Left Right and People Power

LEFT. RIGHT. PEOPLE POWER
	Left	Right	People Power
Individuals	Individuals are powerless. The state should provide security and well-being, and ‘look after’ its citizens.	Individuals are capable of solving their own problems. Well-being is a consequence of the pursuit of individual self-interest.	Individuals can best solve their social and economic problems by associating with each other for mutual benefit and the service of others. Public policy should aim to encourage individuals to associate with each other.
Rights and Responsibilities	The state bestows rights and entitlements on its citizens, and is assigned responsibility for upholding rights and granting entitlements.	The state acknowledges individual rights. In turn, individuals are accountable to the state for their entitlements.	The state acknowledges individual rights. Individuals have responsibilities to each other, shaped by and mediated through social institutions and voluntary associations.
Community	Community is a function of state-provision.	Community is a function of individual self-interest, tradition and hierarchy.	Community is built and mutually managed through social relationships and associations.
Families	Families are regarded with suspicion as a social unit, and are made invisible in public policy.	Relies excessively on the family to fill the space between individual and state.	Values families and seeks to strengthen them as a foundational association in civil society.
Markets	Markets are viewed with suspicion as a rival or impediment to state-directed provision.	Markets are embraced as an effective allocative mechanism which allow individuals to pursue their self-interest.	Markets are embraced as a necessary allocative mechanism, requiring both state and non-state forms of regulation to produce inclusive outcomes.
Choice	Market-based choice is supported in cultural and lifestyle matters, but discouraged in social provision and economics.	Market-based choice is supported in economics, but viewed with scepticism in cultural and lifestyle matters.	Individuals and associations are encouraged to pursue their own social, cultural and economic ends, providing they act within the law.
Economic ownership	A preference for state-ownership, with extensive regulation of privately-owned enterprises.	Investor-owned corporations are preferred, with minimal regulation.	Economic ownership is dispersed through diverse non-state forms, including small businesses, member-owned enterprises, mutuals, and employee ownership arrangements.
Politics	The state should be captured by a political instrument and its power and resources directed to politically determined ends.	The state should be captured by a political instrument so that the corporate sector can flourish.	The state should create space for civil society and protect and encourage associations of citizens in pursuing their own diverse ends. A political instrument is required to preserve and protect this role for the state.
Core Constituency	Public sector employees and trade unions.	The corporate sector.	Families, consumers, small shareholders, independent owners, and the third sector - members and volunteers of Australia ’s 700,000 voluntary Associations.

POLICY PERSPECTIVES
	Left	Right	People Power
Capital	Increased taxes on capital and capital flows to fund state social provision.	Less taxes and restrictions on capital so that the corporate sector can flourish.	Encouragement of widespread ownership of capital. Support for citizen capital accounts and matched savings accounts. Strong anti-cartel legislation to break up concentrations of ownership.
Industrial Relations	Extensive regulation of the labour market through centralised awards.	Deregulated labour market.	The permissible degree of deregulation of employment relations is linked to the degree of employee involvement in enterprise ownership and governance.
Education	A centralised public sector school system with minimal parental input.	Preference for a private sector school system, with a residual public sector system.	A single sector of independent and autonomous schools, with a student-centred funding entitlement adjusted for socio-economic and educational disadvantage.
Health	Public funding of fragmented providers, with a structural separation of financing and provision.	Preference for private funding of fragmented providers, with a structural separation of financing and provision.	Integration of financing and provision through mutual associations of health consumers which purchase services for their members, integrate service delivery, and reward good health maintenance.
Welfare	A system of universal welfare entitlements for individuals through a centralised public sector agency.	Means-tested entitlements through a centralised agency directed to individuals as clients.	Transfer of welfare provision to intermediaries selected by beneficiaries which receive and allocate benefits on behalf of beneficiaries, with incentives for transforming the social status of members.
Youth, Drugs, Law and Order	Suspicious of public concerns about security. Support for post-breakdown services and harm minimisation strategies.	Support for tougher penalties and more police as the way to enhance security.	Support for agents and voluntary associations which develop mentoring, preventative interventions, restorative justice and community policing work in partnership with police.
Finance	Preference for state-owned financial institutions, with extensive regulation of investor-owned banks.	Deregulation of investor-owned financial institutions.	Encouragement of existing and new models of community and mutually-owned financial institutions.
Regional Development	Reliance on public sector infrastructure development.	Reliance on incentives for private sector relocations.	Encouragement of regional mutual institutions to control regional savings and investment, and aggregate regional purchasing power.
Utilities	Preference for state-owned monopolies.	Privatisation of state-owned utilities.	Encouragement of consumer agents to purchase utility services from competing suppliers.
Housing	Extension of public housing provision.	Preference for private rental market subsidies.	Support for broad-ranging home ownership schemes and housing societies.