Political Compass

[Bobsonsirjonny]

The Political Compass


Following on from the GPChristian thread in which some interesting points were raised (nowt like a devout athiest getting angry... ) I thought that you may wish to partake in the political compass. Its very interesting - not so much for the test on there, but more due to its expansion on the whole left right argument.


The Left and Right are mearly concerned with economic policy. In its simplest form it could be argued- the left favours collective wealth, the right favours personal wealth. Though there is ample area of grey.

But then their is a further dimension: Authoritarian (fascism) and Anarchism (Libertarianism). Authoritarian - that you force your will - Libertarian being the opposite of that.

At the extremes neither can work.


Now - this is when it gets kinda funny: You can be a vegan, Tree Hugger who's into Free Love, but be so dogmatic in your argument that you are infact borderline authritarian (and therefore slighly facist).

If you were to simply remove economic policy Hitler and Stalin could easily get on...


Take the test - may be an eye opener for you. Its fun. What is more interesting is when you take the test some time later (they do change the questions) - have your views changed?

There are no right or wrong answers. This is just one big soup of grey - and regardless of where your position on the political compass it does not make you a bad person.

You can only answer the questions with: agree, Strongly agree, Disagree or Strongly Disagree. That is to say if you slightly agree (but only slightly) you have to go with that. The questions dont lead they are simply statements of fact - Do you or Dont you etc..

It has been developed by a team of independent poitcall analysts.

And for the record I came out as a middle of the road centre left libertarian:

Economic Left/Right: - 3.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.08

Before - three months ago, I was aprox:

Economic Left/Right: - 2.90
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.20

So Ive not chnged that much.

 

[Klown]

Economic Left/Right: -3.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.51

Pretty much right.

 

[Mark]

Economic Left/Right: -4.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

Nice test there.

 

[papapopalung]

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.44

just next door to gandhi! hehehe


could do with some more examples on our side...

 

[bringoutthegimp]

Economic Left/Right: -0.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.05

 

[trooper]

I hate politics.

But did the test anyway.

Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.38



Trooper

 

[declaration]

knew this would be the case:-

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

A true socialist.

 

[Wildheart Baby]

hmmm, interesting

Economic Left/Right: -6.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08

 

[ThndrShk2k]

Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.69

i seriously have no fucking clue wtf this means

 

[trooper]

Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.69

i seriously have no fucking clue wtf this means

Me neither. :blink:

 

[papapopalung]

Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.69

i seriously have no fucking clue wtf this means

Me neither. :blink:

it means you're definitely not any type of extremist, just tending a little bit towards the 'personal freedom' side...
not a bad place to be.

 

[Bobsonsirjonny]

Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.69

i seriously have no fucking clue wtf this means

Me neither. :blink:

it means you're definitely not any type of extremist, just tending a little bit towards the 'personal freedom' side...
not a bad place to be.

Ah - personal freedom. Typically and traditionally this as been the ground trodden by the right...

But then there is the up and down part - take Ken Clark he would be right wing libertarian - Magaret Thatcher - Clearly Right wing Authoritarian - but both in the same party.


Tony Ben - very left wing to the point of almost being off the compass, but equally very much for personal freedom.

Stalin - Very Left wing, but very much against personal freedom.

So I think that the concensus of oppinion is that its the extreme that is the problem.

For example an extreme Libertarian would go as far as to outlaw law itself. And with no rules by wich to abide by, think of the shit that would go down....

 

[Bobsonsirjonny]

knew this would be the case:-

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

A true socialist.

Really?

Many site Che and Stalin as the true socialists..... And they are vertical opposites to you


It's a good test though for it does help to seperate the simply jelouse from the genuine. That is some people vote socialist simply because they are jelouse of those with money and want more - in effect they are not socialist at all.


Do we have any Americans here - it'll be interesting to see them take the test. America has much greater extremes than us - infact our right wing parties are concidered to be left wing by some americans.

Also another interest is the beliefs held by certain sectors of society. When we did this on another site patterns were emerging. People with certain affiliations had certain views - and they were less obvouse than you would expect... however I wont say what those were for they may lead people, and thus spoil the experiment


And remember - THERE ARE NO RIGHT OR WRONG ANSWERS - you are not a bad person if you come out as X,Y, or Z - even Hitler, Stalin and Sadam did some good.... point is nothing is black and white.

 

[Axeman]

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Not suprised!

 

[generalnmx]

Many site Che and Stalin as the true socialists..... And they are vertical opposites to you


It's a good test though for it does help to seperate the simply jelouse from the genuine. That is some people vote socialist simply because they are jelouse of those with money and want more - in effect they are not socialist at all.

If you go by the true definition of socialism as a form of government created by Karl Marx, you find that Stalin could never, ever be a "true socialist" - he was a dictator! Socialism is, of course, the "masses" ruling the government directly. However, he did widely favour the economic opposite to capitalism, which is, of course, communism.

I think one of the major problems in democratic countries is many people merge the concept of communism and socialism. While Karl Marx intended the two to get together, that doesn't mean you can have a socialist government with a capitalist economy, or a dictatorship with a communist economy (the so-called "communists").

On a similiar note, all known democractic countries use "indirect democracy", which means you vote for politicians to take up your issues. Only one little step away is "direct democracy", where the common man (not a politician) joins a Senate in voting on the issues concerning the country. It's very close to socialism. This was developed by the Romans, before their corrupt Senate was disbanded by Julius Ceasar to form the Roman Empire.

 

[Esn]

Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.33

I'm also just about where Gandhi is... and I don't even know who that is! h34r:
Who is Gandhi?

Anyway, check out the graph at the very bottom of the result page! That's pretty interesting, how they group today's world leaders.

 

[ThndrShk2k]

Do we have any Americans here - it'll be interesting to see them take the test. America has much greater extremes than us - infact our right wing parties are concidered to be left wing by some americans.

I'm an American, it may just be that i live in Maine that you didn't notice anything XD

 

[Swiss_Cheeseman]

Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.67

Edit: I'm a hippie! Closest political party to my beleifs according to the compass is the Greens, but even then, I dont really beleive in some of their policies, and they are a pretty useless party, they have no power at all.

 

[Bobsonsirjonny]

Edit: I'm a hippie! Closest political party to my beleifs according to the compass is the Greens, but even then, I dont really beleive in some of their policies, and they are a pretty useless party, they have no power at all.

*sigh* having power is irrelevent. Many people dont vote for who they really want to vote for on grounds that "they dont have any real power"... yet if they get in, then they clearly would..

This thinking is one of the reasons why I think Proportional Representation is a good idea.

 

[declaration]

knew this would be the case:-

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

A true socialist.

Really?

Many site Stalin as a true socialist..... And they are vertical opposites to you

Many people cite wrong things

The test is a lie. Authoratarian/Libertarian can be totally different in relation to economic freedom/ personal freedom.

Many people would be economically authoritarian, but personally libertarian (ie- relating to abortions/drugs etc). Or vice-versa.

Therefore, imho it is quite misleading to lump these things together to create a number. Just, as the traditional political spectrum can be misleading, so can this one.