Political Power And The Common Good Summary

In our world, ideologies play an important role in helping people understand and politics, society, the world. In their book, Politics, Power, and the Common Good, Eric Mintz, Osvaldo Croci and David Close argue that political ideologies – sets of beliefs and perspectives on “government, society, the economy, and human nature that inspire and affect political action” – like liberalism play an important role in how citizens identify the state’s role in their individual lives, the economy, and society in general (Mintz, Croci & Close 51-53). Liberalism is a political ideology that advocates individual freedom (including freedom of speech and rational thought), free market, rule of law (which states that everyone is equally under the authority

Classical liberalism (of the 1930s), which supports a free market system and limited government activity, reflects the propensity for free trade globally and limited government involvement in the economy that characterizes the era of neoliberal globalization (Mintz, Croci & Close 56-57). On the other hand, reform liberalism – which supports individual freedom, equality of opportunity (achieved through welfare and social programs), and free market (under government regulations to protect consumers, workers and the environment from harm) – mirrors the era of the Keynesian Welfare State’s four pillars (Mintz, Croci & Close 57). The four pillars of the KWS include: no state involvement in investment decision-making or production of good and services (this was left up to the private sector), state initiatives (through Keynesian aggregate demand management) to achieve full employment and high incomes, state assistance or welfare for the unemployed and people who cannot “participate fully in the labour market,” (disadvantaged or poor people), and lastly, state support of unionization and collective bargaining for better wages and higher living standards (McBride & Shields