Twentieth-century ideologies differ in valuing individual freedom versus social equality.

Evidence

Tetlock (1983a) offered a theoretical model of the relation between cognitive style and ideology that addresses this key issue. The model draws on Rokeach’s (1973, 1979) twovalue analysis of political ideology as well as Abelson’s (1959) work on modes of resolving cognitive inconsistency. Following Rokeach (1973), the model assumes that the major ideological movements of the 20th century—communism, democratic socialism, laissez-faire or conservative capitalism, and fascism—vary in the importance they attach to the basic and often conflicting values of individual freedom and social equality. Briefly, laissez-faire capitalists and democratic socialists value freedom highly, whereas communists and fascists do not. In contrast, communists and democratic socialists value equality highly, but capitalists and fascists do not. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2288

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames ideology through two cross-cutting value axes of freedom and equality, a clean typology worth returning to.