This exam will consist of both short-answer answer and long-answer questions.
USE YOUR OWN WORDS in your answers.
Short Answer Question Instructions:
Read the questions CAREFULLY. Be sure to answer EACH part of the question. Be concise: answer each question in one clear paragraph, writing complete sentences (rather than bullet points), using no less than 5 sentences and no more than 7 sentences. You will lose points if you write less or more than 5-7 sentences.
1. How does Heywood define political ideology in his book? Be specific. Summarize three other ways of understanding ideology that he discusses in one sentence each, making clear how they differ from Heywood’s use of the term in the book.
2. Name the five core ideas/values/beliefs of conservatism. Summarize each idea in one sentence.
3. Name the four core ideas/values/beliefs of feminism. Summarize each idea in one sentence.
4. Name the five core ideas/values/beliefs of fascism. Summarize each idea in one sentence.
5. Name the four core ideas/values/beliefs of anarchism. Summarize each idea in one sentence.
6. Both Orisanmi Burton’s lecture on Abolition 101 and Patrisse Cullors’s article “Abolition and Reparations” discuss some of the key ideas of abolition. While they both name many different components of abolition politics, I want you to choose what you think are the two most important aspects of abolition politics for both thinkers. Pick two aspects of Abolition that Orisanmi Burton explains and summarize each of them in one sentence. Then pick two key aspects of Abolition that Patrisse Cullors explains and summarize each of them in one sentence. Finally, in one sentence, explain one difference between Cullors’ explanation of abolition and Burton’s explanation of abolition.
7. Explain in detail four of the differences between communism and social democracy. Use specific examples of each.
8. Discuss the role of hierarchy in conservatism, liberalism and socialism. What is the stance of each political ideology on hierarchy, and how do they differ from each other?
9. Discuss the meaning of property for socialists, liberals and conservatives. Be as detailed as you can about the role the idea of property plays in their different political ideologies, indicating where they are similar and how they might be different.
Long Answer Question Instructions: Answer each question in 2 paragraphs (10-12 sentences) by drawing on the lectures, readings, and films from class. Read carefully. Be sure to answer each part of the question.
10. Drawing on the readings by Heywood and Graeber, provide a detailed summary of fascism and anarchism. Define the key themes of each ideology, explain when they each emerged, and what their evolution has been over time. Then bring them into conversation and describe the relationship between the two political ideologies and why they clash so profoundly. Finally, think about the YouTube video we watched, “The Black Bloc,” and make an argument about the relationship between what we learned about these political ideologies in the readings, and the people who clashed at Charlottesville—what were the many different arguments about Anti-Fa in the documentary, both for and against it?
11. Drawing on the Heywood chapter and lecture, summarize feminism as a political ideology. In three sentences, summarize the history of the evolution of feminism as a political ideology using specific examples. In one sentence each, summarize the following traditions that Heywood discusses: liberal feminism, socialist feminism, third-wave feminism, and transfeminism. What does Heywood say about each of them, and why are they important to feminism? Finally, in three sentences, identify the concrete ties you see between feminism as a political ideology discussed by Heywood, and the contemporary feminist movement we watched a video about, “Ni Una Menos,” who also organized massive protests recently on international Women’s Day throughout Latin America and elsewhere. How does the vision of the current feminists that are a part of Ni Una Menos protests overlap or break with the arguments Heywood makes about feminism? Be specific.
12. What is neoliberalism? Summarize it in five sentences. Be specific, and draw from the many arguments and examples used by Heywood, the videos we watched, and what was explained in lecture. When and in what context did it first begin to successfully change government policy? How exactly does neoliberalism relate to classical and modern liberalism? Who were neoliberalism’s biggest supporters, and what were the different ways it managed to become dominant throughout the world? Finally, what might be the relationship between the rise of authoritarianism today and neoliberalism—what exactly is the relationship between these two trends in political ideology? Be detailed and specific. Finally, do you think neoliberal democracy is really in crisis today? Why or why not? Be specific.
13. Abolitionists and socialists both approach the question of social change with specific ideas about reform versus revolution. In four sentences, summarize the difference between the evolutionary and revolutionary roads to socialism from Heywood. In an additional four sentences, summarize the differences between reform, non-reformist reform and abolition based on our reading and lectures about abolition politics. Finally, in three sentences, compare the different approaches to change by socialists and abolitionists: how are the two political ideologies similar? In what ways might they be different?
14. The global age (1980s-present) has dramatically shifted the trajectory and content of political ideologies. First, drawing from Heywood, define globalization in two specific sentences. Then, in two sentences each, and using specific examples, summarize how the global age has shaped and changed each of the following political ideologies we have studied in class: liberalism, fascism, anarchism, nationalism, and feminism. Your argument can build on the points you make about each political ideology, but try not to be too repetitive. In other words, make a unique argument about the specific changes facing each political ideology as a result of globalization.
15. Imagine you could design your own political ideology. What would it look like? What would the key ideas for it be? Develop your own unique political ideology by combining some of the ideas of at least three different political ideologies we have studied in class. Make an argument for why you hold your new political ideology would be best. Then, make an argument about how your political ideology would be different from other existing political ideologies. What aspects of existing political ideologies are you not including and why? Why did you pick specific aspects of each existing political ideology and not other aspects (for example: “I like the notion of individualism from liberalism because…, but I don’t like the notion of rationality because…”). Be as specific as possible by drawing on information from Heywood, the videos, and the lectures. (You will be graded not on the basis of what your beliefs are but rather on the depth of understanding you demonstrate of Heywood’s book as you craft your own argument).
