Are you talking about Christian Democracy, for one, and its proximity towards an Authoritarian regime?

The linear model is the #1 most popular model because it's pretty black and white (until you get into the meat of the argument, which we did here), so its the one most likely to be seen in undergrad level IR classes. I studied a couple of the other models in grad school but for whatever reason it all comes back to the linear model.

This conversation is still going on? Really?

It seems like a case of "having to have the last word"-itis around here...

Naw, I think it's moved into just enjoying talking about it.

Nope, I was just (not so seriously) complaining that conservative got stuck onto authoritarian, again, sigh.

Sure, I think a deference to authority is generally a more conservative trait, but if the authority you value is one that honors civil liberties, maybe like the Bill of Rights, well, it all just gets kind of muddled.

If we've got left and right labeled progressive and conservative, why not use entirely different terms for the other axis?

I do think there's a difference between the type of conservative you're talking about and the type they are.

After all, the US is a liberal democracy. So even conservatives that agree with a liberal democracy would fall toward the progressive side of the spectrum here.

I think why they're both labeled the same is to show governments that are progressive in some rights and "conservative" in others, or conservative on all counts (fascism), or progressive on all counts (anarchism).

Oh, yeah, no doubt there's a pretty big difference from the beliefs an individual holds and how we categorize states as well as how the terms are being used. I'm just not sure that using progressive/conservative works that well, especially because we do use those terms to describe individual beliefs. It also don't seem to make that much sense from the perspective of the definitions of the words: change vs. resistance to change.

The terminology isn't as precise as it should be, in my opinion, if we're using it to underpin the academic discipline.

I think it's intentional, though. This model is specifically talking about Europe, I believe, but they leave things slightly ambiguous because what's what in the UK may not be what's what in France (ok, not may not, but IS NOT).

In IA they tend to leave things open without using precise language because things differ from country to country, or region to region. They try to use it as a catch all.

Bugs the hell outta me, too.

It seems to defeat the purpose of having a categorizing systems if things within the category vary too greatly in some cases and don't vary enough between categories in others.

Ah yes but c'est la vie.

I think "He's totally a totalitarian" would be good to say... ya know, a tongue twister :)

Try to say it five times fast ;)