Democracy, Replublic, Socialist, Conservative, Communist?

Question

Can anyone describe briefly the differences between these ideologies?

Answer 1

Democracy is the concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people. Generally in a Democracy the will of the majority decides things.

In a Republic, the people elect other people to represent them. We live in a Republic. We send our elected representatives to the State and Federal Houses to vote on our behalf. Of course, they have the freedom to vote any way they want whether that vote is representative of their constituents or not.

Socialist - a person who believes that welfare of the group is more important than that of the individual. Government should exist to assist the people it governs. (I apologize for the simplification.)

Conservative - a conservative generally believes that less government, more moral and political self responsiblity are virtues. Conservatives believe that people have to do for themselves and not expect others to carry them along.

Communist - communism in my mind is an extreme form of socialism - in true communism, the group shares everything and no one owns more than anyone else. Like a nest of ants, people all work for a common goal and not for individual gain. The idea is that everyone has what they need to survive, but perhaps not much else.

Again these are simplifications and I apologize.

Answer 2

Democracy: the people select their rulers (by voting). Demo- means people; -cracy means rule. So, rule by people. A direct democracy is one where the people rule directly without the use of representatives. A republic is rule by representatives.

Republic: means the citizens (people) vote for representatives who rule in their name and on their behalf.

Socialist: Government policy makes social requirements primary over the individual, and policies are meant to benefit an entire society rather than special interest groups within the society.

Communist: Communism is an extreme form of socialism, where individual rights do not exist, but only group or social rights.

Conservatism: depends for its definition on the specific social or political system involved. It's usually based on preserving some tradition, so is a reaction against progressive ideas. Conservatism has no ideology of its own, it's just a reaction against something. It is usually a reaction based on "natural" factors, like nation, feelings, race, rather than rational ideals or rational factors.

Answer 3

Democracy: All citizens vote on everything. A popular vote is measured.
Republic: Citizens speak through representatives. Indirect vote is measured.
Socialism: People own everything.
Communism: Government owns everything.
Conservative: Not a type of government but a part of the political spectrum in which the government will attempt to maintain everything in the same state as long as possible.

Answer 4

Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a future classless, stateless social organization, based upon common ownership of the means of production and the absence of private property.
Conservatism is a political philosophy that necessitates a defense of established values or the status quo. The term derives from to conserve; from Latin conservāre, "to keep, guard, observe". While not in itself an ideology, it is a political philosophy that is determined almost entirely by its context.
Socialism refers to a broad array of doctrines or political movements that envisage a socio-economic system in which property and the distribution of wealth are subject to social control. As an economic system, socialism is associated with state or collective ownership of the means of production.
Republic is a state or country that is led by people whose political power is based on principles that are not beyond the control of the people of that state or country.
Democracy is a form of government for a nation state, or for an organization in which all the citizens have a vote or voice in shaping policy.

Answer 5

A democracy is a system in which everyone votes on every issue. Republic is where people vote for a governing body to make the rules(congress). Communism is where everyone works for the same pay and for the "Greater good", which doesnt work because people want to be rewarded for working hard. As for socialism and conservetivism, that all depends on your personal views.

Answer 6

Democracy: where everyone has one vote for everything.
Republic: where everyone votes for a representative to vote for them.
Socialist: where the majority always rules, no representation.
Conservative: The person who has been robbed.
Communist: Everybody puts their money cash and goods into the common pot and someone doles it out to their whim.
Liberal???? Someone who hasn't been robbed yet.

Answer 7

Democracy:
The people have the power.

Republican:
A government chosen by the people has the power.

Socialist:
Money is redistributed to make people more equal.

Conservative:
Ignorant.

Communist:
Like socialism but taken to extremes.

Answer 8

Democracy arose during the times of little kings running little countries, city-states like those of Greece in ancient times. The world had long before and for much of time after, had rulers that were part of a separate class, nobility. Rule was passed on by heredity unless some powerful person wrested control away. The early democracies were placing the common citizen (although because of slavery, slaves were usually not counted as citizens, so the common free-man, and no rarely did women get to vote) as collectively the king over themselves. Votes were made of major decisions and then to select leaders who acted upon the general concensus of the majority. These leaders sometimes took control and since they were not nobles, not lords or kings, they were called tyrants. Tyranny then was the often arbitrary and capricious rule of one man, which was back to what they had with kings.

In Rome and some other city-states, there was an upper class that was not so much noble as venerable and monied folk, the rich. They were called patricians, sort of saying the city fathers (again, men, not women and not slaves and not even common folk). They elected representatives to serve specific functions for specific periods of time, then others would take their place or rotate in with others. This is called a republic and added an enormous element of stability. Eventually, the Roman republic added a vote of the common people who elected tribunes to stand in the senate. They could not issue laws or debate, but if things looked like it would adversely affect the common people, the tribune could object, the utterance was "veto". Eventually, the leadership abilities of these, plus the opportunity to get them out of the senate from time to time, grew into a different and more diverse role in military and administration when the republic was replaced by the empire (which kept the senate, but also had a habit of cowing the senate by force or threat of force).

Today we have in the US a representative government that is based on some of the democratic and republican principles--this is not to be confused with the political parties by those names. We have a senate that was originally supposed to champion the broader issues of the states in order to make sure that powerful and populous states did not simply run over the lesser states, so there was equality, each state getting two senators, two votes--originally they were elected by the state's legislators, but the constitution was amended and that changed to a popular vote. Then we have the second or "lower house" of congress, the house of representatives. Populous states had more representatives and lesser-peopled states had at least one. As the country grew the size of the House was standardized and every ten years when the constitutionally-mandated census of the country was made, it would be the yardstick that determined the proportion of population in the various states and that often redistributed the number of representatives that various states had. The states then redrew the lines by which their representatives were elected by popular vote.

In europe an idea developed and it was part of the social revolution that such as Darwin had done in sciences, plus the political revolutions that took place in countries such as the US and France. The big mover, but he was not alone, was a man named Karl Marx. He wrote of a restructuring of political and economic controls, in his eyes truly democratizing civilization--this was communism. Over the previous couple of centuries there had been social experiments called communes, where everyone theoretically had everything in common. In the US one of the shining examples was the town of Amana, which was famous for innovation and invention. Marx had another German named Engles and together they wrote still another book that helped galvanize the thinking of people then known of as anarchists. Europe was still largely ruled by nobles and anyone who wanted to get rid of such venerable old lines of rule surely invited anarchy to reign, so that is how they got their name. During the early days of World War One the German government sponsored a Russian by the name of Lenin and sent him to promote his communist ideals, which soon overthrew the Russian Tsar or king. This also had the mutually beneficial result of taking Russia out of the first World War (it freed German troops and Russia was getting beaten really badly anyway). The Russian communist state then spread to neighboring countries and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was born.

From the excesses of that example, some people wanted that kind of equality but without that kind of social upheaval, becaue things in the USSR became weirdly bad as they invented their new socio-political and economic system. Socialism developed which espoused some of the ideas, but not to the same extreme. Two big socialists that later became prominent were Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany (The "Nazi" party was the National Socialist party). Interestingly, what really brought Musolini to power was the opposition to WWI, wherein Italy did not honor its treaty with the German and Austro-Hungarian alliance. Italy would suffer for the war that made up for that a few decades later.

There was a peculiar brand of socialism that Italy and Germany employed, it was commonly called fascism. In that there was the original model of what Eisenhower was warning the US about when he ran for president after WWII, he called it the military-industrial complex. He fought that very thing where a few political bosses controlled the military and the industrial power of the country. Unless that were kept on a proper leash, we too could be like them. Folks like Eisenhower saw that the same political license that was granted to Hitler and Musolini because of the Great Depression, was also granted to Franklin Roosevelt. This was called liberalism, in that the government was liberal or free with money to support the society. The old ways were to keep the central government small and people like Eisenhower wanted to conserve the older ways--that is what a conservative is.

Which ever example you wish, the genie was out of the bottle, Pandora had opened her box, the US federal government was big because of efforts to help us economically during the Great Depression and to mobilize us during WWII. Unlike Hitler and Musolini, we had a good leader with good intentions. But there was another problem, there was a viciously strong communist leader named Stalin. His country had helped defeat Hitler and they knew that the US was all that stood in their way from conquering the world for communism. The US knew it too. We began a chess game called the Cold War. It quietly sponsored numerous little wars and both sides, China now a great communist country and formidable power on its own, grew to prepare for the next world war.

That is the gist of how these terms developed. From that you can begin to draw examples of differences. Good luck.

Answer 9

I'm a Re-Pubic-Lick-Can myself. The term is self-explanatory.

Answer 10

Yes.