Define your terms:

We're on this particular subject, because all too often we've heard the term "Socialist" misused by conservatives. Bill O'Reilly, in particular, calls various support programs socialism. But that's incorrect. We currently have a Capitalist-Welfare state - like it or not. The primary definition of Socialism, according to the dictionary, is:

any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods

Which nobody in the United States is supporting - pace O'Reilly.

Anyway, we thought it might be interesting to see if we could come up with a little table to get a better sense of what the different political systems were all about, and how they stood in relation to each other. This required gross simplification, and therefore the result is likely to disappoint or outrage some folks. But it's a first cut, and we expect to refine it later. That said, here is the table:

		government owns/controls
					little or nothing
					capitalism
					welfare - capitalism provides support to:			no welfare
		personal life		personal life	people		people
		business	business		business	business
political system	democratic	Calvinism	Socialism	Poindexterism	Liberalism	Bushism	Green	Libertarianism
	authoritarian	Communism	Mobutuism	Monarcy	Bismarkism	Fascism	Theocracy	Tribalism

CYA NOTE:

• Monarchy is that which was practiced a thousand years ago, when the king/emperor/sultan owned everything (and there was no commerce - or at least it was practiced outside the purview of the monarch).
• Theocracy refers to a system where Faith Based Organizations service the poor (which is quasi-governmental). Also, it's not particularly enamored by business (for moral reasons: encourages hedonism, may foster selfish attitudes, promotes "modernism", ...).
• Instead of Bismarkism, we were tempted to say National Socialism, but that term carries way too much baggage.
• We weren't happy to put Greens in the category of welfare-for-people-only, but it seemed like the best term to use for that case.
• Poindexterism refers to the control that Admiral John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness could lead to. Control of personal behavior, with minimal business oversight, in a democracy.
• Calvinism refers to the society in Switzerland at the time in history of maximum control (1600?). Everybody's life was regimented within a somewhat democratic framework. We are unaware of any modern-day, democratic, totalitarian system.

posted by Quiddity at 11/26/2002 05:09:00 PM