> David Brewer wrote:
> Liberal and conservative (small "l", small "c") mean what they
<Chuckle> The problem comes when political parties name themselves after an
ideology... and then the times change, and the parties don't
:-/
This is when you get situations like today's Sweden, where the
so-called "conservative" party is the most liberal one, the Liberals
are basically Social Democrats, and the Social Democrats - having
reformed most of the things they wanted to reform some thirty years ago
- is the most conservative party we have... the various greens and
leftists - the ones that suddenly have never been communists - are just
crazy <g>
Later,
> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
In the spring 1980 issue of DESTINIES, Jerry Pournelle published an articled
called THE PROPER STUDY OF MANKIND. It had an appendix that had a facinating
classification system for political organizations. It had two variables.
(Pournelle makes clear that he didn't think then nor does he think now that
these two are all there is to political theory. But they have the property of
mapping every major political philosophy into one unique place)
R ^ A: Max Stirner, Ayn Rand
a +2 | B: Various Libertarians
t A | E C: Welfare Liberals
i +1 | D D: Socialists
o B | C E: Communists
n 0<----------+---------> F: Classical Anarchists
a | H G: American "counter culture"
l -1 G | I H: Various Conservatives
i | J I: Fascists
s -2 F | J: Nazis
m v
-2 -1 0 +1 +2
Statism
VARIABLE ONE: "Statism" This is the attitude towards the State. Is the
government an object of idolatry, a postitive good, a necessary evil, or
unmitigated evil?
Put this on the X axis, with umitigated evil at -2,
and object of idolatry at +2.
(Anarchists would be at -2. Reactionary monarchists would
be at +2. American political parties would cluster around
0. Both Communists and Fascists are from +1 to +2.
Both American Conservatism and US Welfare Liberalism
are from 0 to +1. Don't be fooled into thinking that
Conservatives are anti-statits, they may want to dismantle
the Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare, but they would strengthen the
police and army.
Ideological libertarians are from -2 to 0)
VARIABLE TWO: "Rationalism" This is the attitude towards planned social
progress. It maps the belief that society has "problems" and these can be
"solved". Put this on the Y axis, with "all social problems
have findable solutions" at +2, and with
"problems, what problems?" at -2.
(Fascism is at about -1, since they appeal to
"the greatness of the nation" or volk, and to
the fuhrer-prinzip. Communism belongs up around
+2, since they have all the answers to social ills.
Welfare liberals are from +1 to +2 ("all crime
is caused by poverty thus when we end poverty we'll end crime...")
Note that this arrangement does explain some political anomolies. Pournelle
gives an example of
On Fri, 17 Mar 2000 18:56:25 +0100, "Oerjan Ohlson"
<oerjan.ohlson@telia.com> wrote:
> <Chuckle> The problem comes when political parties name themselves
Political parties change all the time. *S* Free Trade in the first half of the
20th century was a liberal platform. The Democrats in the US and the Liberals
in Canada were for it. Then it became a conservative platform in the latter
half of the 20th century. Then, once the conservative parties put it in place,
the liberal parties came into power, reminded everyone they really WERE for it
in the first place, and called it their own.
As The Who sang, "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss."
<snips some stuff, plus the interesting x-y axis>
I guess that is part of the 'article', but since it's up, it deserves some
comment.
> Don't be fooled into thinking that
Mmmm... being a 'conservative' I have to say this isn't very accurate. SFMS, I
prefer the government being as small as possible and as involved in 'affairs'
as little as possible. That would include the police (which should
be as local/regional as possible) and the military (large standing
armies
are expensive and not necessary). In other words- keep it if you REALLY
need it, loose it if you don't;)
I'm kinda curious about what political parties would exist in the Anglican
Confederation and how they would interact in whatever system of government the
Confederation uses. Has anyone discussed this before?