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May 11, 2005

The Policeman and the Flood Dike: the Conservative-Liberal Difference

Sometimes I think that eighty percent of the difference between conservatism and liberalism comes down to what you want government to worry about.

Should your government worry about the villains who'd deliberately trample on your family and community? Or should it worry about the risks that come without villains, but that would ruin your life all the same?

Conservatism is often about the government as policeman: there are bad people out there who want to interfere with your family, your business and your community. The government should stop those bad actors from trampling on you. Maybe the bad guys are terrorists who want to kill your loved ones. Maybe they're just activists who want to control what you teach your kids. Obviously terrorists are much scarier than activists, but the basic conservative approach is the same. Sometimes there are wrongdoers, interlopers, and if you can't stop them personally the government ought to stop them for you.

When there are no specific villains to stop, then conservatives feel a little uneasy trusting the task to the government. Government is untrustworthy, and should ideally only be trusted as a means to stop those who are even more untrustworthy. In conservatism, government's first job is to stand with your family, business and community against intruders.

Liberalism is about the government building flood dikes. When the river's going to flood, no one's to blame, and there are no bad guys to stop, but all the same someone's got to take responsibility for seeing that the dikes are built up and the towns along the river won't be flooded. Liberals think the role of government is to make sure those dikes get built.

Liberals look at the world and see lots of risks that are too big for one person to protect their family against. Some risks can be too big even for a whole city to protect itself against. And plenty of those risks don't come with villains. Mass layoffs, earthquakes, bank defaults, new diseases -- a liberal doesn't see why people should live in fear of those things just because they can't go to the store and buy layoff repellent or disease immunity the way they can buy a new car. Liberals see government's first job as protecting people from the injuries of unearned or excessive risk.

Republicans get the most liberal support when they're relieving people from their immediate fears. Democrats get the most conservative support when they're supporting citizens or communities against obvious villains. Issues that provoke outrage but not fear tend to be supported more on the right. Issues that provoke fear but not outrage tend to be supported more on the left. If a villain has appeared but isn't immediately doing visible harm, the Republicans will move first; if bad things are happening but it's not clear whose fault it is, the Democrats will move first. Conservatives see equality of opportunity as something that will continue naturally if government just defends it from deliberate attack. Liberals see equality of opportunity as something that will break down unless government invests to secure people from outside risks that undermine their fair chance.

Of course these are oversimplifications. Lots of conservatives want government to support various traditions that have nothing to do with stopping bad guys. Sometimes liberals want government to act generously even to people whose problems don't come from outside risks. And lots of politicians do things just to look good or protect themselves. But a lot of the how-can-they-think-that-way comes down to those two images, the policeman and the flood dike.

Posted by danielstarr at May 11, 2005 03:05 AM

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Comments

Hey, I've been called a "dyke-lover" before, but I never knew I was really a "dike-lover"!

I think your basic underlying metaphor is getting at something, but your fear/outrage distinction isn't working for me. Personally, as a liberal, I have more outrage than I know what to do with. (But I'll refrain from dumping it in your blog comments.) When Reagan talked about the Evil Empire, was that about outrage? When the civil rights laws were passed, was that about fear? At any given time, a party may play on one more than the other, but fear and outrage are bipartisan in their appeal.

And this may be a cheap shot, but the "activists" and "interlopers" I've seen lately trying to control what gets taught to children have mysteriously failed to provoke a stream of outrage (or is it fear?) from good conservatives.

Posted by: Wendy A. Shaffer [TypeKey Profile Page] at May 11, 2005 10:19 AM

You're right about civil rights being an outrage-fueled movement. I do think liberal arguments these days mostly run on fear; maybe that's because liberals see their job right now as protecting Social Security, civil rights, etc. from conservative attack, rather than going out and correcting new injustices.

I won't nail myself to the details. But I'll stand by the argument that, on average, liberals want to see a big problem before they feel comfortable going after villains, and conservatives want to find villains before they feel comfortable tackling a big problem.

Posted by: Daniel Starr at May 12, 2005 04:17 AM

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