Answer

Reading Comprehension Quiz #2: Week 3 and Week 4 Readings

Week 3 Readings – Ideologies – Part 1

1. According to Christiano (2006), John Stuart Mill argued that a democratic method of making legislation is better than non-democratic methods in three ways: strategically, epistemically and via improvement of the characters of democratic citizens.
2. According to the Murphy et al. (“National Socialism”) reading, Ernst Rudolf Huber points out that the National Socialist state rest on three basic concepts, the people, the Fuhrer, and the movement or party.
3. In “The Doctrine of Fascism” Mussolini states that Fascism is opposed to the main ideals of democracy.

True. Mussolini states that Fascism reflects the absurdity in the conventional lies of political equalitarianism as well as the practices of collective irresponsibility. Additionally, the Fascism doctrine rejects the myths of felicity and indefinite progress. However, according to Mussolini, fascism can also be defined as a real democracy if democracy is understood as referring to the regime in which the masses are not driven back to the margin of the state. In such a definition, then fascism is an organized, centralized and authoritarian democracy. Fascism, according to Mussolini, is absolutely opposed to the doctrines and ideas of racism and religious intolerance.

4. According to Professor Merriman (2008), Hitler did not make the Nazis.

True. According to Professor Merriman (2008), although people view Hitler as the start of the Nazi’s, that is not the case. On the contrary, the Nazis were started by the various evils which were realized after the end of World War One. According to Professor Merriman (2008), after the end of World War One, people were convinced that the War had been started by evil people who were in high places and those evil actions were done in conjunction with others. The Nazis were thus created from such actions to address those actions which they deemed undesirous.

5. Essay #2. Some of the reasons theorists suggest that generally, citizens are not up to the task of governing a large society as discussed by Christiano (2006)

Democracy can be defined from a number of angles. One of the angles is on its outcomes while the other is on the methods of political decision-making. Based on the outcomes, democracy results in the realization of various good laws and policies which serve to improve the characters of the participants. However, non-instrumental values state that democracy has an intrinsic value of leading to morally desirable decisions irrespective of their outcomes. Citizens have an instrumental role to play in democracy through legislative representation which makes democracy a collective decision process. However, one of the problems of democracy is the determination of whether ordinary citizens can govern a large society. Various reason exists as to why theories argue that citizens are not up to the task of governing a large society.

One of the reasons for citizens not being able to govern a large society is that there are differences in the morality levels as well as the intelligence of the people. In specific, some people in the society are more intelligent than others while others are more moral and those persons are the ones that ought to rule. However, the problem in this case is that democracy requires every person to have an equal opportunity to rule.

The second reason for the difficulty of citizens ruling a large society is that society will always require division of labor and thus all people cannot rule. Notably, if every person was to be involved in the complex and difficult task of the politics, then only a small energy would be left for the performance of other tasks in society. Additionally, since people are expected to have the time to engage in other activities, then it is difficult for them to engage in politics.

The third reason for the difficulty of citizens running a large society is that people will usually have a lesser impact on the outcomes of political decision making and will thus make little sense of responsibility for the outcomes of the decisions. Arguments have been made to the effect that voting sometimes does not make sense since it might not affect the outcome of an election.

In conclusion, although democracy requires people to have equal chances of leading others in society, theorists have suggested that citizens are generally not up to the task of governing a large society. One of the justifications for such an assertion is the fact that people differ in terms of morality and intelligence. Additionally, society must have division of labor and people should engage in different activities. Finally, since people make little sense of some decisions, then they cannot participate in the political decision-making process.

Week 4 Readings- Ideologies – Part 2

6. According to Walls (“Environmental Movement”), None of these authorized the EPA to promote the recovery and recycling of solid wastes.
7. Generally, the “Second-wave” feminism, according to the “History of Feminism” readings, refers to a period of feminist activity encompassing the early 1960s to late 1980s.
8. According to Haggar (2013), liberal feminists have a deeply negative attitude towards men.

False. Haggar (2013), argues that men have typically held the titles to various traits that women can now put to good use. For instance, the traits of ambition, assertiveness, and independence, as well as decisiveness, are characteristics that women can admire from men. Haggar (2013) holds that liberal feminists offer women and men the same opportunity for freedom as well as conformity to their sex roles. As such, liberal feminists do not have a negative attitude towards men, but rather admire their traits.

9. According to Wall (“Environmental Movement”) preservationists ideals were related to a romantic “back to nature” ideology in reaction to the rapid urbanization and industrialization of the early Twentieth Century.

True. Wall argues that the various evils of life which existed could be countered by building city parks, scouting boys and girls, summary camps and the study in schools as well as museums and green belts in the suburban areas. Some of the early traditions which were pegged on preservationist’s ideals of “back to nature” ideologies were the national park system, wildlife sanctuaries, and the protection of species of birds which are under threat of extinction. Additionally, contemporary efforts by preservationists to spearhead the protection of endangered species and vast areas of wilderness as well as rivers are pegged on such an ideology.

10. (1). Comparison of the two traditions in American conservation as discussed by Wall (“Environmental Movement”) (1pages)

Environmentalism is deemed as one of the oldest and the most popular movements in the United States. The start of the traditional conservation movement was in the 1890s with the founding of California based Sierra Club in 1892. The next mark of the traditional conservation movement was the Audubon Societies in Massachusetts and New York in 1896.  The origins of such movements can be based on elite activity as opposed to mass movements. The early conservationists exhibited two key tendencies of a “pragmatic” utilitarian wing and the “idealistic” preservationists wing. The two wings have various similarities and differences.

One of the similarities in the utilitarian and preservationist wings is that they originated from the elite activities in the time and were not products of the mass movements. Additionally, irrespective of the tradition, the public was attracted to the conservation, especially those who were engaged in the activities of hunting, camping, and even fishing. Moreover, the two traditions are similar in terms of both being the first movements which sought to ensure environmental conservation.

Despite the similarities, one of the differences is that whereas the utilitarian wing sought to conserve for the greatest good of the greatest number of people, the preservationist’s wing conserved was a reaction to the rapid urbanization and industrialization which had been witnessed in the 20^th century. Whereas the lasting accomplishments of the utilitarian wing were the aspects of professional forestry, soil, as well as water conservation, the preservationist’s wing, had the lasting impacts of protecting endangered species and vast areas of wilderness.

In conclusion, environmentalism is one of the popular movements in the United States with a very large following. Two American conservation traditions which underlined the movement were the pragmatic utilitarian wing and the idealistic preservationist wing. The similarity between the two wings is that they originated from the elite activities of the people and not the mass movement. However, one of the differences is that whereas the utilitarian wing sought to conserve for the great good of the greatest majority, the idealistic preservationist wing conserved with a focus on the activities of the rapid industrialization and urbanization, especially during the early decades of the 20^th century.