The Political Spectrum

The political spectrum is a little more complicated than left to right.  A common characterization of the political spectrum is two dimensional.  Left (Progressive) to Right (Conservative) occupies the ‘X’ axis and Libertarian to Authoritarian occupies the ‘Y’ axis.   An illustration of this spectrum is included here.  This image plots where various well known political parties and political philosophies are generally accepted to lie.

Presently most people only think in terms of left or right.  This has become common because our current political system is dominated by two parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, which identify with the left and right respectively.  Curiously they each claim domain over the left or right but they accept ideas from Libertarian to Authoritarian.  It is conceivable that a two party system could divide in the orthogonal direction and claim the Libertarian and Authoritarian poles while each sharing progressive and conservative values.

A Libertarian claims to be an advocate of individual liberty, especially freedom of thought and action.  Libertarianism generally seeks a de-centralization of power that can even approach anarchism.  Find where anarchism is on the political spectrum image.  The Tea Party is generally accepted as a right leaning libertarian movement.  One glaring contradiction of the Tea Party would be both their defense of individual liberty and their rejection of homosexuality.  If a Libertarian believes each person has the right to live their life in any way they choose then why can’t a gay couple be married?

The opposite of Libertarianism is Authoritarianism.  Authoritarianism seeks a strong centralization of power usually with an exclusive party or individual leader.  Individual rights and democracy are rejected in favor of the state.   China, Soviet Russia, and North Korea are examples of Authoritarian States however most would consider them Totalitarian States, the extreme form of Authoritarianism.  Considering the track record of Authoritarian organized societies in the past one hundred years most people would probably consider it unfavorable.   Authoritarianism and Libertarianism are at least equally disparate as progressivism and conservatives are.

Now to more familiar territory, conservative philosophy seeks to maintain traditional institutions and is only comfortable with a very minimal amount of progression.  A conservative supports traditional values and would be weary of new ideas.   In short they don’t like change.  Unfortunately for conservatives the only thing constant is change and an unwillingness to embrace change is perhaps the greatest fault of man.  The accelerating progression of technology and ballooning population is causing humanity to evolve at an ever increasing rate.  Since the world is changing at a faster pace than Conservatives are comfortable with, I hypothesis that this a leading cause to their growing malcontent.  However I will admit to the necessity of conservatives for balance.  I just wouldn’t put them in the driver’s seat, maybe someone in the back that squawks if you’re about to make a bad turn.

The modern left in American society is primarily composed of Liberals and Progressives.  The two vary slightly in their methods but they both pursue social change and seek a more egalitarian society.  A Liberal would choose to use public funds to solve a problem and while a progressive would solve the problem through laws and regulations.  For example a liberal solution to Global Warming would be to use tax dollars to invest in renewable energy sources.  A progressive would approach the problem by passing regulations that limit the emissions of green house gases.  Most of our modern problems are complex enough that both approaches are necessary.  Global Warming for example should be combated through the development of clean energy sources and those clean energy sources can be encouraged by discouraging the dirty ones.  In a nutshell the Left is the engine of positive change.  Civil Rights, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights, Worker’s Rights and Environmentalism are example agendas of the Left in order to enact positive social change and seek a more egalitarian society.  I personally believe striving for positive change is a virtue, how about you?

Do a web search for “political spectrum quiz.”  You can find various websites that allow you to take a quiz that can plot you, based on your answers, where you lie on this two dimensional spectrum.