The Political Spectrum

From the former chief economist of the FCC, a remarkable history of the U.S. government’s regulation of the airwaves Popular legend has it that before the Federal Radio Commission was established in 1927, the radio spectrum was in chaos, with broadcasting stations blasting powerful signals to drown out rivals. In this fascinating and entertaining history, Thomas Winslow Hazlett, a distinguished scholar in law and economics, debunks the idea that the U.S. government stepped in to impose necessary order. Instead, regulators blocked competition at the behest of incumbent interests and, for nearly a century, have suppressed innovation while quashing out-of-the-mainstream viewpoints. Hazlett details how spectrum officials produced a “vast wasteland” that they publicly criticized but privately protected. The story twists and turns, as farsighted visionaries—and the march of science—rise to challenge the old regime. Over decades, reforms to liberate the radio spectrum have generated explosive progress, ushering in the “smartphone revolution,” ubiquitous social media, and the amazing wireless world now emerging. Still, the author argues, the battle is not even half won.

A new look at the political spectrum and the path America is on.

Politicians and political analysts continue to use a single liberal-conservative dimension to analyze the ideological views of the American people, but that approach is increasingly inadequate. Professors Maddox and Lilie have gone beyond the liberal-conservative continuum. By separating questions aof economic policy from issues involving civil liberties, they find four basic ideological group: liberals, conservatives, libertarians, and populists. This book goes a long way toward explaining such phenomena as ticket-splitting, the impact of the baby-boom generation, and the internal conflicts both major parties will face over the next few years.

A groundbreaking argument that the political spectrum today is inadequate to twenty-first century America and a major source of the confusion and hostility that characterize contemporary political discourse. As American politics descends into a battle of anger and hostility between two groups called "left" and "right," people increasingly ask: What is the essential difference between these two ideological groups? In The Myth of Left and Right, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis provide the surprising answer: nothing. As the authors argue, there is no enduring philosophy, disposition, or essence uniting the various positions associated with the liberal and conservative ideologies of today. Far from being an eternal dividing line of American politics, the political spectrum came to the United States in the 1920s and, since then, left and right have evolved in so many unpredictable and even contradictory ways that there is currently nothing other than tribal loyalty holding together the many disparate positions that fly under the banners of "liberal" and "conservative." Powerfully argued and cutting against the grain of most scholarship on polarization in America, this book shows why the idea that the political spectrum measures deeply held worldviews is the central political myth of our time and a major cause of the confusion and vitriol that characterize public discourse.

'The Political Spectrum' sets out to identify the timeless, universal principles of political philosophy that shape how we live as a society, from democracy in Ancient Greece and the aristocracies of the Enlightenment to the tribal lands of Pakistan and the modern state that is the United States of America. Unlike most political philosophies that rest on traditional foundations such as rights, private property, or human nature, The Political Spectrum focuses on the fundamental ideas dividing the left and the right today to identify a rational middle ground. Tracing the most insightful ideas from great thinkers in the Western tradition, The Political Spectrum identifies two fundamental institutions that all societies must manage in a rational way in order to survive. Along the way, the book explores the tension between liberty and the individual’s duty to society and the proper roles of family and state. Basing the analysis on the four pillars of political philosophy—human nature, institutions, wealth, and justice—The Political Spectrum offers a vision for resolving the political divide in a way that promotes liberty and prosperity. What values do we need to promote for the overall wellbeing of mankind? Is there a "correct" position on the political spectrum that we imagine spanning from the far left to the far right? We all seem to have an intuitive grasp of what "left" and "right" or "progressive" and "conservative" mean, but most people would not agree on all the specifics. Can a conservative ever support the right of a woman to have an abortion? Can a liberal ever support the rights of a fetus? This book aims to bring some clarity to the left-right political spectrum, as well as to identify which point along the spectrum is best positioned to promote liberty and sustainable prosperity in a modern state. The author concludes that two essential principles would be a prohibition on deficit spending and upholding the sanctity of monogamous procreation.

Through a series of articles, the terms liberal and conservative are explored and their differences highlighted.

We are all so used to the terms "left," "right," "liberal," and "conservative" that we hear and use them without a second thought as to their meaning. Politics is the debate over how government and society should be structured and how social institutions should function and to what ends. The political conflict over these issues is often described in terms of the "Left" versus the "Right," but there is a definite lack of adequate examination of what Left and Right mean. In this book, Douglas Giles clarifies the meaning of the terms "Left" and "Right" and the left-right political spectrum in a way that helps us better understand political and social conflicts. Politics is complex, and many political conflicts have considerable effects on our lives. We deserve and need a deeper understanding of politics and political action, and we can help accomplish this by being clearer about what the terms "Left" and "Right" signify.

Almost everything about the political spectrum is dead wrong. If the two polar opposites are Communism versus Fascism, what is in the middle? If the middle is halfway between Communism and Fascism, then everyone not on the extreme ends must be half-communist and half-fascist? Nobody believes that, but the old political spectrum prescribes that exact political scenario. So what happened? In an effort to rewrite history, the political dichotomy has been deliberately broken, falsified, sabotaged, and made meaningless, causing the public to lose their way through the contorted political maze. With well-over 1,500 footnotes from historians and political scientists, this book refurbishes the political spectrum and restores it to its original French Revolution roots and common sense approach. Now anyone can navigate the political swamplands with a faithful compass to triangulate one's own political position and peel back layers of distorted history.