Can we still seperate parties and politicians into the trias of
Conservatism-Liberalism-Socialism?
Is it not the case that politicians nowadays neglect the ideological
frameworks of their parties and hence become (realpolitik) pragmatists?
has not the dominance of the economic shifted the scope of politicians
towards international issues?

Dirk

All political parties seek to select a mix of simplified policies with 
the sole aim of maximising votes at general elections, and thus win 
power.

International issues are particularly important, not least the 
self-inflicted economic suicide of "protectionism".  Both US and 
European politicians are particularly ignorant - economically illiterate 
in far too many cases - and demand populist protection policies in spite 
of their calculable damage to their own voters (also known as customers, 
employers and taxpayers, all rolled into one).

So, whilst we can't divide the three main parties by ideology, we 
certainly cannot say that the parties are rational.  The Tories are 
keeping quiet for the moment - always disconcerting - but both Liberal 
and Labour continue to espouse policies that stem from a) lack of 
credible evidence to support any part of them; b) prejudicial 
ideological perspective.

If politicians were pragmatic, we would not have policy debates that 
featured ideological irrationality, eg. anti-flat tax, anti-NHS reform, 
anti-education reform.

The flat tax is a particularly good case study of just how incompetent 
policitians are.  Too many politicians think that the poll tax was a 
flat rate tax.  It wasn't.  It was a flat tax.  But a flat *rate* tax is 
the same % applied on all income.  Without capital taxes, it would 
enable sustainable economic growth within 2 or 3 years, thus over a 4 
year period, the Treasury would get more tax revenue than it does at 
present in one year. But the Treasury mandrins seem to have a vested 
interest in keeping the status quo (why?) and their elected masters just 
don't seem to care (why?).

Never underestimate the irrationality of human beings!


In message , Dirk 
 writes
>Can we still seperate parties and politicians into the trias of
>Conservatism-Liberalism-Socialism?
>Is it not the case that politicians nowadays neglect the ideological
>frameworks of their parties and hence become (realpolitik) pragmatists?
>has not the dominance of the economic shifted the scope of politicians
>towards international issues?
>
>Dirk
>

-- 

mjt