Most people in the U.S. characterize the political spectrum as being a line, with political philosophies falling somewhere between left and right. While this is a valid way to characterize politics in the U.S., it is not complete.
A better way to understand politics in the U.S. and the rest of the world is to look at a Nolan diagram which shows political philosophies based on economics and social freedom. This particular Nolan chart is customized to the U.S. political system and shows where various political parties and political philosophies fall on that spectrum and
The U.S. Political Scale
Popular Political Views in the U.S.
One thing that you will notice right away is that most popular political parties and political philosophies in the U.S. are located at the top half the of the diagram. The makes sense because in the U.S. most Americans value freedom (although they sometimes disagree about what that freedom should look like).
While there may be some outliers on the more authoritarian fringe, they have never received popular support in the U.S., although sometimes these groups will try to stir up support or try to trick the local population into voting for them by hiding their true motives.
The Two Coalition Parties
The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are actually coalitions of multiple political views, and individual candidates can have a wide variety of views.
For example, the Democratic Party attracts voters and candidates ranging from Socialists to Progressives to Classic Liberals to left-leaning Libertarians.
And the Republican Party attracts voters and candidates ranging from Traditionalists (such as the Religious Right), Conservatives and right-leaning Libertarians.
And the Moderates and Centrists often are the swing voters in elections, and they also make up a large portion of the electorate that doesn’t vote, since they feel they aren’t represented by either party.
Left vs. Right
The left values Social Freedom over Economic Freedom and tends to promote diversity, choice, social programs & business regulation.
The right values Economic Freedom over Social Freedom and tends to promote a free market, order, limited government and legislated morality.
Eventually the Left & Right Converge
Even though the left and right appear to be exact opposites, the methods of control within a political system are the same regardless of the political philosophy of the group desiring to take control.
The more authoritarian the left becomes, the more it needs to limit social freedom to control society, mold citizens and suppress dissent.
The more authoritarian the right becomes, the more needs economic regulations and social programs to redirect citizens towards goals of the state or cause.
At a certain point, they both wind up oppressing the local population using similar, often violent or deadly, tactics. The end result of the more extreme versions of left and right is people lose their freedom.
I updated the image so that it is larger and the text is easier to read. Also, you can now click on the image to see a larger version.
Communism is an economic system, like capitalism. So just like you cant blame capitalism over civilian deaths in Iraq caused by US, you cant blame communism for what Stalin (and rest of the leaders after him) did. Yes, communism is not perfect, but an article under “political science” section should know better about the topics it handles.
This article does not even mention Communism at all. The chart does show the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was an authoritarian government that restricted both economic and social freedoms. But it never says anything about Communism.
And since you brought it up, Communism, by its very nature, limits economic freedom by forcing everyone to work for the state or the collective. Pure communism does not allow free enterprise or a free market. But what the Soviets found was that if you want to suppress economic freedom, you also have to suppress social freedoms like free speech. So while being authoritarian isn’t necessarily in the propaganda flyer for communism, authoritarianism is necessary to get it to work.
I have read the Soviet Constitution. It is beautiful. It guaranteed a lot of rights and privileges and basically described how they wanted Communism to work. The problem was that it failed to anticipate human nature, and it failed to protect against power-hungry men. It did not work as the Constitution said it would. So you basically wound up with the equivalent of a monopoly, with everything being run by the elites. It was basically a huge scam. Make a bunch of promises to the commoners, and then basically force everyone to work for the people at the top through the ruse that the people owned it. No, the elites controlled it, even if they technically did not own it. The workers were servants to the elites. It belonged to the people in name only.
Communism looks great on paper, and will actually work on a small scale and voluntarily. For example, employee-owned companies, member-owned credit unions, and customer-owned cooperatives all work really really well. But they are voluntary, not forced. Once you go beyond the community, you have to start forcing people to participate. And that is where the freedom goes away, every time. The brochure for communism looks awesome. But that is not what you get when it is implemented. The reason being is that the logic behind the economic system itself is flawed.