The Political Compass (Take The Survey, See Where You Are on The Political Axis!)

PoliticalCompass.org ^

[Recovering_Democrat]

Welcome to The Political Compass.

There's abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain.

Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

That's about as much as we should tell you for now. After you've responded to the following propositions during the next 3-5 minutes, all will be explained. In each instance, you're asked to choose the response that best describes your feeling: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree. At the end of the test, you'll be given the compass, with your own special position on it.

The test is entirely anonymous. None of your personal details are required, and nothing about your result is recorded or logged in any way. The answers are only used to calculate your reading, and cannot be accessed by anyone, ever.

[Recovering_Democrat]

I saw this ages ago on FR, but I don't recall a discussion as to where some of get "plotted down" on the chart. The survey not only charts where one is on an "economic" scale, but also on a "social" scale.

I find it fascinating...and here are the results of my chart:

Economic Left/Right: 6.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 3:54

Interestingly, I am apparently closer to Silvio Berlusconi than G.W. Bush.

[Qwinn]

I don't trust the way a lot of these questions are worded. There are many implicit assumptions in the way the questions are asked, in the context in which they would be answered today.

For example - "Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified." One would expect those who favored the Iraq war to vote "Agree" and those who didn't, "Disagree". But in that is the implicit assumption, which was promulgated by our incredibly liberal media, that the Iraq war -did- violate international law. Not only did it not violate international law, there is only one war in history that had arguably more -sanction- according to international law - the Korean War. Legally, the war we just went through in Iraq was a continuation of the '91 Gulf War, and as such was more in compliance with international law than virtually any other. But most people don't realize that.

The fact that many of these questions are wrapped around the premises that the media's liberal false propaganda has been most effective in disseminating is what makes me very suspicious of it's usefulness.

Qwinn

[FrogMom]

I agree that I don't like the way some of the questions are worded. I'd love to see how they do their figuring since this shows me at about the same locus as Wesley Clark and I know for a fact that Dubya (even though I love him) is sometimes too liberal for my taste.

[jocon307]

LOL, good post, good quiz.

I am pleased to see that I am nearly "on point" with my beloved Tony Blair. Mostly center, but leaning somewhat to the authoritarian right.

Didn't even notice where our beloved W falls out, I'll have to go back and check that!

[jocon307]

Having checked out the pres, futher out than me & tony as it happens, I am disturbed to realize there are NO world leaders who are charted as "libertarian/right". Now that's not right.

Virginia Postrel for President!

[Recovering_Democrat]

They explain their reasoning completely, but it is important that they don't really offer a lot of "direction"...it is not a "quiz", they say, but a "survey". No right or wrong answers--just a gauge of where one falls.

They don't give people an "out" of "no opinion"...they want us to take a stand, and they purposely make the questions ambiguous and vague.

I like the sense of trying to put the scale from left to right economically but also the top to bottom social scale.

[WinOne4TheGipper]

Economic Left/ Right: 8.75
Social Libertarian/ Authoritarian: 2.92

I'm going to go take the World's Shortest Political Quiz and compare.

[Wilhelm Tell]

That was interesting. I scored:
Economic Left/Right: 5.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.26. Kind of close to Milton Friedman.

That is about what I would expect. I notice that they have Saddam Hussein, Yassir Arafat, and Robert Mugabe clumped together in one corner, close to where they have Stalin. That makes sense.

[Avenger]

I am slightly less authoritarian and slightly right of the Pope John Paul II.

Oh well...

[mtbopfuyn]

I am slightly less authoritarian and slightly right of the Pope John Paul II.

Same here. I'm between JPII and Kerry. There's something wrong with this survey if Kerry is on the right. They didn't have Hillary. I didn't care for some of the wording as there were too many what ifs that could be applied.

[ClearCase_guy]

Economic Left/Right: 7.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 3.03

I agree that some of the questions were difficult to answer because of their wording.

[CzarNicky]

Economic Left/Right: 7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 5.18

[x]

One problem with the quiz is that it doesn't allow people to indicate the statements that they feel indifferent or uncertain about. It's hard to tell whether some bald statements are true or not without a lot of thinking. Some of these propositions demand more an essay to clarify the terms and weigh the prose and cons than simple assent or disagreement.

Another problem is that one can feel something to be true in fact without wanting it to be true, or believe that something should be true morally, but recognize that it won't work in practice. What we approve of and what we would allow people to do are often two very different categories. Growing up means recognizing that what we'd want to be true and what we can expect to work out in practice may be two different things. Unfortunately, ideologists of every stripe resist this realization.

Today, in a highly ideological age, it's commonplace to assume that if one deplores or applauds something that one want's to ban or subsidize it and that one wouldn't speak about it at all, if one didn't want to make it prohibited or compulsory. But there are lots of things that one accepts in other people's behavior without agreeing that they are doing what they "should" morally or ideally. People are also used to making blanket claims of what ideally should or shouldn't be. That's fine and necessary, but many of us are looking more at what's possible and practical in the here and now with the resources we have and with human nature being what it is.

[governsleastgovernsbest]

Economic 6.88
Libertarian/Authoritarin -.10

[WinOne4TheGipper]

None of y'all are conservative enough economically.:)

[knuthom]

The very first question is ridiculous: "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations."

They make the assumption that whatever corporations do is NOT in the interest of humaniity. That says a lot about the mind set of the question writers.

[Darheel]

(Darheel)Your political compass: Economic Left/Right: 7.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.10

I'm an Arch-Conservative, this result is a no-brainer. I'm more conservative than W. If elected, I promise to end Socialism as we know it.

[gcruse]

Economic Left/Right: 6.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.15

From the flack my libertarian views generate, I find it hard to believe that I place just barely libertarian.
If it is true, than most everyone you know is authoritarian.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Economic Left/Right: 0.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.87

He he he

[kcar]

Economic Left/Right: 6.75

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.77