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CHAPTER 1 As a means of providing insight into the character of political ideologies and how they relate to one another, the traditional linear political spectrum nevertheless has a range of drawbacks. For instance, as all ideologies contain rival, or even contradictory, elements, locating them clearly on a linear political spectrum against a single criterion can be notoriously difficult. Anarchism, for instance, can be seen as either ultra-left-wing or ultra-right-wing, since it encompasses both anarcho-communist and anarcho-capitalist tendencies. It has also been argued that the ideologies that are traditionally placed at the extreme wings of the linear spectrum may have more in common with one another than they do with their ‘centrist’ neighbours. During the Cold War period in particular, it was widely claimed that communism and fascism resembled one another by virtue of a shared tendency towards totalitarianism (see p. 159). Such a view led to the idea that the political spectrum should be horseshoe-shaped, not linear (see Figure 1.5).
Fascism
Communism
Socialism
Conservatism
Liberalism
Figure 1.5 Horseshoe spectrum
Moreover, as political ideologies manifest themselves differently in different geographical contexts, it may be impossible to assign them an agreed left/right identity. Thus, while in the European context populism is predominantly associated with anti-immigrant and xenophobic political projects, giving it a distinctively right-wing character, in Latin America populism has been linked, historically, to state interventionist economic policies and the use of left-wing-orientated rhetoric. Afinal drawback is that, as ideological debate has developed and broadened over the years, the linear spectrum has seemed increasingly simplistic and generalized, the left/right divide capturing only one dimension of a more complex series of political interactions. This has given rise to the idea of the two-dimensional spectrum, with, as pioneered by Eysenck (1964), a liberty/authority vertical axis being added to the established left/right horizontal axis (see Figure 1.6).
Authority
Stalinism
New Right
Right
Left
Social democracy
Anarcho-capitalism
Liberty
Figure 1.6 Two-dimensional spectrum
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