AH Challenge: Libertarian-Communitarian political spectrum

With a POD no earlier than 1820, have Libertarians (socially Liberal, economically minimalist) and Communitarians/Christian Socialists (socially conservative, economically leftist) become the two dominant political movements in the industralized world, with most people ascribing to one or the other and with OTL Left and Right as fringe movements (like Libertarianism and Communitarianism today).

Basically, instead of every country having a dominant left party and a dominant right party, every country has a dominant Libertarian and dominant Communitarian party.
 
Keeping Marx from writing anything will probably go a long way. Getting him to rebel against his father and prefer the Scottish Enlightenment the the European one would probably even go further...

(It is, of course, history's greatest irony that Karl Marx is the single most striking example of a 'great man' for the support of that theory of history...)
 
Keeping Marx from writing anything will probably go a long way. Getting him to rebel against his father and prefer the Scottish Enlightenment the the European one would probably even go further...

(It is, of course, history's greatest irony that Karl Marx is the single most striking example of a 'great man' for the support of that theory of history...)

Or perhaps we could have Marx as a devout Christian, but with all his OTL economic ideas? (Its not all that hard-the gospels have a whole lot of admonitions about helping the poor and less fortunate that a person of Marx's bent could cite)
 
Or simply have early revolutionaries merge Marxist ideas with Christian theology.

Having Libertarianism is a bit harder. If you go with such an early PoD it's unlikely Hayek's going to come around, but having his influence increase couldn't hurt. At the very least in the United States, if the Republicans avoid the Southern strategy while maintaining their position on the right, there's a good chance they'd turn out more Libertarian than iotl. I'm not sure about other regimes, but making libertarianism popular is definitely more difficult without a strong communism in opposition.

If a Christian-communitarianism emerges as a strong theory you might end up with, at least in biparty systems in Christian countries with those two fundamentally opposed.
 
Or simply have early revolutionaries merge Marxist ideas with Christian theology.

Having Libertarianism is a bit harder. If you go with such an early PoD it's unlikely Hayek's going to come around, but having his influence increase couldn't hurt. At the very least in the United States, if the Republicans avoid the Southern strategy while maintaining their position on the right, there's a good chance they'd turn out more Libertarian than iotl. I'm not sure about other regimes, but making libertarianism popular is definitely more difficult without a strong communism in opposition.

If a Christian-communitarianism emerges as a strong theory you might end up with, at least in biparty systems in Christian countries with those two fundamentally opposed.

Well, that was kind of my point. And I guess I should have made this clearer, but I didnt' necessarily mean exact, modern day Libertarianism-just any idealogy that has a "left" position on social issues and and a "right" position on economics.
 
Hm, well TBH I've always been surprised that their was'nt more competition between Secular and Religious Left, I mean after all the Communist Manifesto was written for a religious group.

As an aside though it would be difficult to create a situation where economic egalitarianism is permanently united with social conservatism, what would likely happen is a third force emerging that blended the social liberalism of the Libertarians and the egalitarianism of the Communitarian's.
 
Or perhaps we could have Marx as a devout Christian, but with all his OTL economic ideas? (Its not all that hard-the gospels have a whole lot of admonitions about helping the poor and less fortunate that a person of Marx's bent could cite)

Hmm... Given that his dad converted only for economic advancement, that his mother didn't until HER parents died, and that Karl wasn't baptised until age 6, I don't think him being a devout Christian is terribly likely.

Of course, meeting the right mentor or girlfriend or something COULD lead him there.
 

Teleology

Banned
The battle between Jeffersonian Democracy and Jacksonian Democracy defines and dominates the U.S. political spectrum, with Westerners and freesoilers going Jacksonian instead of forming the incipient Republicans who in OTL would become the party of industry and big business in the Gilded Age.

The U.S. is the seat of mainstream Libertarianism, with both parties' history of being for free trade and unionism and against both national banks and private financial speculation coloring a genuinely libertarian economy of small businesses - with federations and syndicates of traditional and cooperative industries being the norm. Small firm and family agriculture, and the ideal of every family having a small plot of land, are matters of national pride.


Britain is the seat of Communitarianism - the Red Tories and the Methodist Labourites united and replaced the Liberal Party as the main opposition to the Tories. The Tories, already moralistic protectionists and not economic liberals, were merely a few steps away from essentially becoming an opposing communitarian party with a few differences. The Liberals, now the Libertarians, are a minor party; having to compete with handful of messily organized atheistic, technocratic, and otherwise anti-moralistic groups.

In Communitarian lingo, those with no respect for the chains of community that God links between his fellow men are dubbed "Atheists"; including the United States (despite the fact that most Americans are Deists, including Christian Deists, Judeo Deists, and Islamic Deists - the main African American religion).
 
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