Ideologies of political parties in the United States | US government and civics | Khan Academy

What we're going to do in this video is talk about the two major ideologies you will hear about in the United States, and that's the liberal ideology and the conservative ideology.

The liberal ideology is often associated with the Democratic Party, and the conservative ideology is often associated with the Republicans. But be very careful: this does not mean that every Democrat will have a stereotypically liberal view on every major issue or that every Republican would have a stereotypically conservative view on every issue. We're all individuals, and many of us have different opinions on these issues and might lean conservative on some and might lean liberal on others.

Just to get a sense of what liberal and conservative tend to mean in the United States on issues that you will hear about, let's go through this list of issues. I encourage you to pause this video and have your own go at what you think would be the liberal or the conservative viewpoint on each of these issues.

So let's start with arguably one of the most contentious issues in the United States, and that's of abortion. A liberal would view this as a reproductive rights issue. They view this as the right of a woman to choose what to do with her body. So they tend to be pro the right of a woman to have an abortion, to choose to have an abortion, and will self-label themselves pro-choice.

Conservatives, on the other hand, will often view this as a life issue. They view the developing fetus as a life, and like any life, it has certain rights. So they would typically be against abortion and would self-label themselves pro-life.

Affirmative action is another contentious issue. This is the idea—and we've talked about it in other videos—that proactive measures should be taken in order to address wrongs of the past or in order to address inequality today or discrimination today. It often takes form in whether race can be considered as a part of admissions into, say, higher education.

Liberals tend to be in favor of affirmative action, while conservatives tend to be against it. The liberal point of view is, yes, we have a very unequal society; there's a lot of discrimination. Race should be considered a factor in order to ease that discrimination. A conservative today might argue, wait a second, we want to be a racially blind society, and so we do not want race to be a factor.

Guns is another very contentious issue. Liberals will often cite guns as a major factor in a lot of the crime and shootings in the United States, and they would tend to be pro-gun control. Conservatives, on the other hand, will often cite the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms, and they would say, look, this isn't a gun issue when we see mass shootings or crime; there are other issues at play. So they would be more pro-gun rights; they would generally be against gun control and want more rights for gun owners.

On a related note on crime, liberals tend to view it as a social issue. What are the underlying causes, say poverty or something else that is causing crime? They would also be very concerned with defendants' rights, citing examples where certain ethnic groups or certain races might be disproportionately accused or disproportionately punished.

Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to favor tougher policing and tougher laws, saying that, okay, it's interesting to look at the social issues, and yes, we do need certain rights, but at the end of the day, you don't want to be too easy on crime. So tougher policing and tougher laws.

Moving into the economic sphere, the liberal view on taxes is generally that it's okay. Some liberals will even view it as a tool for building social equality. They would say, hey, look, if someone's got to pay for something, maybe it should be the rich; they can afford to pay more, and it'll help level the playing field a little bit.

And so, okay, especially on—and I'll put the rich in quotes because different people would have different standards for what it means to be rich. Conservatives generally are not okay with taxes. They would say that it is a disincentive to work. They would say that it's a friction on the economy. They would say that it would reduce investment that could create jobs.

The liberal and conservative views on spending are related to that on taxes. A stereotypical view of liberals is that, hey, they might like to tax especially on the rich and then spend it especially on social programs. Okay, especially on social programs like the welfare system or free health care. These would all be things that a liberal point of view would be more likely to support.

A conservative viewpoint is not okay with government spending, that the government should be as small as possible and spend as little as possible. Perhaps the only exception, or one of the few exceptions, would be except on military spending, where conservatives might be in favor of more spending there in order to have a strong and muscular military.

Now, related to this idea on the size of government is that of regulation. Liberals tend to be in favor of regulation, especially if they're in regards to things like preserving the environment. Conservatives tend to be against regulation, saying that, okay, maybe some baseline regulation is okay, but it needs to be minimal because the more regulations you have, once again, these are frictions on the economy. It makes it harder to start a business; it makes it harder to grow; it makes it more expensive to do things. So they tend to be against regulation.

Last but not least, and this is just a survey of some of the big issues you will hear about in the United States, is the military. I already touched on it. A liberal is likely to want a military, but they would probably want something that does just the base services of what you would expect from a military. If people are invading our borders, then the military is there to protect us. So maybe we could call it basic, basic military.

A conservative would say, hey, you can't get complacent, even if we're at a time of peace, even if people haven't crossed our borders in a long time. You don't know what's around the corner. Look at history; there are all sorts of complacent societies that eventually get overrun. So they would want a strong and muscular military, and they'll make the argument that the stronger your military is, perhaps maybe the less likely that you would have to use it. Because people would not even want to mess with you; they wouldn't even want to think about messing with you if you have a strong and muscular posture.

So I'll leave you there on these general ideas, and once again, these are stereotypical views. You will meet many people, including yourself, who might have a mix of these views. For example, it would not be too difficult to find a Democrat who, for example, might be pro-choice but against affirmative action, who is pro-gun control, who is maybe someplace in the middle here on crime, who is economically conservative, who's not okay with taxes, who wants them to be as little as possible, who's not okay with government spending, who's maybe middle of the road on regulation, and maybe they like a strong muscular military.

Likewise, you could find Republicans who similarly have a mix of viewpoints.