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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Marius Sebastian Ostrowski FRHistS FRSA (German: [ˈmaːʁɪʊs zɛˈbastɪan ɔsˈtʁɔvskiː];born 12 December 1988) is a German-British political and social theorist,historian of ideas,policy researcher,and composer,based at the Blavatnik School of Government,University of Oxford. His research interests lie in the study of ideology and ideologies,focusing especially on how social contexts shape patterns of ordinary thinking and everyday behaviour. He also writes on the theory and history of social democracy,in particular its origins in interwar socialist reformist thought,and on progressive visions of European integration,including the prospects for a Europe-wide Universal Basic Income.
Ostrowski was born in Frankfurt am Main,West Germany, [1] to parents from Sighișoara and Poznań. His mother was the Romanian-German-British actress Doris Hermann-Ostrowski,née Rodica-Doris Bogdan (1952–2023),who later became a lecturer and tutor in German language studies at the Goethe Institut,London School of Economics,and University of Oxford. [2] After living in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Kaiserslautern,Ostrowski immigrated to the United Kingdom with his mother in 1994,settling in Surrey. He first attended Nower Lodge School,Dorking (now defunct),then moved in 1997 to Colet Court (now St Paul’s Junior School). In 2002,Ostrowski became a King’s Scholar and Music Scholar at Eton College,where he achieved 10 A-levels,including Classical Greek,history,linguistics,mathematics,and music. [3] [4]
From 2007 to 2010,Ostrowski studied philosophy,politics,and economics at the University of Oxford,winning a Demy-fellowship and music scholarship at Magdalen College,and graduating with a First. He continued his studies with an M.Phil in political theory (2010–12),studying with Michael Freeden,Lois McNay,David Miller,Mark Philp,and Adam Swift,and a D.Phil. in politics (2012–17),under the supervision of Michael Freeden. His thesis Twilight of the pollsters:A social theory of mass opinion in late modernity offered a framework to understand the crisis of the opinion polling industry,bringing into conversation literature from the history of ideas,opinion research,political science,social psychology,and sociological theory. In 2013,Ostrowski won election to an Examination Fellowship in politics at All Souls College, [5] where he was mentored by Jeremy Waldron and Cécile Fabre. [6]
On completing his D.Phil.,Ostrowski undertook a systematic reorientation towards the history of ideas and the study of ideologies. In 2018,he embarked on a multi-volume translation of the collected works of Eduard Bernstein,three volumes of which have been released so far: Eduard Bernstein on Social Democracy and International Politics (2018), [7] Eduard Bernstein on the German Revolution (2019), [8] and Eduard Bernstein on Socialism Past and Present (2021). [9] Ostrowski also published his first monograph, Left Unity (2020), [10] in which he makes the case for closer collaboration between the various groups and movements that comprise the progressive forces in society. [11] [12] [13] During this time,he taught as a lecturer and tutor in politics at Christ Church and Magdalen College,Oxford,and the New College of the Humanities (now Northeastern University London). [14]
In 2019,a Visiting Fellowship at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence introduced Ostrowski to the neglected Europeanist ideas of interwar progressive thinkers such as Max Cohen-Reußand Alexandre Marc. [15] As a result,in 2020 he moved to the EUI as a Max Weber Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies to pursue a project on the ideological history of Europeanism in the 20th century. [16] [17] He joined the Young Academics Network of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies,embarking on a multi-year project investigating the prospects for a European Universal Basic Income, [18] [19] [20] which culminated in the book A Radical Bargain for Europe (2024). [21] He also worked with the Progressive Alliance to draft an action plan for how international institutions can resist democratic backsliding,informed by ‘best practice’among global stakeholders. [22] During his time at the EUI,Ostrowski brought out his second monograph Ideology (2022),in which he develops the first statement of his distinctive approach to ideology theory,building on the morphological approach pioneered by Michael Freeden. [23]
Alongside his academic work,Ostrowski has been an active contributor to policy debates at the UK,European,and global level. In 2012–13,he acted as Head of Research for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Taxation in the UK Parliament,evaluating the opportunities for fiscal divergence in an independent Scotland. [24] Ostrowski took up an offer to join the thinktank ResPublica in 2022 to develop a new strand of research on lifelong learning,integrated tertiary education,and the political economy of skills. [25] In 2023,he oversaw the conversion of this work into a new education policy thinktank,the Lifelong Education Institute (LEI), [26] and was appointed its founding director,with Ann Limb as the LEI’s inaugural Chair. At the same time,Ostrowski joined the editorial team of the Journal of Political Ideologies ,succeeding Michael Freeden and Mathew Humphrey as Editor-in-Chief,and taking up a position as Honorary Assistant Professor at the Centre for Research into Ideas and the Study of Political Ideologies,University of Nottingham. [27] In 2024,Ostrowski left his role at the Lifelong Education Institute and returned to Oxford as an ESRC Policy Fellow and Researcher at the Blavatnik School of Government. [28]
Ostrowski began to learn piano at the age of 3,followed soon after by the clarinet,organ,and music composition,studying with Ruth Nye,Stephen Goss,and James Weeks. Throughout his school years,he participated in Jugend musiziert and Jeunesses Musicales performance and composition competitions in Dublin,London,Nuremberg,Stockholm,and Weikersheim.
He remains an active pianist and composer, [29] writing above all for keyboard,influenced by late 19th- and early 20th-century Classical composers such as Béla Bartók,Lili Boulanger,Paul Hindemith,Elizabeth Maconchy,Max Reger,Dmitri Shostakovich,Richard Strauss,Germaine Tailleferre,and Ralph Vaughan Williams. During the Covid-19 pandemic,he performed and recorded the entirety of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations ,published on his YouTube channel The Piano Diaries .
In 2021,Ostrowski was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts,United Kingdom. [30] In 2023,he was appointed as one of the inaugural members of the Chamber of Legal Studies of the Nicolaus Copernicus Academy,Poland. [31]
Conservatism is a cultural,social,and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions,customs,and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture,depending on the particular nation,conservatives seek to promote and preserve a range of institutions,such as the nuclear family,organized religion,the military,the nation-state,property rights,rule of law,aristocracy,and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favor institutions and practices that enhance social order and historical continuity.
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons,especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge,in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Formerly applied primarily to economic,political,or religious theories and policies,in a tradition going back to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,more recent use treats the term as mainly condemnatory.
Eduard Bernstein was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD),he has been both condemned and praised as a "revisionist" who challenged major aspects of Karl Marx's thought. A key influence on the European social democratic movement,Bernstein argued for reformism over revolutionary action,and for a gradual democratization of capitalist society to achieve socialism.
The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions,ideologies and parties,with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on the right,there are centrist and moderate positions,which are not strongly aligned with either end of the spectrum. It originated during the French Revolution based on the seating in the French National Assembly.
Social liberalism is a political philosophy and variety of liberalism that endorses social justice,social services,a mixed economy,and the expansion of civil and political rights,as opposed to classical liberalism which favors limited government and an overall more laissez-faire style of governance. While both are committed to personal freedoms,social liberalism places greater emphasis on the role of government in addressing social inequalities and ensuring public welfare.
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances,especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters,representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by liberalism.
Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism,Christian democracy,liberal conservatism,and conservative liberalism. Conservative and liberal centre-right parties have historically been more successful in the Anglosphere,while Christian democracy has been the primary centre-right ideology in Europe.
Syncretic politics,or spectral-syncretic politics,combine elements from across the conventional left–right political spectrum. The idea of syncretic politics has been influenced by syncretism and syncretic religion. The main idea of syncretic politics is that taking political positions of neutrality by combining elements associated with left-wing politics and right-wing politics can achieve a goal of reconciliation.
The Godesberg Program of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was ratified in 1959 at a convention in the town of Bad Godesberg near Bonn. It represented a fundamental change in the orientation and goals of the SPD,rejecting the aim of replacing capitalism while adopting a commitment to reform capitalism and a mass party orientation that appealed to ethical rather than class-based considerations. It also rejected nationalization as a major principle of socialism.
Isamaa is a Christian-democratic and national conservative political party in Estonia.
The Lefts Bloc was a coalition of Republican political forces created during the French Third Republic in 1899 to contest the 1902 legislative elections. It initially supported Emile Combes's cabinet,then Maurice Rouvier's cabinet and finally Maurice Rouvier's cabinet. The Republican Coalition dissolved itself after the International Socialist Congress of Amsterdam of 1904 and the subsequent withdrawal of Socialist ministers from the government. Although the Left won the 1906 legislative election,the Socialists did not repeat their alliances with the Radicals and the Radical-Socialists and other Republican forces.
Social democracy is a social,economic,and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist,reformist and democratic approach toward achieving limited socialism. In modern practice,social democracy has taken the form of predominantly capitalist economies,with the state regulating the economy in the form of welfare capitalism,economic interventionism,partial public ownership,a robust welfare state,policies promoting social equality,and a more equitable distribution of income.
Far-left politics,also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism,are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single,coherent definition;some scholars consider it to be the left of communist parties,while others broaden it to include the left of social democracy. In certain instances—especially in the news media—far left has been associated with some forms of authoritarianism,anarchism,communism,and Marxism,or are characterized as groups that advocate for revolutionary socialism and related communist ideologies,or anti-capitalism and anti-globalization. Far-left terrorism consists of extremist,militant,or insurgent groups that attempt to realize their ideals through political violence rather than using democratic processes.
The Journal of Political Ideologies is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering the analysis of political ideologies. It was established by Michael Freeden and first published in 1996.
Progressivism is a left-leaning political philosophy and reform movement that seeks to advance the human condition through social reform –primarily based on purported advancements in social organization,science,and technology. Adherents hold that progressivism has universal application and endeavor to spread this idea to human societies everywhere. Progressivism arose during the Age of Enlightenment out of the belief that civility in Europe was improving due to the application of new empirical knowledge.
Democratic socialism is a left-wing economic and political philosophy that supports political democracy and some form of a socially owned economy,with a particular emphasis on economic democracy,workplace democracy,and workers' self-management within a market socialist,decentralised planned,or democratic centrally planned socialist economy. Democratic socialists argue that capitalism is inherently incompatible with the values of freedom,equality,and solidarity and that these ideals can only be achieved through the realisation of a socialist society. Although most democratic socialists seek a gradual transition to socialism,democratic socialism can support revolutionary or reformist politics to establish socialism. Democratic socialism was popularised by socialists who opposed the backsliding towards a one-party state in the Soviet Union and other countries during the 20th century.
Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics,including people who strongly support moderate policies and people who are not strongly aligned with left-wing or right-wing policies. Centrism is commonly associated with liberalism,radical centrism,and agrarianism. Those who identify as centrist support gradual political change,often through a welfare state with moderate redistributive policies. Though its placement is widely accepted in political science,radical groups that oppose centrist ideologies may sometimes describe them as leftist or rightist.
Centre-left politics is the range of left-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre and broadly conform with progressivism. Ideologies of the centre-left include social democracy,social liberalism,and green politics. Ideas commonly supported by the centre-left include welfare capitalism,social justice,liberal internationalism,and multiculturalism. Economically,the centre-left supports a mixed economy in a democratic capitalist system,often including economic interventionism,progressive taxation,and the right to unionize. Centre-left politics are contrasted with far-left politics that reject capitalism or advocate revolution.
Karl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-Austrian philosopher,journalist,and Marxist theorist. A leading theorist of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Second International,Kautsky advocated orthodox Marxism,which emphasized the scientific,materialist,and determinist character of Karl Marx's work. This interpretation dominated European Marxism for two decades,from the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 to the outbreak of World War I in 1914.
Social democracy originated as an ideology within the labour movement whose goals have been a social revolution to promote socialism within democratic processes. In a nonviolent revolution as in the case of evolutionary socialism,or the establishment and support of a welfare state. Its origins lie in the 1860s as a revolutionary socialism associated with orthodox Marxism. Starting in the 1890s,there was a dispute between committed revolutionary social democrats such as Rosa Luxemburg and reformist social democrats. The latter sided with Marxist revisionists such as Eduard Bernstein,who supported a more gradual approach grounded in liberal democracy and cross-class cooperation. Karl Kautsky represented a centrist position. By the 1920s,social democracy became the dominant political tendency,along with communism,within the international socialist movement,representing a form of democratic socialism with the aim of achieving socialism peacefully. By the 1910s,social democracy had spread worldwide and transitioned towards advocating an evolutionary change from capitalism to socialism using established political processes such as the parliament. In the late 1910s,socialist parties committed to revolutionary socialism renamed themselves as communist parties,causing a split in the socialist movement between these supporting the October Revolution and those opposing it. Social democrats who were opposed to the Bolsheviks later renamed themselves as democratic socialists in order to highlight their differences from communists and later in the 1920s from Marxist–Leninists,disagreeing with the latter on topics such as their opposition to liberal democracy whilst sharing common ideological roots.