Political Ideologies
Note: Links below include statements of ideologies which will be offensive to many.
This cannot be avoided as extreme ideologies are by their very nature controversial.
I. Moderate Ideologies
A. Conservatism
1. Basic Assumptions
a. belief in man's essential irrationality
b. need for sense of community
c. social hierarchy as inevitable
d. high value placed on existing institutions
e. reliance on custom and tradition
f. faith in supernatural force guiding human affairs
g. suspicious of engineered social change
h. skeptical view of human nature
2. Application to Present American Society
a. individual responsibility equal to or greater than individual rights
b. inseparability of economic and political freedoms
c. pro-business
d. low taxes
e. freedom is justice
f. pro-life
B. Liberalism
1. Basic Assumptions
a. society as based on social compact
b. faith in human rational potential
c. emphasis on rights over responsibilities
d. emphasis on minority rights
e. belief in essential goodness of mankind
f. belief in existence of a single public interest
g. suspicion of concentrated power
h. belief in right of revolution
2. Application to Present American Society
a. support of planned change
b. support for government directed redistribution of wealth
c. reliance on central government action over all but political and social freedoms
d. pro-organized labor
e. pro-abortion rights
C. Common Features
1. Need for Limits on Government
2. Rejection of Extremism
3. Fear of Concentrated Powers
II. Intermediate Ideologies
A. Populism (The Wizard of Oz Parable; Populist Studies at C.U.)
C. Environmentalism (Ayn Rand critique)
D. Feminism (links) (brief description)
III. Extreme Ideologies
A. Leftist
1. Communism
2. Socialism
3. Anarchism
B. Rightist
1. Fascism
2. Nazism
Key Websites
Yahoo Link to Political Ideologies
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The True Believer ( Hoffer Quotes)