Parties of Politics

What would you like to know?

Like their view and such on basic topics such as the economy and such.

I was trying to read some of the theads and i didn't understand much of the vocabulary.

It's gonna be hard to define without being biased but I'll toss out a few:

Democrat = social, domestic
Republican = foreign policy, less social programs

I a not saying which is better, just a bit about what their focus is.

The simplest political test i ever did was in a high school "social studies" class (believe it!)

What we had to do was rank ten different values (loyalty, spirituality, freedom, friendship, equality - just a random list) according to what we thought was most important.

Those who put "equality" higher than "freedom" were told they were left-wing (in American terms, that would be Democrat or Green). Those who put "freedom" higher were told they were right-wing (in American terms, that would be Republican or Libertarian).

I thought the test sucked. But it's a start.

So I thought I'd see if I could do any better than my high school teacher ... <big grin>

This make any sense?

Oh, wow!!

Did you make that, nimh?

That's pretty good!

Err, yeh, just now. I thought that high school test really sucked, but that the concept of using these two values as indicative measures in itself could still well work. So I tried something out.

All very debatable, of course (nothing is objective), but perhaps it can be, like, a good first pointer for somebody like Tyrius. Perhaps its way too complicated though. With all those European and American names both mixed in together ... (For that reason I left out "liberal", because it means such different things in Europe and America. In the States, "liberal" would be where "Progressive" is, I guess. In Europe, it would be more where "Reform" is).

Comments well welcome :-)

Can I nitpick?

Absolutely! :-)

This was such an impromptu thing, it's pretty damn near random. Thus can only serve as a very first orientation. But anyway, do nitpick. Cause then I can still change it before homeboy returns to his thread <grins>.

(Though itll be a few hours, cause right now I'm gonna go to bed!)

I'll avoid grammar cause i ain't one to talk but I think you should add something about the psycological differences, namely the hardline vs. softline, the force vs. diplomacy etc. I think those are more significant factors than the way in which those preferences are manifested in politics.

And why did you make Dems more centrist than Republicans? I agree but wonder what you have to say about that.

Tyrius - this would be a good way and time to google while you read. When you come across something, look it up, and, if possible, get several views. There are probably more economics experts in this world than taco chips, and even more opinions. But the history, terms, etc are there to look at.

There are, on these threads, a lot of people who truly do know a lot about many things, and will be only too happy to expound. So use both ways.

Doesnt fit ;-). But yeh, I saw a "cross" like this one about Slovak politics once, in which the two "scales" were, respectively, "state-paternalist" versus "free market", and "hard interactions" versus "soft interactions". With the latter the maker meant the difference between the intolerant, nationalist/xenophobic, "all or nothing" power play politics of the national populists and the "rule of law- formalist, open/tolerant, consensual politics of the liberal democrats.



Cause I'm from Europe ... :-)

And it's true, if left-right is socialism vs capitalism, there's no way to avoid having the Democrats more in the center. In all the world there simply isn't a capitalist ideology to the right of the Republicans / Conservatives - to the right of Steve Forbes, say. Whereas there's lots to the left of the Democrats in terms of market vs state , especially if you look beyond the US.

In terms of the other scale - individual freedom versus order - I think the bulk of the Republicans aren't any more "up" or "down" than the Democrats. But the fringes of the party go further to both extreme ends, from the Religious Right near the bottom to Libertarian-minded Republicans near the top.

Impossible to place: Greens (overall more "anarchistic" minded than the Dems or Socialists - except when it comes to the main plank in their platform, enforcing environmental protection). And Constitutionalists and other such far-right parties (defending the near-absolute freedom of the individual from state authority, but often rather authoritarian-minded when it comes to religious, patriarchal etc authority within the family and local community, I think).

I agree, and I was thinking recently but you'd be hard pressed to name many developed nations that are currently more to the right then the US.

Wow that little map thing is sweet. My friend (19) was telling me at libertarian (sp?) and what they believe them so i started reading up on it during study hall. It seems like a nice party. I was just wondering what the difference was thanks alot

Was reading an interview with two youngsters from a new conservative think-tank here, who defined themselves as libertarian - and one of the two paraphrased his political identity as "anarchocapitalist". I'd never heard of the word, but it seems a very vivid - and fair enough - synonym for "libertarian"!

That on an aside ...

glad to have been of help! :-)

Hmm i cant tell
Whats the difference between communisim and facism (sp?)

Libertarian should stem from a desire to want as little government control on individual rights as possible -- unfortunately many of them are conservative Republicans in disguise and want as little government oversight on giant corporations as possible. We all know where that leads -- corporations stamping on the rights of individuals (especially their own employees) by misrepresention (lying), cheating and robbing them.

Laissez Faire is more like lazy and unfair.