Liberal and Progressives in Comparative politics

James Garrett

March 15, 2010

My intention is to show there is no difference between Liberal, progressives or socialist and a communist. These are most of the different major political systems used in the last 100 years. This page will show and compare what they practice in their social structure and there effects on the economies in these political systems. This is also to prove there is no difference from political beliefs’ of Liberals, progressives, Socialism, Communism, Nazism, and Fascism, Each is from Wikipedia and is not my explanation. I comment on these political systems to show that all these experimental social and economic systems and they are economic systems before they are social systems, as there very title claims they are. They are all the same in their political beliefs and they have the same economic structure and affects. They are all very different from the capitalist free market and property rights system that the constitution allows for in the United States. We are unique.

Comparative politics and Socialism

Socialism refers to the various theories of economic organization advocating both public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources. A more comprehensive definition of socialism is an economic system that has transcended commodity production and wage labor, where economic activity is carried out to maximize use-value as opposed to exchange-value and thus a corresponding change in social and economic relations, including the organization of economic institutions and resource allocation; often implying advocacy for a method of compensation based on the amount of labor expended.

Most socialists share the view that capitalism unfairly concentrates power and wealth among a small segment of society that controls capital and derives its wealth through exploitation, creates an unequal society, does not provide equal opportunities for everyone to maximize their potential and does not utilize technology and resources to their maximum potential nor in the interests of the public.

Many socialists, from Henri de Saint-Simon, one of the founders of early socialism (Utopian Socialism), to Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, advocated for the creation of a society that allows for the widespread application of modern technology to rationalize economic activity by eliminating the anarchy of capitalist production. They reasoned that this would allow for wealth and power to be distributed based on the amount of work expended in production, although there is disagreement among socialists over how and to what extent this can be achieved.

Socialism is not a concrete philosophy of fixed doctrine and program; its branches advocate a degree of social interventionism and economic rationalization (usually in the form of economic planning), but sometimes oppose each other. A dividing feature of the socialist movement is the split between reformists and revolutionaries on how a socialist economy should be established. Some socialists advocate complete nationalization of the means of production, distribution, and exchange; others advocate state control of capital within the framework of a market economy.

Socialists inspired by the Soviet model of economic development have advocated the creation of centrally planned economies directed by a state that owns all the means of production. Others, including Yugoslavian, Hungarian, German and Chinese communist governments in the 1970s and 1980s, have instituted various forms of market socialism, combining co-operative and state ownership models with the free market exchange and free price system (but not free prices for the means of production). Modern social democrats propose selective nationalization of key national industries in mixed economies, while maintaining private ownership of capital and private business enterprise. (In the 19th and early 20th century the term was used to refer to those who wanted to completely replace capitalism with socialism through reform.) Modern social democrats also promote tax-funded welfare programs and regulation of markets; many, particularly in European welfare states, refer to themselves as socialists, despite holding pro-capitalist viewpoints, thus adding ambiguity to the meaning of the term "socialist". Libertarian socialism (including social anarchism and libertarian Marxism) rejects state control and ownership of the economy altogether and advocates direct collective ownership of the means of production via co-operative workers' councils and workplace democracy.

Modern socialism originated in the late 18th-century intellectual and working class political movement that criticized the effects of industrialization and private ownership on society. The utopian socialists, including Robert Owen (1771–1858), tried to found self-sustaining communes by secession from a capitalist society. Henri de Saint Simon (1760–1825), the first individual to coin the term socialism, was the original thinker who advocated technocracy and industrial planning. The first socialists predicted a world improved by harnessing technology and combining it with better social organization, and many contemporary socialists share this same belief. Early socialist thinkers tended to favor an authentic meritocracy combined with rational social planning, while many modern socialists have a more egalitarian approach.

Vladimir Lenin, drawing on Karl Marx's ideas of "lower" and "upper" stages of socialism defined socialism as a transitional stage between capitalism and communism. Marx, Engels in the Communist Manifesto wrote the economic and political philosophy of social Communism

Comparative politics and Communism

Communism is a social structure in which classes are abolished and property is commonly controlled, as well as a political philosophy and social movement that advocates and aims to create such a society. Karl Marx, the father of communist thought, posited that communism would be the final stage in society, which would be achieved through a proletarian revolution and only possible after a socialist stage develops the productive forces, leading to a superabundance of goods and services.

"Pure communism" in the Marxian sense refers to a classless, stateless and oppression-free society where decisions on what to produce and what policies to pursue are made democratically, allowing every member of society to participate in the decision-making process in both the political and economic spheres of life. In modern usage, communism is often used to refer to the policies of the various communist states which were authoritarian governments that had ownership of all the means of production and centrally planned economies. Most communist governments based their ideology on Marxism-Leninism.

As a political ideology, communism is usually considered to be a branch of socialism; a broad group of economic and political philosophies that draw on the various political and intellectual movements with origins in the work of theorists of the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution. Communism attempts to offer an alternative to the problems with the capitalist market economy and the legacy of imperialism and nationalism.

Marx states that the only way to solve these problems is for the working class (proletariat), who according to Marx is the main producers of wealth in society and are exploited by the Capitalist-class (bourgeoisie), to replace the bourgeoisie as the ruling class in order to establish a free society, without class or racial divisions. The dominant forms of communism, such as Leninism, Stalinism, Maoism and Trotskyism are based on Marxism, as well as others forms of communism (such as Luxemburgism and Council communism), but non-Marxist versions of communism (such as Christian communism and Anarchist communism) also exist.

Karl Marx never provided a detailed description as to how communism would function as an economic system, but it is understood that a communist economy would consist of common ownership of the means of production, culminating in the negation of the concept of private ownership of capital, which referred to the means of production in Marxian terminology.

My observations are there is no difference between Socialism and Communism The real time historical affects of these system were both social and economic failures from there very beginnings. In communist Russia the social aspect is they killed as many as 80 million of their own people intentional, in a slave camp called the gulag. Then in socialist communist China they killed 70 million of their people. Socialism and Communism are the same system and has shown that the eventual result of trying to force a collective of people to act against the will of human nature will never work. The only way it could ever work is if people were machines or robots that could be programmed and we are human beings not machines. Human nature cannot be brainwashed out of people no matter how many people to kill you can’t breed it out. The only result is more resistance to the system. Human nature cannot be bread out of people by killing of the ones who refuse to accept it. The only person who could come up with a system like Socialism or Communism is someone who had no understanding of human nature. I will say it here; Karl Marx and Engle’s were both complete idiots. Anyone who follows there beliefs and thinks these idiots were geniuses also has no understanding of human nature and they are also idiots following idiots.

Comparative politics and Nazism

Nazism (National Socialism), variously denotes the totalitarian ideology and practice of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers’ Party), and Adolf Hitler’s government as dictator of Nazi Germany, from 1933 to 1945.

Politically, Nazism is a variety of fascism that incorporated elements from left-wing and right-wing ideologies, but, in practice, is a form of far right politics. In Germany, the Nazis were one of several political organizations who used the term National Socialism to describe their ideology, and themselves as National Socialists; in the 1920s, the Nazis became the greatest such political group. In 1920, the Nazi Party presented its 25 point National Socialist Program, its key elements being anti-parliamentarism, Pan-Germanism, racism, collectivism, Social Darwinism, eugenics, anti-Semitism, anti-Communism, totalitarianism, and opposition to economic and political liberalism.

In the 1930s, Nazism was not an ideological monolith, but a principally German conflation of ideologies and philosophies centered upon nationalism, anti-Communism, traditionalism, and the ethno state. Integral to the early Nazi movement, were political groups Strasserism and the Black Front, who were motivated to political action by anger about the Treaty of Versailles conditions upon Germany, and a perceived, internal Jewish–Communist conspiracy to humiliate Germany at the end of the First World War (1914–18). The politico-economic ills of defeated Germany proved critical to National Socialist ideological consolidation, and, with its constitutional criticisms of the Weimar Republic, politically allowed the Nazi Party to assume the government of Germany in 1933.

In response to the instability created by the Great Depression, the Nazis sought a Third Way managed economy that was neither capitalism nor communism. Nazi rule effectively ended on May 7, 1945, V-E Day, when the Nazis unconditionally surrendered to the Allied Powers, who took over Germany's administration until Germany could form its own democratic government

Comparative politics and Fascism

Fascism is a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to organize a nation on corporatist perspectives; values; and systems such as the political system and the economy. Scholars generally consider it to be on the far right of the conventional left-right political spectrum, although some scholars claim that fascism has been influenced by both the left and the right.

Fascists believe that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. Fascists identify violence and war as actions that create national regeneration, spirit and vitality. Fascists claim that culture is created by collective national society and its state, that cultural ideas are what give individuals identity, and thus rejects individualism. Fascism rejects and resists autonomy of cultural or ethnic groups who are not considered part of the fascists' nation and who refuse to assimilate or are unable to be assimilated. Fascists consider attempts to create such autonomy as an affront and threat to the nation. Fascists advocate the creation of a single-party state. Fascist governments forbid and suppress openness and opposition to the fascist state and the fascist movement. Fascists oppose class conflict, blame capitalism and liberal democracies for its creation, and accuse communists of exploiting the concept.

In the economic sphere, many fascist leaders have claimed to support a "Third Way" in economic policy, which they believed superior to both the rampant individualism of unrestrained capitalism and the severe control of state socialism. This was to be achieved by establishing significant government control over business and labor (Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini called his nation's system "the corporate state") No common and concise definition exists for fascism and historians and political scientists disagree on what should be in any such definition.

Following the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II and the publicity surrounding the atrocities committed during the period of fascist governments, the term fascist has been used as a pejorative word, often referring to widely varying movements across the political spectrum.

Comparative politics and Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic and social system in which capital and land, the non-labor factors of production (also known as the means of production), are privately owned. Labor, goods and resources are traded in markets; and profit, after taxes, is distributed to the owners or invested in technologies and industries. Also see rise of financial capitalism, which controls all other forms of capitalism.

There is no consensus on the definition of capitalism, nor how it should be used as an analytical category. There are a variety of historical cases over which it is applied, varying in time, geography, politics and culture. Economists, political economists and historians have taken different perspectives on the analysis of capitalism. Scholars in the social sciences, including historians, economic sociologists, economists, anthropologists and philosophers have debated over how to define capitalism; however there is little controversy that private ownership of the means of production, creation of goods or services for profit in a market, and prices and wages are elements of capitalism.

Economists usually put emphasis on the market medievalism; degree of government does not have control over markets (laissez faire), and property rights. While most political economists emphasize private property, power relations, wage labor, and class. There is a general agreement that capitalism encourages economic growth. The extent, to which different markets are "free", as well as the rules determining what may and may not be private property, is a matter of politics and policy and many states have what are termed "mixed economies.

Capitalism as a system developed incrementally from the 16th century in Europe, although capitalist-like organizations existed in the ancient world, and early aspects of merchant capitalism flourished during the Late Middle Ages. Capitalism became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. Capitalism gradually spread throughout Europe, and in the 19th and 20th centuries, it provided the main means of industrialization throughout much of the world.

There are a few items in capitalists systems I would point out here that has made the United States the wealthiest country in the world. The first is property rights which I think is the single thing that has made this country to become so prosperous. The United States is a capitalist county allowed by its founding documents the called constitution. It is the economics of any political system that either makes a country prosper or creates great poverty and despair. There is a vast difference in the standard of living when comparing communist Russia or china before Capitalism and the United States which has always been a capitalist economy. Once those two communist countries embrace what they claimed to dislike so much, their standard of living increase by 500%. Some will say even after those facts that somehow Socialism or communism is better. Those people are liberals and progressives.

Comparative politics and liberal and progressive democrats

Some people like the liberal, progressive democrats will be the first to say that not everyone shares in that wealth of a capitalist economic system and the constitution doesn’t provide for those people and we have 36 million people living in poverty. But every one of those people do get the help on some kind of a social program. It hasn’t changed their status. The poor will always be with us. It is the Capitalism that allows the wealth to pay for the welfare and social security. The socialism fails when you run out of people to steal from. If you take too much money in the form of taxes from the working public sector economy you risk collapsing the economic system and then there no one left to steal from to support the social programs. Are they stupid?

In our capitalist economic system everyone has the right to participate in the wealth that is available in our system. It is by choice that people stay in the social programs. I have known far too many of these welfare recipients personally for anyone to tell me any different. Liberal, progressive democrats act like these people are forced to live in poverty and those lousy republicans and the capitalists that are doing it to them. All the social programs for the poor are created by the liberal, progressive democrats and they are the ones keeping those people write were they are. This almost forces these self impoverished people to vote for the very people that keep them were they are. When welfare reform was passed in 1996 when bill Clinton was President 12 million people got off the welfare rolls and got jobs and no one starved to death or wound up living in the streets. The main reason the large number of people on these programs and living in poverty grows is there population grows and 1 million illegal aliens a year come up from South America and there all uneducated. In states like California most get on welfare immediately upon arrival. Being an illegal alien doesn’t stop a person from getting on welfare in some cities or states. Then the liberal, progressive democrats blame it on Capitalism and the republicans. When liberal, progressive democrats are the ones doing it. The general public seems to believe the lie as they keep voting in the same liberal, progressive democrats.

Comparative politics liberal, progressive democrats and the republicans.

Now let’s look at the political parties in America. We have two major parties the democrats and the republicans. Within these parties we have liberals and progressives in the Democratic Party. Then we have what is called conservatives’ in the Republican Party. What do they stand for in their political beliefs and practices? Let’s first look at the democrat party were the liberals and progressives are and do a study on what they claim they want in government. Also let’s examine the economic effects of each. That’s what it really always comes down to. What can we afford and sustain, so we don’t destroy ourselves economically.

I want to make it clear that the dictionary does not properly define or explain what a modern day liberal or a progressive is for political purposes. These are nicely described words in the dictionary and if I took either one of those dictionary descriptions I might think I was a liberal or a progressive. Let’s start with the modern day liberal and see what they really believe in politically. In the days of our Founding Fathers the definition of Liberalism is light-years apart to how the definition is applied today to the modern liberal. The Modern Liberal is very much socialist leaning and simply does not fit the definition of liberalism. Liberal are and have been hiding behind words like progressive or liberal and they switch as soon as people figure out what they really are. Progressives or liberals really are Socialists or communist they are exactly the same thing.

Comparative politics Liberals and progressives

Liberals and progressives: This is from a Wikipedia description of Modern day liberals and progressives. American liberalism is a form of social liberalism developed from progressive ideals such as, Theodore Roosevelt's New Nationalism, Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom, and Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. It combines social liberalism and social progressivism with support for a welfare state and a mixed economy. American liberal causes include voting rights for Black Southerners, freedom of choice for women, and government entitlements such as education and health care. Keynesian economic theory plays an influential role in the economic philosophy of American liberals. These policy stances adhere to the central premise that individual freedom can only exist when it is protected by a strong, democratically elected government that has an active role in society and the economy.

It is well known to those educated in American history that Franklin D. Roosevelt's, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson's were all European style socialists or communist. I would point out here there is no difference economically between a socialist economy and a communist economy. Let’s brake down some of the things the Liberals and progressives believe in. We will also look at the history which proves there social and economic theories don’t work.

Keynesian economic theory

Body of economic thought originated by the British economist and government adviser, John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), whose landmark work, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, was published in 1935. Writing during the Great Depression, Keynes took issue with the classical economists, like Adam Smith, who believed that the economy worked best when left alone. Keynes believed that active government intervention in the marketplace was the only method of ensuring economic growth and stability. He held essentially that insufficient demand causes unemployment and that excessive demand results in inflation; government should therefore manipulate the level of aggregate demand by adjusting levels of government expenditure and taxation. For example, to avoid depression Keynes advocated increased government spending and Easy Money, resulting in more investment, higher employment, and increased consumer spending. (Keynes Theory had exactly the opposite affect.)

Keynesian economics has had great influence on the public economic policies of industrial nations, including the United States. In the 1980s, however, after repeated recessions, slow growth, and high rates of inflation in the U.S., a contrasting outlook, uniting monetarists and "supply siders blamed excessive government intervention for troubles in the economy.

Keynesian economics is severely flawed it was tried for 9 years in the great depression 1930 to 1939 and no positive effect on the economy. What did work was exactly the opposite of Keynesian economics. That is to cut government spending dramatically and cut taxes dramatically, giving the people control of the money. In 1920 there was a market crash that is never talked about because the liberals like controlling things and they control the educational system. But here is the truth and the facts that they don’t want you to know. In 1920 we had a similar situation as we had in 1930. What was done to correct the economy was cut taxes from 70% to 25% on the rich. Then Federal government spending was cut by 50% by 1923 unemployment went from 8.7% down to 1.8% and we got what is known as the roaring twenties. Now you know how it got that name. The recession only lasted from January 1920 to July 1921, or 18 months

What was the biggest cause of the depression of 1930 is the government went back to high taxes 70% on the rich, they raised interest rates dramatically. That cause the stock market to collapse and lead to the total bank collapse as well. Then we got the great depression. This was done under Herbert Hover he was a progressive republican. Notice and pay special attention to the word progressive Republican. It was Herbert Hover that gave progressives a bad name that’s when they changed to the word liberal and hide behind that for a while. Until Americans figured out Liberals were the same thing politically as a progressive. This is the exact same politically as a modern day liberal. They keep hiding behind words and changing as soon as Americans figure out what they really are politically. That’s what Keynesian economics is and that’s what Liberals and progressives democrats’ believe in. They believe in doing things that don’t work and have never worked and still keep trying the same failed policies. Need I point out the $787 billion stimulus package and we are still losing jobs after 1 full year we got nothing from it. Do you really want these clinically insane people running the country? If the liberal and progressive democrats told the people what they really believe in. They wouldn’t even be able to win an election in the cities or anywhere else in the United States.

Liberals and progressives believe in the support for a welfare state. I’ll keep this as short as possible. Take a ride to any big cities and drive though the areas that are supported by the welfare state or social programs. People used to refer to them as the slums. That should be all the evidence you need to prove it is not working for the people that live in the welfare state that Liberals and progressives believe in. To continually try to expand on something that has been a total failure from the start and to want to expand on it year after year and just watch things get worse, makes no logical sense at all. Do you really want these clinically insane people running the country?

Here is a little more information that conservatives and republicans may like. This is from Wikipedia. John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. (July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was the 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. Soon after, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative.

Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity. As a Coolidge biographer put it, "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength." Many later criticized Coolidge as part of a general criticism of laissez-faire government or capitalism. His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Ronald Reagan Administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government programs (conservatives) and those (progressives) who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy.

As you can see, if you understood all you read above the summary is that Liberals and progressives want more government intervention, more social programs for the welfare state referred to as balancing out the inequities with wealth redistribution, between the classes between rich the middle class and the poor. The bottom line is there are the same as a European socialist or a Russian or Chinese communist. They also have very close similarities to Nazism and Fascism. What stands in the way of what liberals and progressives want in the United States? Answer: The Constitution of the United States of America.

Liberal