Political Ideas                First Take-home Exam                                      Due:  Oct. 13

 

Answer any three of the following questions.  Answer each question with essay approximately 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 pages long (typed, double-spaced).  Draw on the relevant readings and our class discussions, but try to express your ideas in your own words, using only brief quotations, if any.  When you do quote or paraphrase the ideas of other authors, give them credit and indicate where you found the idea.   A page reference in parentheses is sufficient for this purpose; formal footnotes are not necessary.  For example:  (Ball and Dagger, p.39) or (Locke, in Ideals and Ideologies, p.36)

 

 

1.  What reasons (or assumptions) have led many people to conclude that democracy is either a bad idea altogether or, more moderately, that there is such a thing as too much democracy?  How might a defender of democracy reply?  Do you think that democracy is preferable to monarchy or aristocracy?  Why?  Should democracy be limited by some other political principle?  Why?

 

2.  Discuss Locke's defense of the institution of private property.  Do we need to suppose that property rights are more limited than Locke thought they were?  Explain and defend your answer.

 

3.  Do you think that people should be regarded as having positive rights (examples: a right to an adequate diet, or to a job, or to a decent education)?  Or should we limit our list of rights to negative rights (examples:  rights not to be killed or assaulted, not to be unjustly imprisoned, not to be tortured, not to be subject to government censorship)?  Explain and defend your answer.  (Explain how you would reply to those who have argued for either a more extensive or a less extensive conception of rights than your own.)  You might find it helpful to focus on one positive right -- a right to food or to education or to health care, for example -- and explain why you do (or do not) think that society should recognize such a right.

 

4.  Locke used a version of social contract theory to argue that the functions of government should be quite limited.  How does his argument go?  Do you think this Lockean argument is a cogent one?  Why or why not?  In general (leaving aside the details of Locke's particular version of social contract theory), do you think that it is useful to conceive of government as deriving its authority from some kind of contract or agreement? (Explain.)

 

5.  Ball and Dagger say that one element of traditional conservatism is a belief in a ‘natural aristocracy’ and, consequently, a refusal to accept any strong principle of social equality, which is attacked as ‘leveling’. (See pp.94-5 and 101-4.) What reasons might such a conservative offer for this belief?  Does this mean that a conservative must deny that "all men are created equal?"  What sort of equality can a conservative believe in?  What sort of equality do you believe in?

 

6.  Supporters of "laissez-faire" capitalist democracy (classical liberals and some conservatives) say that it is the political system that provides its citizens with the maximum feasible amount of liberty or freedom.  But modern liberals like Rawls and T. H. Green say that real freedom is undermined by poverty, ignorance, and disease.  Therefore, they say, to create a genuinely free society, government must ‘interfere’ in the marketplace (for example, by regulating workplace health and safety) and provide various supports and services to make people’s opportunities more equal.  Explain and critically evaluate this argument.

 

7. Explain as clearly and concisely as you can what the differences are between the liberal and the conservative traditions in political thought.  What do you see as the strengths and weaknesses of each tradition?  Where would you place yourself in relation to these two traditions?  Why?  (Note: in answering this question, do not rely only on your previous understanding of the terms 'liberal' and 'conservative' as these are used in contemporary U.S. political discussions.  Rely on the meanings of these terms as explained in the course readings.)