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Articles — Parties, Ideologies, Sys


The Federalist-Liberty Model, Part I: Methodology
We need a framework that measures what politicians actually do with power, not what they claim to believe or which team they represent. We need to answer Jefferson’s question with evidence rather than assertion: Did this leader’s policies leave Americans more free, or more governed?
Nov 22, 202525 min read


Populism: The Cross-Cutting Mobilization Strategy
In Articles 2-4, we distinguished parties (coalitions), ideologies (belief systems), and systems (economic structures). Populism cuts across all three—it’s a style of politics that any party can adopt, any ideology can deploy, and that can serve any economic system. This makes populism both ubiquitous in American history and analytically slippery.
Nov 3, 202531 min read


Systems: How We Structure Ownership and Production
Now we add a third layer: systems—the actual economic structures through which societies organize production and distribution. Understanding this distinction prevents the confusion that plagues contemporary political discourse, where “capitalism,” “socialism,” and “free markets” become tribal identifiers rather than analytical categories.
Oct 31, 202534 min read


Ideologies Part II: Conservative, Socialist, and Libertarian Alternatives
This article examines the major alternatives: conservatism’s emphasis on tradition and organic development, socialism’s challenge to private property and markets, libertarianism’s radical extension of individual liberty, and several other traditions that reject liberal individualism from different angles. Each rests on distinctive assumptions about what humans are, what they need, and what social organization can achieve.
Oct 26, 202535 min read


Ideologies Part I: Epistemology and the Liberal Tradition
This article begins a two-part exploration of ideological frameworks. Part I examines the epistemological foundations of ideological thinking and traces the liberal tradition from its classical origins through its transformation into modern progressivism. Part II (next in this series) will explore conservatism, socialism, libertarianism, and other competing traditions, showing how each answers the foundational questions differently.
Oct 24, 202525 min read


Parties: The Coalitions That Seek Power
A party is a coalition of diverse interests that temporarily align because they need each other to win elections. That word—temporarily—is crucial. Coalitions are inherently unstable. They hold together only as long as the constituent factions believe they benefit more from staying in the coalition than from leaving it.
Oct 21, 202516 min read


The Confusion of Our Political Language
Identify the differences between party and ideology
Oct 20, 202510 min read
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