To me there are two poles: left wing (=socialist) & right wing and then liberal (not capital L) & authoritarian. These intertwine with each other. Witness the Spanish Civil War. Democracy is another matter altogether. It's rather like tolerance: if you are tolerant should you tolerate intolerance. An interesting example is 'Pride's Purge' in the Civil War: parliament, who hardly represented the majority but were democratically elected, wanted to come to terms with the King. The army - who were probably more representative of the people but hardly democratically elected - realized that this was futile and purged parliament so that only those who wished to bring the King to trial remained. Dubya is always banging on about 'mocracy as if it's some kind of religion but not in the Gaza strip!
Doc John