The Political Compass

[Lance]

Oh come on Pangloss, I want to add you to the graph.

 

By the way, the red lines are between people who have taken the test twice and achieved different scores (dave and faf thus far).

[In My Memory]

Economic Left/Right: -6.75

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.26

 

GO COMMUNISM!!

 

(or not)

I think the polical archaetypes are going to look like this:

(Based on US
Archaetypes)

        |
        |
        |    2
     5  |
        | 1
---------+---------
        |
        |     6
 4      |
    3   |
        |

1) Democrats

2) Republicans

3) Greens

4) Socialist

5) Communist

6) Libertarian

 

You're a socialist

[J'Dona]

Okay, that's weird. I did it again, and I got the exact same economic score, but my social score was about 1 lower.

 

Economic Left/Right: -6.13

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49

 

I did change some of my answers to strongly or not on reconsideration, and changed the answer outright one or two, but I was consciously wondering why I hadn't gotten a more negative Social score than I did before so this may have skewed the results. Either I was just feeling more authoritarian when I did it before, or this is a reaction to the higher score.

 

Cheers for the graph Lance!

[ydoaPs]

I think the polical archaetypes are going to look like this:

(Based on US
Archaetypes)

        |
        |
        |    2
     5  |
        | 1
---------+---------
        |
        |     6
 4      |
    3   |
        |

1) Democrats

2) Republicans

3) Greens

4) Socialist

5) Communist

6) Libertarian

 

You're a socialist

 

 

holy crap, i AM a communist!

[Pangloss]

You can put me on the graph if you like. It's not THAT far off.

 

One thing that's kinda interesting about that graph is the way it shows how liberals who think they're libertarians are just deluding themeslves. (grin)

[ydoaPs]

i like how it is almost y=x.

[Pangloss]

Lol, you're right. I missed that.

[In My Memory]

You can put me on the graph if you like. It's not THAT far off.

 

One thing that's kinda interesting about that graph is the way it shows how liberals who think they're libertarians are just deluding themeslves. (grin)

I remember when I wrote a 10 page paper on the difference between liberals and libertarians - it was the most tedious thing I've ever tried to do in my life. But' date=' basically, the difference between liberals and libertarians is hard to define, first because liberalism has about a million different forms (from Smith, Locke, Jefferson, Dewey, Mill, Montesquie, Rawls, etc.), and second because libertarians claim to be classical liberals when they really arent. People think this sounds like splitting hairs, but its really just a consequence of using the same word to mean a lot of different things.

 

But, for your reading pleasure, here's the basic difference:

 

There are really two types of libertarians:

1) Libertarians (capital "L"), your Micheal Badnarik-ish, Robert Nozick-y anarchocapitalists (Ayn Rand does not deserve to be mentioned). This is broken down into the newly created categories of Civil Libertarians and Economic Libetarians.

 

2) libertarians (small "l"), a variety of liberalism that holds that rights have their origins in first the ownership of your own self and capacities, and second that rights are based on whatever resources or abilities others have chosen to transfer freely among each other. Its no surprise that libertarian theories are often very compatible with social contracts like Locke and Rousseau.

 

 

And two (or really a dozen) types of liberals:

 

1) Liberals (capital "L"), favor centralized government and skeptical of laissez-faire economics - at least thats what it means in the US. This has little philosophical resemblance to any theories of liberalism I've ever come across, I blame the MTV.

 

2) liberals (small "l"), belief that minimal governement is defended on a basis of morality and economic prosperity (Adam Smith liberal); belief that man is progressive and holds a romantic appeal to individual rights (John Stuart Mill liberal). Its really amazing that people think that liberalism - with its strong emphasis on individual rights - has anything to do with socialism (collectivism) or communism (statism).

 

 

Both liberalism and libertarianism are unified on a basis of strong individual rights, but the truth is that there are some forms of liberalism which are non-libertarian. However, the strange thing is that the people who are members of the Libetarian party often espouse ideas that are unconnected entirely libertarianism as a philosophy (I believe for the most part these people consider themselves libertarians, but they dont understand the theory, so they misrepresent it).

 

It isnt fair to say "[i']liberals who think they're libertarians are just deluding themeslves[/i]", because there are circumstances where this is definitely not true such as in the case of Locke and Thomas Jefferson. And, for what its worth, consider this: Libertarians who think they are libertarians are just deluding themselves.

 

Confused yet

[Madanthony]

Economic Left/Right: 6.13

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 1.44

 

This place needs some more positive numbers to balance things out. I scanned through the posts, and it seems my 6.13 is the most conservative economic reading here. I hope I've helped. BTW, this is my first post here, I'm a refugee from sciforums and heard this site mentioned there.

[ydoaPs]

sciforums...i hope you weren't there too long. you may have soaked in too much crazy for us to help you.

[Tetrahedrite]

I think he was referring to the coordinates themselves.

Yes, I was certainly talking about the co-ordinates. If you look at my score you would realise that I certainly don't think being conservative is a "positive" thing.

[Ophiolite]

And here are the correct answers -

 

Economic Left/Right:-3.0

 

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:-5.44

 

I then re-took it, changing my answers to those questions I had hesitated over

Economic Left/Right:-4.5

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:-4.92

 

Damn, I'm changing into the Dalai Lama.

[ed84c]

Ed' date=' did you actually score +7.8 on the authoritarian axis? Ala Adolf Hitler? Or did you just forget to include the minus sign?

 

Some of the questions on this thing are pretty lame and difficult to assess. For example, "A significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system." Do they mean "do you feel that a one-party state is a good thing or a bad thing"? Because surely that question, on an entirely factual basis, could only be answered "yes". How could it be answered "no"?

 

There were a lot of dubious questions like that, so I feel my score is not accurate. I think I lean farther towards the libertarian side on that Y axis, and closer to the center on the X axis.

 

But hey, to each his own, I guess. It's not like this test is objective.[/quote']

 

yes the test did reveal my fascist leanings

 

I certainly did NOT leave of any minust signs.

[ed84c]

Well i didnt see lance's until i was nearly done so;

[Lance]

You can put me on the graph if you like. It's not THAT far off.

 

One thing that's kinda interesting about that graph is the way it shows how liberals who think they're libertarians are just deluding themeslves. (grin)

 

Doh, I didn't notice you posted your score.

 

 

Well I guess I wont bother to upload my updated graph now that ed has hijacked it.

[ed84c]

no, lol, there can be 2 graphs, yours for clever people, and my simple one for simpltons like me.

 

I think you will find anyway, the original idea was mine

[Lance]

[donkey]

when I did this a couple of years ago I got

Economic Left/Right: -3.12

Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.59

 

ps nice graph Lance, shame you're a crazy neo con

[Lance]

no' date=' lol, there can be 2 graphs, yours for clever people, and my simple one for simpltons like me.

 

I think you will find anyway, the original idea [i'] was mine [/i]

 

Yes, well, you will notice that many famous people in history are remembered for other people's ideas. By the way, I think you forgot a few negatives in there.

[ed84c]

what are the red lines on yours?

[donkey]

i think it's the change in position when the same person repeats the test

[Lance]

They show a range between people who have taken the test more than one time.

[ed84c]

ah, clever idea, i might have to redo the test.

[Lance]

I removed the lines and replaced the points with an average to remove clutter.

[RICHARDBATTY]

-3.50x3.28 What ever that means.