Political radicalism

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Political radicalism

Political radicalism or simply radicalism is adherence to radical views and principles in politics

Politics

Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. The term is generally applied to behaviour within civil governments, but politics has been observed in all human group interactions, including corporation, academia, and religion institutions....
. The meaning of the term radical
Radical

Radical may refer to:in science* In chemistry, a Radical is an atom, molecule, or ion which is likely to take part in chemical reactions.*The symbol v used to indicate the square root or nth root...
(from Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
radix, root

Root

In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial root or aerating ....
) in a political context has changed since its first appearance in late 18th century. Nevertheless, it preserves its sense of a political orientation that favors fundamental, drastic, revolutionary

Revolutionary

A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavour....
changes in society, literally meaning "changes at the roots".

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Encyclopedia

Political radicalism or simply radicalism is adherence to radical views and principles in politics

Politics

Latin

Root

Revolutionary

Reformism

Socialism reformism is the belief that gradual Democracy changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures....
(early 19th century, antonymous to conservative) to the contemporary synonym of extremism

Extremism

Extremism is a term used to describe the actions or Ideology of individuals or groups outside the perceived political center of a society; or otherwise claimed to violate common moral standards....
(antonymous to moderate

Moderate

In politics and religion, a moderate is an individual who holds an intermediate position between two viewpoints, neither to be extreme or radical by those applying the term....
). The 19th century American

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
Cyclopaedia of Political Science
Cyclopaedia of Political Science

The Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and the Political History of the United States by the Best American and European Writers was an encyclopedia edited by John J....
states that "radicalism is characterized less by its principles than by the manner of their application". Conservatives often used the term radical as a pejorative

Pejorative

Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt. When used as an adjective, pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, dyslogistic, and contemptuous....
.

History

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the first use of the word radical in a political sense is generally ascribed to the English Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs are often described as one of two political party in Kingdom of England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to the mid-19th centuries....
parliamentarian

Parliament of England

The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. Its roots can be traced back to the early medieval period. In a series of developments, it came increasingly to constrain the power of the King of England, and went on after the Act of Union 1707 to merge with the Parliament of Scotland and form the main basis of the Pa...
Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox

Charles James Fox was a prominent Kingdom of Great Britain British Whig Party statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger....
, who in 1797 declared for a "radical reform" of the electoral system, drastically expanding the franchise

Suffrage

Suffrage is the civil right to vote, or the exercise of that right. In that context, it is also called political franchise or simply the franchise....
to provide universal manhood suffrage

Universal manhood suffrage

Universal manhood suffrage is a form of voting rights in which all adult males within a nation are allowed to vote, regardless of income, property, religion, race, or any other qualification....
. This led to a general use of the term to apply to all who supported parliamentary reform. Over the 19th century, the term has been combined with various notions and doctrines, and various forms of radicalism have included: working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in specific fields or types of work....
, middle class

Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
, philosophical, democratic, bourgeois, Tory

Tory

In the political tradition of some List of countries where English is an official language, the term Tory may refer to a variety of Political party and creeds since it was originally used in the late 17th century to describe opponents to the Whig Party ....
, plebeian. Many influential radical leaders gave rise to their own trend, such as Spencean radicalism

Thomas Spence

Thomas Spence was a Radicalism democrat and advocate of the common ownership of land. He was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, the son of a Scotland netmaker and shoemaker....
or Carlilean radicalism

Richard Carlile

Richard Carlile was an important agitator for the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom....
.

In contemporary usage, the terms radical and radicalism refer to the political views of the far left

Far left

Far left and extreme left are terms used to discuss the position a group or person occupies within the political spectrum. The terms far left and far right are often used to imply that someone is an Extremism....
and radical left

Radical left

Radical left can refer to:* The radical left , an umbrella term to describe those who adhere explicitly and openly to revolutionary socialism, communism or anarchism ? the "radical" qualifier tends in this case to denote a revolutionary fervor, and is a subset of, but should not be confused with, the far left...
, as well as the far right

Far right

Far right, extreme right, hard right, ultra-right or radical right are terms used to discuss the Qualitative research or Quantitative research position a group or person occupies within a political spectrum....
(also known as the radical right.)

French political scientist Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth century The Age of Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought....
is often stated to be the main theoretician for radicalism within Republican thought, especially in the course of the French Revolution

French Revolution

The French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudalism for the aristocracy and Roman Catholic Church clergy, underwent radical change to forms based on Age of Enlightenment principles of cit...
and other modern revolutions, as the antithesis of John Locke

John Locke

John Locke was an English philosopher. Locke is considered the first of the British Empiricism, but is equally important to social contract theory....
's liberalism.

Political radicalism

History

See also