As most of you probably don't know and don't care there are general elections in my country this weekend. I was discussing political prefrences of people who are about to vote for the first, second or third time in their lives with my friends. There was a general consensus that this group tends to consider itself as a bearer of "progress" in contrast to "the estabilishment" of previous generations. However there is a notable difference in what exactly is "progress" and "the estabilishment" in various parts of world. While young people in traditional democracies tend to view the right spectrum as "the estabilishment", in post-communist countries, the leftist parties, especially the communists, represent "the establishment".
There is no point in denying that as far mass politics go, it is image that defines who is "progressive" and who is "reactionary", so here is where your kind cooperation comes in. I would like to ask you to post pictures of your country's politicians and add descriptions of his (his party's) politics. Please note that I am interested in the nominal politics, at least as long as the person in questions retains some minimal credibility. So even if yoou personally consider somebody a fascist, market fundie, commie or whatever, please stick to whatever label the politician himself uses in reference to his person.
I would prefer if the pictures were official photos, no mugshots or papparazi photos, so that the photos are as comparable as possible.
Kindly describe the politician/party in terms of his/its stance on economics (free marketers - like Thatcher, Reagan etc., interventionists - German CDU/CSU, market socialists - Labour, various social democratic parties and planned economy - hardline communists who prefer none or next to none private ownership of means of production) and society (social liberal - pro abortions, pro gay marriages (or civil unions) , tends to exhibit anti-religious opinions/ social conservative - basically the opposite / neutral - the person/party doesn't have a pronounced stance on these issues or doesn't care about them at all) Again, please note that it is the nominal stance that is what interests me, so although you migh consider Reagan actual politics not free market at all or British Labour more pro free market then you like, let's go with what they say they are.
Please, post only politicians/parties with some power/infulence over the course of politics of your country.
Please, post always the chairman (or its equivalent) of a party first, followed by vice-chairmans or other politicians who are often featured in the media.
Also kindly note that the various labels are meant to be relative to the atmoshpere of the respective country. For example, Czech society is generally quite socially liberal, so what is socially conservative here, would be socially liberal in, I don't know, Texas or other steroetypical religious/conservative state.
Finally label politicans/parties that are according to your opinion most favoured by people roughly u to 30 years old.
Ok, so I'll start with my country (Czech reublic) in hopefully not so naive and vain hope that I'll get some proper responses.
Let's start with Czech Social Democratic Party (market socialists, something between socially liberal and socially neutral)
Civic Democratic Party ( free marketers, between socially conservative and socially neutral)
Christian Democratic Union - Czech People's Party (interventionists, socially heavily conservative)
The Greens (interventionists, socially very liberal)
TOP09 (free marketers, socially neutral)
Public Affairs/Matters/Things (I am not really sure how to translate this, it's Public Things literally) (interventionists, socially neutral)
They are a new, one-man party, nobody knows anybody else but the chairman
People's Rights Party - The Zemanites (market socialists, socially neutral )
Same as the previous, one-man party, he (Miloš Zeman, hence the party's name) used to be the chairman of the Social democrats, but then retired from politics and now he's back with his new party,
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (between market socialists to planned economy (two wings in the party), socially obscure = they tend to advocate various ethnic minorities, but are heavily anti-German at the same time, they are more or less in favour of gay marriage, but that it is discredited to a large extent by the history of persecution of homosexuals under the (Czech) communist regime, pro-abortion)
People up to 30 years old used to tend to vote the mostly Civic Democratic Party with considerable minority being in favour of The Greens. After the crisis of CDP in the past few months the preferences shifted to TOP09 with considerable minority being in favour of The Greens.
Btw if the face of the chairman of TOP09 seems familiar to you, his full name in German is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena von und zu Schwarzenberg, a name which those of you intersted in history of Austria-Hungaria might recongize
There is no point in denying that as far mass politics go, it is image that defines who is "progressive" and who is "reactionary", so here is where your kind cooperation comes in. I would like to ask you to post pictures of your country's politicians and add descriptions of his (his party's) politics. Please note that I am interested in the nominal politics, at least as long as the person in questions retains some minimal credibility. So even if yoou personally consider somebody a fascist, market fundie, commie or whatever, please stick to whatever label the politician himself uses in reference to his person.
I would prefer if the pictures were official photos, no mugshots or papparazi photos, so that the photos are as comparable as possible.
Kindly describe the politician/party in terms of his/its stance on economics (free marketers - like Thatcher, Reagan etc., interventionists - German CDU/CSU, market socialists - Labour, various social democratic parties and planned economy - hardline communists who prefer none or next to none private ownership of means of production) and society (social liberal - pro abortions, pro gay marriages (or civil unions) , tends to exhibit anti-religious opinions/ social conservative - basically the opposite / neutral - the person/party doesn't have a pronounced stance on these issues or doesn't care about them at all) Again, please note that it is the nominal stance that is what interests me, so although you migh consider Reagan actual politics not free market at all or British Labour more pro free market then you like, let's go with what they say they are.
Please, post only politicians/parties with some power/infulence over the course of politics of your country.
Please, post always the chairman (or its equivalent) of a party first, followed by vice-chairmans or other politicians who are often featured in the media.
Also kindly note that the various labels are meant to be relative to the atmoshpere of the respective country. For example, Czech society is generally quite socially liberal, so what is socially conservative here, would be socially liberal in, I don't know, Texas or other steroetypical religious/conservative state.
Finally label politicans/parties that are according to your opinion most favoured by people roughly u to 30 years old.
Ok, so I'll start with my country (Czech reublic) in hopefully not so naive and vain hope that I'll get some proper responses.
Let's start with Czech Social Democratic Party (market socialists, something between socially liberal and socially neutral)
Civic Democratic Party ( free marketers, between socially conservative and socially neutral)
Christian Democratic Union - Czech People's Party (interventionists, socially heavily conservative)
The Greens (interventionists, socially very liberal)
TOP09 (free marketers, socially neutral)
Public Affairs/Matters/Things (I am not really sure how to translate this, it's Public Things literally) (interventionists, socially neutral)
People's Rights Party - The Zemanites (market socialists, socially neutral )
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (between market socialists to planned economy (two wings in the party), socially obscure = they tend to advocate various ethnic minorities, but are heavily anti-German at the same time, they are more or less in favour of gay marriage, but that it is discredited to a large extent by the history of persecution of homosexuals under the (Czech) communist regime, pro-abortion)
People up to 30 years old used to tend to vote the mostly Civic Democratic Party with considerable minority being in favour of The Greens. After the crisis of CDP in the past few months the preferences shifted to TOP09 with considerable minority being in favour of The Greens.
Btw if the face of the chairman of TOP09 seems familiar to you, his full name in German is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena von und zu Schwarzenberg, a name which those of you intersted in history of Austria-Hungaria might recongize
