5.4+Ideologies+of+Change,+Revolution+and+Reform

Summation of Major Topics


 * The Ideologies of Change**


 * Liberalism
 * Owed much to the Enlightenment, American, and French Revolutions
 * Became more significant as the newly created Industrial Class adopted Liberalism as its doctrine
 * Economic Liberalism
 * Laissez-faire economics, government should not interfere with economy
 * Thomas Malthus
 * //Essay on the Principles of Population//
 * Argued that unchecked population growth increases faster than food production growth, leading to starvation
 * This law is of nature and government should not interfere
 * David Ricardo
 * Furthered Malthus’s ideas
 * //Principles of Political Economy//
 * “Iron Law of Wages”
 * More workers cause wages to fall, leading to starvation
 * When the number of workers will fall till they can sustain them selves again and raise big families
 * The cycle is then repeated
 * Government interaction and artificially raising prices would only perpetuate this cycle
 * Political Liberalism
 * Believed in protection of civil liberties and basic rights for all people
 * Equality before the law
 * Freedom of speech, assembly, press
 * Freedom from arbitrary arrest
 * Religious toleration
 * Separation of Church and State
 * Freedoms should be granted in a document like American Bill of Rights or French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen
 * Believed in a constitutional monarchy or constitutional state
 * Limited governmental powers
 * Written Constitutions to guarantee rights
 * Legislature to check king’s power
 * Tied to middle-class, especially industrial class, men who wanted voting rights so they could share power with the landowning class
 * Landowning class did not wish to share its congressional power
 * John Stuart Mill
 * //On Liberty//
 * //On the Subject of Women//
 * Regarded as a classic statement of the liberty of the individual
 * Argued for “absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects”
 * Protection from government censorship and tyranny of the majority
 * Supported women’s rights, attempted to add women to reform bill of 1867, but failed
 * Differences between men and women differed not because of nature, but because of society
 * Nationalism
 * Very powerful ideology
 * Rouse out of awareness of being part of a community that has common institutions, traditions, language, and customs
 * Each nationality should have its own government
 * Threatened to upset the existing political order
 * United Germany or Italy would upset the balance of power
 * Independent Hungarian state would break up the Austrian Empire
 * Conservatives tried to repress nationalism
 * Nationalism and liberalism became strong allies
 * People believed liberty could be realized only when peoples ruled themselves
 * Once each people obtained its own state, peace would follow
 * Early Socialism
 * Product of political theorists and intellectuals who wanted to introduce equality into social conditions
 * Believed that human cooperation was superior to competition
 * Later Marxists believed this impractical and labeled these people utopian socialists
 * Against private property and industrial capitalism
 * Fourier
 * Founded by Charles Fourier
 * Sought to create voluntary associations that would demonstrate the advantages of cooperative living
 * Small model communities called phalansteries – communal housing where ideally 1620 people would work for mutual benefit
 * Robert Owen
 * British cotton manufacturer
 * Believed humans would reveal their natural goodness if they lived in a cooperative environment
 * Transformed a horrid factory in New Landmark, Scotland into a flourishing community
 * Unsuccessful community in New Harmony, Indiana
 * Louis Blanc
 * //The Organization of Work//
 * Social problems could be solved by government assistance
 * Called for establishment of workshops that would manufacture goods for public sale
 * State would finance workshops, but workers would own and operate them
 * Female Supporters
 * Zoe Gattti de Gamond
 * Belgium follower of Fourier
 * Established her own phalanstery to provide men and women same educational and job opportunities
 * Men and women shared same tasks
 * Saint-Simon
 * Combined Christian values, scientific thought, and socialist utopianism
 * Attractive to women who participated in activism of women in politics set in motion during the French Revolution
 * Recognized principle of equality between men and women
 * Flora Tristan
 * Female utopian socialist
 * Attempted to foster a “utopian synthesis of socialism and feminism”
 * Traveled through France preaching need for liberation of women
 * //Worker’s Union// – advocated the application of Fourier’s ideas to reconstruct both family and work
 * Utopian socialists criticized for impracticality, but laid a groundwork for later attacks on capitalism
 * First half of nineteenth century, socialism remained a fringe movement overshadowed by liberalism and nationalism


 * Revolution and Reform**


 * 1848 a wave of revolutionary fervor moved through Europe
 * Caused liberals and nationalists everywhere to think that they were on the verge of creating a new order
 * Another French Revolution
 * Charles X called for in 1830 produced a victory for French liberals
 * July 26, 1830 Charles issued July Ordinances that imposed rigid censorship on the press, dissolved legislative assembly, and reduced the electorate in preparation for new elections
 * People of Paris put up barricades and revolted
 * Charles X fled to Britain and Louis-Philippe was instated as the constitutional king of France
 * Louis-Philippe called the bourgeois monarch because of his support for the upper class, even wearing their clothes
 * Increased number of people that could vote, but still only the wealthy met the voting requirements
 * Upper middle class thought that change should stop here
 * Working class was disappointed, they helped overthrow Charles X, but they were still excluded from power
 * Horrible conditions for working class lead to violence
 * Legislature (the Chamber of Deputies) difference of opinion spilt them into two groups
 * Party of Movement – lead by Adolphe Thiers, favored ministerial responsibility
 * Party of Resistance – lead by Francois Guizot, believed they had reached “perfect reform” and no further reform was needed
 * Revolutionary Outbursts in Belgium, Poland, and Italy
 * Nationalism, not liberalism as in France, played the primary role for revolutions in 1830
 * Congress of Vienna added Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) to the Dutch Republic
 * Merger of Catholic Belgium and Protestant Dutch Republic caused a revolution, and Dutch convinced major European power to accept their independence
 * Revolutions in Italy and Power were much less successful
 * Metternich sent Austrians troops to crush revolts in three Italian states
 * Poland never received expected help from France and Britain and revolt was crushed by the Russians
 * Reform in Britain
 * 1803 elections brought Whigs to power in congress
 * Industrial leaders objected to corrupt British electoral system
 * Whigs and some members of the landed classes realized the reform was better than revolt and introduced an election reform bill
 * Reform Act of 1832
 * Disfranchised 56 rotten boroughs and enfranchised 42 new cities
 * Gave new industrial urban communities some voice in government
 * Property qualification for voting was retained, so only one in thirty people were represented in Parliament
 * Reform Act primary benefited upper middle class, lower middle class, artisans, and industrial workers still had no vote
 * Act did not change the makeup of the House of Commons significantly, but the industrial class had been joined with the landed interests for the first time
 * New Reform Legislation
 * 1830s and 1840s witnessed considerable reform legislation
 * Laws halted some of the worst abuses in the industrial system
 * Industrialists and manufacturers in Parliament opposed these laws and supported economic liberalism
 * Poor Law of 1834 – based on theory that giving aid to the poor made them lazy and increased their numbers, Poor Law remedied this by making the poor so wretched they would choose to work
 * Corn Laws
 * Were repealed to help workers lower bread prices, aid the industrial middle classes, and promote free trade
 * Repeal came in 1846 lead by Robert Peel