ECONOMIC LIBERAL IDEAS |
Who doesn't want to own beach-front property?
Yet why do some people get to have this luxury, other people get to pretend it's their own (going on vacation) and still others never even get to see the ocean? This is the issue of economics - how to you allocate resources? Who gets what? This unit will look at the evolution of liberal economics from the Enlightenment to today, and will also look at the rejection of economic liberalism (socialism). You will need to decide for yourself what system is the best for allocating scarce resources. |
Political and Economic Spectrums
LESSON ONE - INTRODUCTION TO ECONOMICS
-intro to economics Questions
Impacts of classical liberal thought on 19th century society:
- Adam Smith laissez-faire capitalism
- industrialization
- class system
- limited government
- The Great Depression
ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
- A video explaining the basics of economics (a different approach to the assigned video)
LESSON TWO - INTRODUCTION TO CAPITALISM (CLASSICAL LIBERALISM)
Classical LiberalismEconomic expressions of liberalism, in which consumers and producers have the individual freedom to make economic choices for themselves, is also known as capitalism.
Know these terms:
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ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
LESSON THREE - Responses to the cons of classical liberalism
- Liberal Economics The Cons of Capitalism Video Link
- Check for Understanding Cons of Capitalism Questions
Socialism
planned economy (public enterprise/socialism/communism): The government runs this economy in order to promote the goals of equality
Utopian Socialist: Robert Owen
Utopian Socialist: Robert Owen
Marxism
The system of economic and political thought developed by Karl Marx, along with Friedrich Engels, especially the doctrine that the state throughout history has been a device for the exploitation of the masses by a dominant class, that class struggle has been the main agency of historical change, and that the capitalist system, containing from the first the seeds of its own decay, will inevitably, after the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, be superseded by a socialist order and a classless society.
Welfare Capitalism: Mixed economy
Case Study:
- CANADA'S LIBERAL ECONOMY
Modern Liberalism
HOW LIBERALS RESPONDED TO SOCIALIST IDEAS (THE EVOLUTION TO MODERN LIBERALISM)
- Economic Liberalism - Evolution to Modern Liberalism Video Link
- Liberal Questions
Evolution of modern liberalism:
- labour standards and unions
- universal suffrage: everyone has the right to vote
- welfare state
- protection of human rights
- feminism
Ways in which modern liberalism is challenged by alternative thought
Modern liberalism is challenged by alternative thought student booklet
Some other resources:
- Aboriginal collective thought
- environmentalism
- religious perpectives
- neo-conservatism: Video Link
- post modernism extremism
Some other resources:
- Goofy videos explaining the difference between Keynes and Hayek (Great Depression and Great Recession)
ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
- Assignment: Source Analysis
- 60 Minutes segments on eyeglasses and monopolies
- Article on Crony Capitalism
- The Cons of Capitalism Chart
- When Capitalism is great and not so great
- Great summary of the evolution to modern liberalism
- 10 minute summary of Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Movement
- Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that lead to the adoption of modern liberal ideas
- Summary of the Great Depression
- Khan Academy videos explaining monetary and fiscal policy and Keynesian economics and critiquing Keynesian economics
- Article: Fiscal and monetary policies in the developing world
LESSON FOUR - THE BENEFITS OF COMMUNISM (THE REJECTION OF LIBERALISM)
Case Studies of ideological systems that rejected principles of liberalism
Communism in the Soviet Union
- Leninism
- New Economic Policy
- Stalinism
- 5 year plans
- Gorbachev
- perestroika
- glasnov
ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
- Kim Jung Il speech defending socialism (you need to scroll to #106 - Socialism is a Science)
- A Khan Academy video explaining communism
- A student explanation of Marxism
- Pros of Communism Chart
- Chart comparing communism and socialism
- Chart summarizing key Marxist ideas
- Nature and Goals of Communism/Socialism (watch for bias)
LESSON FIVE - THE DOWNSIDE TO COMMUNISM
ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES
- Key Terms Worksheet
- Article: Nazi corporatist economic policy
- Article: China's economic growth
- Video: A great explanation of the causes of the 2008 Recession
- Video: A discussion of the collapse of capitalism in recent events
- Video: An argument against welfare capitalist ideas
- Anger in America CBC special
- The Corporation - anyone who says capitalism in the United States is fair needs to watch this amazing documentary showing how money literally translates into power.
Sicko - please take any Michael Moore movie with a grain of salt. His movies bring up some great questions - too bad he has been found guilty several times of manipulating the facts and editing interviews. But at any rate, give this movie a chance to think about economic issues relating to health care.