Principles, Beliefs, World Views, Priorities, Policies

As I scour the internet for political principles, it's clear that "principles" is a bigger tent including beliefs or truths, priorities and policies alongside what one might call principles. No doubt dictionary consultation will help, but fuzzy thinking is pervasive. Clarity without didacticism is the challenge.

As one example, principle one for the conservative list is really a belief:  "First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order."  Same for the social democrats:  "that the workers of all nations share more in economic interest with each other, than the workers of any nation share with the political and economic elites of their own nation."

Political credos and world views create principles.  Russell Kirk writes "Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity." This alliterative principle of action is derived from a world view that may be part belief, part an interpretation of human history:  "It is old custom that enables people to live together peaceably; the destroyers of custom demolish more than they know or desire. It is through convention—a word much abused in our time—that we contrive to avoid perpetual disputes about rights and duties: law at base is a body of conventions. Continuity is the means of linking generation to generation; it matters as much for society as it does for the individual; without it, life is meaningless." 

The Social Democrats mix in policy prescriptions - "We support the American Labor Movement" - with more general principles - "We oppose totalitarianism in its secular and religious forms." Then later they throw in some rants that are likely inspired by specific incidents, such as "we social democrats will never be cheerleaders for the slaughter of any group of people no matter what the ideology of those pursuing the massacre may be." Sorta sounds like the lady doth protest too much, trying to run away from previous support of Stalin perhaps? 

None of these tend towards policies, but I've seen some other discussion of "principles" get far more specific than I think a "principle" should. And nowhere have I seen a discussion of priorities, but that may be more tied to policy discussions.

In short, I'll need to think clearly about how narrowly to focus a list of principles - do they also integrate beliefs and world views? Maybe so. I don't think most people have thought through these fine distinctions, nor do they really care about them.