To: TimF who wrote (338548 ) 5/28/2007 1:42:11 PM From: tejek Read Replies (1) | Respond to That means that Bush has elements found in an Authoritarian but is not considered Authoritarian. "The 2nd one I've commented on before. The problem is not as much that it places France at the center (although I would disagree with that as well) but that it sets France's area to be such that you can't be at the center unless you are very like France. Also the idea that France is overall freer then the US isn't a very reasonable one." We are not talking about France's culture but we are talking about its political system. Do you know how to read these charts? Laissez-faire, a French construct btw, sits on the far right of the line labeled Economic Right. That means Bush/Reagan is much more laissez-faire than Clinton, and in turn, Clinton is much more laissez-faire than Greenpeace. Labeling France as the center isn't really objectively wrong, its just subjective. But whatever you pick as the center, the idea that Chirac was less authoritarian than Bush and that Arafat is barely more authoritarian, is silly. That chart (the 1st one) even has Bush as closer along the top to bottom, authoritarian to libertarian access to Mugabe or Saddam Hussien, then he is to the center.
