IMHO this distinction is just conservative vs liberal. Honestly, I am not a fan of political compass, I think there are three independent dimensions based on t

IMHO this distinction is just conservative vs liberal. Honestly, I am not a fan of political compass, I think there are three independent dimensions based on three major moral values: - conservativism (value of authority and cultural preservation) - liberalism (value of individual freedom and meritocratic progress) - socialism/progressivism (value of equal participation in society and democracy) Each of these gives a worldview and a way to address equality, freedom, justice, authority; and each suggests what societal and economic institutions should look like. They can be also combined, they are not always contradictory. And each system has its own "vice" - type of selfish corruption. Left vs right has shifted through history, originally it was liberalism+socialism against conservativism, slowly liberalism was coopted by the right instead. That's why the OP's axis is a tension between conservative and liberal, because it is missing from political compass. But it was always present in capitalism (in fact Marx described it as capital accumulation - liberals who accrue property thanks to "merit" become conservative incumbents).