Glossary /Shaping of the Modern World/Brooklyn College

History can sometimes seem full of jargon. Here is a list of terms which can present some problems. It will be expanded as needed.

Absolutism	Used to describe the government of Ancien Regime states, especially France, Russia, Spain and Prussia. The term indicates that the only legitimate source of power in such states was the monarch. In particular the rules of such states tried to deprive the aristocracy and the church of the ability to compete with the monarch. This ideal was rarely achieved. The term does not mean that the monarch had immediate and direct control of everyday life. For that, see totalitarianism.
Ancien Regime	Means the "Old System of Government". The term was first used during the French Revolution to describe the period of Absolutist Royal government, extending from the time of Cardinal Richelieu (r.1628-42) to 1789. Nowadays it is common to apply the term to Europe from circa. 1600 to 1789, a period otherwise known as "early modern". More generally the Ancien Regime is applied to any governmental system before a revolution - e.g. to Russia under the Tsars. In a still wider use, some writers use Ancien Regime, meaning "the old way of doing things" to apply to society during the early modern period.
Capitalism	Although nowadays there are ideological capitalists - people who support a set of ideas about the economic benefits and importance of "free markets" - the term capitalism was first used to describe an the system of private investment and industry with little governmental control which emerged, without an ideological basis, in the Netherlands and Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries. A "capitalist" was an individual who invested money (or capital) in a given business venture. The "Classical economists" [Adam Smith, David Riccardo, et.c], aided by Karl Marx were responsible for positing this de facto set of business arrangements as an ideology. In the United States, thinkers as diverse as Hayek, Friedman and Ayn Rand, have promoted "Capitalism" as every bit as much an ideology as Marxism. In practice, many modern western economies developed under heavy government support and subsidy.
Civil Rights	Are rights held by individuals and groups derived from the social contract - the common consent of society at large to the rules under which its members live. The term relates in particular to the ideas outlined by Rousseau in The Social Contract. Under this conception, civil rights derive from society rather than God or nature [see Human Rights, and Natural Rights] and can be changed. On the one hand this gives the state the power to deprive people of liberties they once had (e.g. the ability to drugs, or to drink alcohol), but also enables "progressive" political groups to argue for new "rights", for instance the "right to vote" or the "right to healthcare".Rights such as these cannot be derived from nature as they depend on particular (and not commonly achieved) degrees of social organization and wealth.
Communism	Can be understood in two main ways. In the West is usually means the political application of the ideas of Karl Marx (i.e. Marxism). Political communism is put into effect through political parties. In the 19th century the usualy term such such parties was "Social Democratic" parties. Since the 1920s the name "Communist" has usually, but not always, been used by such parties. For this reason, the countries which were governed by Communist parties were often called "Communist" states in the West. In the former Soviet Union, however, "communism" was used to refer to the future society in which the Marxist goal of an egalitarian stateless society had been achieved. For this reason, the Soviet union and its client states usually called themselves "socialist states".
Conservatism	Can mean many things - including opposition ot change by old Communist. Classic western conservative though must be distinguished from simple "reaction". Its greatest thinker was probably Edmund Burke. Burke was not a supporter of tyranny or despotism, but he was opposed to the assumptions of the liberals of the French revolutionary period. Against them he argued that People are not good - they are what they are and you cannot make things better over night Populism should not be trusted. Good government is going to come about through long experience and should not be overthrown Government is complicated and simple schemes can never be satisfactory. These views are maintained in many later conservative strains of thought. Conservatives do not reject change as such, but think it should be slow. Burke also show some longing for how things were, and this also seems to be an emotional aspect fo conservatism, which leads conservatives often to identify with traditional institutions: the monarchy, religion, the family.
Constitutionalism	Government by an agreed set of conventions and procedures in which all politically significant power in society have some say. A written constitution is not needed, nor need a constitutional society be "democratic".
Fascism
Human Rights	Can mean either natural rights or civil rights (see separate entries). Often users of the term conflate the two ideas under the heading "human rights".
Liberalism	Originated in with thinkers such as John Locke, who was conerned with ndividual Liberty and Rights; Jean-Rousseau, who first argued that sovereignity comes from the people. The American Declaration of Independence (1776), the Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (1789) are the entirely liberal documents. The word itself was not used until adopted by some Spanish liberals in the early 19th century. The main idea centered around the idea of liberty - to do what you want with the minimum of state interference. Liberty is can be defined as political freedom, which consists in the absence of external restraint. The early political goal was to replace elitist and aristocratic societies and states, with governments based on constitutional principles: legal equality, religous toleration, and freedom of the press, and, not least, to gain some say in government for the people who called themselves Liberals - that is, in general, educated members of the middle class - through representative institutions such as parliaments. As long as most governments were conservative or aristocratic, Liberals confined the political activities to achieving the kind of constitutional meritocratic state they wanted. They wanted to repeal laws that were for the benefit of a small landed aristocracy. Liberals also had clear economic goals. They wanted the removal of control over the economy, whether from the government or guilds. Adam Smith's arguments supported this idea. In Britain especially they wanted to get rid of the corn laws. Liberal, or "classical" economics built on Adam Smith. It stated that government should not interfere with competition in the market. Society was concieved of as full of atomistic individuals in which the limited role of government was to maintain sound currency and defence. Such early liberals did not really consider wider social change, or put forward social programmme. They made arguments about majorities etc, with themselves in mind. It was something of a shock when they had to consider the workers. Their arguments and activity was directed at the traditional enemy of the Middle Class, the landed aristocracy. The early educated middle class liberals were soon joined by factory owners as the Industrial Revolution took hold. Many of the new manufacturing class supported Liberal ideas - they could see that they were making an important contribution to the country but were excluded from its power structures. As factory owners they abhorred restrictive trade practices that limited their markets. For similar reason they opposed trade unions. In some areas Liberalism and Free Trade become almost synonymous - Manchester. Although at odds with modern expectations,in England, it was the Tories, such as Lord Shaftesbury, and later Benjamin Disraeli, who promoted laws to protect and increase factory workers rights, as the liberals opposed things that affected the factories they owned. Utilitarianism: Once grasped the idea of Liberty does not need any great philosophy to back it up, but there was an attempt made to create a liberal ethical philosophy called "utilitarianism" - the leading proponent was Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), the founder of University of London. The core of this philosophy was the utility principle -" that which brings about the greatest happiness of the greatest number is good". 1848 and Change in Liberalism: From 1830 in France, 1832 in England Liberals in some power. In other Areas - Austria, Germany - Liberals first get taste of power. And power changed liberalism. The basic problem was what does a political philosophy that had been based on getting rid of aristocrats in government do when its supporters are in power. Liberals had to face social realities of power. A state must have power over its members. Liberals had spent all their time opposing excessive power. Now they had to face the question what are the proper limits for individual and collective action. The Liberals who took power, eg in Britain after 1832, did not believed in democracy, rather that an elite of wealth and talent, not of birth, should rule. They had used the utility principle - action and government, should be for the greatest good of the greatest number to justify their goals. But as soon as the Liberals obtained their goals they faced the workers using the same principle to make their claims. After 1848, Liberals were also aware of the workers, and their demands for political and economic power. But the view of many liberals was that workers were unfit for power, and the Liberal class interest in preserving its own wealth, led after 1848 to a real split between the liberals and the urban and rural working classes. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), brought up by a strict utilitarian father, was the crucial figure. He is at the transition between old individualist Liberalism and the later Liberal parties which took the utility principle and used it to promote social welfarism. On Liberty (1859) is his most famous political work. In it he outlined three fundamental freedoms:- of Belief, of Taste and pursuits, of Uniting with others. But he also discussed the rights of society as he saw individual actions have social consequences. Sometimes the interests of the community must come first.
Nationalism	Nationalism was the most successful political force of the 19th century. It emerged from two main sources: the Romantic exaltation of "feeling" and "identity" and the Liberal requirement that a legitimate state be based on a "people" rather than, for example, a dynasty, God, or imperial domination. Both Romantic "identity nationalism" and Liberal "civic nationalism" were essentially middle class movements. In the 20th-century Marxist-led "National Salvation Fronts" often combined nationalism, anti-imperialism, and a populist version of Marxism. There were two main ways of exemplification: the French method of "inclusion" - essentially that anyone who accepted loyalty to the civil French state was a "citizen". In practice this meant the enforcement of a considerable degree of uniformity, for instance the destruction of regional languages. The United States can be seen to have, eventually, adopted this ideal of civic inclusive nationalism. The German method, required by political circumstances, was to define the "nation" in ethnic terms. Ethnicity in practice came down to speaking German and (perhaps) having a German name. For the largely German-speaking Slavic middle classes of Prague, Agram etc. who took up the nationalist ideal, the ethnic aspect became even more important than it had been for the Germans. It is debateable whether, in practice, all nationalisms ended up as chauvinistic and aggressive, but the very nature of nationalism requires that boundaries be drawn. Unless these boundaries are purely civic, successful nationalism, in many cases produced a situation in which substantial groups of outsiders were left within "nation-states".
Natural Rights	Are rights possessed by all human beings derived from nature. These are thus distinct from the rights derived from membership in society derived from a changeable social contract. The "right" to a free education, for example, cannot be a natural right since it depends on contingent factors such as the wealth of a given society. But the right to be treated fairly in a court case could be connected to a fundamental right to justice. In practice, the rights that have been understood as "natural rights" have varied from society to society. The idea of intrinsic rights ultimately depends on the belief that value is inherent in the structure of the universe, and is thus connected to theories of Natural Law. In the modern world the American Declaration of Independence makes the connection clear - deriving the rights of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", from "nature and nature's God". The genealogy of these ideas goes back to the English philosopher John Locke, who was influenced by the Anglican theologian Richard Hooker. Hooker in term reflected common medieval ideas about natural law, found for instance in the writings of Thomas Aquinas. But neither Aquinas nor any other Christian originated "natural law", which has roots in the Hellenistic philosophy called Stoicism..
Fascism
Marxism	The philosophical theory of economics and history derived from the writings of Karl Marx (1818-1883).
Reactionary
Socialism
Totalitarianism	A totalitarian state trys to control all aspects of its citizens lives. Some ancient Chinese rulers seem to have attempted this, but in the West, it is a distinctively modern form of government since it depends on huge government efforts to bring about. Classic examples of attempted totalitarian societies are France under the Committe of Public Safety in 1794, Nazi Germany, the Stalinist Soviet Union, Mao's China, and Kim's Korea. In such societies efforts were amde to bring all public groups under the ideological control of the state.