October 22, 2009

• Objectives: To develop a better understanding of political parties and ideologies.

• Question: What is an ideology? How does that apply to politics?

• Agenda: NOTES- This time you take them! • Make sure to turn in your Reviews from the test,

as well as your Nation State papers• For tomorrow: Bring with you printed items to

work on your CBA! I will give you a set of due dates as well as a calendar for this unit.

What is a political spectrum?

• A way to measure and compare governments, economies, and other politically influenced differences

LeftLeft RightRight

What does the political spectrum help us measure?

• There are various different opinions about what is actually being measured along this axis:

• Whether the state should prioritize equality (left) or liberty (right).

• Whether the government's involvement with the economy should be interventionist (left) or laissez-faire (right).

• Whether the government should be secular and separate itself from religious beliefs (left) or should take a stance of religious morality (right). Fair outcomes (left) versus fair processes (right)

• Whether one embraces change (left) or prefers rigorous justification for change (right)

• Whether human nature and society is malleable (left) or fixed (right).

• Support for the economic interests of the poor (left) or the rich (right).

The Political Spectrum

• The 3 Major Characteristics of the Political Spectrum

• 1. The DEGREE/SCOPE of change

• 2. The DIRECTION of change

• 3. The METHOD of change

THE DEGREE/SCOPE OF CHANGE

• As you move away from the the center of the political spectrum, your want of change becomes greater

• Liberals and Conservatives want minimal change

• Reactionaries and Radicals want maximum change

THE DIRECTION OF CHANGE

• As you move to the right on the political spectrum, you become more retrogressive in the type of change desired (have more traditional views and desires)

• As you move to the left on the political spectrum, you become more progressive in the type of change desired (have more of a modern view and desires)

THE METHOD OF CHANGE

• Those closer to the center of the spectrum will use the current political system to institute their changes

• Those further away from the center of the spectrum will use revolutionary methods to institute their changes

• As you move away from the center, the method of change can become more violent

• Conservatives see the individual as the major instrument of change

• Liberals see government as the major instrument of change

What does it measure?

Beliefs on anything:

• Political issues– Foreign policy, size of gov’t, censorship

• Economic issues– Taxes, nationalized systems

• Social issues– Welfare, Social Security, marriage

LeftLeft RightRight

Left and Right: The Political SpectrumThe most common comparative model of ideological preference in the US

Left Wing Right Wing

Liberalism ConservatismCentrismSocialismCommunism Statism Fascism

World Political SpectrumLeftLeft RightRight

Socialism

SocialismSocialism• Government controls everything to force equality

– “Classes and greed make people poor”– Evens out wealth among people, give everyone equal/fair

standing in society, provide services through taxes

• The government is ‘for’ the people• Extreme: militaristic; used to keep ‘equality’

Small scale: May be used for specific systems within democratic countries (health care, education, etc.)

World Political SpectrumLeftLeft RightRight

Communism

Socialism

CommunismCommunism• Extreme economic form of Socialism• Government controls entire economy

– Don’t allow competition = no greed, inequality– Provide everything (jobs, housing, etc)– Keep everyone middle class

• Tends to be a dictatorship

World Political SpectrumLeftLeft RightRight

Communism

Socialism

Fascism/Nazism

Fascism/NazismFascism/Nazism• Government controls everything to create the

perfect nation/race; heavy nationalism– Business remains private but controlled by national gov’t

• People are ‘for’ the government and don’t matter– Nation/State > people

• Military nation; forces compliance

The U.S.

So, is it helpful?

• It’s based on a “law of averages”

• Many debate placement on the single-axis spectrum because groupings are not always correct

• Most political scientists have transitioned into a dual-axis “compass” or a three-axis model

• You can measure whatever you want on an axis:

Interventionist Interventionist foreign policyforeign policy

Isolationist Isolationist foreign policyforeign policy

Pro-ChoicePro-Choice Pro-LifePro-Life

Raise taxes on Raise taxes on wealthywealthy

Lower Lower taxestaxes

Authoritarian

Anarchism

Lef

t (C

om

mu

nis

m) R

igh

t (Cap

italism)

Economic Scale

Soci

al/P

oliti

cal S

cale

The The

Political

Political

Compass

Compass

Authoritarian

Anarchism

Lef

t (C

om

mu

nis

m) R

igh

t (Cap

italism)

Ronald Reagan

Saddam Hussein

HitlerJosef Stalin

FDR

JFKTony Blair

United Nations

Centrist

Libertarian

Statist(Big Gov’t)

Right(Conservative)

Left(Liberal)

Personal Issues Econo

mic

Issue

s

“American Political Compass”

The Political Compass:The Political Compass: Political Control

vs. Economic Freedom

With a Cowsmic view of things…

Left

/Com

mun

ism

Right/C

apitalism

Anarchism

Authoritarian

Left

/Com

mun

ism

Right/C

apitalism

Anarchism

AuthoritarianDictatorship

Republican Democracy

Pure Democracy

Capitalism

Anarchy

Communism

Government by the people, who are directly involved on all decisions

Collective ownership of property and the organization of labor for the common advantage of all members.

Means of production and distribution are privately or corporately owned, and development is proportionate to the accumulation and reinvestment of profits gained in a free market.

The absence of any form of political state or leadership

One political leader with absolute power (not restricted

by a constitution or laws or opposition, etc.)

Government by the people, exercised through representatives selected in a popular vote

Oligarchy

Rule by a collective or group who make all decisions without outside inputs

Pure CommunismYou have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

Actual CommunismYou have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. There’s not a lot, it is expensive and smells really funky.

.

.

CapitalismYou have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Creative Capitalism You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax deduction for keeping five cows. The milk rights of six cows are transferred via a Panamanian intermediary to a Cayman Islands company secretly owned by the majority shareholder, who sells the rights to all seven cows' milk back to the listed company. The annual report says that the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more.

Meanwhile, you kill the two cows because the Feng Shui of their barn is bad.

AnarchyYou have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price, or your neighbors kill you and take the cows.

DictatorshipYou have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

Pure DemocracyYou have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

Representative DemocracyYou have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

BureaucracyYou have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that, it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Left

/Com

mun

ism

Right/C

apitalism

Anarchism

Authoritarian

Socialism

Fascism

The means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively (or by a centralized government) that often plans and controls the economy to maintain social and economic equality.

Centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of opposition through terror and censorship; typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and/or racism.

Dictatorship

Oligarchy

Republican Democracy

Pure Democracy

Capitalism

Anarchy

Communism

Pure SocialismYou have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

Bureaucratic SocialismYou have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the birds the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

FascismYou have two cows. The government lets you keep them but tells you what price to sell the milk for the good of the nation.

Pure Democracy

Republican Democracy

Left

/Com

mun

ism

Right/C

apitalismTotalitarianism

Militarism

Government in which the political authority exercises absolute and centralized control over all aspects of life, the individual is subordinated to the state, and opposing political and cultural expression is suppressed.

Oligarchy

CapitalismCommunism

Predominance of the armed forces and collective military responsibility in the administration or policy of the state.

Socialism

AnarchismAnarchy

Reciprocal legal and military obligations among the warrior nobility of Europe during the Middle Ages, revolving around three key groups: lords, vassals and fiefs

Feudalism

AuthoritarianFascismDictatorship

MilitarismYou have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.

TotalitarianismYou have two cows. The government takes both and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

FeudalismYou have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk and agrees to protect you from the mad British cows.

…McDonaldsim

You have 2 cows, you mix them with soy and create hamburgers to sell to the world population

Pure Democracy

Somalia

Stalin’s USSR

Where China thinks they are…

Where China actually is today

China 2050?

Republican Democracy

Left

/Com

mun

ism

Right/C

apitalism

Socialism

CapitalismCommunism

AnarchismAnarchy

Venezuela

Castro’s Cuba

Collapse of central government in mid-1990s led to country run

by economic opportunists, terrorists, and militaristic gangs. Currently trying to reestablish

central government, but it controls only part of the capitol

and none of the body of the country.

Modern day Europe

AuthoritarianFascismDictatorship

Economic

Social

Political

Conse

rvat

ive

LibertarianLiberal

Statist /

Authoritarian

Monarchy

Oligarchy

Republic

Democracy

Anarchy

Economic

Social

Political

Traditional political spectrum.

Right

Left