Political scientist and textbook author Kenneth Janda argues that people create governments for many reasons, that can all be classified into three main areas:
(1) We expect government to establish and maintain order: An orderly, lawful, and peaceful society.
(2) We expect government to protect liberty: Peoples’ rights and freedom to do as they wish.
(3) We expect government to promote equality among people. (This, he considers a relatively recent expectation, historically.)
But these expectations are in conflict with each other: The need for order requires that we have rules, which restrict peoples’ freedom to do as they please. And expectation of equality also conflicts with liberty, as people must treat people equally even against their wishes (e.g., anti-discrimination laws).
Thus, Janda organizes political ideologies along two perpendicular axes:
- Liberty vs Order
- Liberty vs Equality
Ideologies are defined as Liberal, Conservative, Libertarian, or Populist according to the priorities that one places on these conflicting motives.
Conservatives are those who believe that
Order > Liberty > Equality.
Liberals are those who believe that
Equality > Liberty > Order
People who believe that
Liberty > (Equality and Order)
are Libertarians.
People who believe that
(Equality and Order) > Liberty
he calls Populists.
Note that Liberty conflicts with both Equality and Order, but Equality and Order don’t directly conflict with each other. Thus, there are only four distinct orderings of these priorities rather than six, thus the classification of ideologies into just four, not six, ideologies.
Discussion of these ideas (Not by Janda himself, but discusses Janda).
The two-axis graph of ideologies: