 Hello and welcome to a video summarizing everything you need to know when it comes to government and politics. My name is Barbara and in this video we will be looking at different types of ideologies, specifically conservatism, liberalism and socialism, and how they set out the ways in which a government should be run. So let's begin. Now firstly you might be wondering what ideology means. Now ideology is just a really fancy way of saying beliefs and ideas that people have about how to run a country. And as I mentioned, there are three major political ideas that influence how people think a country should be run from a political standpoint. The first is conservatism, the second is liberalism and the third is socialism. So we will go over all three in detail so that you can get a handle of the difference between each. Now let's begin with conservatism. Now the word itself conservatism comes from the notion of wanting to conserve society as it is. Now the principle when it comes to understanding human nature that this is embedded in is Thomas Hobbes' view that humans are essentially evil and without a strong government society can become quite chaotic. Therefore from a conservatism perspective there's this viewpoint that a strong leader is needed of a strong government that preserves traditional values and the government should be quite powerful and forceful in order to impose this order. If we're left to our own devices as human beings we will lead society to descend into a very chaotic state. Also conservatism holds a perspective that we as humans are too disorganized and selfish to be left to our own devices and tradition should really be respected and change is something that can be quite suspicious. It's not something that conservatism would be completely against but change if and when it occurs should be gradual and not dramatic. Furthermore from the conservatist perspective the government should be really strong to protect its citizens. Social order, private property and security is really key even if it's at the expense of freedom, rights and equality. Now finally from the conservatism perspective there's this viewpoint that people aren't equal. In other words some people don't have the same talent as others. There'll be some people who are just simply far more talented in one area than others. There'll be some people who are better at doing something than others and some people who are more academic and so on than others. We're not all created equal. The conservatist perspective is that as a result of this inherent inequality we all have different gifts and different traits. It's for this reason that you will see some people who own more than others and some people are very good at amassing power. Now that therefore means that some of these inequalities that we see built in for example the rich poor divide this stems from this lack of equality that we inherently have. They're simply better at business than others hence why they become wealthy. Now if we think about the liberalism perspective now this is rooted in the notion that the individual is primary, the individual is first and they're more important even than a group or society and this is where the idea of individualism stems from. Now the individual and of course by extension humans as opposed to perhaps the Hobbesian perspective that humans are evil and very chaotic actually the liberalism perspective sees humans as being capable of acting quite rationally and humans are quite capable of personal development. As a result we humans have inherent rights within us and our human rights and preserving our human rights is key for a liberalist. Also humans if left to their own devices contrary to the Hobbesian views can actually make quite good decisions. We as humans don't actually need a strong government to tell us what to do in every aspect of our lives and the state really the role of the state is to help us all as individuals however of course the state should also really put the person at the centre of everything the person is more important than the community and people have a social responsibility to look after each other therefore liberalism believes in government by consent. What this means is we should have the power to choose our government and we can also contrary to the conservatism perspective when it comes to tradition the idea that we need to protect traditions institutions like the monarchy actually on the other side of the spectrum the liberal perspective believes that if necessary we can and should make massive changes to traditions that aren't good or aren't serving so for example areas like monarchs, unelected leaders, this can be overhauled and changed. Also from the liberalism perspective people must always be in a position to give the permission before the government can exercise power and this is why democracy is so important. Liberals also don't believe that a free balance and tolerant society will naturally develop and the liberty of one person is always naturally a threat to another person hence why the state is really important because it's the only way in which individual freedoms can be preserved for everybody. Finally liberals believe that there should be a limited government so there should be laws to control what the government can do and the government's job is to really look after society but we all have a say in who's elected. Now the final and really key idea when it comes to ideologies of how a state should be run is of course that of socialism. Now socialists believe humans actually love cooperating as a group so this again going back to the fundamental beliefs of human nature the socialism perspective believes that actually we as humans love being part of a group and we love cooperation. Now from a socialist perspective equality is key and the equality of everybody in a community is more important even more so than the individual rights for each person so of course this is where perhaps socialists and liberals would clash. Also from a socialist perspective the state has a huge job in looking after all of us as a community almost nannying us so this is where the term of the nanny state comes from this is the notion that the state is looking after us and all aspects of life including giving us free healthcare giving us free schools even free housing when we need it. Furthermore the socialist perspective believes that wealth should be equal amongst us all and if it's not equal it should be redistributed and divided equally amongst all and as society currently stands we're just too divided because of our class system it's not right to have a middle class and upper class and a working class wealth needs to be redistributed. Now do you remember that long ago socialist used to focus on the massive divide between aristocrats that own factories in contrast to the majority of workers who had terrible living conditions and they worked in these factories however today socialist focus on the divide between the upper classes the middle classes and the working classes and of course they still want everybody to be part of the same class and this can be achieved through the richest people in society being highly taxed in order to spread this wealth so when they're highly taxed a lot of the money that goes back into the government in terms of taxation is split up and divided amongst everybody to promote equality and to of course reduce the class system. Also socialist believe that the government which should have a big role in our lives it should increase what is called the public sector it should own more industries such as transportation and so on in order to employ more people in the public sector and give these people a fair pay this is the opposite of the private sector this means businesses which are owned by private individuals who can profit from them actually the socialist perspective sees working for the state and working in the public sector perhaps getting less pay than what one would get if they run a very successful business which they owned privately actually this is a better option and also working for the state is actually more moral than selfishly working for a private business to make money for yourself. So that's all if you found this video useful would really appreciate it if you gave it a big thumbs up also make sure you visit our website www.firstretutors.com where you find lots of revision materials to help you in your studies thank you so much for listening.