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126-437: Communist and associates, or more broadly socialist , have been used as a pejorative epithet against a wide range of individuals, political movements, governments, public, and private institutions since the emergence of the communist movement and the wider socialist movement . In the 19th century, the ruling classes were afraid of socialism because it challenged their rule. Since then, socialism has faced opposition, which

252-770: A constitutional monarchy or a republic . It may have a parliamentary system , presidential system , or semi-presidential system . Liberal democracies are contrasted with illiberal democracies and dictatorships . Some liberal democracies, especially those with large populations, use federalism (also known as vertical separation of powers) in order to prevent abuse and increase public input by dividing governing powers between municipal, provincial and national governments. The characteristics of liberal democracies are correlated with increased political stability, lower corruption , better management of resources, and better health indicators such as life expectancy and infant mortality . Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to

378-559: A democratic socialist for years. Sanders countered that American conservatives blur the differences between democratic socialism and authoritarian socialism , and between democracy and totalitarianism . For Sanders, the United States would benefit from a serious debate about comparing the quality of life for the middle class in the United States and in Nordic countries with a long social-democratic tradition. In May 2009,

504-435: A far-right ideology. An example of this is conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg 's book Liberal Fascism , where modern liberalism and progressivism are described as the child of fascism , which is considered to be socialist . For conservative figures such as Dinesh D'Souza and Candace Owens , American Left figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren are not only socialists but since

630-463: A republic in which the executive branch is elected separately from the legislative . A parliamentary system is distinguished by the executive branch of government being dependent on the direct or indirect support of the parliament , often expressed through a vote of confidence . The presidential system of democratic government has been adopted in Latin America , Africa and parts of

756-622: A "red socks" campaign used by the center-right , including the CDU/CSU and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), to scare off a possible red–red–green coalition alliance ( SPD – PDS – The Greens ). Analysts have stated that such a strategy likely paid off, as it was seen as one of the decisive elements for the narrow victory of Helmut Kohl for the CDU/CSU–FDP. The red-baiting campaign was criticized as an obvious attempt to discredit

882-550: A "vicious smear campaign" and an effort to use "lies and distortions to distract and divide". On March 5, 2020, an article was published by the New York Times about Bernie Sanders and his endeavors during his time as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont. The article mainly focused on his efforts to establish a sister-city relationship with the city of Yaroslavl of the Soviet Union in 1987-88. The Times opened with

1008-625: A continuous defensive and withdrawal. The Dominions of the British Empire became laboratories for liberal democracy from the mid 19th century onward. In Canada, responsible government began in the 1840s and in Australia and New Zealand, parliamentary government elected by male suffrage and secret ballot was established from the 1850s and female suffrage achieved from the 1890s. Reforms and revolutions helped move most European countries towards liberal democracy. Liberalism ceased being

1134-414: A country may still be seen as a liberal democracy. Some argue that this is only quantitatively (not qualitatively) different from autocracies that persecute opponents, since only a small number of people are affected and the restrictions are less severe, but others emphasize that democracies are different. At least in theory, opponents of democracy are also allowed due process under the rule of law. Since it

1260-520: A direct quotation from a letter Sanders sent to Yaroslavl, showcasing Sanders' desire to bring the United States and Soviet Union closer to peaceful relations. The Times continued with "Unbeknownst to him," the Soviets intended "to exploit Mr. Sanders's anti-war agenda for their own propaganda purposes". The Times presented 89 new files consisting of "letters, telegrams, and internal Soviet government documents" to back their claims. The controversy arose from

1386-469: A dominant position among theories of government and is now endorsed by the vast majority of the political spectrum. Although liberal democracy was originally put forward by Enlightenment liberals, the relationship between democracy and liberalism has been controversial since the beginning and was problematized in the 20th century. In his book Freedom and Equality in a Liberal Democratic State , Jasper Doomen posited that freedom and equality are necessary for

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1512-546: A fringe opinion and joined the political mainstream. At the same time, a number of non-liberal ideologies developed that took the concept of liberal democracy and made it their own. The political spectrum changed; traditional monarchy became more and more a fringe view and liberal democracy became more and more mainstream. By the end of the 19th century, liberal democracy was no longer only a liberal idea, but an idea supported by many different ideologies. After World War I and especially after World War II , liberal democracy achieved

1638-679: A liberal democracy. In his book The End of History and the Last Man , Francis Fukuyama says that since the French Revolution , liberal democracy has repeatedly proven to be a fundamentally better system (ethically, politically, economically) than any of the alternatives, and that democracy will become more and more prevalent in the long term, although it may suffer temporary setbacks. The research institute Freedom House today simply defines liberal democracy as an electoral democracy also protecting civil liberties . Political freedom

1764-543: A more centrist message and those seeking a more aggressive, conservative voice such as the one expressed by the Tea Party movement . Frank Llewellyn, the national director of Democratic Socialists of America , commented that Republicans never really define what they mean by socialism , and are simply engaging in the politics of fear . In July 2009, talk show host Glenn Beck began to devote what would become many episodes on his TV and radio shows, focusing on Van Jones ,

1890-420: A more limited franchise . Even today, some countries, considered to be liberal democracies, do not have truly universal suffrage. In some countries, members of political organizations with connections to historical totalitarian governments (for example formerly predominant communist, fascist or Nazi governments in some European countries) may be deprived of the vote and the privilege of holding certain jobs. In

2016-634: A number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee were pressing the committee and by extension chairman Michael Steele to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist . Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the committee submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire committee, that would call on the Democratic Party to rename itself

2142-480: A party receives nationwide or in a particular region. One of the main points of contention between these two systems is whether to have representatives who are able to effectively represent specific regions in a country, or to have all citizens' vote count the same, regardless of where in the country they happen to live. Some countries, such as Germany and New Zealand , address the conflict between these two forms of representation by having two categories of seats in

2268-593: A pejorative, there remain LGBT individuals who are uncomfortable with having this term applied to them. The use of the racial slur nigger (specifically the - a variant ) by African Americans is often viewed as another act of reclamation, though much like the latter in the LGBT movement, there exists a vocal subset of people with Sub-Saharan African descent that object to the use of the word under any circumstances. Liberal democracy Liberal democracy , western-style democracy , or substantive democracy

2394-472: A period of expansion in the second half of the 20th century, liberal democracy became a prevalent political system in the world. Liberal democracy traces its origins—and its name—to 18th-century Europe, during the Age of Enlightenment . At the time, the vast majority of European states were monarchies , with political power held either by the monarch or the aristocracy . The possibility of democracy had not been

2520-709: A political party took form with groups debating rights to political representation during the Putney Debates of 1647. After the English Civil Wars (1642–1651) and the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Bill of Rights was enacted in 1689, which codified certain rights and liberties. The Bill set out the requirement for regular elections, rules for freedom of speech in Parliament and limited

2646-401: A political regime to be considered a liberal democracy it must contain in its governing over a nation-state the provision of civil rights- the non-discrimination in the provision of public goods such as justice, security, education and health- in addition to, political rights- the guarantee of free and fair electoral contests, which allow the winners of such contests to determine policy subject to

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2772-702: A resurgence of red-baiting consistent with the Cold War era. The Democratic candidate had been officially briefed on some of the secret plans of the Eisenhower Administration for overthrowing Castro’s Communist regime in Cuba, but then publicly accused Vice President Nixon of doing nothing in that regard, knowing that his opponent was sworn to secrecy on that project and therefore would be left looking weak on Communism. Both communist and socialist movements have faced hostility since their breakthrough in

2898-527: A seriously considered political theory since classical antiquity and the widely held belief was that democracies would be inherently unstable and chaotic in their policies due to the changing whims of the people. It was further believed that democracy was contrary to human nature , as human beings were seen to be inherently evil, violent and in need of a strong leader to restrain their destructive impulses. Many European monarchs held that their power had been ordained by God and that questioning their right to rule

3024-408: A single concept, leaping from word to word in a phenomenon known as the euphemism treadmill , for example as in the successive pejoration of the terms bog-house , privy-house , latrine , water closet , toilet , bathroom , and restroom (US English). When a term begins as pejorative and eventually is adopted in a non-pejorative sense, this is called melioration or amelioration . One example

3150-508: A small class or religious/ethnic group that support the regime. The leaders in nondemocracies may respond violently to any perceived criticisms or disobedience. This may make the soldiers and officers afraid to raise any objections or do anything without explicit authorisation. The lack of initiative may be particularly detrimental in modern warfare. Enemy soldiers may more easily surrender to democracies since they can expect comparatively good treatment. In contrast, Nazi Germany killed almost 2/3 of

3276-618: A special advisor in President Obama's White House Council on Environmental Quality . Beck was especially critical of Jones' previous involvement in radical protest movements and referred to him as a "communist-anarchist radical". In September 2009, Jones resigned his position in the Obama administration after a number of his past statements became fodder for conservative critics and Republican officials. Time credited Beck with leading conservatives' attack on Jones, who characterized it as

3402-626: A state of considerable flux. Officially non-democratic forms of government, such as single-party states and dictatorships, are more common in East Asia , the Middle East and North Africa . The 2019 Freedom in the World report noted a fall in the number of countries with liberal democracies over the 13 years from 2005 to 2018, citing declines in 'political rights and civil liberties'. The 2020 and 2021 reports document further reductions in

3528-454: A wide variety of information so that citizens can rationally and effectively put pressure onto the government, including that it can be checked, evaluated and removed. This can include or lead to accountability, responsiveness to the desires of citizens, the rule of law, full respect of rights and implementation of political, social and economic freedom. Other liberal democracies consider the requirement of minority rights and preventing tyranny of

3654-409: A wider shift in the political culture and gradual formation of the institutions of democratic government are needed. There are various examples—for instance, in Latin America —of countries that were able to sustain democracy only temporarily or in a limited fashion until wider cultural changes established the conditions under which democracy could flourish. One of the key aspects of democratic culture

3780-442: Is a form of government that combines the organization of a democracy with ideas of liberal political philosophy . Common elements within a liberal democracy are: elections between or among multiple distinct political parties , a separation of powers into different branches of government , the rule of law in everyday life as part of an open society , a market economy with private property , universal suffrage , and

3906-449: Is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism , hostility , or disregard. Sometimes, a term is regarded as pejorative in some social or ethnic groups but not in others or may be originally pejorative but later adopt a non-pejorative sense (or vice versa ) in some or all contexts. The word pejorative

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4032-483: Is a "criminalizing discourse" that undermines the value of the work of human rights defenders and places them at risk of violence and various forms of harassment. Communism has generally been viewed with disfavor and particular distrust by large sectors of Philippine society ever since the country gained independence from the United States on 4 July 1946 through the Treaty of Manila . Shared ideological preferences with

4158-414: Is a central concept in history and political thought and one of the most important features of democratic societies. Political freedom was described as freedom from oppression or coercion, the absence of disabling conditions for an individual and the fulfillment of enabling conditions, or the absence of life conditions of compulsion, e.g. economic compulsion, in a society. Although political freedom

4284-445: Is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all

4410-665: Is alleged to make one person superior to others. They further argued that governments exist to serve the people—not vice versa—and that laws should apply to those who govern as well as to the governed (a concept known as rule of law ). Some of these ideas began to be expressed in England in the 17th century. There was renewed interest in Magna Carta , and passage of the Petition of Right in 1628 and Habeas Corpus Act in 1679 established certain liberties for subjects. The idea of

4536-502: Is also some evidence that it is associated with larger governments and more restrictions on international trade. If leaving out East Asia , then during the last forty-five years poor democracies have grown their economies 50% more rapidly than nondemocracies. Poor democracies such as the Baltic countries, Botswana, Costa Rica, Ghana and Senegal have grown more rapidly than nondemocracies such as Angola, Syria, Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe. Of

4662-605: Is closely connected with the concepts of civil liberties and human rights , which in democratic societies are usually afforded legal protection from the state . Laws in liberal democracies may limit certain freedoms. The common justification for these limits is that they are necessary to guarantee the existence of democracy, or the existence of the freedoms themselves. For example, democratic governments may impose restrictions on free speech, with examples including Holocaust denial and hate speech . Some discriminatory behavior may be prohibited. For example, public accommodations in

4788-491: Is derived from a Late Latin past participle stem of peiorare , meaning "to make worse", from peior "worse". In historical linguistics , the process of an inoffensive word becoming pejorative is a form of semantic drift known as pejoration . An example of pejoration is the shift in meaning of the word silly from meaning that a person was happy and fortunate to meaning that they are foolish and unsophisticated. The process of pejoration can repeat itself around

4914-655: Is done by Republicans for Democratic candidates in the United States. Those terms have also been used as an insult for several left-wing politicians in center-left socialist parties to describe them as farthest left and more extreme than they actually are in an effort to marginalize them. For some scholars, communist and socialist , and the memories of such authoritarian regimes, are used as an insult to dismiss any criticism of capitalism and support for socialism by positing that any form of communism or socialism would always and inevitably result in 20th-century Communism and authoritarian regimes. The 1994 federal election saw

5040-421: Is legitimately exercised only in accordance with written, publicly disclosed laws adopted and enforced in accordance with established procedure. To define the system in practice, liberal democracies often draw upon a constitution , either codified or uncodified , to delineate the powers of government and enshrine the social contract . A liberal democracy may take various and mixed constitutional forms: it may be

5166-513: Is necessary. The legislature usually must give consent before the start of an offensive military operation, although sometimes the executive can do this on its own while keeping the legislature informed. If the democracy is attacked, then no consent is usually required for defensive operations. The people may vote against a conscription army. However, actual research shows that democracies are more likely to win wars than non-democracies. One explanation attributes this primarily to "the transparency of

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5292-430: Is not followed by the social and cultural changes that may transform societies with ordinary economic growth. A 2006 meta-analysis found that democracy has no direct effect on economic growth. However, it has strong and significant indirect effects which contribute to growth. Democracy is associated with higher human capital accumulation , lower inflation , lower political instability and higher economic freedom . There

5418-436: Is often interpreted negatively as the freedom from unreasonable external constraints on action, it can also refer to the positive exercise of rights, capacities and possibilities for action and the exercise of social or group rights. The concept can also include freedom from internal constraints on political action or speech (e.g. social conformity , consistency, or inauthentic behaviour). The concept of political freedom

5544-454: Is possible to disagree over which rights are considered fundamental, different countries may treat particular rights in different ways. For example: Liberal democracies usually have universal suffrage , granting all adult citizens the right to vote regardless of ethnicity , sex , property ownership, race, age, sexuality, gender , income, social status, or religion. However, historically some countries regarded as liberal democracies have had

5670-404: Is preferable to a system where political change takes place through violence. One notable feature of liberal democracies is that their opponents (those groups who wish to abolish liberal democracy) rarely win elections. Advocates use this as an argument to support their view that liberal democracy is inherently stable and can usually only be overthrown by external force, while opponents argue that

5796-521: Is taking place or has taken place in several countries, including, but not limited to, the United States , Poland , Hungary , and Israel . Freedom House considers many of the officially democratic governments in Africa and the former Soviet Union to be undemocratic in practice, usually because the sitting government has a strong influence over election outcomes. Many of these countries are in

5922-450: Is the concept of a loyal opposition , where political competitors may disagree, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge the legitimate and important roles that each play. This is an especially difficult cultural shift to achieve in nations where transitions of power have historically taken place through violence. The term means in essence that all sides in a democracy share a common commitment to its basic values. The ground rules of

6048-492: Is the shift in meaning of the word nice from meaning a person was foolish to meaning that a person is pleasant. When performed deliberately, it is described as reclamation or reappropriation . Examples of a word that has been reclaimed by portions of the community that it targets is queer , faggot and dyke which began being re-appropriated as a positive descriptor in the early 1990s by activist groups. However, due to its history and – in some regions – continued use as

6174-450: The Age of Enlightenment . The conventional views supporting monarchies and aristocracies were challenged at first by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals , who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality. They argued that all people are created equal , that governments exist to serve the people—not vice versa—and that laws should apply to those who govern as well as to

6300-702: The Daughters of the American Revolution was characterized as a "red-baiting relic". A term commonly used in the United States, red-baiting in American history is most famously associated with McCarthyism , which originated in the two historic Red Scare periods. While red-baiting does not have quite the same effect it previously did due to the Revolutions of 1989 , some pundits posit that notable events in 21st-century American politics indicate

6426-552: The Democrat Socialist Party ; had this resolution been adopted, the committee's official view would have been that Democrats are socialists . On 20 May 2009, supporters of the resolution agreed to accept language urging Democrats to "stop pushing our country towards socialism and government control", ending a fight within the ranks of the Republican Party that reflected the divide between those who want

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6552-543: The Haymarket affair in the mid-1880s. Red-baiting was well established in the United States during the decade before World War I . In the post-war period of 1919–1921, the United States government employed it as a central tactic in dealing with labor radicals, anarchists, communists, socialists, and foreign agents. These actions in reaction to the First Red Scare and the concurrent Red Terror served as part of

6678-589: The Industrial Revolution and the introduction of capitalism . On the other hand, the Industrial Revolution started in England which was one of the most democratic nations for its time within its own borders, but this democracy was very limited and did not apply to the colonies which contributed significantly to the wealth. Several statistical studies support the theory that a higher degree of economic freedom, as measured with one of

6804-485: The Monopoly board game by Hasbro, was criticized for confusing socialism with communism, and mocking left-wing ideas in general. Some noted that the original game was created as a satire of capitalism , which is not widely known nowadays. [Republican Senator Robert] Taft explained that the great issue in this campaign is "creeping socialism." Now that is the patented trademark of the special interest lobbies. Socialism

6930-572: The Obama presidency must conclude that he has in fact been a moderately conservative Democrat , and that it may take twenty years before Obama's basic conservatism is widely accepted. Author and columnist Chris Hedges posits that the Obama administration's policies have been mostly right-wing . In April 2009, Representative Spencer Bachus made the claim that seventeen of his Congressional colleagues were socialists but could only name Senator Bernie Sanders , who has been openly describing himself as

7056-474: The United States opted for different forms at the time of independence. The parliamentary system is widely used in the European Union and neighbouring countries. Recent academic studies have found that democratisation is beneficial for national growth. However, the effect of democratisation has not been studied as yet. The most common factors that determine whether a country's economy grows or not are

7182-669: The Venona project decryptions and the FBI Silvermaster File at least mute if not outright refute the charge that red-baiting in general was unjustified. Historian Nicholas von Hoffman wrote in The Washington Post that evidence revealed in the Venona project forced him to admit that McCarthy was "still closer to the truth than those who ridiculed him" but has continued to believe that McCarthy did not identify

7308-565: The consent of the governed and that citizens had the right to instigate a rebellion against their government if that government acted against their interests. These ideas and beliefs influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution , which gave birth to the philosophy of liberalism and instituted forms of government that attempted to put the principles of the Enlightenment philosophers into practice. When

7434-424: The lower house of their national legislative bodies. The first category of seats is appointed according to regional popularity and the remainder are awarded to give the parties a proportion of seats that is equal—or as equal as practicable—to their proportion of nationwide votes. This system is commonly called mixed member proportional representation . The Australian Government incorporates both systems in having

7560-617: The polities , and the stability of their preferences, once determined, democracies are better able to cooperate with their partners in the conduct of wars". Other research attributes this to superior mobilisation of resources or selection of wars that the democratic states have a high chance of winning. Stam and Reiter also note that the emphasis on individuality within democratic societies means that their soldiers fight with greater initiative and superior leadership. Officers in dictatorships are often selected for political loyalty rather than military ability. They may be exclusively selected from

7686-421: The preferential voting system applicable to the lower house and proportional representation by state in the upper house . This system is argued to result in a more stable government, while having a better diversity of parties to review its actions. The various state and territory governments in Australia employ a range of a different electoral systems. A presidential system is a system of government of

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7812-463: The rule of law , and individual liberties. One argument for democracy is that by creating a system where the public can remove administrations, without changing the legal basis for government, democracy aims at reducing political uncertainty and instability and assuring citizens that however much they may disagree with present policies, they will be given a regular chance to change those who are in power, or change policies with which they disagree. This

7938-624: The terruqueo began during the presidency of Fernando Belaúnde when Legislative Decree 46 broadly defined terrorism as "any form of glorification or defense of the political discourse of subversive organizations". Into the 1990s, authoritarian president Alberto Fujimori utilized terruqueos with the help of the National Intelligence Service to discredit those who opposed him, including dissenters from his own government, with political scientist Daniel Encinas saying that this would evolve into conservative politicians using

8064-475: The 1920s ( First Red Scare ) and 1950s ( Second Red Scare ). Such usage as an insult has been used as a tactic by the Republican Party against Democratic Party candidates, and has continued into the 21st century, including conflating German fascist Nazism as socialism and for left-wing politics. In the United States, the term red-baiting dates to as far back as 1927. In 1928, blacklisting by

8190-536: The 1930s, the political elite of Peru used fear mongering tactics to influence the public by targeting foreign communist movements according to historian Antonio Zapata of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru , beginning with Joseph Stalin and later with Fidel Castro . Terruqueos began to appear during the 1980s and would occur throughout the internal conflict in Peru . The basis of

8316-538: The 1950s, West Germany and the United States banned the major communist party , the Communist Party of Germany and the Communist Party USA , respectively. With the expansion of liberal democracy and universal suffrage during the 20th century, socialism became a mainstream movement which expanded for most of the world, as center-left and left-wing socialist parties came to govern, become

8442-500: The 1990s, some pundits posit that events in 21st-century American politics indicates a resurgence of red-baiting consistent with the 1950s. The United States government's measures in 2008 to address the subprime mortgage crisis such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program were not only criticized as corporate welfare but red-baited as a "gateway to socialism". Political activist and author Tim Wise says that

8568-537: The 19th century. Friedrich Engels stated that in 1848, at the time when The Communist Manifesto was first published, socialism was respectable, while communism was not. The Owenites in England and the Fourierists in France were considered respectable socialists, while working-class movements that proclaimed the necessity of radical change denoted themselves communists ; this latter branch of socialism produced

8694-521: The 2017 general election campaign, Steve Bush and George Eaton of the New Statesman commented that the Labour Party's manifesto was more Keynesian than anything, with Eaton stating that the adopted policies "would be regarded as mainstream in most European countries". According to some studies, media coverage of Corbyn has often been hostile and misrepresentative of his views. During

8820-419: The 20th century, the United States underwent two Red Scares, first in the 1920s and then in the 1950s through McCarthyism . In a speech on 10 October 1952, outgoing United States president Harry S. Truman ( Democratic Party ) lambasted Republicans for having "opposed almost all our programs to help the economic life of the country" and "having blindly turned [their] back on the tradition of public action for

8946-423: The 21st century, with the rise in popularity and to the mainstream of self-declared democratic socialist United States senator Bernie Sanders , socialist has continued to be used as an insult, mainly by conservatives . Among conservatives, socialist is used as an insult to imply that Nazism , and by extension fascism , was a left-wing ideology, which is contrary to the consensus among scholars of fascism as

9072-463: The Nazis are wrongly considered to be socialists in this view, they are dangerous, and in turn any who oppose them cannot have any link to Nazism or the far right. The use of socialist as an insult to falsely imply that the Nazis were leftists is seen as a way to disavow far-right history, erase leftist victims of Nazi violence, and justify violence against leftists. Monopoly Socialism, a version of

9198-484: The Plumber was a promotion of socialism . Journalist David Remnick , who wrote the biography The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama , countered that it should be obvious that after one year in office Obama is a center-left president and the majority of his policies are in line with the center-left Democratic tradition. In July 2011, The Fiscal Times columnist Bruce Barlett wrote that an honest examination of

9324-665: The Polity Data Set and that produced by Freedom House and Larry Diamond . There is agreement amongst several intellectuals and organizations such as Freedom House that the states of the European Union (with the exception of Poland and Hungary ), United Kingdom , Norway , Iceland , Switzerland , Japan , Argentina , Brazil , Chile , South Korea , Taiwan , United States , India , Canada , Uruguay , Costa Rica , Israel , South Africa , Australia , and New Zealand are liberal democracies. Liberal democracies are susceptible to democratic backsliding and this

9450-471: The Times' presentation and interpretation of these files, potentially intending to paint Sanders with communist political leanings. Jack F. Matlock Jr. , The United States ambassador for the Soviet Union from 1987-1991, personally wrote the editor a letter upon reading the article, claiming it to be a "distortion of history". Matlock claimed the sister-city relationship Sanders developed was actively encouraged by

9576-569: The United Kingdom people serving long prison sentences are unable to vote, a policy which has been ruled a human rights violation by the European Court of Human Rights . A similar policy is also enacted in most of the United States. According to a study by Coppedge and Reinicke, at least 85% of democracies provided for universal suffrage . Many nations require positive identification before allowing people to vote. For example, in

9702-576: The United States may not discriminate on the basis of "race, color, religion, or national origin." There are various legal limitations such as copyright and laws against defamation . There may be limits on anti-democratic speech, on attempts to undermine human rights and on the promotion or justification of terrorism . In the United States more than in Europe, during the Cold War such restrictions applied to communists . Now they are more commonly applied to organizations perceived as promoting terrorism or

9828-512: The United States government, further insinuating the article to be an instance of Red-Baiting. Communist or socialist have been used as a pejorative within red-baiting, mainly in reference to authoritarian state socialist regimes and Communist states but also for any proposal that may further expand the role of the government, by anti-communists and the political right for both communists and socialists , and for those who are neither but are alleged to be adopting socialist policies, as

9954-404: The United States two thirds of the states require their citizens to provide identification to vote, which also provide state IDs for free. The decisions made through elections are made by those who are members of the electorate and who choose to participate by voting . In 1971, Robert Dahl summarized the fundamental rights and freedoms shared by all liberal democracies as eight rights: For

10080-799: The United States' orders, such as in Italy. Those parties in the West continued to be an important part of the multi-party democracy process; those in the East became an oppressive driving force for most of the 20th century due to the Soviet Union 's role in World War II as part of the Allied powers against the fascist -led Axis powers , and later in the Cold War . In Western Europe Socialist parties greatly contributed to existing liberal democracy. Since

10206-466: The United States, resulting from more than four decades of benevolent assimilation and exacerbated by the onset of the Cold War, have resulted in some Filipinos being predisposed to suspicion of communist sympathies. This predisposition makes red-tagging an effective fear appeal tool used by players in the political arena, given that it authorizes law-enforcement agencies and the military to act on

10332-446: The attack to target those opposed to Fujimori's neoliberal economic policies and that the right-wing used the terruqueo as a "strategy of manipulating the legacy of political violence". Ultimately, a culture of fear was created by Fujimori according to Jo-Marie Burt, with individuals fearing that they would be described as a terrorist. The terruqueo would then become so prominent that political discussions in Peru often devolved into

10458-419: The attacks, especially during elections. According to Fernando Velásquez Villalba, terruqueos are a latent phenomenon that appear more frequently in times of crisis. Terruqueos were intense against Pedro Castillo ; he was portrayed as a "communist threat" that would bring "terrorism" and humanitarian disaster similar to Venezuela. When the 2022–2023 Peruvian political protests occurred, right-wing groups and

10584-523: The captured Soviet soldiers and 38% of the American soldiers captured by North Korea in the Korean War were killed. A democratic system may provide better information for policy decisions. Undesirable information may more easily be ignored in dictatorships, even if this undesirable or contrarian information provides early warning of problems. Anders Chydenius put forward the argument for freedom of

10710-588: The communist work of Étienne Cabet in France and Wilhelm Weitling in Germany. While democrat liberals looked to the Revolutions of 1848 as a democratic revolution , which in the long run ensured liberty, equality, and fraternity , communists denounced 1848 as a betrayal of working-class ideals by a bourgeoisie indifferent to the legitimate demands of the proletariat . In countries such as 19th-century Germany and Italy, socialist parties have been banned, like with Otto von Bismarck 's Anti-Socialist Laws . In

10836-819: The constraints established by other rights, when these are provided- and property rights- which protect asset holders and investors against expropriation by the state or other groups. In this way, liberal democracy is set apart from electoral democracy, as free and fair elections – the hallmark of electoral democracy – can be separated from equal treatment and non-discrimination – the hallmarks of liberal democracy. In liberal democracy, an elected government cannot discriminate against specific individuals or groups when it administers justice, protects basic rights such as freedom of assembly and free speech, provides for collective security, or distributes economic and social benefits. According to Seymour Martin Lipset, although they are not part of

10962-556: The correct people. A similar view was expressed by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan , who led the Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy declassifying the Venona decryptions. Liberal scholars contend that even if someone could prove that the United States government was infiltrated by Soviet spies, McCarthy was censured by the Senate because he was in fact reckless and politically opportunistic, and his red-baiting ruined

11088-403: The country's level of development and the educational level of its newly elected democratic leaders. As a result, there is no clear indication of how to determine which factors contribute to economic growth in a democratic country. However, there is disagreement regarding how much credit the democratic system can take for this growth. One observation is that democracy became widespread only after

11214-419: The debate in favor of culture's causal primacy and shows that it is the civic and emancipative values ( liberty , impartiality and contractarianism ) among a country's citizens that give rise to democratic institutions, not vice versa. Several organizations and political scientists maintain lists of free and unfree states, both in the present and going back a couple centuries. Of these, the best known may be

11340-483: The eighty worst financial catastrophes during the last four decades, only five were in democracies. Similarly, poor democracies are half likely as non-democracies to experience a 10 per cent decline in GDP per capita over the course of a single year. Several key features of liberal democracies are associated with political stability, including economic growth, as well as robust state institutions that guarantee free elections,

11466-490: The emergence of such red-baiting may have been motivated by, and given additional force by, racism towards President Barack Obama and fear that the progressive policies of his administration would erode white privilege in the United States. Some commentators posit that red-baiting was used by John McCain , Republican presidential nominee in the 2008 United States presidential election , when he commented that Obama's improvised comments on wealth redistribution to Joe

11592-590: The equal protection of human rights , civil rights , civil liberties , and political freedoms for all citizens. Substantive democracy refers to substantive rights and substantive laws , which can include substantive equality , the equality of outcome for subgroups in society. Liberal democracy emphasizes the separation of powers, an independent judiciary , and a system of checks and balances between branches of government. Multi-party systems with at least two persistent, viable political parties are characteristic of liberal democracies. Governmental authority

11718-434: The first prototypical liberal democracies were founded, the liberals themselves were viewed as an extreme and rather dangerous fringe group that threatened international peace and stability. The conservative monarchists who opposed liberalism and democracy saw themselves as defenders of traditional values and the natural order of things and their criticism of democracy seemed vindicated when Napoleon Bonaparte took control of

11844-544: The former Soviet Union , largely by the example of the United States . Constitutional monarchies (dominated by elected parliaments) are present in Northern Europe and some former colonies which peacefully separated, such as Australia and Canada . Others have also arisen in Spain , East Asia and a variety of small nations around the world. Former British territories such as South Africa , India , Ireland and

11970-560: The former with assassination and the latter with rape. In the early 1950s, Liberal Party leaders like Robert Menzies red-baited Labor politicians and described them as insufficiently tough on the People's Republic of China. Red-baiting was employed in opposition to anarchists in the United States as early as the late 1870s when businessmen, religious leaders, politicians and editorial writers tried to rally poor and middle-class workers to oppose dissident railroad workers and again during

12096-458: The governed (a concept known as rule of law ), formulated in Europe as Rechtsstaat . Some of these ideas began to be expressed in England in the 17th century. By the late 18th century, leading philosophers such as John Locke had published works that spread around the European continent and beyond. These ideas and beliefs influenced the American Revolution and the French Revolution . After

12222-640: The government of Dina Boluarte used the terruqueo to label protesters as terrorists, providing an excuse for authorities to use violence with impunity. Experts of the United Nations condemned its usage during the protests. In the Philippines, red-tagging poses threats to the lives or safety of its targets and impinges on the right to free expression and dissent. Red-tagged individuals also tend to become vulnerable to death threats and allegations of terrorism. The United Nations warns that red-tagging

12348-544: The government to respect minority groups and give them their positive freedoms, negotiate across multiple geographical areas, become more centrist among cooperative parties and open up with new social groups. In a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour , Damian J. Ruck and his co-authors take a major step toward resolving this long-standing and seemingly irresolvable debate about whether culture shapes regimes or regimes shape culture. This study resolves

12474-441: The highest GDP per capita in the world, but has never been democratic. There are also other studies suggesting that more democracy increases economic freedom, although a few find no or even a small negative effect. Some argue that economic growth due to its empowerment of citizens will ensure a transition to democracy in countries such as Cuba. However, other dispute this and even if economic growth has caused democratisation in

12600-482: The incitement of group hatred. Examples include anti-terrorism legislation , the shutting down of Hezbollah satellite broadcasts and some laws against hate speech . Critics claim that these limitations may go too far and that there may be no due and fair judicial process. Opinion is divided on how far democracy can extend to include the enemies of democracy in the democratic process. If relatively small numbers of people are excluded from such freedoms for these reasons,

12726-858: The late 1940s and early 1950s during the period known as the Second Red Scare due to mounting Cold War tensions and the spread of communism abroad. Senator Joseph McCarthy 's controversial red-baiting of suspected communists and communist sympathizers in the United States Department of State and the creation of a Hollywood blacklist led to the term McCarthyism being coined to signify any type of reckless political persecution or witch-hunt . The history of anti-communist red-baiting in general and McCarthyism in particular continues to be hotly debated and political divisions this controversy created continue to make themselves felt. Conservative critics contend that revelations such as

12852-570: The lives of countless innocent people. In 1950, United States president Harry S. Truman had called McCarthy "the greatest asset the Kremlin has." Historian Ellen Schrecker wrote that "McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did". Although red-baiting in the United States does not have quite the same effect it previously did due to the fall of most Marxist–Leninist governments in

12978-615: The main opposition party , or simply a commonality of the democratic process in most of the Western world ; one major exception was the United States. In the Eastern world , communist parties came to power through revolution , civil war , coup d'état , and other means, coming to cover one-third of the world population by 1985, while in Western Europe communist parties were part of several post-war coalitions, before being ejected on

13104-499: The majority. One of the most common ways is by actively preventing discrimination by the government (bill of rights) but can also include requiring concurrent majorities in several constituencies (confederalism); guaranteeing regional government (federalism); broad coalition governments (consociationalism) or negotiating with other political actors, such as pressure groups (neocorporatism). These split political power amongst many competing and cooperating actors and institutions by requiring

13230-404: The most influential of these philosophers was English empiricist John Locke , who refuted monarchical absolutism in his Two Treatises of Government . According to Locke, individuals entered into a social contract with a state , surrendering some of their liberties in exchange for the protection of their natural rights . Locke advanced that governments were only legitimate if they maintained

13356-501: The notable exceptions to the nontagging of foreigners was United States citizen Brandon Lee, an ancestral-domain paralegal in the Cordillera Administrative Region . Lee was tagged as a communist and automatically an "enemy of the state" and was subsequently shot four times. United States citizen Liza Soberano and Australian citizen Catriona Gray have also since been red-tagged and publicly threatened,

13482-412: The number of free countries in the world. Plurality voting system award seats according to regional majorities. The political party or individual candidate who receives the most votes, wins the seat which represents that locality. There are other democratic electoral systems, such as the various forms of proportional representation , which award seats according to the proportion of individual votes that

13608-469: The organizing principle shaping counter-revolutionary policies and serving to institutionalize anti-communism as a force in American politics. The period between the first and second Red Scares was relatively calm owing to the success of government anti-communism, the suppressive effects of New Deal policies on radical organized labor and the patriotism associated with total mobilization and war effort during World War II . Red-baiting re-emerged in

13734-509: The past, it may not do so in the future. Dictators may now have learned how to have economic growth without this causing more political freedom. A high degree of oil or mineral exports is strongly associated with nondemocratic rule. This effect applies worldwide and not only to the Middle East. Dictators who have this form of wealth can spend more on their security apparatus and provide benefits which lessen public unrest. Also, such wealth

13860-517: The people. When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan "Down With Socialism" on the banner of his "great crusade," that is really not what he means at all. What he really means is, "Down with Progress — down with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal," and "down with Harry Truman's fair Deal." That is what he means. Pejorative A pejorative word, phrase, slur , or derogatory term

13986-487: The power of the monarch, ensuring that, unlike almost all of Europe at the time, royal absolutism would not prevail. This led to significant social change in Britain in terms of the position of individuals in society and the growing power of Parliament in relation to the monarch . By the late 18th century, leading philosophers of the day had published works that spread around the European continent and beyond. One of

14112-495: The press for this reason in 1776. The democratic system also provides a way to replace inefficient leaders and policies, thus problems may continue longer and crises of all kinds may be more common in autocracies. Research by the World Bank suggests that political institutions are extremely important in determining the prevalence of corruption : (long term) democracy, parliamentary systems, political stability and freedom of

14238-519: The press are all associated with lower corruption. Freedom of information legislation is important for accountability and transparency . The Indian Right to Information Act "has already engendered mass movements in the country that is bringing the lethargic, often corrupt bureaucracy to its knees and changing power equations completely". Democracies can put in place better education, longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, access to drinking water and better health care than dictatorships. This

14364-622: The public good", referencing then-Republican United States senator Robert A. Taft , who made the 1952 United States presidential election campaign about "creepy socialism", a scare word "they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years" according to Truman. Socialism and socialization have been mistakenly used to refer to any state or government-operated industry or service (the proper term for such being either municipalization or nationalization ); both terms have also been incorrectly used to mean any tax-funded programs, whether government-run or privately run. Into

14490-399: The several Indices of Economic Freedom which have been used in numerous studies, increases economic growth and that this in turn increases general prosperity, reduces poverty and causes democratisation . This is a statistical tendency and there are individual exceptions like Mali, which is ranked as "Free" by Freedom House , but is a Least Developed Country , or Qatar, which has arguably

14616-514: The society must encourage tolerance and civility in public debate. In such a society, the losers accept the judgement of the voters when the election is over and allow for the peaceful transfer of power . According to Cas Mudde and Cristóbal Rovira, this is tied to another key concept of democratic cultures, the protection of minorities, where the losers are safe in the knowledge that they will neither lose their lives nor their liberty and will continue to participate in public life. They are loyal not to

14742-607: The specific policies of the government, but to the fundamental legitimacy of the state and to the democratic process itself. One requirement of liberal democracy is political equality amongst voters (ensuring that all voices and all votes count equally) and that these can properly influence government policy, requiring quality procedure and quality content of debate that provides an accountable result, this may apply within elections or to procedures between elections. This requires universal, adult suffrage; recurring, free elections, competitive and fair elections; multiple political parties and

14868-421: The system is inherently stacked against them despite its claims to impartiality. In the past, it was feared that democracy could be easily exploited by leaders with dictatorial aspirations, who could get themselves elected into power. However, the actual number of liberal democracies that have elected dictators into power is low. When it has occurred, it is usually after a major crisis has caused many people to doubt

14994-438: The system of government as such, a modicum of individual and economic freedoms , which result in the formation of a significant middle class and a broad and flourishing civil society , are seen as pre-conditions for liberal democracy. For countries without a strong tradition of democratic majority rule, the introduction of free elections alone has rarely been sufficient to achieve a transition from dictatorship to democracy;

15120-556: The system or in young/poorly functioning democracies. Some possible examples include Adolf Hitler during the Great Depression and Napoleon III , who became first President of the Second French Republic and later Emperor. By definition, a liberal democracy implies that power is not concentrated. One criticism is that this could be a disadvantage for a state in wartime , when a fast and unified response

15246-530: The taggings. Red-tagging is almost never employed in foreign relations of the Philippines , including members of ruling communist parties , owing to the principle in international law of Westphalian sovereignty in another country's domestic affairs. This can be seen especially in the government's cordial relations with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the Communist Party of Vietnam , both of which are ruling parties of ASEAN member states. One of

15372-699: The very rich through higher inheritance taxes and a wealth tax . As The Left underperformed, a left-wing coalition was ruled out by just a few seats in the Bundestag , and the German financial market rallied as a result, as such threat was eliminated. In the United Kingdom, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was often labelled a communist or Marxist , and a communist spy by commentators in mainstream national newspapers The Daily Mail , The Sun , The Telegraph , and The Times , despite experts and researchers stating that no evidence exists. During

15498-567: The whole left; the PDS reinterpreted it for itself by printing red socks. As the CDU/CSU was falling down while the SPD was surging in the polls, the 2021 federal election saw a Red Scare campaign against a possible red–red–green federal government, which was feared by conservatives, who engaged in red-baiting by promoting a Red Scare. A capital flight to Switzerland ensued due to fear of increased taxes for

15624-461: The young French Republic , reorganized it into the first French Empire and proceeded to conquer most of Europe. Napoleon was eventually defeated and the Holy Alliance was formed in Europe to prevent any further spread of liberalism or democracy. However, liberal democratic ideals soon became widespread among the general population and over the 19th century traditional monarchy was forced on

15750-472: Was often organized and violent. During the 20th century, as socialism became a mainstream movement and communism gained power through communist parties , their main opponents were the political right , alongside organized anti-communists and critics of socialism . The United States is a notable exception among the Western world in not having had a major socialist party, and for having engaged in red-baiting, resulting in two historic Red Scare periods during

15876-449: Was tantamount to blasphemy . These conventional views were challenged at first by a relatively small group of Enlightenment intellectuals , who believed that human affairs should be guided by reason and principles of liberty and equality. They argued that all people are created equal and therefore political authority cannot be justified on the basis of noble blood, a supposed privileged connection to God or any other characteristic that

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