Socialism, Communism, etc are different names for Statism/Fascism.
I will start with saying that Statism, Communism, Despotism and Dictatorship in practice all seem like the same thing. They may have slightly different theories, but the end result seems to always be the same.
I rate those systems as a 10 for bad and a 10 on the Satanism scale.
For good, I have Conservatism, Capitalism, Republicanism as similar and as a 3 for goodness because noting is perfect except God. I think on the Religious scale they are about a 5 or 6. It is the best we can do as men.
I think God’s Kingdom is a good monarchy or dictatorship. It is funny that we rarely have a good monarchy or dictatorship among men, but that is likely the ultimate government under our God.
Anyway, if anyone wants to chime in. Feel free to talk or not talk about the religious aspects.
thanks!
There is a book from the 1930’s written by a guy named Albert Jay Nock. The book is called: Our Enemy The State.
It is written on a very high political, abstract level geared mostly to post graduate students. You may have to read some paragraphs 2 or 3 times to grasp the true meaning.
When you do get through it, you will find the answer to most of your questions.
It boils down to this thumbnail; there are two kinds of people in this world, the collectivist and the individualist. The individualist believes in God, the collectivist believes in all kinds of cockamamie.
Plow through it, at the very least you will have tons of food for thought.
"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire." -- Robert A. Heinlein
The Founding Fathers use a political spectrum that had statism at one end and anarchy at the other end. Their goal was to find the golden mean of freedom somewhere in the middle. Thanks to the libtards, this country has been moving from their golden mean toward statism.
I can sum up all of your list with only one word: Totalitarianism.
There is no “free” place on the planet unless one owns his own island that is not a subject of some other ‘government’ somewhere.
statism ( socialism is the most extreme kind of statism because the government controls and OWNS most property. that is why democrats are socialists as socialism allows the most control over individuals)
Well, in my understanding, Statism is not strictly a single political system, but a philosophy that is incorporated into many distinct political systems. So, Communism, Socialism, and Fascism are all Statist systems, but they differ in other details.
Some of the other items on your list are similar, for example, imperialism, liberalism, conservatism, libertarianism, and objectivism are all philosophies and not forms of governance. So, you need to separate those in your thinking, if you want to get a clear understanding.
Now, just looking at the forms of governance, you can put anarchism at 10 right away, since it is purely theoretical and can’t exist in the real world, so it’s a horrible form of government. Next in line, I would put both Communism, and Fascism as the next worst offenders, because they both violate basic natural rights, and virulently spread the destruction of those rights outside of their own borders. Next, I would place Socialism, since it does destroy the same rights, but more slowly, and it spreads less virulently than Communism or Fascism. Really, it’s only a step above them because it is a weaker and less effective version of Communism, so it’s less likely to be successful in its destructive tendencies.
Above them, I’d place Despotism, Dictatorialism, Autocracy, Plutocracy, and Theocracy, since they are all generally destructive of some natural rights as a rule, though they are not usually very viral. Monarchy is a funny case, because, at its worst, it should be placed alongside these systems, but, at its best, it could even perform better as a government than Republicanism. However, the performance is inconsistent, and trends towards a middle position, above the more authoritarian governments, but below Republicanism.
Republicanism, I am of course placing in the highest position since, although it’s far from a perfect form of government, it’s the best one we have come up with so far.
Oh, it seems like I skipped over Democracy. A pure democracy, except on the smallest scales, tends to function just as badly as a dictatorship, but less efficiently in every regard, which is why we don’t any viable pure democracies as national governments. A mixed, representative democracy is a decent form of government, but usually less effective than a Republican one, since it has fewer safeguards against the eventual usurpation of rights that all governments tend towards.
Here's a good ten minute youtube vid that lays out my understanding fairly well:
Enjoy!
Merry Christmas
Self ping for keeps
The other guy was correct, separate the forms of government from ideologies.
BTW, here is one symptom of a kleptocracy:
ORGANIZATIONAL SCLEROSIS: When so many special interests are given so many benefits that the standard of living is lowered for everyone.
I can’t seem to find a consistent definition of the words “democracy” or a “republic”. To me, “democracy” applies to a country that has freedom from political coercion, while “republic “ pertains to a government that operates by rule of law. Both are required to have a functioning free country.
A person cannot be free to pursue his own happiness if he cannot predict what consequences his actions will have. Thus, freedom from political coercion requires a government that follows the rule of law, as opposed to arbitrary rule.
As someone else noted, you left out Fascism. Mussolini is famously reputed to have said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”
To me it is a significant omission, because I believe that is exactly the description of the totalitarian system we are living under today.