How to make sense of “…isms”

Ins and Outs of Authoritarianism, Socialism, Representative Democracy and More

The media in America tend to confuse us with a list of words that they use incorrectly. I don’t blame the media so much as they simply report what buzz words politicians spout off. Unfortunately, these words are defined ad hoc by politicians to inflame and spur voters preferences. They do not reflect the real meanings.

Worse, the words mix up economics and governmental systems. Let’s review what the really mean and where they are on a matrix.

In matrix above you can understand how an economic system like Socialism or Communism is used by politicians as an insult when actually talking about the type of government liberals want or have. These comments conflate economic systems with governmental types to trick voters.

Types of Governments

Pure Democracy

Pure Democracy refers to a political system where the voters directly vote on issues and laws. Switzerland is one of the best examples of this as they vote on most national issues. The Swiss have voted on giving women the vote, limiting compensation for CEOs, joining the EU, etc.

Other examples usually aren’t at the national level. For example, in many states voters can directly decide the outcome on various statewide propositions or laws. This includes tax issues in California, legality of Abortions in Kansas, or timing of voting registrations in New York. This proposition process is a Pure or True Democracy.

Representative Democracy (Republic)

The United States is among the majority of “democratic” nations that use a Representative form of Government. This is a modification of a true democracy, first used in the modern era in the United States. This system assumes that a) there are too many voters for a direct democracy, b) dedicated representatives will better serve a single district and c) being a legislator is a full time job where the elected representatives can get all the information and make a responsive solution.

There are generally two main types of a representative system. In a Presidential system the President is elected by the totality of the electoral AND has power in the government. This is the system in Türkiye, Mexico, France, and the United States among others. In a Parliamentary system, the leaders of the legislature elect the Prime Minister who has the power over the government. The President or Monarch is the face of the country but holds no (or very little) governmental power. This is the system used in England, Canada, Japan, and other countries.

This is why Republican Politicians in the US often say “we do not live in a democracy”, because the US is technically a Republic – with is a Representative Democracy with federalized provinces or states.

Illiberal Democracy

An “Illiberal” Democracy is a new idea, gaining proponents among European Countries and US conservatives (Hungarian President Orban has been invited to speak CPAC in Texas and hosted CPAC in Budapest). An Illiberal Democracy is one that has a powerful President who rewards his cronies with jobs and power to guarantee support of the powerful in the nation. The opponents of the government are muzzled, voters are disenfranchised, media is taken over and given to the friends of the President, and a minority group is scapegoated to make the President seem more powerful.

In Hungary the minority group shunned is gays and lesbians. In Türkiye is the Kurds. In many southern US states it is transsexuals.

An Illiberal Democracy is unique in that the President and/or party leader is elected at first. Often with powerful populist ideas. Then he (and to date it is always a he) slowly begin to corrupt the idea of a representative democracy by implementing more and more changes to the system to ensure he keeps winning elections. In both Hungary and Türkiye, any international condemnation is tempered by alliances and economic relations. Hungary is both a member of the EU and NATO. Türkiye is an important member of NATO.

Oligarchy

An Oligarchy is when a small group of powerful non-military men rule the government. This may occur openly, or with a titular democracy where the voters have no actual power. It is hard to show an example of this type of government because often the behind-the-scenes group remain hidden. One example was Russia where a group of oligarchs and President Putin ran the country with the spoils of the nation going to that group (allegedly). If you remembered the seizing of yachts and foreign residences, these were indicators of an oligarchy. Malaysia and Singapore also have the indicators of an oligarchy under the guise of a democracy.

Military Rule

Military rule is very much like an Oligarchy, but in this case the small cabal of power players are all in the country’s military. Military rule occurs in many ways:

The military overthrows a government because of perceived slights against the military. This was the case in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Chile from 1973 – 1990.

The military doesn’t technically overthrow the government but does use a veto power to end a Democratic system. This is the case in Pakistan now, Taiwan (Republic of China) after WWII, and Turkey before this regime.

The military battles a previous military regime. This is the case right now in Sudan (as of April 29, 2023).

Nearly all military regimes use the government to benefit and strengthen the military system. It breads loyalty to the government in general and military specifically.

Authoritarian Rule

This is the rule of a single powerful individual who plans the future and punishes those that disagree with him. A present example of this is Russia’s Putin. In the past he looked at elections to justify his rule, which one might have classified as an illiberal democracy. In the past decade and particularly since the Ukrainian War he has acted more and more as an authoritarian.

There are other names for Authoritarian leaders: despots, dictators, tyrants and more. This is the same mode of governmental control used by the leaders of Belarus, North Korea, Hussein’s Iraq, and Brunei.

It is particularly hard for authoritarian leaders to peacefully transfer power. They are nearly always overthrown only by an internal civil war or death. One of the few successfully transitions politically was in Singapore when Lee Kuan Yew transformed his power into a Illiberal Democracy and then to a Representative Democracy. He was the poster boy for the “Chinese” development path, which has since been abandoned by China itself.

These governmental forms are the backbone of nearly all governments in the world. But they are often used interchangeably with co-resident economic systems.

Economic Systems

This section will outline the primarily used economic systems. Please note these are my definitions of the world I see, probably not the same as the traditional or Wikipedia definitions.

Pure Capitalism

Capitalism is the economic system that prioritizes private development of business, services and infrastructure that make a profit. Full Capitalism is unknown as a national system, but very apparent in the way many states develop parts of the infrastructure.

An example of capitalism is the use of toll roads. The interstate highway system was set up by Dwight Eisenhower to allow quick access to all parts of the United States for the movement of the military quickly. The previous system of haphazard growth had limited the speed of national deployment. Since the development of the interstates, the system has been expanded through the country. But in certain areas, new connections to the system have been paid for by private funds and the toll system is used to pay back the creditors. These includes roads in Florida, California, Texas, and a significant number of other states. In this way, new roads are more similar in creation to the railroad system rather than the highway system.

Another example of pure Capitalism is gated communities created from scratch. In many gated communities the roads, sidewalks and parks are paid for by the residents and therefore not open for others to use.

Capitalism +

This is my wording. I see it as the system the US uses. In this governmental system most of the infrastructure is paid for by the government, either federal or state. The infrastructure in the US was created by socialism – that is this infrastructure is open to all and paid for by the government. In addition to our Interstate Highway System other examples include sidewalks, roads, airports, stop lights, the salting and clearing of public roads due to snow, air traffic control, libraries (where they are still funded), public schools, the military, police and fire departments and much more.

But most of the financial, manufacturing and service sectors are developed by private companies or individuals and most of the profits flow back to the owners.

When public servants denounce “socialism” as un-American, they are blowing hot air up your ass. In doing this, the politicians are knowingly lying to you, unless they are idiots like Tommy Tuberville who don’t know understand basic facts.

Socialism

In current general use, Socialism is very much like Capitalism +. American politicians and most Americans think of socialism as a European style of government. In reality the European and American systems are similar except that European systems pay for and provide for free more public goods. To American politicians (and thus Americans) this distinction is almost always defined by a country that pays for universal health care. They also may provide free university education, subsidized dentistry, higher unemployment benefits, free childcare, required vacation days off, and stricter rules about firing employees.

For branding purposes American politicians also say that it is socialist to pass gun safety laws, but that really has nothing to do with Socialism.

Fascism

Fascism is often viewed as a political system. The political component of Fascism I categorize as part of the authoritarian governmental system. But there is a different and unique economic component. Fascist regimes pursue self-sufficiency relentlessly. Fascism rejects globalization and counter growth of an interrelated economies through protectionism and economic intervention into the manufacturing and service sectors. This economic and political systems follow a dictate that if a country is not self-sufficient in some critical resource, the military should be used to gather that resource itself.

This is one of the reasons that Hitler’s Germany conquered the wheat fields of Ukraine and the oil fields of North Africa. Africa in particular was not about territory, but about becoming self-sufficient in oil. The regime also investigated artificial ways to create a fuel source not based on oil, which German was deficient in.

Communism

For most Americans, Communism is not just an economic system or a governmental style, but a threat to the world. That is because the media and government spent about 70 years telling Americans Communism was horrible.

For the first few years this fear was understandable, if not justified. Soviet Communists had pulled Russia out of WWI freeing Germany from war on the eastern front.

Soviet communists had murdered the Ruling Czar / Tasr’s family, the Romanovs. The Romanovs were the ruling Monarchs of Russia. Czar Nicholas II was the child of a Danish Princess. He was nephew to the King of Denmark, King of Greece, and Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom. His first cousin’s included King George of the United Kingdom, King and Queen of Norway, King of Denmark and King of Greece. Related only slightly more distantly to the King of Prussia, Grand Duke of Hesse and Baden. Remember nearly all of these royals were alive when the Romanovs were murdered. This was an affront to all of Europe.

After brief stint as an ally of the US and UK during WWII, the Soviet Union went back to being enemy #1 of the west.

And communism – as a governmental institution - spread quickly after World War II to China, Eastern Europe and many colonies during new nations. Americans felt threatened by this new and growing system that was the antithesis of Capitalism. So the word “Communism” is loaded for the west.

But true Communism is foremost an economic system. It states that the means of production are owned by “the people”. Outputs are then distributed are distributed to the people according to their abilities and needs, not their output. It is direct opposition to Capitalism.

However, over time communism as an economic system failed. Some countries, like China and Cuba, relaxed the idea of private ownership to drive growth. Others, like the Soviet Union and North Korea, fell into an authoritarian system where the wealth was redirected to the ruling cabal.

As an economic system, Communism is a failed experiment in the real world.

Takeaway

I believe it is important to understand the difference between governmental systems and economic systems. In mixing them up, politicians can pick and choose the best or worse of these systems to push anxiousness and fear to the people. The better we can discern the truths of our politicians the more informed we are as voters.