Ideology in the United States

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Ideology in the United States

• Foundations
• in the
• Natural Rights Argument

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Major Themes of the Declaration of Independence
Self evident truths
We hold these truths to be self-evident
Human equality
All men are created equal
They are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable rights
Among these rights Life Liberty Pursuit of
happiness
Natural rights
Purpose of govt
To secure rights
Measure of Justice
Consent of the governed
Whenever any form of govt is destructive of the
security of natural rights
Right of revolution
Prudence Long-established govts shouldnt be
overthrown for light and transient
causes Experience Men are more disposed to
suffer while evils are sufferable than to right
themselves
Limits to the right of revolution
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Political Culture v. Ideology

• Political Culture
• A set of general attitudes, ideas and beliefs
• Broadly informs and shapes a regions politics

• Ideology
• A set of specific attitudes, ideas and beliefs
• Provides or advocates a coherent plan for social,
  political, or economic action

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Examples of ideologies

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

• Political ideologies
• Libertarianism
• Liberalism
• Conservatism
• Anarchism
• Socialism
• Fascism
• Communism
• Communitarianism
• Statism

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

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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

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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

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Comparative Ideology 1 Left and Right Wings
Motto of the French Revolution Liberté,
Egalité, Fraternité (liberty, equality,
brotherhood)
Origins in the French National Assembly
Advocates of Liberté and Fraternité, sympathetic
to the ancien régime, sat on the right side of
the room
Revolutionary Advocates of Liberté and Egalité,
opposing the ancien régime (the Old Order) sat on
the left side of the room
This distinction grafted onto the American
Congress in the early 19th Century
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Left and Right The Political Spectrum
The most common comparative model of ideological
preference in the US
Left Wing
Right Wing
Liberalism
Conservatism
Centrism
Socialism
Communism
Statism
Fascism
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Comparative Ideology 2 The Political Compass
?

• First suggested in Jerry Pournelles 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 Political
  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 fit well
  with the Political Spectrum, especially
  libertarians
• Widely used by online political actors, pundits
  campaigners

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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

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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

Ideologiesmap 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.
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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

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LEO Space

• Three axial principles (Dimensions)
• Liberty
• Equality
• Order
• Six levels
• Describe distance from ideological center
• Centrist
• Moderate
• Ideologue
• Hard-Liner
• Radical
• Extremist

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Ideological Regions in LEO Space

• LEO (Standard Ideological Preference)
• L-EO (Anti-libertarian)
• LE-O (Anti-egalitarian)
• L-E-O (Anti-libertarian and Anti-egalitarian)
• LEO- (Anti-establishmentarian)
• LE-O- (Anti-communitarian)
• L-EO- (Anti-libertarian and Anti-establishmentari
  an)
• L-E-O- (Universal Opposition)
• Most ideological preferences found in only 1st
  region

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LEO Made Simple
Principle
Moderate Ideology
Radical or Extreme Ideology
Centrist Ideology
Libertarian Centrist
Libertarian Left Libertarian Right Libertarian
Anarchist Anarcho-Communist Anarcho-Syndicalist
Liberty
Liberal Centrist
Liberal (US), Labour (UK) Liberal
Egalitarian Liberal Communitarian Conservative
Liberal
Socialist Communist
Equality
Conservative Centrist
Conservative Libertarian Conservative Conservative
Communitarian Liberal Conservative
Statist Fascist
Order
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Other Ideologies in LEO

• Communitarianism
• Equal parts Equality and Order
• Liberty subordinate
• The Reagan Coalition
• Equal Parts Liberty and Order
• Equality subordinate
• Thomas Hill Greens Welfare Liberalism
• Equal Parts Liberty and Equality
• Order subordinate

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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)