Ideology in the United States

Foundations in the

Natural Rights Argument

Major Themes of the Declaration of Independence

Among these rights: LifeLibertyPursuit of happiness

Self evident truths

Human equality

Natural rights

Purpose of gov’t

Measure of Justice

Right of revolution

Limits to theright of revolution

To secure rights

Consent of the governed

Whenever any form of gov’t is destructive of the security of natural rights

Prudence: Long-established gov’ts shouldn’t be overthrown for “light and transient causes”

Experience: Men are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves

All men are created equal

We hold these truths to be self-evident

They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights

Political Culture v. Ideology

• Political Culture• A set of general

attitudes, ideas and beliefs

• Broadly informs and shapes a region’s politics

• Ideology• A set of specific

attitudes, ideas and beliefs

• Provides or advocates a coherent plan for social, political, or economic action

Examples of ideologies• Political ideologies

– Libertarianism– Liberalism– Conservatism– Anarchism– Socialism– Fascism– Communism– Communitarianism– Statism

• Economic ideologies– capitalism– communism– globalism– protectionism– Keynesianism– monetarism– Market fundamentalism

• Social ideologies– Tribalism– Ethnocentrism– Nationalism– Feminism– Multiculturalism– Supremacism

What ideology Is

• A set of specific ideas, attitudes and beliefs

• Provides or advocates a coherent plan for social, political, or economic action

• Plan is consistent with, and is explained in terms of, the ideas, attitudes and beliefs held

What ideology is not:• Ideology is not political culture

– Traditionalists are not necessarily conservatives

– Liberals are not necessarily moralists

• Ideology is not partisanship– Democrats are not necessarily liberal

– Republicans are not necessarily conservative

• Ideology is not a policy position– E.g. Abortion

• advocates are not necessarily libertarian or liberal • opponents are not necessarily conservative or libertarian

– E.g. Immigration• “Open border” advocates are not necessarily libertarian globalists• “Closed border” advocates are not necessarily conservative ethnocentrists

Comparative Ideology 1: Left and Right Wings

Origins in the French National Assembly

Motto of the French Revolution: Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

(liberty, equality, brotherhood)

Revolutionary Advocates of Liberté and Egalité, opposing the ancien régime (the Old Order) sat

on the left side of the room

Advocates of Liberté and Fraternité, sympathetic

to the ancien régime, sat on the right side of the room

This distinction grafted onto the American Congress in the early

19th Century

Left and Right: The Political SpectrumThe most common comparative model of ideological preference in the US

Left Wing Right Wing

Liberalism ConservatismCentrismSocialismCommunism Statism Fascism

• First suggested in Jerry Pournelle’s Doctoral dissertation in 1964• Appeared in Meltzer, Albert and Stuart Christie. The Floodgates of Anarchy. (London: Sphere Books, Ltd., 1970)• Seeks to address limitations of the Polit ical Spectrum• Describes two independent dimensions:

– Moral: Individualism to Collectivism– Economic: Capitalism to Collectivism

• Clarified for American audiences in 1971 by David Nolan– Economic Freedom v. Economic Control– Personal Freedom v. Social Control

• Favored by those whose ideologies do not f it well with the Political Spectrum, especially libertarians• Widely used by online polit ical actors, pundits & campaigners

Comparative Ideology 2: The Political Compass

?

Limits of the Political Compass• Equates policy positions with ideology in their

tests (See the Nolan Quiz)– Identifies attitudes on “personal” and

“economic” issues– Does not identify organizing principles or the

general purpose of government• Ill-equipped to distinguish moderates from

extremists– communists from welfare liberals – anarchists from libertarians – fascists from conservatives

• Does not distinguish one kind of “centrist” or “moderate” from another

• Fails to identify some known ideological positions

– Communitarianism– Anarcho-communism– Anarcho-syndicalism– Nazism (with its fascist rhetoric and anarchist

means)• Unable to account for real linkages within its

framework– liberal-leaning conservatives – conservative-leaning liberals

• Assumes liberals and conservatives are opposites

Comparative Ideology 3: Ideological Space

• Suggested by Steven Kautz in 1995: “enduring controversies regarding the nature of popular government give rise to three distinct strains:

– liberals (who love liberty)– democrats (who love equality)– republicans (who love virtue)”

• Problems with Kautz’ formulation– Order more fundamental than virtue

• Political “virtue” depends on the political order it inhabits– Kautz’ vision clouded by the American partisan/ideological debate

• “Liberal” has different meanings inside and outside the US• “liberal” is an ideology• “democrats” and “republicans” are coalition political parties in the US

• Alternative principles of ideological preference– Liberty– Equality– Order

“Ideologies…map the political and social worlds for us. We simply cannot do without them because we cannot act without making sense of the worlds we inhabit.” Michael Freeden, Ideology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford UP, 2003.

Liberty, Equality, Order• Widely held political principles

– Regardless of expressed ideology– Held in different proportion by different ideological adherents

• Ideologies can be identified by different proportional attachment to or rejection of these three principles – Suggests measurability– Attachment to: positive ideology– Rejection of: negative ideology

• May be used to describe an ideological map with three axes– Liberty– Equality– Order

LEO Space

Three axial principles (Dimensions)LibertyEquality Order

Six levelsDescribe distance from ideological

centerCentristModerate IdeologueHard-LinerRadicalExtremist

Ideological Regions in LEO Space

1. L+E+O+ (Standard Ideological Preference)

2. L-E+O+ (Anti-libertarian)

3. L+E-O+ (Anti-egalitarian)

4. L-E-O+ (Anti-libertarian and Anti-egalitarian)

5. L+E+O- (Anti-establishmentarian)

6. L+E-O- (Anti-communitarian)

7. L-E+O- (Anti-libertarian and Anti-establishmentarian)

8. L-E-O- (Universal Opposition)

• Most ideological preferences found in only 1st region

LEO Made SimplePrinciple Moderate Ideology Radical or Extreme IdeologyCentrist Ideology

Liberty

Equality

Order

Libertarian Centrist

Liberal Centrist

Conservative Centrist

LibertarianLeft LibertarianRight Libertarian

Liberal (US), Labour (UK)Liberal EgalitarianLiberal CommunitarianConservative Liberal

ConservativeLibertarian ConservativeConservative CommunitarianLiberal Conservative

AnarchistAnarcho-CommunistAnarcho-Syndicalist

SocialistCommunist

StatistFascist

Other Ideologies in LEO

• Communitarianism– Equal parts Equality and Order– Liberty subordinate

• The Reagan Coalition– Equal Parts Liberty and Order– Equality subordinate

• Thomas Hill Green’s Welfare Liberalism– Equal Parts Liberty and Equality– Order subordinate

Critique of the LEO Model• Advantages

– Identifies a wider range of ideologies than either Spectrum or Compass– Suggests linkages between ideologies– Renders ideological claims testable– Distinguishes mere negative opposition from true preference– Predicts accusations of extremism by opponents– Independent of policy position– Independent of partisan assumptions

• Disadvantages– Complexity – Abstraction– Potentially awkward or unfamiliar ideological nomenclature– Posits potentially absurd ideological possibilities– Still unable to explain Nazism (fascist rhetoric, anarchist means)