Government

Conservatives, liberals, and radicals have different perspectives in important areas such as attitudes toward change, views of human nature, individual behavior, family, the social system, and the government and the economic system.

Conservatives tend to resist change. They think change is more negative than positive. Social welfare programs generally represent nontraditional means of dealing with problems. So conservatives are very suspicious of almost all social welfare programs, because they strongly emphasize tradition saying that problems should be handled in time-tested ways to the greatest extent. When it comes to human nature conservatives take a pessimistic view. People are seen as being corrupt, self-centered, lazy, incapable of true charity and need to be controlled. Conservatives say that each person is responsible for his or her own current behavior. They also say that people possess free will and can choose to engage in hard work to get ahead.

Conservatives revere the “traditional” family and try to preserve it. They feel it is a source of strength. They also oppose abortion, public funding of day-care centers, rights for homosexuals, sex education in school and counseling for minors.

The conservatives perspective sees the social system as inherently fair. If some groups are poorer than others and have less power and low status it is because this situation is necessary for being for the well-being of society.

The view conservatives take on the government and economic system is that they think the less governments govern, the better. They think that most government activities constitute threats to individual liberty and to the functioning of the free market.

Liberals attitude toward change is a different one than conservatives. Liberals are generally in favor of change. They believe that the world can be changed for the better. They also think that continuing change will bring continuing progress. Liberals take an optimistic view of human nature. People do not have to be controlled, they need be protected from corrupting influences and given the freedom to follow their natural inclinations.

Although liberals and radicals do not completely deny free will and motivation, they put more emphasis on the environment as a factor in individual behavior. Family, to liberals is an evolving institution, and they can be more flexible and pragmatic in the ways in which they support it.

Liberals, like conservatives tend to view society as an orgasmic system, but they have less faith that the system will regulate itself without intervention.