Discussion Questions
1: Compare the conceptual components of traditional and modern approaches to social inquiry in the social sciences. How do the differences between the two approaches to social inquiry affect their usage of political concepts?
2: Identify the origin of modern ideologies and the three components of an ideology. Chose any two ideologies and compare them based on the three components of ideology (for example: Neoclassical Liberalism and Welfare Liberalism, or Welfare Liberalism and Communism). Briefly explain why many political scientists say Fascism, Nazism, and fundamentalist religious theocracies are not ideologies.
3: Identify the strengths and weaknesses of model states (utopian societies). What is the key for creating a utopian society according to Plato, Bacon, Marx, and Skinner? What is a dystopia and which author's work has been used as the essential foundation for state systems that have been described as dystopias and give an example?