Social 30-1 · Political and economic systems
Mapping ideologies
The words left, right, market, command, democratic and authoritarian come up in every related issue. This unit gives you a map to place any ideology or government on — and shows where Canada sits.
The political spectrum
The idea: the left–right line shows what an ideology wants for society and the economy. Adding a second axis shows how much freedom it allows.
| The left tends to favour | The right tends to favour |
|---|---|
| Equality and change | Tradition and order |
| A larger role for government in the economy | Free markets and private enterprise |
| Collective responsibility | Individual responsibility |
| Far left: communism | Far right: fascism |
Why one line is not enough
Communism and fascism sit at opposite ends of the line, yet both were brutally authoritarian. A single line cannot show that, so many political scientists add a vertical axis from libertarian (maximum personal freedom) to authoritarian (maximum state control).
Watch out: "liberal" in everyday Canadian politics often means centre-left, but classical liberalism — minimal government, free markets — sits to the right economically. Read which one a question means.
Economic systems
The idea: every economy answers the same questions — what to produce, how, and for whom. The difference is who gets to answer them.
| Command | Mixed | Market |
|---|---|---|
| The government decides | Private businesses plus government services and regulation | Supply and demand decide |
| State owns industry | Mostly private ownership, some public | Private ownership |
| Aims for economic equality | Balances the two | Aims for economic freedom |
| Soviet Union under Stalin | Canada | Laissez-faire 1800s Britain |
Policies push an economy along this line. Privatizing a government-owned company moves toward the market end; creating a public program or nationalizing an industry moves toward the command end.
Types of government
The idea: the core question is who holds power and whether citizens can hold them to account.
| Type | How it works | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Direct democracy | Citizens vote on laws themselves | Ancient Athens; referendums today |
| Representative democracy | Citizens elect people to make laws for them | Canada's Parliament |
| Consensus government | No parties; members decide by agreement | Legislatures of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories |
| Authoritarian | Power concentrated in a leader or small group, with little accountability | Military dictatorships, absolute monarchies |
| Totalitarian | Authoritarian rule extended to every part of life | Nazi Germany, Stalin's Soviet Union |
A referendum is a piece of direct democracy inside a representative system — like Quebec's sovereignty votes in 1980 and 1995.
Canada's system
The idea: Canada is a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy. The monarch is head of state; elected representatives and the prime minister actually govern.
- House of Commons: elected Members of Parliament, one per riding.
- Senate: appointed senators who review legislation. Critics call this undemocratic, because voters cannot choose or remove senators; defenders say independence allows "sober second thought".
- Majority government: the governing party holds more than half the seats and can pass laws on its own.
- Minority government: the governing party holds fewer than half the seats and needs support from other parties — and can fall on a confidence vote.
First-past-the-post
In each riding, the candidate with the most votes wins, even without a majority. Across the country, winning many close ridings can give a party a majority of seats with less than half of the popular vote. That is the main argument made for proportional representation, where seats more closely match each party's share of the vote.
Watch out: Canada's prime minister is not directly elected by all voters. They are the leader of the party that can hold the confidence of the House of Commons.