Freedom - The political philosophy of our time? : An analysis of the ideas of the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic

Abstract Essay in political science, C-level, by Julia Leonsson, spring semester 2007 Tutor: Susan Marton Freedom – The political philosophy of our time? An analysis of the ideas of the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic Since more than 2000 years there has been an ongoing discussion about whether state interference is a good thing or not. Most international organisations on the international political arena are today founded on neoliberal values, and it has developed in to the hegemonic ideology of the world. The socialistic politics of the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez is thereby a somewhat unusual strategy. The purpose of this essay is to examine to what extent the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic can be understood through a neoliberal perspective. My main research question is: Is the international discussion about Chávez socialistic politic imprinted by neoliberal values? The methodological approach is a qualitative text analysis and by using an analyse chart, bases on three dimensions, it is possible to analyse the material. The dimensions, which also was the basis of my specified research questions is: the state, the individual and the economy. The theoretical foundation of the essay is the neoliberal ideology and my material consists of newspaper articles from six different newspapers. I discovered that the topic and dimension most discussed in the articles was the economy. Based on my study the conclusion is that the international debate about Chávez socialistic politic to a large extent can be understood through a neoliberal perspective