Updated Political Compass for Candidates of 2012 Presidential Race

[BuddyRey]

It's a fun test, but a lot of the questions are based on loaded assumptions, or they mix political philosophy with personal attitudes (for example, the question about whether manufacturers are more important than artists). I think there are methodologically superior quizzes in this same vein that, sadly, don't get the same amount of traffic as the Political Compass. Here's one I think does a great job.

http://www.quiz2d.com/

 

[Lindsey]

It's a fun test, but a lot of the questions are based on loaded assumptions, or they mix political philosophy with personal attitudes (for example, the question about whether manufacturers are more important than artists). I think there are methodologically superior quizzes in this same vein that, sadly, don't get the same amount of traffic as the Political Compass. Here's one I think does a great job.

http://www.quiz2d.com/

These questions are much better and leaving more possibilities for answers is great. I wish it had covered more issues though.

 

[Lindsey]

Sorry for the double post.

 

[realtonygoodwin]

Looks at Ron's dot.

Looks at my avatar.

Huh.

 

[GraniteHills]

I know this dates from 2010, and pertains to the UK, but is the UKIP really this authoritarian?

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010

Is Nigel Farage an outlier in his party, or is this chart outdated, or is he not what Americans popularly think?

 

[splanky]

What kind of bizarre formula puts Obama on the right?

 

[giovannile07]

What kind of bizarre formula puts Obama on the right?

Maybe you should take a look at the way he and Republican votes, besides some social issues, they literally vote the same way...

Was a bit surprised I was in the middle of the fourth quadrant. I thought I would be more right and maybe closer to second quadrant. Anyways, some of the questions were a bit strange or confusing to me.

Sounds about right, although I've always seen myself more as of a conservative rather than a libertarian.

 

[CaptUSA]

http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=5.50&soc=-6.26
Some of those questions were very hard to answer. I agree with them in some terms and disagree in others. Still, it charted me fairly accurately.

 

[tbone717]

You must be joking.

I consider myself a paleo-con and my graph is pretty much where Paul's is

 

[Matthanuf06]

I'm a couple ticks under Paul on the libertarian side, and a tick to the left.

I think Paul is a tiny bit too "high" on the scale, but his view on say abortion prevents him from being further down on the spectrum.

Using modern terminology, I'd think of the left/right spectrum as fiscally liberal vs fiscally conservative, and the up/down spectrum as socially conservative vs socially liberal.

In this context it makes a lot of sense. Paul is very fiscally conservative. On the social side, he is more liberal than nearly everyone else, but is relatively straight up. Great on things like civil liberties, but then things like abortion drags him up.

And I'm not making a value judgment on his abortion stance. It is just a socially conservative stance. His points on certain civil liberties are certainly socially liberal stances.

 

[Matthanuf06]

yes some of the questions are hard to answer
"Are the rich taxed too much" for example , most rich people get out of paying taxes completely.I am for cutting taxes across the board whilst cutting down on the tax dodgers like General Electric....

Eh I disagree with this statement. Now their are a few loop holes that are genuinely BS, a good chunk of rich people (say Romney/Buffet) pay less taxes for a completly valid reason; the immorality of double taxation.

 

[amberjack]

I feel like such an outsider on these forums. :/ Perhaps it's us first gen people not being able to fully integrate ^_~

 

[realtonygoodwin]

I consider myself a paleo-con and my graph is pretty much where Paul's is

Ditto.

 

[JohnM]

I know this dates from 2010, and pertains to the UK, but is the UKIP really this authoritarian?

http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010

Is Nigel Farage an outlier in his party, or is this chart outdated, or is he not what Americans popularly think?

Nigel Farage is not as libertarian as he is sometimes thought to be.

see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8464124.stm

UKIP is very mixed, and has a strong libertarian element, but also some pretty authoritarian types.

But most basically, I think that a lot of what the Political Compass site tells you should be treated with considerable caution. According to that chart, I should be pretty comfortable with the Liberal Democrats, since my test results put me roughly where they are on the chart. The truth of the matter is that I see them as authoritarian, socialist, and statist.

 

[giovannile07]

I feel like such an outsider on these forums. :/ Perhaps it's us first gen people not being able to fully integrate ^_~

First generation of what?

 

[R3volutionJedi]

Strong authoritarians, this is mine, what would you call that? I'm not good with stuff like this lol.

I got around the same, I'd call it Independent Libertarianism

 

[TheCaliforniaLife]

This is hilarious. No international figure is listed in the Ron Paul region. Aka... it isn't popular to be in that region. hahaha. It's funny how they don't list the founding fathers or anyone like that.

 

[amberjack]

First generation of what?

It was one of the questions you had to answer in the test: "First-generation immigrants can never be fully integrated within their new country."

 

[splanky]

Maybe you should take a look at the way he and Republican votes, besides some social issues, they literally vote the same way....

I'm aware of how Obama voted, even though he hasn't done so in over three years. Any formula that puts him on the right side of the political spectrum is a complete joke. As for Romney, Grinch and frothy voting close to Obama, well, that's no surprise, but it sure ain't to the far right.

Just because some left wing nut who thinks everybody in politics is on the far right says it's so doesn't make it so. Anybody with eyes and ears ought to know that Obama, regardless of any formula bias, is AT LEAST on the left side of the line. This thing doesn't just put him on the right, it puts him far to the right. It's utter nonsense.

 

[MaxPower]

I've just gotten these scores:

The Nolan Chart test is better. As I said earlier, the PoliticalCompass test is biased, including a substantial number of leading and irrelevant questions, and the biases show through in the author's rating of political figures. He puts all of the non-Ron-Paul presidential contenders way too far to the "right" economically-- in fact, there is evidently very little difference between Ron Paul's and Newt Gingrich's economic philosophy going off this guy's chart-- and has Ron Paul significantly too high on the "Authoritarian" scale, because he clearly treats personal views (such as "I would like my child's school to instill religious values") as though they were political views; this is also why I didn't score near the very bottom right on the PoliticalCompass test.