This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
This article is quite possibly the first time I've seen the Imperium of Man referred to as "Moderate"
Vol: What about Regimentation? That seems like a nice government-control-esc word that's a lot less loaded.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: This does exist. You think we could file it under Needs A Better Description?... Now, if there was a word for "authoritarian" which was not loaded, this page might go smoother.
Gattsuru: Both libertarian and authoritarianism are problematic terms — the latter is not a term used by most or even many authoritarian governments to describe themselves, while a number of groups that do use the term libertarian mean an entirely different thing (most European 'libertarians' are socialists on the scale of Chomsky). I'm not sure of a good replacement for libertarian, since anarchist isn't exactly fitting (they want civilization, just not order forced by government action), but I've personally got in the habit of calling authoritarians those favoring intervention. Perhaps simply calling it the Sliding Scale Of Government Intervention would be clearer?
Rasalas: I think limiting this to fictional depictions would also help reduce the heat.
Jordan: Might be a good idea. For one thing, I wondered if listing the Confederacy under Libertarianism was a comment on their weak central government, or intended as a compliment.
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: I added a "No Real Life examples, please" warning. I hope that helps.
Madrugada We not only need a "No real life examples" request, we need to cut the real world examples or the request has no weight. Also, not identifying the work should be grounds for removal — we've got "Alpha Centauri" at both ends of the scale. but no identification of what work either one is from, that I can see.
Rasalas: I've taken a stab at fixing this. The Real Life examples and associated natter is gone. I've cleaned up the remaining examples because few of them were clear, yet most still need more context.
Anonymous Apathy: Are we only planning on listing examples of fictional governments? I think we should include the libertarian/authoritarian themes of a work as a whole like with the other sliding scales.
