Can the Study of Politics Be Scientific? 3 страница

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tional and career prospects, than with reordering «private» or domestic life.

In contrast, socialist feminists typically highlight the links between female subordination and the capitalist mode of pro­duction, drawing attention to the economic significance of women being confined to a family or domestic life where they, for example, relieve male workers of the burden of domestic labour, rear and help to educate the next generation of capi­talist workers, and act as a reserve army of labour.

However, the distinctive flavour of second-wave femi­nism mainly results from the emergence of a feminist cri­tique that is not rooted in conventional political doctrines, namely radical feminism. Radical feminists believe that gender divisions are the most fundamental and politically significant cleavages in society. In their view, all societies, historical and contemporary, are characterized by patriar­chy, the institution whereby, as Kate Millett put it, «that half of the population which is female is controlled by that half which is male».

Radical feminists therefore proclaim the need for a sex­ual revolution, a revolution that will, in particular, restruc­ture personal, domestic and family life. The characteristic slogan of radical feminism, is thus «the personal is the political». Only in the extreme form, however, does radical feminism portray men as «the enemy», and proclaim the need for women to withdraw from male society, a stance sometimes expressed in the form of political lesbianism.

XXIII. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. In what country were feminist aspirations first ex­
pressed?

2. What is meant by the «first-wave feminism»?

3. What demands did the «second-wave feminism» ex­
press?

4. What is a unifying feature of all the feminist move­
ments?

Учебное пособие для философов и политологов_________

5. What do liberal feminists want to achieve?

6. What is «equal-rights feminism» concerned with?

7. What links do socialist feminists highlight?

8. What do they draw particular attention to?

9. What do radical feminists claim for?

10. What is the characteristic slogan of radical femi­
nism?

XXIV. DIVIDE THE TEXT INTO LOGICAL PARTS AND
MAKE UP AN OUTLINE OF THE TEXT.

XXV. SPEAK ON THE TEXT.

XXVI. COMPARE ALL PRESENTED IDEOLOGICAL
TRADITIONS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FOLLOWING
POINTS:

1) origin;

2) the core theme;

3) basic demands;

4) major characteristics;

5) main representatives;

6) negative and probably positive features;

7) your personal attitude.

XXVII. READ THE ARTICLE AND EXPRESS YOUR OPINION IF ISLAM IS AN IDEOLOGY OF A PECULIAR

SORT.

THE TRUE FACE OF ISLAM

(by Zachary Karabell)

Despite its violent image in the West, the religion is a balm to millions in an otherwise cruel and crowded world. Islam may be one of the world's most important religions, but in the West, at least, it has an image problem.

Islam is a religion held dear by nearly a billion people, and it shouldn't surprise us that there are more than a handful of extremists, although for others Islam is an oasis of calm. Islam

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js a balm and a salve. In Islam, God is said to have 99 names, which include «The Compassionate» and «The Merciful».

Islam is intensely personal, like many American Protes­tants, Muslims tend to emphasize the relationship between each individual and God, without intermediaries. In a world of sprawling prefab concrete housing projects, with high un­employment, an indifferent and occasionally brutal govern­ment, Islam is part of the warp and woof that maintains com­munity and gives people some sense that life has meaning.

There are those who would say that all this proves is that Islam is an opiate for the masses, but who are we to say? Islam may not solve the more intractable problems, and in soothing the dislocations it may even make some things worse. But if you go to the Citadel, you can listen, not to the sound of cars and factories, but to the call to prayer, sounded throughout the city, reminding all listen­ers of God's compassion and mercy. It is a haunting sym­phony, it allows you to close your eyes and feel, at least for a few moments, that all is well with the world.

(from «NEWSWEEK» 2001)

WORD STUDY

I. GIVE RUSSIAN EQUIVALENTS FOR:
Pejorative implications; a coherent set of ideas; a collec­
tion of values; a range of rival traditions; to reexamine prin­
ciples; producers and consumers; religious and ethnic loyal­
ties; absolute and universal truth; to place emphasis; to take
advantage of; a core theme; in a literal sense; unquestioning
obedience; to fertilize political debate; unwanted coercion;
female suffrage; gender inequality; conventional doctrines.

II. GIVE ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS FOR:
Противоречивый; обеспечить базу; напоминать; воп­
лощать; общие проблемы; интеллектуальное обновление;
обстоятельства; освещать; замещать; основные проявле­
ния; самопожертвование; посвятить; изображать.

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов_________

III. MAKE UP SENTENCES:

1. It is necessary to place emphasis on (new ideologi­
cal doctrines; understanding the roots of religion; con­
cepts of morality; reexamining principles; intellectual per­
fection).

2. His theory provides a basis for (a coherent set of
ideas; a range of prominent principles; fundamental beliefs;
intellectual recarnation).

3. Their ideology embodies (absolute and universal truth;
unchanging systems of thought; moral values; relationships
of mutual understanding).

4. His study draws attention to (the network of rela­
tionships; ethic values; new basic techniques; contempo­
rary treatment of ideas and facts).

5. They share concern with (environmentalists in their
search for optimal methods; ecologists in their striving for
nature protection; scholars attempting at achieving posi­
tive solutions).

IV. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. Must religion be a part of everyday life?

2. Is religion an important part of the culture?

3. What is the purpose of religion?

4. Should we approve or disapprove the church-state
separation doctrine?

5. Must religion be taught at schools?

6. Is the country threatened by a decline in adherence to
religion?

7. Are you for religious freedom?

8. Are cults dangerous in any way?

9. Do you think that cults appear to rob members of
their individuality and freedom of choice?

10. What does it mean to be religious?

V. ASK YOUR FRIEND TO ANSWER THESE QUES­
TIONS OR THE SIMILAR ONES.

Political science

Part

UNIT X

I. READ AND TRANSLATE THE TEXT ; IDEOLOGY AND PUBLIC OPINION (by Rodney Stark)

All scholars have the advantage of intimate familiarity with their objects of study. Ironically, this familiarity is also the source of much frustration because too often we expect everyone else to function as we do. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of research on public atti­tudes and opinions. Time and a researcher has framed a hypothesis linking some set of beliefs or opinions - a link­ing that seems obvious - only to have the data offer little or no support. Some examples from a recent survey will illustrate this point. Among the opinion questions that the students were asked, were these two developed by Robert Wuthnow:

If one works hard enough, one can do anything.

— Agree strongly

— Agree somewhat

— Disagree somewhat

— Disagree strongly

The poor simply aren't willing to work hard

— Agree strongly

— Agree somewhat

— Disagree somewhat

— Disagree strongly

Wuthnow not only thought people who agreed with one would agree with the other (and vice versa), but also thought the statements formed part of a very general meaning system, or political ideology, on which people would base a whole spectrum of their beliefs and opinions. However, among the students these attitudes were hardly correlated at all. It turned out that they weren't correlated in Wuthnow's sample of the population of San Francisco either.

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов

In the same questionnaire, the students were asked to agree or disagree with the following statement:

It is good to live in a fantasy world now and then.

— Agree strongly
—- Agree somewhat

— Disagree somewhat

— Disagree strongly

It seemed likely that people who agreed with this state­ment would be more apt to also report they liked to read novels - using reading as a way to enter a fantasy world. Not so. Nor was this item correlated with liking to read spy and detective novels. It wasn't even correlated with liking to read science fiction.

These examples help to see a very basic problem for scholars. They prefer to believe that every human is, un­derneath it all, a philosopher. As the celebrated anthropolo­gist Clyde Kluckhohn put it, there is a «philosophy behind the way of life of every individual and of every relatively homogeneous group at any given point in their histories.» Kluckhohn identified these philosophies as «world views.» Wuthnow explained in this way:

«People adopt relatively comprehensive or transcend­ent, but nonetheless identiofiable, understandings of life which inform their attitudes and actions under a wide vari­ety of conditions.»

Wuthnow called these understandings «meaning sys­tems». When such meaning systems are very prominent in a person's thought or in the discussions within a group, they sometimes are called ideologies. An ideology is a con­nected set of beliefs based on a few very general and ab­stract ideas.

An ideology is used to evaluate and respond to proposals, conditions, and events in the world around us. An ideology, then, is essentially a theory about life. If its content is primarily political, an ideology will consist of a few abstract assertions to explain why and how societies ought to be

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run. Hence, when faced with a specific issue, a person seeks to derive an answer from his or her ideological premises, not simply on a pragmatic issue-by-issue basis.

Most of us and most of those we meet are amateur philo­sophers, and many have a very noticeable political ideology. However, as researchers have begun to do investigation on attitude and opinion surveys based on general populations, they have been forced to learn that although some people base their beliefs and actions on a world view, and some people base their politics on an abstract ideology, a lot of normal and competent people don't. In fact, it appears that most people don't. Moreover, a substantial part of the population in any society ignores most of the «issues», reserving attention for occasional matters of great urgency or with special personal inclinations.

One example may clarify how willing people are to ex­press seemingly contradictory opinions. In one General So­cial Survey, which asked about voting for a woman for president, respondents were also asked to agree or disagree with the following statement: «Most men are better suited emotionally for politics than are most women.» One might suppose that people who agreed with that statement would be unlikely to endorse a woman for president. In fact, 67 percent of those who agreed said that they would, never­theless, vote for a woman for president.

The survey also asked people to agree or disagree with an even stronger statement about the proper political role for women: «Women should take care of running their homes and leave running the country up to men.» But of those who agreed with this statement, 54 percent still insisted they would support a woman for president. Scholars might think these attitudes form a tight little logical package, but clearly many Americans do not.

In a classic study of American voters, Philip E. Con­verse could classify only about 3 percent as basing their decisions and opinions on an ideology. Another 12 percent

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов

he classified as making some use of an identifying political ideology. About half of the voters took a mildly issue-oriented approach to politics, and the rest seemed to ignore all policy, issue, and ideological matters. These results imply that some people take a very different approach to politics than do others and only some people participate in the democratic political process at all.

(from «POLITICS AND THE STATE»)

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Are beliefs of certain importance in the public opinion
poll?

2. Do people base their opinions on political ideology?

3. What questionnaire was worked out by Wuthnow?

4. What did the results of the responses show?

5. Do you believe that every human is a philosopher at
his heart?

6. How did Clyde Kluckhohn formulate this idea?

7. What explanation was suggested by Wuthnow?

8. What definition of ideology is given in the text? Do
you agree or disagree with it? Give your own definition.

9. Where is an ideology used?

10. What does an ideology consist of?

11. What does a person derive his answer from when
faced with a specific issue?

12. How do a lot of people behave taking part in the
survey?

13. What was the aim of the General Social Survey?

14. What results were obtained? Were they surprising
for the researchers?

15. Are all people politically-minded?

III. COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES: l.The popular belief is that every human is a .... 2. People adopt relatively comprehensive understandings of life which ... .

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3. Wuthnow called these understandings as ... . 4.They are sometimes called ... .

5. An ideology is a connected set of ... .

6. An ideology is used to ... .

7.The content of ideology is ... .

8. When faced with a specific issue, a person seeks to ... .

9. Very often people are not willing to ... .

10. Half of them take a mildly issue-oriented approach
to ... .

IV. ENUMERATE ALL THE SURVEYS MENTIONED
IN THE TEXT AND THEIR RESULTS.

V. DIVIDE THE TEXT INTO LOGICAL PARTS AND
MAKE UP AN OUTLINE OF THE TEXT.

VI. SPEAK ON THE TEXT.

VII. READ THE TEXT AND RENDER ITS CONTENTS
IN RUSSIAN:

ELITE AND MASS OPINION

Converse recounts that a few years ago a young scholar became interested in the rise of the abolitionist movement in the northern United States: how antislavery, abolitionist beliefs spread and shaped political opinion, and how this in turn fostered the new Republican Party and culminated in the election of Lincoln and - soon after the Civil War broke out - in the Emancipation Proclamation. He was aware that the* American Anti-Slavery Society never attracted more than 200,000 members, or about 3 percent of the adult population outside the South.

So, to see how support for the abolitionist movement was translated into the nearly 2 million votes needed to elect Lincoln, he had to trace the informal channels through which abolitionist sentiments had spread beyond the con­fines of the Anti-Slavery Society. In other words, he want-

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов

ed to show how opposition to slavery had become an in­creasingly significant part of informal political discussion and of public opinion during the decade leading to the war.

To do this, the young scholar analyzed the contents of many large collections of personal letters saved by various families in Ohio - letters written during the 1850s and 1860s. But his study never was published or even complet­ed, because the young scholar found no references at all to abolition in any of these letters.

This forces the conclusion that mass support for Lin­coln and, eventually, for the war was based on many fac­tors, but concern about the plight of the slaves in the South was not one of them (although that may have changed once the war got going).

However, a small elite committed to abolition had suffi­cient influence to see that antislavery policies won. Moreover, the abolitionist ideology seems to have infused this elite with a sense of single-mindedness and dedication that got results.

This example does not reflect an isolated case. Leaders of social movements and political organizations usually display patterns of opinion consistent with a basic outlook or ideology.

WORD STUDY

I. GIVE RUSSIAN EQUIVALENTS FOR:

The source of frustration; public attitudes and opinions; hardly correlated; liking; a wide variety of conditions; a set of beliefs; to evaluate events; a specific issue; an issue-by-issue basis; amateur philosophers; matters of great urgency; to be better suited for; to run the country.

II. GIVE ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS FOR:
Преимущество; слишком часто; обзор; наоборот; чело­
век; прославленный антрополог; в данный момент; миро­
воззрение; любитель-философ; основная часть населения;
противоречивый; процент; остальная часть; взрослое на­
селение; проследить неформальные каналы; преданность.

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III. TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES, PAY ATTENTION TO THE ITALICIZED WORDS:

1. Religious affiliation or church attendance did not in­
fluence willingnessto support a female political candidate.

2. The questionnaire included scores of itemson politi­
cal philosophy, positions on current national issues - the
whole range of political concerns of the time. „_

3. For years scholars had not the slightest doubtthat
only a few people of deficient intellect lacked world views.

4. Hardlybeing aware of the consequences he took a
thoughtless decision.

5. His latest survey was a matter of great urgency.

6.These conditions were better suited fordeveloping
countries.

7. A lot of problems dealt with the ecological consequenc­
es, the restwere connected with social aspects of our life.

8. He has been avoided too often because ofhis specific
inclinations.

_______________________ UNIT XI________________

I. READ AND TRANSLATE THE TEXT: THE MILITARY AND POLITICS

The development of modern armed forces can be traced back to the period following the Middle Ages when European powers started to develop a standardized form of military organization, usually based on a standing army. During the nineteenth century, the military became a specialized insti­tution with a professional leadership separate from the rest of society. European colonialism, in turn, insured that this military model was adopted all over the world, turning the military into a near-universal component of state organiza­tion. Puerto Rico is sometimes identified as the classic ex­ception to this rule, but its lack of armed forces is only possible because of the security provided by the US military.

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов

The military is a political institution of a very particu­lar kind. Four factors distinguish the military from other institutions and give it a distinct, and at times overwhelm­ing, advantage over civilian organizations.

First, as an instrument of war, the military enjoys a vir­tual monopoly of weaponry and substantial coercive power. As the military has the capacity to prop up or topple a regime, its loyalty is essential to state survival. Secondly, armed forces are tightly organized and highly disciplined bodies, characte­rized by a hierarchy of ranks and a culture of strict obedience. They are thus an extreme example of bureaucracy in the Weberian sense. This gives the military an unusual degree of organizational effectiveness, although it can also breed inflexibility and discourage initiative and innovation.

Thirdly, the military is invariably characterized by a dis­tinctive culture and set of values that prepare its personnel to fight, kill and possibly die. Sometimes portrayed as implicitly right-wing and deeply authoritarian (by virtue of its tradi­tional emphasis on leadership, duty and honour), military culture can also be grounded in creeds such as revolutionary socialism (as in China) or Islamic fundamentalism (as in Iran). Fourthly, the armed forces are often seen, and generally regard themselves, as being «above» politics, in the sense that, because they guarantee the security and integrity of the state, they are the repository of the national interest. This secures for most militaries a special status and respect, but it may also incline the military to intervene in politics, particularly when, in its view, vital national interests are under threat.

On the other hand, it is a mistake to view the military as a single, cohesive institution with common political fea­tures in all societies. Divisions within the military may stem from various sources. For example, conflicts may de­velop between broadly conservative senior officers, often recruited from elite backgrounds, and more junior officers, who may be either impatient for promotion or more open to progressive or radical ideas.

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Political science

Similarly there is likely to be tension between an officer core that is privileged both socially and professionally, and conscripts or enlisted personnel, who are usually drawn from the working class or peasantry. Rivalry and competition for prestige and scarce resources may also divide the vari­ous services and units within the military, while regional or ethnic divisions can also be significant.

The character of particular armed forces is shaped by internal and external factors. These include the history and traditions of the military and specific regiments or units, and the nature of the broader political system, the political culture and the values of the regime itself. For example, the political orientation of the People's Liberation Army in China is deeply influenced by the decisive role it played in establishing the communist regime in 1949 and by strict party control at every level of the Chinese military.

In West Germany, the armed forces were subjected to a systematic process of political indoctrination to root out Nazi sympathies and values and to build support for the principles of political democracy. Finally, it is difficult to generalize about the nature and significance of the military because of the very different roles that the military can play in political life. The most important of these are the following:

♦ an instrument of war

♦ a guarantee of political order and stability

♦ an interest group

♦ an alternative to civilian rule.

II. ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. How far can we trace the development of armed forces?

2. When did the military become a specialized institution?

3. What factors distinguish the military from other in­
stitutions?

4. Why do we say it is an instrument of war?

5. What is the second characteristic of the military?

6. What is its specific culture like?

_____ Учебное пособие для философов и политологов_________

7. Are the armed forces out of politics? What do you
think?

8. What kind of conflicts may arise within the military
itself?

9. What is the character of particular armed forces
shaped by?

10. What roles does the military play in political life?

III. COMPLETE THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:

1. The military turned into a near-universal component
of ... .

2. The military enjoys a virtual monopoly of ... .

3. The armed forces are characterized by a hierarchy
of ... .

4. The military is sometimes portrayed as ....

5. The armed forces guarantee ....

6. It is a mistake to view the military as ... .

7. The character of armed forces is shaped by internal
and external factors such as ... .

8. The military plays many roles in political life such
as ....

IV. ENUMERATE ALL EXAMPLES OF THE MILITARY
REGIMES MENTIONED IN THE TEXT.

_______________ ADDITIONAL READING__________

TEXT I

I. READ THE TEXT AND DO THE TASKS THAT FOL­LOW:

A SHARED VISION OF A BETTER WORLD

(by Kofi A. Annan)

Ours is a world in which no individual, and no country, exists in isolation. All of us live simultaneously in our own communities and in the world at large. The same icons,

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whether on a movie screen or a computer screen, are recog­nizable from Berlin to Bangalore. We are all influenced by the same tides of political, social and technological change. Pollution, organized crime and the proliferation of deadly weapons are «problems without passports.» We are con­nected and interdependent.

Much of this is nothing new; human beings have inter­acted across the planet for centuries. But today's «globali­zation» is different. It is happening more rapidly. And it is governed by different rules or, in some cases, by no rules at all. Globalization is bringing us new choices and opportuni­ties. It is making us more familiar with global diversity. Yet, millions of people experience it not as an agent of progress, but as a disruptive force that can destroy lives, jobs and traditions.

Faced with the potential good of globalization as well as its risks, faced with deadly conflicts in which civilians are the primary targets, faced with poverty and injustice, we must be able to identify the areas where collective action is needed to safeguard global interests. Local communities have their town councils. Nations have their courts and legisla­tures. But in today's globalized world, it is high time for us to give more concrete meaning to the idea of the «inter­national community.»

What makes a community? What binds it together? For
some it is faith. For others-it is the defense of an idea, such
as democracy. Some communities are homogeneous, others
multi-cultural. Some are small as schools and villages; others
as large as continents. What binds us into an international
community?

In the broadest sense there is a shared vision of a better world for all people. There is our sense of common vulnerability in the face of global warming and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. There is the framework of international law, treaties and human- rights conventions. There is equally our sense of shared opportunity, that is