Ideology, the word can be defined as a system of ideas. They shape our views of economics, theories, and even politics. Every nation, 3rd world or 1st, has its own political ideologies, which reflect a governments values and are the basis of decision making. In the modern era, two of the most widely popular principles of government are those of the liberalists and those of the socialist ideologies. In their modern forms they share many similarities, which have lead to several misunderstandings and misnomers. Both liberalist and socialist governments have separate core beliefs that makes them each unique. Therefore, the following will examine the basic components and goals of liberalist and socialist governments and how they differ from one another. So what then are the basic components of liberalism?
The ideology of liberalism finds its roots in the writings of English philosopher John Locke. In today's world, liberalism has been modified greatly from its more classic counterpart. Modern liberalism believes, "that government intervention is sometimes necessary in order to preserve individuals freedom and that economic inequality should be viewed with suspicion, as a probable cause of erosion of one's freedom (Grigsby, 98)." In the United States today, no party reflects this ideology more than the Democratic party. For instance in 2008, in order to preserve thousands of jobs the government intervened by bailing out GM, Chrysler, and Ford from bankruptcy. These ideas were also reflected very recently during President Obama's 2012 re-election. Obama was noted throughout his campaign using the phrase "the wealthy need to pay a little more", thus reflecting the liberalist view of economic inequality. No one however, has illustrated the modern liberalist ideology better than president Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt, during his presidency enacted several policies within the New Deal, such as Social Security and Federal Emergency Relief, allowing the government to...