Political Science- Answer 16 questions- topics range from conservative, liberal, US political system.

Answer 16 of the following in as much detail as possible. DO NOT QUOTE – EVERYTHING IN YOUR OWN WORDS.
1. The ban Messenger concludes that the masses of common people, or the demos, are poor judges of political matters. How might a modern defender of democracy respond to such a claim?

2. Describe Reagan’s version of modern American conservative.

3. Adams lists 6 reasons why single (or unicameral) legislatures are undesirable in a republic. What are those reasons?

4. The issue of the “right of the people to keep and bear Arms” (Amendment 2) continues to be one of ongoing controversy in the United States. From a republican perspective, why is the right of the people to bear arms so crucial?

5. De Tocqueville describes the various factors at work within history that he believes have combined to make “equality of conditions,” and thus democracy, inevitable. What factors does he isolate as central to this process? How does he say they functioned, and with what specific consequences?

6. According to The Rights of Man, what is the rationale behind Paine’s claim that only the present generation has any claim on the politics of today?

7. Smith argues that, in addition to the natural propensity to truck, barter, and exchange, there is another feature of human life that separates us from animals. Do you think there is sometimes a tension between these two elements of human existence? Why or why not?

8. Mill famously declares that: “If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind”. Mill gives three basic reasons for this claim. What are they?

9. Green makes a radical break with many classical liberals, like Locke, who argued that the right to property was a natural or pre-political right. That is, for Green property rights are not sacrosanct emanations from natural or God-given law that government must never infringe upon. How does Green go about defending this claim, and do you find it convincing? Why or why not?

10. How does Burke understand the idea of the “social contract”? How does his traditionalist conservative idea of the social contract differ from a liberal one, like Locke’s?

11. Marx declares that the “theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property.” In the following two pages, however, he explains precisely what he does—and does not—mean by that term. What does Marx mean by “private property”? Why does he think that in his own time “private property is already done away with for nine-tenth of the population”?

12. What use do the Utopians make of gold and jewels? What reasons do they give for their behavior? What have they done with money, and why?

13. What reasons does Kristol give for why neoconservatives are so keen to cut taxes, and so unafraid of large budgetary deficits?

14. What is the fundamental difference between Allen’s understanding of the importance of individual liberty for democracy, and that set forth by J.S. Mill? Put differently, why isn’t Mill a modern libertarian like Allen? Or is he?

15. What are the “first principles,” or set of assumptions, that Owen makes about human beings? How do these contrast with the first principles that he sees at the heart of capitalist society?
16. What is Oakeshott’s conception of “human nature”? What are its characteristics? Why does he think that “friendship” is conservative?