TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

“If you're not a liberal at twenty you have no heart,

if you're not a conservative at forty you have no brain.”

Winston Churchill

What does he mean?

TaK – Politics

Political Action

• Amnesty International calls for an end to human rights abuses in a particular country• The government increases income tax to

fund an expansion in education• The United Nations condemns armed

aggression by one country against another• Teachers go on strike for more pay• The unemployed stage a demonstration in

the capital to protest against their plight

TaK – Politics

Some students would like free education;

some Universities would like to charge …

Why?

TaK – Politics

Politics: • The processes by which different

groups pursue their interests• The means by which societies

regulate conflicts between the groups (often called ‘government’)

TaK – Politics

Politics and ToK

We are not looking at what we should think about politics,

but how we should think about politics________________

The roles of Reason, Language, Sense Perception and Emotion and the

connection to Ethics

TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

Sometimes political debate can look like this

Why?

TaK – Politics

Politics: The Art

of the Possible

TaK – Politics

Politics is a branch of Sociology It has two aspects:

The Descriptive – collecting facts, making models and predictions (as in all human sciences)

The Normative* – deciding how society should work: how to apply moral principles to group decision making; the extent to which we have the right or duty to force some groups to do things against their will

*Normative: of, relating to, or determining norms or standards

TaK – Politics

Protest

TaK – Politics

Debate

TaK – Politics

Persuasion

TaK – Politics

PropagandaWhat characterises

Propaganda?

TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

TaK – Politics

What are the forces that bind societies together?

What are the forces that tear them apart?

TaK – Politics

Everybody wants to retain the best of the past and everyone wants a fair society

Debate begins when we acknowledge there is a problem deciding what

‘best’ and ‘fair’ mean, and how to go about achieving these ideals

TaK – Politics

Why do we need government?

What would we be like without government?

TaK – Politics

The Hobbesian Social ContractWe give up certain things to the state in return for specified benefits

The Lockean Social ContractThe people submit to the government in return for the protection of their innate inalienable human rights

TaK – Politics

DIRECT DEMOCRACY

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY

HEREDITARY

MONARCHY

OLIGARCHY

PLUTOCRACYDICTATORSHIP

ARISTOCRACY

What are the options?

ETC….

TaK – Politics

How would you feel if RCN were to become a fully-functioning direct democracy?

All teachers, students and support staff would have one vote, and all

major decisions would be taken on the basis of a vote.

Would this result in a better school?

TaK – Politics

How much should governments do? Should they be able to…

• tell citizens how to behave?• tell citizens where they can,

and cannot, go?• tell citizens how fast they can drive?• tell citizens what they can say?• tell citizens what they can wear?

TaK – Politics

How much should governments do?

Historically, and in some parts of the world today, people resist the imposition of rules they do not like, or do not feel are just, and try to overthrow a government and replace it with one that is ‘better’…

But how do they know what is ‘better’?

TaK – Politics

Designing the perfect society…• A group of people is about to arrive at an uninhabited island• They are to form a society and set up a government• We can decide for them all the details of their society:

• the forms of government• the laws• the economic structure• etc

• You are going to live in this society, but you have no idea of the role you will have – maybe President, maybe homeless…

• What kind of society and government should they have?

• How do we decide what is fair?