Why place a topic such as political issues on a web site dedicated to management and accounting? First, it is impossible to separate economics and politics. Consider the comparative economic system graphic below. Economic systems are also political systems. Second, the effects of economics and politics are impossible to separate from management and accounting. For example, near the top of the graphic the state owns and operates industries either for profit or for overall social objectives. Moving down the right hand side of the graphic the state regulates businesses but does not own them. Further down the right hand side we find free enterprise capitalism with less and less regulation from the state. Government regulation through laws, fiscal policy and monetary policy affects both management and accounting in many ways. Businesses clearly operate within a political economy.

The idea underlying the following exercise is to promote thought and debate about political issues. 

1. Consult the graphic below (from MAAW's Chapter 1) for a review of comparative economic systems.

2. Compare the illustration above to the political compass graphic below. Note that the political compass includes a social scale as well as an economic scale.

3. Take the test at The Political Compass site to find your position in the graphic above.

4. Then fill in the table below to develop a viewpoint and debate these issues. Statements based on some critical thinking are recommended, rather than the political euphemisms, abstractions and weasel words found on MAAW's Political Language page. To find your politician's stance on the issues go to the AARP political issues site. You can also take a quiz to find out which political candidates your agree with at the Glassbooth site.

5. Filling in the following table is more difficult, but it is a very interesting exercise. You have to consider a specific person in each category because many people with different views fall into the same area of the political compass graphic. For example, John Kerry and George W. Bush are both in the authoritarian right quadrant of the graph.

 

Issue Related to	Authoritarian Left (Examples: Vladimir Lenin, Stalin, Fidel Castro, Pope Benefict XVI, and Mao Tse Tung)	Libertarian Left (Examples: Ralph Nader,  John Kenneth Galbraith, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi)	Authoritarian Right (Examples: George W. Bush, John Kerry, William F. Buckley Jr., Margaret Thatcher, and Adolf Hitler)	Libertarian Right (Milton Friedman, Ludwig von Mises, Ayn Rand, and F. A. Hayek)
Abortion
Balancing the budget/  National debt
Environment
Fiscal Policy, e.g., taxes and spending (See the ASCE page)
Healthcare
Homeland security
Immigration
Infrastructure:   Roads, Bridges, Transit,    Aviation, Schools, Drinking   water, Waste water, Dams,   Solid waste, Navigable   waterways, energy.   (See the ASCE page)
International relations
Iraq
Labor
Monetary policy/  The Federal Reserve
Poverty - Minimum wage
Small business and   minority business
Social security/Medicare
Tax cuts
United Nations
War on terror

You can find various political views on the Campaign for America's Future. For another interesting site see the Polling Report. 

 

Chapter 1 Framework Section	Controversial Accounting Issues Main Page
Economics Related Main Page	Political Issues Main Page

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