You should do this 'politiquiz' (particularly if you are already a politician/ decision maker or consider a career in this direction :-)). There are lots of things that can still be improved in it, but it is the best "where you stand on the political/ economic dimensions" questionnaire I've encountered so far.
Here's a fragment from the intro to the 'Political Compass' to convince you:
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.
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.
And you can see below where I stand: somewhat more libertarian and much closer in longitude to the center than the far (economic) rightist Milton Friedman; but a (moderate) libertarian rightist I am indeed, as you can see from the picture (click on it to enlarge). Among the examples of personalities discussed at the above link, good old professor Friedman is my only quadrant neighbour :-).
Update, some minutes later: I am being notified that my political/economic position is very close to Tchaikovsky's and Chopin's, among the 'grande musique' composers. So this is it, now you have it, I've just discovered myself: I am a complex combination of Tchaikovsky and Chopin. Unfortunately, in terms of their economic and politic views and not their music. But still...
1 comment:
There is another test, far weaker in my opinion (treating only the "moral" dimensions- rules and order) that Dan talks about. My result on that test are the following:
The following items best match your score:
System: Liberalism
Variation: Moderate Liberalism
Ideologies: Capital Democratism
US Parties: Democratic Party
Presidents: Jimmy Carter (96.88%)
2004 Election Candidates: John Kerry (93.01%), Ralph Nader (87.12%), George W. Bush (57.50%)
Statistics
Of the 341728 people who took the test:
1.5% had the same score as you.
37.8% were above you on the chart.
51% were below you on the chart.
69.5% were to your right on the chart.
22.5% were to your left on the chart.
(obviously this is just the 'moral plan'. Hence, no surprises there. The test from my post above is far more complete. Would have been interesting to put the 2004 candidates- and even better, the actual candidates, on that political compass...)
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