Political Parties
Don’t worry, this is not be where I tell you how to vote in the upcoming election…it’s just where I provide some resources to help you be better informed on the words that are used to describe economic, social, and political ideologies.
As we begin ramping up to the US presidential elections in 2024 (yes, “only” 16 months away…), I started doing some research into political parties, their ideologies, and their histories. After doing so, I felt compelled to share some things with you as part of my never-ending quest to encourage critical thinking. Don’t worry, this is NOT where I tell you how to vote in the upcoming election…it’s just where I provide some resources to help you be better informed on the words that are used to describe economic, social, and political ideologies.
Words mean things
As I read through various articles on politics, I found myself having to reread them to parse through the overlapping labels and definitions that are used. Unless you’ve heard speakers specifically talk on economic or social ideologies, you may not realize that the words “liberal” and “conservative” apply to both of those categories in different ways, and thus simply hearing someone describe themselves as “liberal” or “conservative,” or “left” or “right,” does not in itself tell you much…unless you know the category of issue to which they’re applying that label. And that doesn’t even consider how definitions have changed over time, or how they are differ by country.
I usually don’t like to reference Wikipedia articles, but I do so in this case to make a point. Namely, many people go to Wikipedia as a quick source of summarized information on a topic. Wikipedia endeavors to make things easily digestible (accuracy is perhaps a different thing). In this case, here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the term "Cultural liberalism":
“Also known as social liberalism in the United States, cultural progressivism is used in a substantially similar context, although it does not mean exactly the same as cultural liberalism…The United States refers to cultural liberalism as social liberalism; however, it is not the same as the broader political ideology known as social liberalism. In the United States, social liberalism describes progressive moral and social values or stances on socio-cultural issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage as opposed to social conservatism. A social conservative or a social liberal in this sense may hold either more conservative or liberal views on fiscal policy.” - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_liberalism
So, there you go. Completely clear, right? If that’s what you get from the easily digestible source, you know the topic is more nuanced than it appears on the surface.
To complicate things even further, the political parties in the US have swapped platforms, changing their political stances a couple of times throughout history. Are you a Republican? Democrat? Conservative? Liberal? That just depends on the issue and what year it is.
But wait, there’s more…these terms also mean different things in different countries too. Sheesh, if politics wasn’t already complicated.
Some paint the social and economic ideologies of politics on a two-axis chart, and yet others add categories that lead to a four-axis chart. It’s not enough to say one is simply “liberal” or “conservative.” After all, one can adhere to classical liberalism while being opposed to social liberalism.
Some resources for you
The website www.factmyth.com does a decent job of describing the matrices of categories and labels and how they’ve changed over time. It goes into so much depth that you could spend a week reading through every page to better understand it (or be further confused by it). Again, I think that goes to show just how nuanced the topic is.
Below are some links to get you started. They provide explanations of definitions as well as charts and videos. I recommend starting at the top and working your way down. Fair warning: these articles include many embedded links to explain concepts even further…don’t explore too many rabbit trails at once—focus on one page at a time.
In case you finish all of that, and want more:
Plato’s Five Regimes: Understanding The Classical Forms of Government as Presented By Plato
Know your path and your trail guide
The world provides endless decisions for us to make, and as humans we like to simplify complex issues to make them easier to understand and decide on. Our brains do not do well with ambiguity, so we categorize things into neat buckets. We aggregate, make assumptions, and create labels. In psychological terms, these mental shortcuts are called “heuristics” and they can be a valuable tactic for survival in surprise situations that require quick decisions.
Unfortunately, heuristics don’t always accurately reflect the nuanced world we live in and the complexities of people and issues we face. And though I have no problem with the political labels we’ve created, I think it’s important to know what they mean and stand for. For the most part, we’ve narrowed down most topics into binary choices—opposite ends of which political parties grab hold of. (As a side note, in the US, we primarily have a two-party system—it’s not like this in every country, some have a multi-party system with more than just two parties…there are pros/cons to each approach).
Thus, I share this information not to encourage you toward one political path or another—but instead to ensure you are informed about the path you follow and where it’s headed. Your trail guide may declare that they’re taking you to the “promised land”, but that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the promised land you thought it might be. And yes, I’m referring to politicians on all sides of the fence(s).
If anything, spend the time and mental effort to clearly define where you stand on issues, what labels are ascribed to those stances, and how political leaders and polices align to those stances.
Personally, I created a document that describes how (and why) I align on certain economic and social issues. I did this so I could keep it straight as it relates to parties and labels. I encourage you to do the same. You’ll likely find your beliefs don’t fall cleanly into distinct categories—there’ll be a spectrum, and that’s perfectly fine…we are human after all.
It's easy to point to politicians to solve the difficult problems of the day; however, my encouragement to you is to think through those difficult problems yourself and determine what decision you would make or recommend, and why. Having done this, you can better communicate with your representative—and with others in our nation.
It’s difficult but needed work and is required of people in a democratic republic.