# Liberals v. Conservatives

For quite some time I've been searching for some political issue with which I can demonstrate support for my theory that liberals care more about <em>pragmatics</em> and conservatives care more about <em>principles</em>. (Being <em>pragmatic</em> and being <em>principled</em> are, I hope, considered equally worthy goals by most people--one "care" is not supposed to be more positive or negative than the other.)

Anyway, it occurred to me today that international debt relief might prove a suitable wedge issue. My theory is that liberals would be all for debt relief--because it reduces the burden on poor countries--but that conservatives would be against it--because it "penalises" the countries that didn't borrow money in the first place. (The principle being that of <em>fairness</em>.)

(I don't mean to suggest that thinking liberals and conservatives would be unaware of the other point of view, only that for liberals <em>pragmatism</em> will ultimately trump <em>principle</em>, and contrariwise for conservatives.)

This issue is also nice because various plausible intermediate positions exist: different levels of borrowing, different repayment schemes, and so on.

I guess another way of characterising the difference between liberals and conservatives is that if someone is asked whether a country owing some large amount of money should have this debt forgiven, a liberal will want to know poor the country is whilst a conservative will want to know if other countries in the same position will also have their debt forgiven.