"Extreme
|10 Ayn Rand; The Laissez-Faire Republic (Tough on crime; leaving peaceful
citizens alone)
Right"
|
| 9 Frederic Bastiat, Henry Hazlitt, Ludwig von Mises
|
| 8 Thomas Jefferson; U.S.A. prior to 1914 (no income tax, no Federal
Reserve)
"Right"
|
| 7 Rush Limbaugh; National Review; American Spectator; YAF
|
| 6 U.S. Republican Party (Average Position)
|
| 5 Moderate Democrats; "Liberal" Republicans
|
| 4 European Welfare States; U.S. Democrat Party (Average Position)
"Left"
|
| 3 Mussolini's Italy; Franco's Spain
|
| 2 Nazi Germany under Hitler; Yugoslavia under Tito
|
"Extreme
| 1 Red China under Mao; the former USSR; Castro's Cuba; N. Korea
Left"
|
| 0 "Ingsoc" as described in Orwell's book 1984 (Total control over
citizens)
Since Individual Liberty
is generally inversely proportional to the
Degree of Government
Intervention in the private affairs and voluntary
(market) relations of
peaceful people, the highest level of freedom is at
the top of the spectrum
and the lowest level of freedom is at the bottom
(where maximum government
intervention is). Note that the vertical line
comprising this spectrum
measures one thing: the degree or extent of
encroachment or intervention
by the political state on the private affairs
or voluntary relations
of peaceful people, regardless of WHO or HOW MANY
rule the official government
(monarchy, oligarchy, democracy, etc). It is
a one-dimensional scale
which nmasures the overall SCOPE or extent of
government intervention
regardless of the FORM of government.