The Political Compass...

[BuddyRey]

This is the most revealing political self-assessment on the net. I recommend it to everybody, as it totally blows the lid off the standard left-right way of thinking. Your results may be surprising!

My score is slightly different every time I take the test, depending on what lectures/thinkers I've been reading or listening to. But right now, it's:

Economic Left/Right: -3.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.28

http://www.politicalcompass.org/index

 

[SAVEamerica]

It's going to be interesting to see this thread later I think. Here's mine:

Economic Left/Right: -4.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49

 

[Kandilynn]

Economic Left/Right: 6.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.41

 

[TheDuke]

Economic Left/Right: 2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.44

 

[Delivered4000]

Economic Left/Right: -0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.13

 

[angelatc]

Economic Left/Right: 2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.10

 

[ARealConservative]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.28

 

[RationalActivist]

Economic Left/Right: 7.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.44

 

[scbissler]

Economic Left/Right: 5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.00

 

[Delivered4000]

Sweet, I'm the least authoritarian

 

[Harald]

Economic Left/Right: 7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.95

Leading in the economic freedom so far, with 7.38

 

[Brandybuck]

It's an okay chart, but it was designed to make people think they're libertarians. Everyone ends up centrist-libertarian. The left and the right on that chart are silly, you need to search really hard before you can find people that are really like that. It's good for cheap talking points, but that's about it.

I'm trying to come up with a new chart, inspired by one David Brin did. Basically, the the X axis is freedom, from authoritarian to anarchy. The Y axis represents attitudes towards property and equality. The left likes fairness and is egalitarian, the right likes competition and is meritocratic. The left champions equality of outcome, the right equality of opportunity. I just need something to clarify that axis.

 

[X_805]

I'm trying to come up with a new chart, inspired by one David Brin did. Basically, the the X axis is freedom, from authoritarian to anarchy. The Y axis represents attitudes towards property and equality. The left likes fairness and is egalitarian, the right likes competition and is meritocratic. The left champions equality of outcome, the right equality of opportunity. I just need something to clarify that axis.

Another compass I thought of is whether the power lies with a group or the individual and who is controlled by that power, the group of the individual. So basically the two axes are who controls power and who power controls. Kind of weird.

 

[TheDuke]

It's an okay chart, but it was designed to make people think they're libertarians. Everyone ends up centrist-libertarian. The left and the right on that chart are silly, you need to search really hard before you can find people that are really like that. It's good for cheap talking points, but that's about it.

Probably because most people here are centrist-libertarian.

 

[adwads]

Economic Left/Right: 2.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.77

 

[Brandybuck]

Probably because most people here are centrist-libertarian.

Here, yes. But the general public? Not really.

I spent a day once at a swap meet with a local libertarian party. We had a big Nolan Chart and pushpins. Everyone that came by ended up in the libertarian quadrant. But actually talking to the people, they weren't all libertarians.

It's a great marketing tool, but it isn't an accurate political spectrum. The distinction between economic and personal freedoms is false. There are dozends of kinds of freedoms, and it doesn't make sense to divide them up this arbitrarily. Where do you put someone who is pro-business but anti-corporation? Or pro-immigration but anti-abortion?

There is an axis that goes from authoritarianism to anarchy. And there is another axis that goes from left to right. But that latter axis is harder to pin down. What exactly is the "left", and what exactly is the "right"? What does leftist Stalin have in common with leftist Chomsky? What does right wing Mussolini have in common with right wing Ayn Rand?

 

[zMtLlC]

Economic Left/Right: 6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.33

I'm surprised that there are economic leftists supporting Ron Paul.

I would like to see a Z axis added on foreign policy: intervention vs. nonintervention. I think the basic set of this graph is the best indicator out there, but I think the questions could be a little better.

 

[zMtLlC]

Here, yes. But the general public? Not really.

I spent a day once at a swap meet with a local libertarian party. We had a big Nolan Chart and pushpins. Everyone that came by ended up in the libertarian quadrant. But actually talking to the people, they weren't all libertarians.

It's a great marketing tool, but it isn't an accurate political spectrum. The distinction between economic and personal freedoms is false. There are dozends of kinds of freedoms, and it doesn't make sense to divide them up this arbitrarily. Where do you put someone who is pro-business but anti-corporation? Or pro-immigration but anti-abortion?

There is an axis that goes from authoritarianism to anarchy. And there is another axis that goes from left to right. But that latter axis is harder to pin down. What exactly is the "left", and what exactly is the "right"? What does leftist Stalin have in common with leftist Chomsky? What does right wing Mussolini have in common with right wing Ayn Rand?

Sorry for the double post.

The economic v social (I would say social, not personal) freedoms is really the thing that we measure by, although in degrees. Think about it: much of the present-day GOP is focused on government interference in social matters but none in the economy, and the Dems are just the opposite. With very few exceptions, you will notice that the parties fall into that pattern.

As far as the pro-business but anti-corporation, the question is not which one you prefer, but what the government should do in the area. If a corporation gets too big, should the government intervene? In that regard, I think you'll find that the person you call "pro-business but anti-corporation," depending on their answer to that question, could be characterized as a little left or right. On immigration, what do you mean by "pro-immigration"?

Like I alluded to earlier, "left" economically is government interference in the economy while right is the opposite.

 

[Brandybuck]

Like I alluded to earlier, "left" economically is government interference in the economy while right is the opposite.

Not necessarily. Talk with people on the left and the right. They both want government interference in the economy, they just differ as to were the interference should be applied. For example, subsidies to small inner city businesses or to huge corporate farms? Regulations to limit outsourcing, or regulations to limit imports?

 

[zMtLlC]

Not necessarily. Talk with people on the left and the right. They both want government interference in the economy, they just differ as to were the interference should be applied. For example, subsidies to small inner city businesses or to huge corporate farms? Regulations to limit outsourcing, or regulations to limit imports?

I think you're getting confused between the present-day characterization of "left" and "right" and what this compass is trying to measure. Any government regulations and subsidies would put a person farther left than a pure laissez-faire advocate, including some regulations that are considered "right" such as subsidies to oil companies.