Political Economy Notes PDF

**Conservatism 🏛️** Conservatism is a political ideology that celebrates stability and tradition. It is characterized by a distrust of sudden or radical change and a preference for maintaining traditional institutions and processes. **Key Principles:** - **Laissez-faire policies**: economic dec...

**Conservatism 🏛️** Conservatism is a political ideology that celebrates stability and tradition. It is characterized by a distrust of sudden or radical change and a preference for maintaining traditional institutions and processes. **Key Principles:** - **Laissez-faire policies**: economic decisions dominate social priorities, balancing the budget, deregulation, privatization, private property, and devolution - **Social conservatism**: morality and religion should be asserted against the permissiveness of modern life - **Paternalism**: encouraging private solutions for social problems, with a focus on those in society who are designated as not responsible **Conservative View of Society:** *\"Society consists of individuals with their own interests. In the most radical form, there is no such thing as a society. There are only families and individuals.\"* **Conservative View of Social Problems:** - Social problems are the result of individual failures, rather than societal issues - Helping those who fail to provide for themselves will encourage others to avoid making efforts to provide for themselves **Conservative View of Social Welfare:** - The role of the state is to provide a safety net, but not to interfere with individual freedom - State welfare crowds out freedom of family, charitable, and voluntary help - State welfare siphons off resources from productive sectors and provides no work incentives **Neo-Conservatism 🤝** Neo-Conservatism is a variant of conservatism that is more sophisticated in its attacks on the welfare state. It seeks to restructure the welfare state according to conservative traditions, rather than eliminating it. **Key Principles:** - **Workfare**: encouraging private solutions for social problems - **Paternalism**: encouraging private solutions for social problems, with a focus on those in society who are designated as not responsible **Liberalism 🌈** Liberalism is a political ideology that emphasizes individual freedom and equality. It is characterized by a more favorable view of human beings, assuming that they are moral and rational. **Key Principles:** - **Freedom**: as much individual freedom as possible, while allowing for essential constraints - **Equality of opportunity**: not equality of outcomes - **Collectivism**: cooperation, not competition, and the good of the community, not individuals **Liberal View of Social Problems:** - Social problems are the result of imperfections in capitalism, rather than individual failures - Society is viewed as a complexity of numerous interdependent systems, where individuals are attached and interact with each other **Liberal View of Social Welfare:** - Social welfare is an instrument for correcting and modifying the negative aspects of capitalism - The role of social work is reactive, not proactive, and does not seek to reduce inequality above the minimum **Social Democracy 🌎** Social democracy is a political ideology that emphasizes social and economic collectivism. It seeks to create a more equal society through democratic participation and regulation of the economy. **Key Principles:** - **Collectivism**: cooperation, not competition, and the good of the community, not individuals - **Democratic participation**: workers should have a voice in the conditions of their work - **Regulation of the economy**: to reduce poverty, inequality, and pursue social justice **Social Democratic View of Social Problems:** - Social inequality is a consequence of coercive institutions that favor the dominant group and is a primary source of conflict - Social problems are not the result of deviance or industrialization, but a normal consequence of the way society is organized **Social Democratic View of Social Welfare:** - Social welfare should be a means of meeting the needs of all individuals, rather than just providing a safety net - Distribution of resources should be under government control, with wide citizen participation and emphasis on prevention **Comparison of Ideologies 📊** **Ideology** **View of Society** **View of Social Problems** **View of Social Welfare** ------------------ -------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conservatism Individuals with their own interests Individual failures Safety net, not interference with individual freedom Neo-Conservatism Individuals with their own interests Individual failures Restructure welfare state according to conservative traditions Liberalism Complexity of interdependent systems Imperfections in capitalism Instrument for correcting and modifying negative aspects of capitalism Social Democracy Collectivist, cooperative society Coercive institutions, dominant group Means of meeting the needs of all individuals, under government control **Provincial Social Welfare Programs 📊** **Program** **Description** ------------------------ ----------------------------------------------------- Social Assistance Financial assistance for individuals in need Provincial Tax Credits Tax credits for low-income individuals and families Workers\' Compensation Insurance for workers injured on the job **Studies on Provincial Social Welfare Programs:** - Weaver et al (2011): found no association between increased poverty reduction and political party in power - Klassen and Buchanan (2006): found some influence of political parties, but effect of economic conditions was much stronger