The Three Languages of Politics

Arnold Kling’s ‘The Three Languages of Politics’ is a short, succinct and handy toolkit to categorize political communication. For Kling, the three dominant political groups – the Progressives (what we call the Left in India), the Conservatives and the Libertarians communicate along dedicated axes.

• Liberals view political conflict as Oppressed vs. Oppressor
• Conservatives view political conflict as Civilization vs. Barbarism
• Libertarians view political conflict as Freedom vs. Coercion

For an issue such as gay marriage, the progressives would see this as the minority rights of homosexuals being oppressed by the dominant ruling class. The Conservatives would see the issue as one in which stability and social norms are being wrecked by radical moves leading to barbarism. The Libertarian would see the issue of excessive State coercion into the private lives of individuals. The same approach can be tested with a range of issues be it free markets, social welfare, minority rights, Israel-Palestine etc. The Progressives would find Castro’s and Chavez’ autocracy problematic but would overall rate them high since they score well on the Oppressor-Oppressed scale thanks to their social welfare, and pro-poor ‘image’. (Despite the horrors of communism, most progressives find the idea so appealing even today.)

Humans thrive in tribes. The hunter-gatherer instinct that’s hardwired into us even today approves of cooperation, freedom to explore ideas within limits and penalizes cheaters, hypocrites, freeriders and turncoats. This social desirability bias, ingrained in us, drives us to form coalitions with ‘like-minded’ folks and thus political ideology is a common trait in almost all human societies. Having a framework to introspect and more importantly, to understand the other is thus a nice handy tool.

PS: Trump’s politics and rise may not neatly fit into this narrative. He anti-elite, anti-cosmopolitan and anti-establishment. While the Dems loathe him, he has alienated the stalwarts of his own Republican party and also pissed off a lot of Libertarians with his threats on import tariffs.

The book is available for free on the Cato Institute’s website . And here is Kling’s Substack.