Political Compass

1. Political Culture and Ideology
Applying the Principles of the
Declaration of Independence

2. Major Themes of the Declaration of
Independence
Among these rights:
Life
Liberty
Pursuit of happiness
Self evident truths
Human equality
Natural rights
Purpose of gov’t
Measure of Justice
Right of revolution
Limits to the
right 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

3. Political Culture
•A general set of Ideas, attitudes and beliefs
•Shapes a region’s politics
•Political Cultures in the US may identify with certain
principles in the Declaration of Independence
•Political culture sometimes confused with ideology
•Most communities in the US participate in at least one of
the following:
–Traditionalism
–Individualism
–Moralism

4. Traditionalism
Basic features Associated regionAdvantages Disadvantages
•Strong attachment
to long-established
institutions
•Preference for
traditional ‘modes
and orders’
•Suspicion of
change
•Family legacies
The “Old South”:
South Carolina
North Carolina
Virginia
Tennessee
Georgia
Mississippi
Alabama
Louisiana
Texas
Stability
Predictability
Laws and
customs tend to
remain constant
Inflexibility
Lack of social mobility
Tolerance of corruption in
the public sector
Hostility to reform
Fatalism
Examples:
“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
“You can’t fight city hall.”
Uncontested elections
Political Dynasties (Bush, Thurmond, Moncrieff, Kennedy)

5. Individualism
Basic features Associated regionAdvantages Disadvantages
•Strong belief in self-
reliance
•Preference for
individual and
independent action;
free enterprise
•Suspicion of public
institutions
•Resistance to
regulation
•“The Self-Made
Man”
The “Old West”:
Wyoming
Texas
Colorado
New Mexico
Arizona
Nevada
Montana
North Dakota
South Dakota
Opportunity
Privacy
Recognition of
individual efforts
Accountability
Isolation
Lack of community support
Intolerance of public sector
involvement
Tolerance of corruption in
the private sector, provided
one isn’t caught
Examples:
“You’ll get my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands.”
“You’ve got nobody to blame but yourself.”
Entrepreneurs, independent contractors
“Caveat emptor”

6. Moralism
Basic features Associated regionAdvantages Disadvantages
•Strong belief in
community,
“commonwealth”
•Preference for
formal community
action
•Suspicion of private
institutions and
interests
•Strong regulatory
presence
“New England”:
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
Connecticut
Maine
New York
Pennsylvania
Also prevalent in
the Pacific NW
and in capital
cities
Community
Accountability
Active social
support
structures
“safety nets”
•Intrusiveness
•Tolerance of corruption in the
public sector if it serves the
“moral duty” of serving the
commonwealth
•Inaction unless initiated by
community officials
•High public debt; high taxes
Examples:
“Did you bring enough for everybody?”
“We’re from the government and we’re here to help you.”
Social Security, social welfare programs
Public education programs

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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
19
th
Century

12. Left and Right: The Political Spectrum
The most common comparative model of ideological preference in the US
Left Wing Right Wing
Liberalism ConservatismCentrismSocialismCommunism Statism Fascism

13. •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 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
Comparative Ideology 2: The
Political Compass
?

14. 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

15. 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.

16. 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

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

18. 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 1
st
region

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

20. 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

21. 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)