John Locke (1632-1704): Social contract theory - society, state and government are based on a theoretical voluntary agreement. 2. John Locke: Limited government - that government should be limited and based on consent fr...

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-97): Reason - women are rational and independent beings capable of reason. 2. Mary Wollstonecraft: Formal equality - in order to be free, women should enjoy full civil liberties and be allowed t...

John Stuart Mill (1806-73): Harm principle - that individuals should be free to do anything except harm other individuals. 2. John Stuart Mill: Tolerance - belief that the popularity of a view does not necessarily make i...

John Rawls (1921-2002): Theory of justice - opinion that society must be just and guarantee each citizen a life worth living. 2. John Rawls: The veil of ignorance - a hypothetical scenario where individuals agree on the ...

Betty Friedan (1921-2006): Legal equality - women are as capable as men and that oppressive laws and social views must be overturned. 2. Betty Friedan: Equal opportunity - women are being held back from their potential b...

Karl Marx (1818-83) and Friedrich Engels (1820-95): The centrality of social class - the ideas of historical materialism, dialectic change and revolutionary class consciousness. 2. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels: Humans ...

Beatrice Webb (1858-1943): 'The inevitability of gradualness' - the gradualist parliamentary strategy for achieving evolutionary socialism. 2. Beatrice Webb: The expansion of the state - that this, and not the overthrow ...

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919): Evolutionary socialism and revisionism - this is not possible as capitalism is based on an economic relationship of exploitation. 2. Rosa Luxemburg: Struggle by the proletariat for reform and ...

Anthony Crosland (1918-77): The inherent contradictions in capitalism - does not drive social change and managed capitalism can deliver social justice and equality. 2. Anthony Crosland: State-managed capitalism - include...

Anthony Giddens (1938- ): The rejection of state intervention - acceptance of the free market in the economy, emphasis on equality of opportunity over equality, responsibility and community over class conflict. 2. Anthon...

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679): Order - an ordered society should balance the human need to lead a free life. 2. Thomas Hobbes: Human nature - humans are needy, vulnerable and easily led astray in attempts to understand the w...

Edmund Burke (1729-1797): Change - political change should be undertaken with great caution and organically. 2. Edmund Burke: Tradition and empiricism - practices passed down for generations should be respected. EXPANDED...

Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990): Human imperfection - suggestion that society is unpredictable and humans are imperfect. 2. Michael Oakeshott: Pragmatism - belief that conservatism is about being pragmatic. EXPANDED CONTEN...

Ayn Rand (1905-1982): Objectivism - this advocates the virtues of rational self-interest. 2. Ayn Rand: Freedom - this supports a pure, laissez-faire capitalist economy. EXPANDED CONTENT: Rational self-interest is the hig...

Robert Nozick (1938-2002): Libertarianism - based on Kant's idea that individuals in society cannot be treated as a thing, or used against their will as a resource. 2. Robert Nozick: Self-ownership - individuals own thei...

Max Stirner (1806-1856): The self-interested and rational individual - is the centre of the moral universe and the state. 2. Max Stirner: The future society will be the Union of Egoists (anarchy is order) - this will be ...

Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (1809-1865): Opposition to private property and collectivism - private property limits liberty and economic freedom and should be replaced by mutualism. 2. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon: The rejection and...

Mikhail Bakunin (1814-1876): Propaganda by the deed - this would spark revolution and the state must be abolished as power is oppressive. 2. Mikhail Bakunin: Strong belief in human sociability - the need to abolish priva...

Peter Kropotkin (1842-1921): The scientific basis for mutual aid - allows human nature to flourish. 2. Peter Kropotkin: Revolution to abolish the state and private property - utopian vision of the future society where an...

Emma Goldman (1869-1940): The state is a cold monster - it should be rejected as it is immoral. 2. Emma Goldman: All forms of political participation in the state and society are corrupting and futile - so revolution, no...

Aldo Leopold (1887-1948): The land ethic - extends the community to include the non-human world and preserving the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. 2. Aldo Leopold: Conservation fails - as it is s...

Rachel Carson (1907-1964): The state and society does not have the authority to dominate nature - the long-term effects of chemical pesticide use impact sustainability. 2. Rachel Carson: Nature should be seen holisticall...

E. F. Schumacher (1911-1977): Buddhist economics - economics as if people mattered, with the aim of the maximum of wellbeing with the minimum of consumption. 2. E. F. Schumacher: Traditional economics - based on the fall...

Murray Bookchin (1921-2006): The environmental crisis emerges from existing social structures of oppression - so social structures and the state must be overthrown. 2. Murray Bookchin: Lessons should be learned from ecol...

Carolyn Merchant (1936- ): The oppression and death of nature are linked to gender oppression - so radical, societal restructuring of gender relations is needed. 2. Carolyn Merchant: Opposition to the mechanistic, male v...

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935): Sex and domestic economics are hand in hand - for women to survive, they have to depend on their sexuality and body in order to please their husbands. 2. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: So...

Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986): Sex versus gender - 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman'. 2. Simone de Beauvoir: 'Otherness' - men are perceived as the 'norm' and women deviants from this norm. EXPANDED CONTENT...

Kate Millett (1934- ): Family - undoing the traditional family was the key to true sexual revolution. 2. Kate Millett: Portrayal of women in art and literature - she showed how patriarchal culture had produced writers an...

Sheila Rowbotham (1943- ): Capitalism - women are forced to sell their labour to survive and use their labour to support their family under the capitalist system. 2. Sheila Rowbotham: The family - not just an instrument ...

bell hooks (1952- ): Women of colour - she brought the cultural concerns of women of colour into the mainstream feminist movement. 2. bell hooks: Intersectionality - the mainstream feminist movement had focused mostly on...

Isaiah Berlin (1909-97): Value pluralism - liberal views in society hold no more moral authority than illiberal beliefs, so the state and society need to move beyond shallow diversity. 2. Isaiah Berlin: Only in a liberal...

Charles Taylor (1931- ): The politics of recognition - based on the universal right for all to have their identity recognised. 2. Charles Taylor: The politics of recognition is based on the equalisation of all rights and...

Bhikhu Parekh (1935- ): The rejection of the universalist liberalism - importance of the individual being culturally embedded. 2. Bhikhu Parekh: The justifications for minority rights and deep diversity - cross-cultural ...

Tariq Modood (1952- ): Strong cultural identities are a good thing - they need a complement of a vibrant, national narrative that emerges from debate between cultures. 2. Tariq Modood: All four views of integration (assi...

Will Kymlicka (1962- ): Group differentiated rights - provided by the state, including self-government rights, polyethnic rights and representation rights. 2. Will Kymlicka: The justification for these rights - to be pro...

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778): General will - that government should be based on the indivisible collective will of the 'community' and that nations have the right to govern themselves. 2. Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Civi...

Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803): Cultural nationalism - suggested that every nation was different, and that every nation had its own unique cultural character. 2. Johann Gottfried von Herder: Volk - identified th...

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872): Nationhood - believed that humans could express themselves only via their nation and that human freedom rested on the creation of one's own nation-state. 2. Giuseppe Mazzini: 'Action' - reje...

Charles Maurras (1868-1952): Integral nationalism - an intensely emotional form of nationalism where individuals were encouraged to submerge themselves into their nation. 2. Charles Maurras: Militarism - integral nationa...

Marcus Garvey (1887-1940): Black pride - encouraged African people to be proud of their race and to see beauty in their own kind. 2. Marcus Garvey: Pan-Africanism - that African people, in every part of the world, were o...