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Social Scale vs. Economic Scale

SOCIAL

How involved should the government be in regulating our behavior and personal way of life?
How much personal freedom should we have?
How obedient should citizens be to authority?

Authoritarian (more law and order) v Libertarian (more individual freedom)

ECONOMIC

How involved should the government be in regulating the economy?
How much (and what) should we own collectively v. privately?
What should government (collect taxes to) provide and ensure?

“Left” (more government intervention, more public ownership) v. “Right” (free market, more private ownership)

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Social: Authoritarian ↔ Libertarian

Authoritarian

More “Law and Order”
More obedience to authority
Less individual freedom
Less social mobilization
Patriotism to state encouraged

Libertarian

More personal liberty
More freedom of choice
Skepticism of state/authority
Voluntary association
Ownership of one’s self

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Economic: “Left” ↔ “Right”

“Left”

More government intervention to equalize wealth and resources
More collective (public) ownership of goods and services
More wealth collected by the government to redistribute toward public good (ie. more taxes)
Emphasis on public welfare
More socialism (and, in the extreme, communism)

“Right”

Less government intervention in the free market
More private ownership of goods and services
Less wealth redistribution by government (ie. less taxes)
Emphasis on personal responsibility
More laissez-faire capitalism

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TWO DIFFERING VIEWS OF HUMAN SOCIETY

Cooperative, communal view of human nature

LEFT

Competitive, self-interested view of human nature

RIGHT

Karl Marx: “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.”

Adam Smith: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest.”

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“Liberal” in American Politics….

John F. Kennedy:

"...someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties—someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal', then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal'."

Franklin Delano Roosevelt defined a liberal party as one, "which believes that, as new conditions and problems arise beyond the power of men and women to meet as individuals, it becomes the duty of Government itself to find new remedies with which to meet them. The liberal party insists that the Government has the definite duty to use all its power and resources to meet new social problems with new social controls—to ensure to the average person the right to his own economic and political life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

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“Conservative” in American Politics

William F. Buckley: “It is the job of centralized government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens' lives, liberty and property. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of government (the dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order.”

Joe Wurzelbacher: “Conservatism is about the basic rights of individuals. God created us. As far as the government goes, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values. It goes hand-in-hand. As far as the Republican Party? I felt connected to it because individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government.”

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