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

Left Right
 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?
Left Right

Beliefs on anything:
Political issues
Foreign policy, size of govt, censorship
Economic issues
Taxes, nationalized systems
Social issues
Welfare, Social Security, marriage
Left and Right: The Political Spectrum
The most common comparative model of ideological preference in the US

Left Wing Right Wing

Communism Socialism Liberalism Centrism Conservatism Statism Fascism

 World Political Spectrum
Left Right
Socialism

Socialism
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 Spectrum
Left Right
Socialism

Communism

Communism
Extreme economic form of Socialism
Government controls entire economy
Dont allow competition = no greed, inequality
Provide everything (jobs, housing, etc)
Keep everyone middle class
Tends to be a dictatorship
 World Political Spectrum
Left Right
Socialism

Communism Fascism/
The U.S. Nazism

Fascism/Nazism
Government controls everything to create the
perfect nation/race; heavy nationalism
Business remains private but controlled by national govt
People are for the government and dont matter
Nation/State > people
Military nation; forces compliance
 So, is it helpful?
Its 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 Isolationist
foreign policy foreign policy

Raise taxes on Lower

wealthy taxes

Pro-Choice Pro-Life
 Left (Communism)

Economic Scale

Social/Political Scale

Anarchism
Authoritarian

Right (Capitalism)
 Authoritarian
Josef Stalin Hitler

Saddam Hussein

United Nations

Right (Capitalism)
Left (Communism)

Ronald Reagan
Tony Blair
JFK

FDR

Anarchism
American Political
Compass
Libertarian

Left Centrist Right

(Liberal) (Conservative)

Statist
(Big Govt)
The Political Compass:
Political Control
vs.
Economic Freedom
With a Cowsmic view of things
 Authoritarian

Right/Capitalism
Left/Communism

Anarchism
 Authoritarian
One political leader with
Dictatorship
absolute power (not restricted
Oligarchy by a constitution or laws or
Collective opposition, etc.)
ownership of Government by Rule by a collective or group
property and the the people, who make all decisions
organization of exercised without outside inputs
labor for the through
common

Right/Capitalism
representatives
Left/Communism

Republican
advantage of all selected in a Democracy
members. popular vote

Communism Capitalism
Means of production and
Government by
distribution are privately
the people, who
or corporately owned,
are directly Pure and development is
involved on all Democracy proportionate to the
decisions
accumulation and
reinvestment of profits
gained in a free market.
The absence of any form of
political state or leadership Anarchy
Anarchism
Pure Communism
You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of
them, and you all share the milk.

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

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

Dictatorship
You have two cows. The government
takes both and shoots you.
Pure Democracy
You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

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

Bureaucracy
You 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.
 Authoritarian
Dictatorship Centralization of
Fascism authority under a
Oligarchy dictator, stringent
socioeconomic
controls, suppression
of opposition through
terror and censorship;
typically a policy of
belligerent nationalism

Right/Capitalism
Left/Communism

Republican
Democracy and/or racism.

Communism Capitalism

The means of producing

and distributing goods is
owned collectively (or by a Pure
centralized government) Democracy
that often plans and
controls the economy to
maintain social and
economic equality.
Anarchy
Anarchism
Fascism
You 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 Socialism
You 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 Socialism
You 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.
Totalitarianism Fascism Authoritarian
Dictatorship
Oligarchy
Reciprocal legal and
Militarism military obligations
among the warrior
Predominance of the Feudalism
nobility of Europe
armed forces and during the Middle Ages,
collective military revolving around three
responsibility in the key groups: lords,
vassals and fiefs

Right/Capitalism
Left/Communism

administration or Republican
policy of the state. Democracy

Communism Capitalism

Government in which the political

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

Anarchy
Anarchism
Feudalism
You have two cows. Your lord takes some of
the milk and agrees to protect you from the
mad British cows.
Militarism
You have two cows. The government
takes both and drafts you.

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

McDonaldsim
You have 2 cows, you mix them with soy
and create hamburgers to sell to the world
population
 Fascism Authoritarian
Dictatorship China
Stalins Castros
USSR Cuba 2050?

Where China Where China

thinks they actually is
are today
Venezuela

Right/Capitalism
Left/Communism

Republican
Democracy

Communism Capitalism
Collapse of central government
in mid-1990s led to country run
by economic opportunists,
Pure terrorists, and militaristic gangs.
Currently trying to reestablish
Democracy
central government, but it
controls only part of the capitol
and none of the body of the
country.
Anarchy
Somalia
Anarchism
 Social

Economic

Political
 Social
Traditional political
spectrum.

Economic
Monarchy
Oligarchy

Republic
Democracy

Anarchy

Political