Ideological Beliefs for Liberals, Marxists, and Conservatives

Introduction

It is hard to disagree that almost each person and every society has particular ideas, thoughts, beliefs, or views on how this world or their country should work. Without these principles, it is impossible for any order to appear. All people “have views on the ‘correct’ form of government, freedom, equality and equal rights, the ‘proper’ role of government in society, how ‘democratic’ one’s political system is, the right levels of public spending, and so on” (Harrison and Boyd, 2018, para. 7). These ideas are shaped by ideological views and opinions, which are also influenced by political ideologies and the ways they form social order (Steinmetz, no date). Overall, the necessity of political doctrines and their central beliefs is that they offer a specific cultural and political blueprint for states’ systems to be based on. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss three different political doctrines, including liberalism, Marxism, and conservatism, and pay special attention to their ideological beliefs.

Liberals and Their Ideological Beliefs

To begin with, liberalism is a political doctrine or ideology that can often be confused with democracy. Nevertheless, these are two different systems that just have some common features. According to researchers, two great philosophers, namely, John Locke and Adam Smith, were intellectual founders of liberalism and developed it based on individual natural rights (Girvetz et al., 2020). Overall, for this political doctrine, the main problem of politics should be the protection and enhancement of the individuals’ freedom, which is the core responsibility of the authorities (Girvetz et al., 2020). from the point of view of liberals, the government is both a necessary and dangerous system that should be treated with caution. On the one hand, the authorities have the power to protect people from being hurt by others, and this power probably is more significant than any other (Patrick, no date). On the other hand, the government can also pose a threat to the liberty it gives to individuals.

There are unique ideological ideas that form liberalism as a political doctrine. First, liberals believe that there is the moral superiority of persons against the state’s requirements, and every individual has equal moral dignity and worth (Girvetz et al., 2020). Second, all people are similar in their inalienable natural rights, involving their rights to property, freedom, happiness, and life (Patrick, no date). Then, another ideological belief of liberals is that all individual diversities and differences have to be tolerated, and if anything violates the individual’s worth or dignity, it cannot be ignored and left unaddressed.

Marxists and Their Ideological Beliefs

Marxism is another essential political doctrine with its own ideological beliefs. It was developed in the middle of the nineteenth century, mainly by Karl Marx, but Friedrich Engels also added some ideas (Chambre and McLellan, 2020). It is possible to say that Marxism is opposed to conservatism – another political doctrine discussed below, and Marxists usually divide the society into ‘us’ and ‘them’ parts (Chambre and McLellan, 2020). According to their dialectical approach, everything in this world has two different sides.

Overall, Marxism as a political ideology is based on the concept that only exploitation of the working class, which is the majority of people, can allow capitalism to flourish. Further, poor, middle, and rich classes produced by economic conflict become polarized and create their conflict (Chambre and McLellan, 2020). Another ideological belief of Marxists is that there should be social alienation, especially in the media, family, and education, which is likely to result in the control of the Proletariat. Finally, according to Chambre and McLellan (2020), Marxism does not approve of diversity and individual differences. Marxists perceive any odd behavior as deviance and want social norms and standards to be clear and not encourage uniqueness.

Conservatives and Their Ideological Beliefs

Finally, the third political doctrine to discuss in this paper is conservatism, which, as mentioned above, is opposed to Marxism and can also be contrasted with liberalism. To begin with, “conservatism is a preference for the historically inherited rather than the abstract and ideal” (Dagger et al., 2021, para. 2). Further, “this preference has traditionally rested on an organic conception of society — that is, on the belief that society is not merely a loose collection of individuals but a living organism comprising closely connected, interdependent members” (Dagger et al., 2021, para. 2). Compared with liberals, conservatives think that it is the responsibility of individuals and societies to maintain their rights and liberties and solve problems, while the authorities should provide people with the freedom they need to succeed (Kirk, no date). What is more, conservatives are guided by the principles of prudence, necessary variety, prescription, and transcendent moral order (Kirk, 2018). These ideas make conservatism a rather interesting political doctrine.

Conclusion

To conclude, one may say that despite the differences between the three political doctrines discussed above, all of them play an essential role in the development of societies and states. They all have their advantages and disadvantages that make it possible to form specific social order. Though liberals, Marxists, and conservatives see the role of individuals and governments differently, it is vital to make sure that each person can decide for themselves which ideology is more comfortable for them.

References

Chambre, H. and McLellan, D. T. (2020) Marxism. Web.

Dagger, R., Ball, T., Minogue, K. and Viereck, P. (2021) Conservatism. Web.

Girvetz, H. K., Ball, T., Minogue, K. and Dagger, R. (2020) Liberalism. Web.

Harrison, K. and Boyd, T. (2018) ‘The role of ideology in politics and society’, in Understanding political ideas and movements. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Kirk, R. (2018) The 6 core beliefs of conservatism. Web.

Kirk, R. (n. d.) Ten conservative principles. Web.

Patrick, J. (n. d.) Liberalism. Web.

Steinmetz, J. (n.d.) Politics, power, and purpose: an orientation to political science. Hays: Fort Hays State University.