Ideology and social policy | US government and civics | Khan Academy

In this off-white color, I have a handful of statements that you might hear folks say, especially in the United States. What we're going to think about is, are these statements that you would typically hear from a liberal? I'm gonna make a little key here: I'm gonna use a light blue for liberal, a salmon color for conservative, and this white color for libertarian. I've pre-grouped these statements into categories. They could be views on social issues or economic issues, and within each of those dimensions, they could be views that might want more social or economic control or ones that want less social or economic control.

This isn't a perfect full sampling of all of the major issues that folks will talk about, and some of these things kind of border on social and economic, or some of them could be viewed as more control depending on how you view it or less control. But this is a first take on things, so let's just go from the top left to the bottom right, and I encourage you to keep pausing this video and coming to your own conclusions.

So, this first statement: "Affirmative action is a good thing." Would you expect that to come from someone with a liberal, conservative, or libertarian ideology? Well, this would typically come from someone with a liberal ideology. Much of the ideas and policies that liberals would favor might be around curing social injustice. They might say, "Hey, we don't have the proper diversity in certain walks of life right now. We don't have a level playing field, so we need to make sure that people are properly represented." That would be something that you would hear from liberals, and it would generally involve more control. A libertarian or a conservative would say, "Hey, you know, we shouldn't try to do social engineering here. We should maybe make sure people have equal opportunities, but that doesn't mean that you have to have equal representation and outcome."

In this next statement: "Marriage should be between a man and a woman." Pause this video and think, who is likely to say that? Well, that would typically come from someone with a conservative ideology. This would be around the theme that many folks with conservative ideologies would have values that are worth preserving in a society that should not change. So that would typically come from them, while a liberal or libertarian is more likely to say, "Hey, what goes on between two people? Well, that's their decision, and really, the government should have no say on what they do."

Next, we have: "We need tougher penalties and policing to deal with crime." Well, once again, that would be something that you would likely hear from someone with a conservative ideology. A liberal or libertarian would be on the opposite side, saying, "Hey, I'm afraid of too strict penalties and too strict policing. I'm afraid that the government is putting too many people in jail."

Now let's go to fewer social controls: "Marijuana should be legalized." Pause this video—who is more likely to say that? Well, many liberals would be likely to say that, and also libertarians. They would say, "Hey, you know, once again, what someone does in their own privacy—why should the government have a say?" While many conservatives, and this goes back to values and social fiber, might say, "Well, no, but some of these drugs break down people's value systems. Maybe they lead to crime," so a conservative would be more likely to be against legalizing something like marijuana.

The next statement is: "Laws restricting gun rights are unconstitutional and won't have the intended impact." Pause this video; who would say that? Well, you would often hear a statement like this from someone with a conservative ideology, but also from someone with a libertarian ideology. The libertarian ideology would argue that people have a right to protect themselves. They might cite, "Hey, people have a right to use guns for things like hunting," and especially, libertarians might argue that people need to be armed to protect themselves from an overly strong government, from an overly strong police state.

Now, the statement: "Same-sex couples should have full marriage rights." Who's most likely to say that? Well, this is kind of the opposite statement of the one we saw up here and, for the reasons we mentioned, this is more likely to come from someone with a liberal ideology or a libertarian ideology. For them, it would be about personal liberty and equal rights.

You might already see some trends: that conservatives and liberals are kind of mixed on the social front when it comes to more control or less control. And don't read too much into how many there are of each; this is just—you could view it as a random sampling of some issues. If I sampled more, you might have more liberal boxes up here or more conservative boxes down there, but it seems like a mix. One clear thing that does come out is that libertarians, on the social dimension, are for less control.

But what about the economic dimension? So, this first statement: "Everyone has a right to quality health care." Who's more likely to say that? Well, that would be a liberal. Liberals, once again, think a lot about injustice and inequality, and they want the government to be proactive about it. They would say, "Hey, the government should somehow supply universal health care to folks." Conservatives or libertarians—not that they don't care about injustice or inequality, but they would argue that, "Hey, when the government kind of intervenes in things, they have all sorts of unintended consequences and oftentimes do more harm than good."

The next statement: "Rent control is a good thing." Well, once again, this is likely to come from a liberal, probably motivated by the idea that if rents or living costs are getting too high, this is a way to avoid people being displaced or being priced out of their neighborhoods. Now, conservatives and libertarians would argue that rent control distorts the market. It actually makes the properties that aren't on rent control overly expensive, and so it's probably doing more harm than good.

The next statement: "Social safety nets are crucial." Once again, this is likely to come from someone with a liberal ideology. They believe that the government has a role in making sure that everyone has a basic standard of living. So, programs like food stamps or welfare.

Then we have: "Every worker has the right to a living wage." Living wages—sometimes you'll hear this in the context of minimum wage discussions. Who would say that? Well, once again, you're likely to hear this from someone with a liberal ideology. They believe that higher minimum wages are a good thing, while conservatives or libertarians would argue that no, that distorts the market, and actually, you might increase unemployment, and you might hurt the very people that you are trying to help with some of these efforts around minimum wages.

Then we ask, would we go to less control on the economy? "Government intervention in the free market will slow the economy, hurting everyone." Well, as you can imagine, this is kind of the opposite statement as these here, because these ones on the top are all the government intervening in a free economy in some way. So this statement is more likely to come from a conservative ideology or a libertarian.

When you look at the economic dimension, the distinction between conservative and liberal becomes more clear. At least, when it comes to more control and less control, liberals tend to favor more control, more government intervention, with the focus of trying to address social or economic inequality or environmental concerns. Conservatives and libertarians will often say that, "No, that's gonna do more harm than good." The government does have some functions, but it should really be as small as possible, and free markets are what's going to make people better off in the end of the day.

So, I will leave you there. This is a very simple model, but it helps us start to think about these issues. When you think about issues and you read about it in the newspaper, try to think about it in this type of a framework.