern people. However, some people stray away from the common perception of government and embrace anarchy. Anarchy is basically opposite of what the government stands for, anarchism is a political ideology (Carter, 1971) that holds the state undesirable and harmful while advocating for stateless institutions. The view of anarchists stray away from the commons masses and more often they tend to go extreme and cause social disturbance and unrest (Gage, 2009)as was the case of the wall street bombing of 1920s, which was believed to have been caused by a group of anarchists advocating against capitalism in the United states of America.(Gilbert, 2011)
Capitalism as an economic system can be traced all across history but its bloomed to full capacity during the great industrial revolution when capitalism was embraced by most countries.Capitalism is an economic system that advocates for private ownership of institutions and companies to maximize their profit margins. Characteristics central to capitalism include competitive market and capital accumulation. After the fall of the soviet bloc in the last decade of the 20th century, socialism was abandoned and most countries embraced capitalism (Gilpin, 2000). In as much as capitalism brings about economic prosperity, it also leads to monopoly and emergence of monopolies whereby a vast amount of nations wealth is controlled by a small number of individuals.
Cui bono is a Latin adage that means that for every act done by a person or government someone always benefits from it. This rule is meant for the people to understand that with all the policies and decisions implemented by government it is not always clear that the citizens are guaranteed to benefit from it. The question of who benefits has always caused ripples whenever it is raised in any gathering. A great example of this is the Western and Eastern economic invasion of the African continent through administering of grants and loans, creation of military bases and bolstering of economic ties (Andrews, 2009). The major questions that lingers through the minds of the citizens of those countries is that who benefits from such ties. The western and Eastern people can see it as wastage of government resources while at the same time other see it as a benefit when they cultivate raw materials such as oil. Those of the African continent can also view it as an incursion of their natural resources while those who reap the benefits will see it an advancement for the technological ambitions of the country. The one answered question though is which side actually benefits more than the other
Throughout history, some civilizations have always adapted to change while other not so. Cultural relativism was not always widely embraced in the past with each side claiming to be better than the other. One such example was the religious wars of the last millennium between protestants, Catholics and non-Christians which culminated with the killing of millions of people due to differences in belief. Cultural relativism is a view that although moral and ethical decisions vary from one culture to the next, ultimately all that matters is there is no universal judgement about what is right or wrong and it all depends of the specific societal norms and practices (Brown, 2008). In modern times, people have learned to embrace ideologies of other. Whereas in the past where non-believers were burned down as infidels, they now roam the streets freely. Cultural relativism though important cannot be fully implemented in modern societies as some ideas violate civil and human rights and should never be accepted such as female genital mutilation.(Shell-Duncan & Hernlund, 2000)
Democracy is a system in which the government is chosen by the people to serve the people. Through elections conducted within a specific timeline the people get the chance to choose their leader (Diamond & Plattner, 1996). The emergence of democratic system within the world has led to better representation of people in both domestic and international. However, not all countries embrace democracy. Monarchy on its own is also an applicable root to govern people but the root evil to democracy is inability to relinquish power. Africa is a great example where the rights of citizens are not met due to leaders who want to stay in power for too long (Southall, 2003) by changing constitutional guidelines and making amendments that crush any uprising. Such was the case in Gambia, where the president had to be forced to relinquish power even though having lawfully lost the election. A working democracy surely benefits all the citizens and only through electing good leaders can democracy be maintained.
During the early 20th century during the first world war one, fascism was born in Italy. This draconian form of thinking was vehemently opposed to liberal thinking, anarchism and Marxism. Fascism as a political idea was a political movement that put nationalism above all else and was normally headed by a tyrannical government, just like Benito Mussolini of Italy(Zander, n.d.). Fascism is categoriesed by aspects such as military supremacy, controlled mass media, corruption, unlawful elections and extensive violation of human rights(Gregor, 1969). The fascism system advocates for mixed economy and is usually against liberalism in democracy and they are always mobilized under a repressive one party state. Fascism as a political ideology was abandoned after the second world war with most countries adopting liberal democratic principles after seeing the destruction that Hitler was able to accomplish under a fascists system under the ruse of German supremacy.
A government is a system used to control a state. Most governments are always divided into three main branches: executive, legislative and judicial branches(Magleby, Light, & Nemacheck, n.d.). The head of the government is the president who in a democratic republic is always elected as per the guidelines of the constitution by the people. Governments are responsible for the well-being and safety of the population while also maintaining law and order(Reynolds, 2009). Through implementation of different initiatives such as food relief programs, construction of basic social amenities, security awareness through deployment of security personnel to conflict stricken areas and good foreign relations, governments ensure the citizens benefit.Every government has a military under the executive branch headed by the president who is the chief commander of the armed forces. Purpose of the military is to protect is nation’s borders from threat and respond to disasters affecting the country.
Civilization has embraced different types of ideologies during the past millennia. From extreme ideologies, such as anarchism, Nazism and fascism to the more common ideologies such as liberalism and Marxism. Ideologies are basically a set guidelines and belief system that are held by a particular group or society. In every economic, social or cultural society people embrace certain ideas on the basis of both their public and private lives and on how society will perceive the said ideaBaylis, Smith, Owens, & Barnett, 2014). The basic characteristics that defines ideologies include: its consistency and complexity. Great and not so great political ideas were born out of different ideologies, such as Italian fascism, Germany Nazism that was the root cause of the second world war, anarchism movements, capitalism, socialism and liberalism(Heywood, 2014). An ideology being a powerful tool is used in the modern day by politicians to influence the electorates on why they should be voted for. Not all ideologies are dangerous but if not cultivated properly, an ideology can lead to extremism.
Influence is basically the ability to affect the behavior a certain group of people. Throughout history, politicians have swayed much influence within the civilian population and this kind of influence leads to their re-election(Orwell, 1949). The ability of someone to get influenced by someone depends on a lot of factors. For example, people in Nazi Germany were influenced by Hitler to fight against others with the hopes of creation of German supremacy. By employing different ideologies, Hitler was able to create garner support all across Germany for his actions(Matheson, 1991). Having massive influence ultimately leads to one having power. As the case of the United States, China and Russia who have massive military strength and this superiority has always seen them have a hand on all global decisions that matter. They also use this power to influence decisions in accordance with the way they want things to be done. The United Nations was formed to calm this influence but by granting of veto powers to some nations defeated that purpose.
Liberty is a philosophical idea that embraces free will rather than determinism. Libertarianism is an ideology that uphold the embracement of free will through adapting ideas that embrace social freedom, free market and the rule of law(Kane, 2009). Libertarianism tends to be against capitalism and is more likely to lean towards socialism. In as much as libertarianism advocates for freedom, protection of civil liberties,rule of law, democracy, women rights and cultural relativism, extreme cases of libertarianism lead to social anarchy if their political ideologies are twisted to benefit a chosen few. No modern society today embraces libertarianism today due to the fact being that of ideology though having good characteristics, impacts predated ideas on society which no longer have sway in society today.(Forde, n.d.)
What is morally right or wrong has always been hard to establish. Due to cultural relativism, some people have ideas that are considered morally wrong but who are you to impact judgement? This distinction between what’s right and wrong led to the creation of judicial systems that has its roots on almost all societies(Bentham, 2000). The rules of law were used to determine socially accepted ethics and the violation of such ethics often led to punishment. Modern court system embrace the legal system but who is to say that this rules and laws are acceptable for all people. Modern society elects representatives to represent them in parliament where the rules of law can be changed. The power to implement a law is left to a few individuals while the society is left to bear the aftermaths. Such issues that are accepted by the law yet at the same time divides public opinion includes gayism and abortion just to name a few. Some societies will consider it unethical to practice such acts example being in the middle east where being gay warrants a prison sentence. All in all, morality and ethics will always depend on what the person is willing to embrace.
Rights are legal entitlements of people in society. Such rights include: basic rights such as food, social rights such as freedom of movement and political rights such as right to vote. For a society to function properly, certain rules and regulations with regards to maintaining freedom and rights of society are always implemented. Such rights ensure the pillars of democracy and social law are not affected. In cases where rights are violated, relevant laws and organizations are in place to ensure that the citizen can get justice for his or her plight(Brownlee, 2013). This is not however the case in some countries where the tyrannical rule of government does not respect all rights and freedoms of individuals but rather use fear of repression to keep the society in check. The rule of law is important when implementing the rights of individuals. Some people have argued against the some so called rights labelling some of them obsolete and controlling with the ideology behind such idea being if through rights, justice can really be administered.
Social class is basically the division of society based on economic and social status(Barker, 2000). Modern society today is divided into three broad classes: Lower class, middle class and the rich. The rich are few and control majority of the worlds wealth. The hierarchical position in the social class greatly determines the sort of services one acquires. The lower class are full dependent on government initiatives such as free healthcare and education as they cannot be able to afford those services themselves. The advent of social class, though notable also has harmful effects towards society such as localization of resources and inequality’s fact that the upper class don’t regard the lower class as equals just highlights all the problems associated with social class.(Argule, 1994)
Unlike the principles which characterize capitalism, socialism is a political ideology that advocates for communal control and regulation of production and distribution of products and services(Marx & Engels, 2008). The soviet bloc embraced and idea of communism during the height of the cold wars against the capitalistic west. However, though socialism was initially used in many countries in the middle of the 20th century, its effects on society today have greatly diminished with only a handful of countries such as Bolivia embracing socialism. With the thriving private sector, communism has no place in the current modern society as it will not lead to great economic benefits for the country. With this in mind, Russia, formerly the Soviet Union, embraced capitalism.
Totalitarianism is a political system in which the government has total control over the population through regulation of both the private and public life of their citizens(DeMarco, 1987). Just like fascism, totalitarianism is basically a dictatorship and employs use of techniques such as mass propaganda, control of social media and military supremacy to maintain its grip to power. Totalitarianism was greatly expressed in the years leading to the second world war, states like Nazi Germany(Webb, 2011) and communist Russia embraced totalitarianism. An example of modern totalitarianism is Republic of North Korea.
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