Assignment : Introduction to Politics
Response should be 1000 words.
This Assignment asks you to critically examine one ideology and compare it with another. It assesses the quality of your understanding; your analytical skills; and your ability to communicate in an organised and effective way. It requires you to chose one of the political ideologies we have covered over the course and evaluate them in comparison with another.
Your Task
1. Choose ONE of the political ideologies we have covered in the course. You may chose from the following: liberalism, conservatism, socialism, social democracy, feminism, anarchism or ecologism. Summarise its key features (approx. 500 words). Do not try to cover too much ground: take two or three features and elaborate on these. If you spread your discussion too thinly by covering all the features of your ideology because your discussion will remain descriptive and superficial. You should also avoid devoting valuable words to description of historical context, key thinkers, etc.
2. Choose ANOTHER ideology to the one you have spent the first half of the assignment analysing (i.e. a different one!) and use it to assess your first ideology (approx. 500 words). For example, what would a liberal say is wrong with conservatism. How would a social democratic challenge a socialist? How does ecologism tackle liberalism? Again, do not try to cover too much ground; focus on critiquing the two or three key features that you've identified in the first part of your assignment. Choosing your second, critical, ideology is important. Some ideologies have arisen partly in response to perceived weakness in others and so these pairings will work particularly well. You need to concentrate on the core ideas of the two ideologies you are covering, especially those core ideas that are a source of conflict between your two ideologies.
WHAT WE LOOK FOR:
A good assignment is one that presents a convincing case based on logical reasoning and credible evidence gathered from a minimum of seven sources in a clearly organised and well-communicated way. Assignments are assessed against five key criteria: argument, analysis, research, organisation, and writing and referencing. This assignment is particularly designed to encourage you yourcritical skills (i.e. your ability to make one set of arguments directed against another set).. Original and thoughtful arguments will be rewarded.