The Political Spectrum

1
The Political Spectrum

• Where do you stand?

2
What is a Continuum?

• A persons views on the issues help determine
  where they fall on the political spectrum.
• The labels used on the spectrum are not pure
  categories, but they make up a continuum, or
  value line, and citizens and politicians fall
  somewhere on that line depending on what they
  believe.

3
Factors That Determine Placement

• Two major factors shape political views.
• The first is how much change a person is willing
  to have within their society and government.
• The second deals with how much government
  involvement in the economy a person calls for.
• Others also bring in the question of how much
  freedom from government authority a leader is
  willing to give the people.

4
Political Labels

• To see where you stand, you would have to figure
  out your opinions on a number of social
  (people-related), economic (money-related), and
  political (governmental) issues.

5
What is a Radical?

• Seen as being on the far left of the political
  spectrum, radicals call for wide-sweeping rapid
  change in the basic structure of the political,
  social, or economic system.
• They may be willing to resort to extreme methods
  to bring about change, including the use of
  violence and revolution.

V.I. Lenin Mastermind of the Russian Revolution
and Father of the Soviet Union
6
What is a Liberal?

• Liberals believe that the government should be
  actively involved in the promotion of social
  welfare of a nations citizens.
• They usually call for peaceful, gradual change
  within the existing political system.
• They reject violent revolution as a way of
  changing the way things are, often called the
  status quo.

Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King
7
What is a Moderate?

• Moderates may share viewpoints with both liberals
  and conservatives.
• They are seen as tolerant of other peoples
  views, and they do not hold extreme views of
  their own.
• They advocate a go-slow or wait-and-see
  approach to social or political change.

Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) is generally seen as
a moderate.
8
What is a Conservative?

• People who hold conservative ideals favor keeping
  things the way they are or maintaining the status
  quo if it is what they desire.
• Conservatives are usually hesitant or cautious
  about adopting new policies, especially if they
  involve government activism in some way.
• They feel that the less government there is, the
  better.
• They agree with Jeffersons view that the best
  government governs least.

President Ronald Reagan is widely regarded as the
father of the modern conservative movement
9
What is a Reactionary?

• Sitting on the far right of the ideological
  spectrum, reactionaries want to go back to the
  way things werethe good ol days. Often
  reactionaries are willing to use extreme methods,
  such as repressive use of government power, to
  achieve their goals.
• The term reactionary is generally negative. A
  positive way to say the same thing is
  arch-conservative.

Hitlers Mein Kampf is a typical reactionary
manifesto
10
The Political Spectrum
11
Introduction

• What are political parties, and how do they
  function in our two-party system?
• A party is a group of people who try to control
  government by winning elections and holding
  public office.
• Political Parties
• Nominate candidates
• Inform and inspire supporters
• Encourage good behavior among members
• Govern once in office
• Perform oversight on government actions

12
What is a Party?

• Checkpoint What are the three elements that make
  up a political party?
• The party organization is the party professionals
  who run the party at all levels by contributing
  time, money, and skill.
• The party in government includes the candidates
  and officeholders who serve at all levels of
  government.
• The party in the electorate are the millions of
  voters who identify strongly with a particular
  party and support its policies.

13
What Parties Do

• Parties express the will of the people in
  government. They can also encourage unity by
  modifying conflicting views and encouraging
  compromise.
• Parties nominatefind, recruit, prepare, and
  gather public support forqualified political
  candidates.
• Parties inform the public and try to shape public
  opinion, using all forms of media to campaign for
  or against opposing candidates and policy issues.

14
Roles of Parties

• Parties act as a bonding agent to encourage
  accountability among their candidates and office
  holders.
• Parties play a key roles in governing at all
  levels.
• Legislatures are organized along party lines and
  parties shape the electoral process.
• Partisanship guides many legislative votes and
  appointments to public office.
• Parties provide channels of communication between
  the branches of government.

15
Common Good

• Whatever the differences between the left and
  the right in accepting change and involving the
  government, all viewpoints are helpful to
  society. They encourage us to discuss, debate,
  and compromise while all work toward the best in
  our society.

16
Liberal or Conservative?Left or Right?

• Favor political and social reform, usually
  government-driven favor increased federal
  services (welfare, social security, Medicare,
  student-loans, etc) government intervention in
  the economy consumer protection ensured by the
  government government involvement in protecting
  the environment guaranteeing the rights of
  people and one which is different than more
  involvement, tend to support less military.

17
Liberal or Conservative?Left or Right?

• Tend to believe that a larger/powerful government
  threatens its citizens freedoms support smaller
  government support limited government
  involvement in economic issues (laissez-faire)
  tend to believe social problems should be handled
  on a smaller scale (state- level,
  community-level, churches, etc) generally support
  a stronger military.

18
Ideological Consensus

• Americans tend to share a broad ideological
  consensus.
• The United States is made up of many different
  cultural groups.
• While Americans dont agree on every issue, they
  do support the same basic freedoms.
• Strongly divisive issues have tended not to last
  for generations.

19
Building Consensus

• Both major parties try to be moderate and build
  consensus.
• Both parties tend to have a few major areas of
  policy differences while being rather similar in
  other areas.
• The similarities between parties arises because
  both parties are after a majority of voters in
  any given election. Both parties must compete for
  the many voters in the middle of the political
  spectrum.