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Neoliberal globalism: This is more or less the official ideology of the political and corporate and financial establishments, shared by centrist New Democrats as well as by most Republican conservatives in their practice as opposed to their preaching. Because trade by definition is supposed to be a force for progress, neoliberals see little role for government in trade beyond promoting trade liberalization, providing a business-friendly infrastructure and educating citizens to equip them to compete in the supposed global labor market of tomorrow.
Social democratic liberalism: How do social democratic liberals differ from neoliberals? Neoliberals assert that the market is more efficient than the state and that it is necessary to "reinvent government" to include elements of privatization or competition. Social democratic liberals reject happy talk about the miracle of the market for the more realistic vision of the mixed economy, in which markets coexist with socialized sectors, in the form of social insurance like Social Security and publicly provided goods like public K-12 schools.
Populist nationalism: In the realm of policy, populist nationalism tends to favor restriction of legal as well as illegal immigration to protect the "core stock" of the tribe-state from "dilution" by different races, ethnic groups or religions. Populist nationalism also tends to favor protectionist policies that shield American workers and businesses, particularly small businesses, from foreign competition.
Libertarian isolationism: Libertarian isolationism draws its adherents from both the left and the right. If the libertarian isolationists had their way, the U.S. would abandon foreign alliances, dismantle most of its military, and return to a 19th-century pattern of decentralized government and an economy based on small businesses and small farms.
Green Malthusianism: This worldview synthesizes mystical versions of environmentalism with alarm about population growth in the tradition of the Rev. Thomas Malthus. The Green Malthusian perspective holds that the Industrial Revolution ended humanity’s allegedly harmonious prior relationship with Nature, permitted an explosion of the human population beyond the alleged carrying capacity of the planet and threatens to produce runaway global warming, along with pollution, resource depletion and mass species extinction. In order to restore balance between humanity and the ecosystem, human numbers must be dramatically reduced.
"To begin with, it would explain how the term "progressive" can be applied, at the price of great confusion, to members of all of the groups other than populist nationalists.(I'm not sure that populist nationalists can even be excluded.) Self-described "progressives" include libertarian isolationists and neoliberal globalists, Green Malthusians and social democratic liberals. This taxonomy explains why social democratic liberals can share the concern of national populists about possible wage-lowering effects of excessive immigration, while despising and repudiating national populist obsessions with maintaining the supposed purity of the American racial, ethnic or religious "stock." It explains why populist nationalists and libertarian isolationists often agree on isolationism but not on tariffs or immigration. And it explains why pro-technology, pro-market neoliberal globalists who think they are devout environmentalists frequently discover that they really share little in common with other environmentalists who are ascetic, anti-modern Green Malthusians."
Overall I would put myself in the social democratic liberal category. As the author states "When it comes to trade and immigration, there is no consensus among social democratic liberals." My preference for open trade and immigration, while not shared by all social democrats, is consistent with the author's definition.
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