University Political Science: Ideologies and Systems Analysis

This political science assignment explores the nature of political systems, including compromise, conflict management, plurality, and the balance between different political philosophies. It also delves into the characteristics of socialism and fascism, comparing and contrasting these ideologies. The assignment further analyzes how US democracy incorporates elements from both socialism and fascism. The essay examines the behaviors expected of political systems, such as economic stability and respect for citizen values. The assignment is based on the student's response to the assignment brief which requires them to analyze the nature of political systems and how political ideologies shape the political landscape, with a specific focus on the US democracy.

Running head: Political science
POLITICAL SCIENCE

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Table of Contents
Part 1................................................................................................................................................2
Part 2................................................................................................................................................5
Part 3................................................................................................................................................6
Reference list...................................................................................................................................8

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Part 1
a.
Political system represents a certain code of behaviors that are expected from the
involved politicians in the political system of any state. One of those behaviors is to avoid
advocating for any particular ideology and rather to argue for compromises. According to
Ortoleva & Snowberg (2015), politics is actually an art of compromising that helps in satisfying
demands of many citizens without getting biased to any particular group of inhabitants of any
state. Political system advocates neutrality of judgments and opinions. However, rejection of any
particular ideology is important for the political system because it has the capability of turning
the system into a biased system.
For that reason, it is expected that political system upholds the notion of compromising in
order to maintain a constant peace among people belonging to diverse origins. In this regard, it
can be mentioned that international relationships are based on these political compromises and as
a result of people of different countries feel safe and secure because of living around a
compromising political system (Bode, Vraga, Borah & Shah, 2014). However, there are many
reasons for condemning this compromising attitude because sometimes it happens to be the
responsibility of the political system to show support for any particular value or ideology or
principle for the sake of the common people and their well being. This is so because
compromising behavior sometimes highlights the fact that political system does not show clarity
of expression and thus it becomes difficult for people to rely on that kind of political system that
always surrenders and never takes a stand.
b.
Conflict management is another important behavior that the political system represents.
The ratio between demand and resources are scarcely balanced especially in countries with
population overflow. In that scenario, political system is trained to manage the state with the
available resources. This has been done in order to resolve any kind of conflict arising from the
common people. According to Ballentine & Nitzschke (2013), conflicts can arise if any state is

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unable to provide enough for the people they pledge to manage. On the other hand, due to up and
down in the supply of resources and economical growth, sometimes it becomes difficult to
mitigate increasing demands of the people.
As an outcome, conflicts of many kinds arise and this may create internal chaos within a
state. Conflicts can be managed wither peacefully or by using power or force. Settling with
available resources is a peaceful way of mitigating any kind of disputes among the state
inhabitants. Many people condemn their political system if the system fails to come up with
enough resources for mitigating demands of every citizen (Fabinyi, Evans & Foale, 2014). This
is so because sometimes it becomes inevitable to increase the price rate of the resources that are
in high demand and thus many sections of the society suffer and as result, conflicts arise. Thus, it
is expected that political system shows wise decision making while resolving conflicts arising
because of the above mentioned reason.
c.
Plurality refers to diverse kinds of values, principles, people, preferences and many more
in a state. This is more relevant in the countries where a high range of people belonging to
different religions, caste, sexual orientations, social class live together. In this kind of scenario,
the mostly expected behavior from the political system is to support the pluralities in a country.
This is so because supporting plurality shows that the system is equally concerned about the well
being of each and every person in the country irrespective of what backgrounds they come from.
In this regard, it is important to note that the political system that supports pluralities is
seen as a more updated and neutral political system (Jones, 2014). As a result, most of the
common people are expected to rely onto that kind of political system without feeling threatened
by any kind of biased political behavior. Moreover, it is generally believed that immigrants are
more likely to come to those countries or states that are famous for being a constant supporter of
pluralities. This behavior highly affects the controlling of the policy choices made by the
political system because it is expected from the system that they never implement any policy that
hinders the notion of plurality (Beiner, 2013). For that reason, political system tries to control
and upgrade the policy choices so that basic and special rights of each and every citizen are
fulfilled without violating rights of any particular section of the society.

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d.
Political system is expected to give equal value to each and every individual in a country.
On the contrary, it has been noticed that political systems often show support for
majoritarianism. Majoritarianism refers to the specific political philosophy that lets a major part
of the population to exercise power dominance over the minor section of the total population.
This kind of political philosophy is outdated and is highly condemned by many intellectuals. As
a result, nowadays, political system does not support or exercise this philosophy. On the other
hand, elitism is another political philosophy that gives preferences to the elite class when it is
about enjoying exclusive opportunities or having the power to rule over the economically
deprived masses. On the other hand, bureaucracy assists a political system or government to
hand over the power of state related decision making only to the state officials and not to the
political representatives of the common people (Baker, Eckerberg & Zachrisson, 2014). Political
system represents a tendency of compromising among the above mentioned philosophies in order
to maintain peace and harmony in the state.
This also happens because sometimes elite group of people have the money power to
economically dominate others and thus political diplomats tries to balance both the
economically, socially a culturally superior and inferior people with efficiency so that no one
among them suffers from any kind of injustice. While doing that, the political system sometimes
get condemned by the masses because philosophies like majoritarianism or elitism can only
negatively impact the growth or well being of a country.
e.
One of the most important political behaviors is to give heed to economic stability in a
state. This is so because only an economically balanced state can prosper continuously. Thus,
political system is expected to stabilize the economy of the state so that the graph of economical
growth shows fewer fluctuations. This helps the state to have lesser inflation rates that ultimately
help the economy of a country to develop (Tumin, Koryakov & Nikiforova, 2013). On the other
hand, another significant political behavior involves the intention of the system to give equal
respect to values and beliefs of every citizen.

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This shows how neutral and flexible the system is. On the contrary, this political behavior
can generate serious issues in the country. For example, it may happen that certain kind of
values, shown by a particular group of people, does not match with the values of the country. On
the other hand, it is also important to note that not each and every citizen can have positive set of
values and thus they need to be treated strictly by the political system. However, it can be seen
that many politicians try to compromise while dealing with such people in order to avoid any
kind of dispute in the state. This kind of compromising attitude can seriously hamper the well
being and future of a country.
Part 2
There are many political ideologies and among them two are strikingly significant and
different from each other and those are socialism and fascism. On one hand, socialism refers to a
certain political ideology that supports the fact that the means of distribution, production and
exchange have to be equally owned by the whole community and not by some prioritized
individuals or group of people. One of the most important features of this ideology is that it
supports the Marxist approach to politics (Huckle & White, 2016). This implies that socialism
advocates communism and an ideal state where each and every citizen exercises same amount of
power, especially economic strength. A hint of socialism can be found during the democratic rule
of Barack Obama. Many people tend to think that the president favored characteristics of
socialism rather than capitalism when he was in power. As a result, people were given equal
opportunities for work irrespective of what social, regional or cultural background they come
from. This is so because individual contributions have been given much heed under his rule.
On the contrary, fascism a radical political ideology that advocates dictatorship where
one part of the society oppresses the other section of the society by using forces. As a result, that
part becomes superior and other becomes the victim of oppression and suffering. In political
science, fascism is characterized with the political belief system that helps the politicians to
suppress any kind of opposition to the views of the political system as a whole. This ideology is
totally different from socialism and thus this kind of ideology has no place in a true democratic

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state (Copsey, 2013). On the other hand, sometimes, a certain amount of suppression is needed
from the part of the political system in order to control chaotic situation in the state resulting
from clash of opinions among the citizens. If we study the history of US democracy then we can
see that socialism is an ideology that has got a gradual recognition in the democratic state over
the course of time and now many US citizens think that everyone has the right to live together
having equal rights. However, some recent shift in US politics shows that the recent president
has been showing fascist behavior to the citizens (thetriangle.org, 2019). This view has been
supported by many that the recent US president chocks the equal distribution of power and rather
imposes his own will onto the common people. In order to be more specific, president Trump
came up with many new conditions for immigrants if they wish to come here for living or to
pursue education. As an outcome, people belonging from many Muslim regions have been
restricted to come to US in order to settle in. on the other hand, rights of homosexual people have
also been criticized by the president that shows how fascism has been embedded in this
democratic rule. Thus, it can be said that US democratic history shows a blending of both kinds
of political ideologies.
Part 3
John Locke said that human beings are free by nature and thus every individual has some
basic rights that are exclusive of the special laws in a particular society. For example, human
beings have right of living, owning properties, having liberty and so on. Thus, political system of
any country is bound to be created as an outcome of transferring individual natural rights to the
government in the society through a social contract (Hampton, 2018). This has been done in
order to assure that every individual has a stable life by enjoying their rights. So, it can be said
that the relation between the state and the individual is based on the principle of reciprocity. This
implies that only that kind of political government exists that is able to give rights to its people.
On the other hand, the state that is unable to protect the rights of its people and fails to promote
social good (Christman, 2017). One of the main principles of Locke is that of the majority rule
for sustaining the relationship between the state and the individual. He has been inspired from
the doctrines of Thomas Hobbes regarding his political philosophy (Rossi & Sleat, 2014).
According to Hobbes, the brutality of the state is followed by an absolute authority of the state

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over the individuals. Locke used the notion of state of nature from Hobbes but his way of
looking into the state-individual relationship was quite different.
In order to elaborate, Locke said that a social contract is needed between the individuals
and the state and if the state tries to deny the rights of any individual they need to revolt against
the state too. This kind of action has been advocated in writings of Machiavelli too (Vatter,
2013). However, this kind of relationship is based on justice and not on morality. Similarly,
Machiavelli also advocated the thought that morality has no place in politics. Moreover, the
relationship between the state and the individual can only be established if interest of one
individual does not harm other individuals in any way. This can only happen if every individual
realizes the law of nature and always tries to maintain peace among them by not trying to harm
each other. For that reason, Locke believed that the presidential democracy, and not the
parliamentary form of democracy, is needed for enhancing the relationship between the
individual and the state. In the parliamentary form of democracy, the president holds the supreme
power and thus the interrelation between the state and the individual can be hampered if one
particular person decides how to govern and how to give justice to all. On the other hand,
according to Giuliano, Mishra & Spilimbergo (2013), presidential democratic state refers to a
political system where the legislative branch is separated from the executive branch and only the
executive branch is ruled by the president of the state. This kind of political government can
justify the relationship between the state and individual more peacefully then what a
parliamentary democracy can as per Locker’s political philosophy.

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Reference list
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Christman, J. (2017). Social and political philosophy: A contemporary introduction. Routledge.
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