No Left-Right Political Spectrum in 3rd World?

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TheSpectrum
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13 Jul 2016, 5:16 am

In Western Civilisation in the first world and emerging markets/developing nations, those into politics seem to refer to a political spectrum that varies anywhere from socialist to populist, libertarian to authoritarian...

But in other parts of the world, can we really project our political ways of thinking onto those nations? Do they even have political spectrums or is it really as simple as each nation having set "wants", "needs" and vices which decide their way of life?

I guess I want your views because looking at the West they are desperately trying to push their political narratives by supporting or rejecting ideologies which by and large seem to contradict how our left-right way of thinking works. I don't mean that in a "bucking the trend" way nor do I mean it in a demonising way. It's just how it seems to be. Now who might I be referring to? Religious ideologies like Islam, guerrilla tribes and warring factions in African states, the remaining tribes in the Amazon and so forth. People either oblivious and unaffected by our way of life or those that simply detest it.

Anyone wanna chime in?


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LoveNotHate
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13 Jul 2016, 8:18 am

The left wing game is to steal money from the upper class.

That's probably a lot harder in the 3rd world.



xile123
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13 Jul 2016, 8:57 am

LoveNotHate wrote:
The left wing game is to steal money from the upper class.

That's probably a lot harder in the 3rd world.


nice bait



visagrunt
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13 Jul 2016, 9:30 am

Of course the political spectrum exists in the third world. Anywhere that political opposition exists, there exists a spectrum of view on the key issues of government policy. About the only country where I would question the existence of a political spectrum is the DPRK. (And possibly the Holy See, since politics there tends to be about church law, not fiscal policy).

The question of how government should raise revenue, and the priorities which government should have in spending that revenue are live questions in every country on earth. Many dictators initially rose to power precisely because they presented fiscal policies in opposition to the governments that they replaced (often by democratic means).

In truth, the political spectrum as we understand it is only a set of convenient labels that don't readily attach themselves to any country. Every country addresses policy questions on an isolated basis, and not always in a consistent fashion.

Is the United States socialist? In many respects it is--governments play a significant role in the marketplace, representing over 20% of GDP. Direct transfers to individuals represent 70% of US government spending. But in respects it's clearly not. Government don't tend to own significant interests in businesses trading in the marketplace (beyond portfolio investments). Is the United States libertarian or authoritarian? Depends on the issue. Is the United States populist or elitist? On any of these scales, you can put the United States at various places, depending upon your filters.


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The_Face_of_Boo
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13 Jul 2016, 3:47 pm

There isn't really a political spectrum in the 3rd world - there's only Left vs Right, Conservatives vs Liberals, X vs Y...etc, both ends of political extremes against each other; and in the dictatorial regimes, there's only the one regime.



naturalplastic
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13 Jul 2016, 4:15 pm

Every country has reformers and conservatives, whom you could label "left" and "right". But its a slightly differing 'left' and 'right' for each country and region.



yelekam
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13 Jul 2016, 4:30 pm

The standard one dimensional left-right spectrum isn't even valid in western countries. Do countries have political spectrums among their population? yes, but they are multidimensional. There are many different political ideologies. There are many different issues with a variety of different stances for people to have, and individuals can combine their stances on various different issues into individual political ideologies. Individuals can join together in various different ways to support general common aims, and from this produce various political groupings. These formations vary across different countries.