This is an attempt to reframe my old “political gamut” liberty-equality diagram, with an added third dimension of fraternity (indispensable in an age of Post-Trump identitarian madness) in terms of the Aristotelian mean.

Liberty

• Excess: absolute autonomy of individual (anarchy)
• Deficit: absolute autocracy of collective (collectivism)
• Mean: balance of civil rights and obligations (liberalism)

Equality

• Excess: wealth/power/status ought to be distributed equally (equity)
• Deficit: wealth/power/status ought to be distributed unequally (hierarchy)
• Mean: wealth/power/status ought to be earned and maintained (opportunity)

Fraternity

• Excess: membership in polity is exclusive (closed citizenship)
• Deficit: membership in polity is all-inclusive (universalism)
• Mean: membership in polity is conditional (open/permeable citizenship)