Democracy and Sociopolitical Systems
One way to understand sociopolitical systems is to think of how collectivized their resources are. At one end of the spectrum, wealth and resources are distributed equally, most likely through taxation and social safety net programs. This requires financial institutions to be highly regulated and for income and profits to be capped at some upper level. At the other end of the scale wealth is not redistributed at all, so financial systems do not need to be regulated and there are no upper limits on income or profits. It can be visualize like on a scale of left to right like this:
One way to understand sociopolitical systems is to think of how collectivized their resources are. At one end of the spectrum, wealth and resources are distributed equally, most likely through taxation and social safety net programs. This requires financial institutions to be highly regulated and for income and profits to be capped at some upper level. At the other end of the scale wealth is not redistributed at all, so financial systems do not need to be regulated and there are no upper limits on income or profits. It can be visualize like on a scale of left to right like this:
To understand how this left/right scale of wealth distribution interacts with democracy, we can simply overlay the image above on the previous image depicting democracy on an up/down scale.
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The top left corner, where authoritarianism and economic collectivism overlap becomes orange. The bottom left corner, where democracy and economic collectivism overlap, becomes purple. The bottom right corner, where democracy and economic individualism overlap stays blue. The top right corner, where authoritarianism and economic individualism overlap stays yellow.
This color-coding will help us keep track of these quadrants as we explore each one.
Top Left
Bottom Left
Bottom Right
Top Right
Top Left
- A system that is authoritarian and collectivizes resources is COMMUNIST
- An example of this type of society is China, under Mao (pre-1978)
- Social control is very high and personal freedom is very low
- Financial systems are highly regulated and resource distribution is egalitarian
Bottom Left
- A system that is democratic and collectivizes resources is DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST
- An example of this type of society is Sweden
- Social control is very low and personal freedom is very high
- Financial systems are highly regulated and resource distribution is egalitarian
Bottom Right
- A system that is democratic and does not collectivize resources is LIBERTARIAN
- An example of this type of society does not exist on a national level, though some states within the U.S. lean toward libertarianism. Some consider Luxembourg to be libertarian, however its spending on education, health care, public transportation and other social programs would disqualify it. A theoretical libertarian (minarchist) nation would have a bare bones government that exists mainly to arbitrate between its citizens in the form of police and courts.
- Social control is very low and personal freedom is very high
- Financial systems are not regulated and there is none or very little resource redistribution
Top Right
- A system that is authoritarian and does not collectivize resources is FASCIST
- An example of this type of society is Russia
- Social control is very high and personal freedom is very low
- Financial systems are not regulated and there is none or very little resource redistribution
You may have your own ideas regarding where politicians and political parties in the United States land on the above graphic. While the details are certainly up for debate, this is where some of them would land, roughly, below. The Republican Party is wading through the murky territory of anocracy, particularly if they nominate or elect another populist figure with fascist tendencies, like Trump or DeSantis.
Only the bottom two socio-political systems, Democratic Socialism and Libertarianism, are democratic because these are the only two in which social control is low and personal freedom is very high. The Libertarian party in the U.S. has recently aligned itself with the racist alt-right and seems to be courting Republican voters, so its commitment to democracy is iffy, but libertarianism as a principle tends to be democratic.
The above image helps us to understand what it means when we refer to different types of societies, in terms of how democratic they are and how collectivized their wealth is, but it does not inform us as to what mechanism, or economic system, is used to attain their financial goals. For now we will focus on the tool of capitalism, in particular, and how it interacts with each of these types of societies. Head to the Democracy and Capitalism page next.
The above image helps us to understand what it means when we refer to different types of societies, in terms of how democratic they are and how collectivized their wealth is, but it does not inform us as to what mechanism, or economic system, is used to attain their financial goals. For now we will focus on the tool of capitalism, in particular, and how it interacts with each of these types of societies. Head to the Democracy and Capitalism page next.