Definition please (1 Viewer)

[bballkid]

Hi,

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, but can someone please define the follow words / terms. I'm don't quite understand the meaning of the following words and the dictionary just makes it even more complicated.

Democratic
Republican
Liberal
Conservative

Can someone please explain what each party means? What's the difference between them? What does it mean when some says they are a democrat or a republican.

Thanks

 

[Epic]

In American politics a Democrat is considered a Liberal and a Republican is considered a Conservative. A definition of those two terms purely in this context just means a member of x party. You could read up on their policies just by going to their web sites / watching CNN.

 

[kevinx2]

Wikipedia

 

[Andi0390]

I don't know the "definition" of these terms, but I can try to explain how I understand them.

In politics there is this concept of "scale". The middle is sort of a balanced view and as you go down each end of the scale views get more extreme.

The left side of the scale is liberal. "Liberal" refers to the freedom of the individual. This left wing is traditionally likely to support policies that increase the freedom of the individual, such as right to abortion. They also generally support social welfare.

On the right side of the scale is what is called conservative. The views on this side tend to differ depending on what part of the world, but they often support more traditional beliefs and religion may be a concerning factor.

A confusing part of this can be that in Australia the Liberal Party is actually somewhat considered our conservative party, and the Labour Party is our liberal party. Either way though, neither of our parties are considered extreme and both lay very close to the middle of the political scale. Some people also think that both parties lay on the left liberal side of the scale, but just at different extents.

In the USA there are two main political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans. The Democrats are the left wing, liberal party, and the Republicans are the right way conservative party.

I hope that helped a bit. If i'm wrong about any of this feel free to point it out...I didn't pay much attention in Poli Sci.

 

[cottoneye]

Could you be more specific in regards the context in which you are using these terms? In US politics, as has been pointed out, 'liberal and Democrat' and 'conservative and Republican' can be considered synonymous.

It should be noted though that liberalism is an Enlightenment philosophy which, in its most basic form, stresses the supremacy of the individual and seeks to limit state intervention on personal liberty. In this context, small government is the goal and in some whats it would be the Republican party in US politics that is more liberal.

You also need to be aware that it will be of use to define economic liberalism, social liberalism and political liberalism if this is for an essay or something similar.