UKC

OK, so I guess there are some clever folks on here so ill throw this one out. Im no political scientist and I sometimes get quite confused with some of the terminology. Its especially confusing at this time of year when we see lots of documentaries about the war and Hitler.

So we have left and right and their extreme tendencies, communism and fascism.

My basic understanding is that left is more social i.e. greater state intervention and that communism, in simple terms is a sustem of the state being all powerful and that wealth should be shared - higher taxes in principle.

The opposite is right where in moderate countries like the UK this mean less state intervention and a reduced state with people taking more personal responsibility - lower taxes in principle. So where does fascism and far right politics come in and what is its stated aim? Why is this 'right'.

And then we have liberalism.

So, lets keep this simple folks - is this broadly correct and if not, what are the inaccuracies?

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers: **system**

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:
This might be of some help:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2

In reply to Ramblin dave:

You got there first. This might also help:

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/blog-html/leftvright_world.html

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Both really interesting

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Hmmm. I can go with most of it, however I don't agree with Labour being placed as a "Left" wing government. Used to be, but since New Labour came into being they have steadily moved across to the right.

To the original poster: It is not a simple straight line from Facism (right) to Communism (left), rather a circle in effect. When you look into the two extremes, they actually have a lot in common. I would maybe say horseshoe shape in fact, rather than circle??

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:

careful, or you might end up with another 400 posts of bruce and coel arguing over whether the nazis were actually left wing...



gregor

In reply to thebrookster:

And there some of the confusion lies and again I am being simplistic; idealistically, dont communist and fascist extremes believe in the absolute power of the state?

In reply to no_more_scotch_eggs:

And none of us want that.

In reply to TheDrunkenBakers:


not necessarily. In theory a strong state is only a stepping stone in a communist society before it reverts back to local communes. While this never worked on a national scale as it doesnt deal with peoples unwillingness to sacrifice power, some have implemented it locally and would consider themselves communist.

Fascism is equally complex although tends to end up with a strong state by virtue of the nationalist tendencies which require a fair amount of central control (self sufficiency requiring certain controls placed on corporations etc).