A political landscape is built on a couple of principles which help with ensuring proper services are offered to people. The primary reason is to have a set of specific ethical norms that have those in positions of power lead in the most appropriate ways possible. Principles set in this situation should tell how society needs to be run by coming up with a cultural and political blueprint for a particular social order. An example of political ideologies that are often used includes liberalism and socialism. That is because they bring out ways through which the society should be run and at the same time maintain its ethical doctrines. It is through the features, similarity, and differences that these political ideologies see the nature of human beings and society, key political values and the right institutional arrangements. Liberalism and socialism are similar through the optimistic view on humanity and interpretation of history and factors on equality, ownership of property, and interpretation of power as the differences.
Liberalism
It is a stated principle of governance which has to enhance and protect the freedom of individuals as a primary problem in politics. The point is argued out from the fact that the government has its focus on keeping individuals safe from harm without considering the idea that it also poses a threat to liberty. Judges, the police and laws set with the best intention which ensures security and in the process they coercive power turns against these individuals (Ball and O’Neill 2016). That explains why this principle considers the government as a necessary evil. The primary idea is to have a system of governance that has the power necessary to protect individual liberty and at the same time prevents anyone who governs from abusing it.
Features of liberalism
Some core values are often convenient when explaining the concept of liberalism. The main idea is to have a system that does not have power in the wrong hands, therefore, improving the relevance of the government towards securing the lives of individuals. These core features include factors on:
Individualism
People always have the opportunity to make themselves through the choices they make and in most cases they destroy all they have achieved. This ideology supports the fact that everyone has their rights. Liberals are associated with characters which downplays the idea of society. Everyone seems to inhabit a different sphere as the approach of atomism is essential to them. It is clearly stated from these characters involving egoism, selfishness and self-reliance are among the core principle on individualism.
Justice
The liberal theory of justice is focused on establishing equality in various ways. However, equality is a much-contested concept as humans are not created equal in the sense of moral worth. Justice is, therefore, necessary to liberals as everyone should have the same entitlements and rights with no discrimination based on gender, sexuality, and disability (Ball and O’Neill 2016). Society should treat all people as legally and politically equal. The concept of meritocracy is important in marinating justice as liberals have it well set that all members of the society should have equality in the opportunity to rise or fall. Liberals advocate equal opportunities to skills and abilities as the market economy is seen as the most efficient ways of distribution of resources to help meet the need of as many individuals as possible.
Socialism
Whenever a system is set where the society and not individuals own the process of production and distribution to gain financial reward is referred to as socialism. That implies different factors of productions get equally owned by all members of society. The allocation of these ownership rights is through a democratically elected government as a situation is created where everyone owns shares in the specified cooperation. The daily lives of the whole society is improved from the fact that the primary factors of production including labor, entrepreneurship, natural resources, and capital are controlled by the community hence keeping the political power among this group of individuals (Baradat and Philips 2016).
Features of Socialism
There are certain traits which show the concepts of socialism. They assist with explaining how the distribution of power among individuals is limited and power and control to society. The features include:
Equality
The primary fundamental political benefit of socialism is equality. It is very wrong when the inequality of wealth and income determines to test whether a person is working harder than the other. Socialists believe it is a sign of unfairness of the systems as individuals need to be subjected to equal skills and opportunities to achieve or fail. Equality of opportunity legitimizes the system by making the situation looking like it is the person’s fault that they do not succeed (Baradat and Philips 2016). The community then works and bonds together for the common good. Socialism in then beneficial as wealth is distributed on the basis of need as most vulnerable people have more necessities as compared to others. The society works together in seeing to it the community gets their basic needs by working together. Equality emphasizes that at least a personal worth and opportunity is essential to all individuals in a society.
Common Ownership
As seen by socialism, private properties are among the primary causes of inequality in society. These properties display a character of unjust as socialism has revenue produced by collective efforts leaving every single individual as a beneficiary. The community also lives in peace and harmony as the property is believed to breed envy and greed. It also plays a role in blinding us to the true nature of society. The perception of gaining satisfaction and happiness by trying to get the next version of a product produced or get the best quality of a product in the market and the long run ensure resources are maintained within the rich circle if one-factor socialism is getting rid of. However, through socialism, common wealth in the society is owned by various individuals as all services are run for the good of the community but not collecting large private profit margins.
Even though the two political ideologies stand on way different concepts, there exist some possible similarities as well as differences. When comparing and contrasting these ideologies, it is evident how the models are in relation to how ethical ideas are put to work when looking at a particular social movement.
Similarities between Socialism and Liberalization
As two distinct types of political ideologies, these concepts have similarities focused on ensuring service provision. The similarities include:
The Optimistic View of Humanity
The two ideas are set to seeing the best possible thing that happens to all human beings. They stress that meeting human needs should be the backbone through which the various principles are formed. The small number of people who oppose this, however, include the rich who want to control a large portion of the society’s wealth. The principles are set to highly fight this case as it is a display of greed and selfishness. They both call for equal distribution of resources and exposure to skills which placing people at a point they can succeed. Liberals can ensure this is set through choice while socialists work on having this process done through socialization (Thayer 2018). It is therefore clear that the two have some similarity since both have a generally optimistic view of humanity.
Same interpretation of history
Both of this concept see history as a chance that progress can be made as individuals move forward to something better. Socialists on this area see the need for revolution as they state that there is the need for plans being placed underway to ensure the lives of every individual in the society is improved regardless of the time or form that will be taken to achieve these goals (Thayer 2018). Liberalization, on the other hand, has a logical argument as the lead to this course. Liberals see the need for negotiations and laying out of reasonable arguments all with the aim of leading the society into better things.
Differences between liberalization and socialism
Even though these two concepts are focused on ensuring there is an existence of a better future for human beings, there are some distinct differences especially concerning the means through which these ideas are met. The differences in this context include:
The socialist believes no justice can be found in an unequal society. To them, the idea of having the state in power and control is just the formation of a superstructure that protects the rights of the rich. The liberals, on the other hand, believes that the state is set created with the sole purposes of protecting people and preventing them from any occurrence of harm to them (McCormick and Unger 2017).
Varying views on the concept of equality is also the other issue of the difference between socialism and liberalization. As opposed to liberalization, inequality on income and wealth has socialists differencing with that as a sign showing some people have worked harder than others. The concept of equality of opportunity in this case, therefore, makes the poor seem as though they are the reason as to why they do not succeed.
Liberalization is often focused on competition and meritocracy while socialism is focused on ensuring there is cooperation among all members of the society and empathy to those who have hardship in attaining success (McCormick and Unger 2017).
The ownership process is inclined on private property and meritocracy in liberation as merit is regarded as crucial while in socialism the livelihood of individuals in the society get improved through shared ownership.
Socialism address the process of community as every issue has a class contrast while liberalization is more specific to individuals and therefore the idea of individualism.
In conclusion, a lot of concepts present themselves when comparing and contrasting between socialism and liberalization from a political landscape. The ways the two ideas see the nature of human beings and society, key political values and the most desirable institutional arrangements are well brought about from the core features as well as the similarities and differences. On liberalization, the concept of individualism and justice are depicted as some of the few core principles of political ideologies. Socialism, on the other hand, is specific to justice and equality among members of the community all with the goal of improving the livelihoods of this particular group of people. Similarities between them include the optimistic view of humanity and the interpretation of history. The differences in these subjects included equality, ownership of property, and interpretation of power.
Bibliography
Ball, T., Dagger, R. and O’Neill, D.I., 2016. Liberalism. In Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal (pp. 70-129). Routledge.
Baradat, L.P. and Phillips, J.A., 2016. Political ideologies: Their origins and impact. Routledge.
Thayer, C.A., 2018. Mono-organizational socialism and the state. In Vietnam’s rural transformation (pp. 39-64). Routledge.
McCormick, B.L. and Unger, J., 2017. China After Socialism: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia?: In the Footsteps of Eastern Europe or East Asia?. Routledge.
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