USA HISTORY

The idea that groups are more powerful because they are stronger and they are supposed to be is called ____

(A) ** Social Darwinism

(B) Monroe Doctrine

(C) Roosevelt Corollary

(D) Manifest Destiny

Concept note-1: -Social Darwinists believe in “survival of the fittest”-the idea that certain people become powerful in society because they are innately better. Social Darwinism has been used to justify imperialism, racism, eugenics and social inequality at various times over the past century and a half.

Concept note-2: -The social Darwinists-notably Spencer and Walter Bagehot in England and William Graham Sumner in the United States-believed that the process of natural selection acting on variations in the population would result in the survival of the best competitors and in continuing improvement in the population.

Concept note-3: -Herbert Spencer: Herbert Spencer built on Darwin’s framework of evolution, extrapolating it to the spheres of ethics and society. This is why Spencer’s theories are often called “social Darwinism.”

Concept note-4: -Herbert Spencer based his concept of social evolution, popularly known as “Social Darwinism, ” on individual competition.

Concept note-5: -Social Darwinism applied the theory of natural selection to social actions, believing that only the strongest and fittest succeed in life. Individualism was the idea that anyone could succeed regardless of his or her origins or social standing.