I'm fairly new in my knowledge of politics & I'm no expert in politics but have somehow been exposed into the political arena of both South Africa & the world. South African politics are a bit more different than around the world because, for me, South African politics is like a horse with a noose around it's testicles. If the horse goes too far, it's in danger of being emasculated so it has to play safe no matter how "thoroughbred" it is or how much it wants to do as it pleases. Certain groups of people feel they have to control the country & stop it from progressing in a way that will give indigenous black people wealth.
But I'm not going to explain South African politics in detail, I'm just going to explain enough for the layman to know a thing or two on general world politics.
LEFTISM & RIGHTISM: Left-wing or Right-wing politics is respectively Progressive & Conservative politics. How I'd explain this is that Progressives are probably more the extroverts & those that want to see change while Conservatives want to maintain the status quo & keep order & the state in order.
COMMUNISM: Communism is so hated because it limits the free will of the people, it often is seen as authoritarian & often creates depressed societies. Communism may not declare obtaining personal wealth as illegal but quite often does because wealth creates freedom. Communism is essentially a new version of absolute monarchy except the king (president/prime minister) does not need to be of royal blood. Communism does however have its' success stories - i. e. China - but communism often works best in homogeneous societies where racism, tribalism or other forms of discrimination will not stifle the communist system of the land.
SOCIALISM: Is the more "cheerful" version of communism because unlike communism where the government has complete power of the economy, socialism is more nationalist & gets people to buy into working for the greater good of making their land better by populist propaganda which shows how great the nation will be or is if the citizens play their part. Propaganda is used by communists as well but under socialism it's propaganda is probably more truthful or explanatory (to enlighten the masses of the vision). Nationalist socialism (Nazism) is one of the most known success stories in recent times of socialism, but ofcourse foreign relations weren't considered important in the German version & they ended up at war with many nations. But before their foreign relations disaster, Germany was on it's way to being the most powerful country in the world "from the rubbles" it was in after the First World War. Under the system of nationalist socialism, post-war Germany experienced a said period of prosperity.
POPULISM: Populists often say what the people want to hear & are often the more relatable political figures. Populists may either be left or right-wing.
FREE-MARKET / CAPITALIST SOCIETY: A free market or capitalist society is one which the public has free range to obtain services & wealth. This often relieves the government of many responsibilities but also decreases the government's power or influence because the public is essentially living without state assistance. Which is never the case under communism. { In South Africa, it is claimed we are a capitalist society but classism also comes into play because family, friends & children of politicians & non-black members of society get more opportunities to gain wealth whereas indigenous black people are treated as second-class citizens. }
That's my little politics thesis. These are not dictionary explanations but terms explained as how I've come to understand them in my world. Thanks for reading.