The Political Compass
In the continuing spirit of light-hearted fun, I highly recommend that everyone take this quiz. I know many of us have taken it before, but I'd love to see how we all compare to each other and to where we think everyone else is. I'll supply my own answer in the comments after lunch. Have at it!
posted by Joshua @ 1:29 PM
16 Comments:
Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.49
I know! Libertarian Left? I'm as shocked as you all are.
My coordinates (Economic, Social) are (-5.38, -4.51), so I'm in line with Bela Bartok and Arnold Schoenberg, although as much as I appreciate the inherent structural beauty of twelve-tone compositions, I'm more of an old-school tonality gal.
My compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.15
Which according to the graphs puts me very close to the political leanings of both Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Boo-ya. Now where's my Nobel Prize?
Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.95
I'm in the Libertarian Right (surprise!), my friends. This puts me in the same quadrant as Milton Friedman (where's my Nobel Prize?), although I'm not quite as economically conservative as he is.
I find it really interesting that all of our 'Social' scores so far are within about a point of each other, especially when one considers some of the big discussions we've had on the blog. Of course, I'm in a world all by myself when it comes to economic issues.
So maybe that means we all believe in marijuana and pornography being legal, but I'm the only one who thinks someone should make money off them! Hi-o!
Economic Left/Right: -0.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.36
Apparently I'm a genuine moderate. If I hit the center, do I get double points?
Am I seriously the only person who likes capitalism?
Economic Left/Right: -1.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.54
Looks like I'm with Dave. And let me say, as a generic automaton made to serve one man, I thought I'd be a little more to the right economically, but then I considered the actual questions. As always, I'm the one to bitch about constraints imposed by the way the questions were asked. In many cases I answered their questions literally, even though I knew that I had a different answer for the 'actual' question they were getting at.
But I suppose my net result makes sense. I'm all for the free market, but think that enuring such a market requires regulation to curb the excesses that naturally accumulate to break such a system. Also, certain areas (environment, health) require special treatment/regulation, even though I would prefer that the solutions implemented within those paramenters use market forces where possible). In modern society the state can and should play a meaningful role in providing a saftey net of sorts, but one that still leaves people responsible for their own choices (ie. NOT the european model, and not the shambles we have in this country). Politically, I don't trust people to be anwhere near perfect and therefore authority should always be questioned, but questioned constructively. If in doubt, err on the side of skepticism.
It is not surprising that we are all near each other socially (since it is my humble opinion that on that liberal authoritarian scale there IS a correct answer, and it is the one we have chosen). Economically, its also not a surprise that we differ more, since that is where most of our policy disagreements have come from.
Tac: As I said, "The game is flawed! The game is flawed!" (hell, the graph even looks like a Go board). I believe that the choice of the questions (ie. which issues are used as indicators) and the manner in which they are asked skews the results to the left. That being said, it does give a rough esitmate of our positions relative to one another, and it is no surprise that you end up further on the economic right than most of us. My guess is that there is some bleed over from your social leanings (viz. government should not meddle) that makes you answer a little more strong against any of the "economic" (scoring wise) questions they ask about government intervention in markets.
What I would like to see is a breakdown on what people answered for specific questions. It would be insteresting to see specifically which questions caused us to diverge and on which we largely agree. Perhaps if I have more time this afternoon I will make an excel sheet for everyone to answer on so that I can tally the results and get a more nuanced breakdown. Hell, maybe we could design a better compass. What would you all change in the way this test is run, if you could?
Interesting concept, Soc.
I would love to know how things were weighted, personally. Maybe then we could all quibble with the weighting!
You're totally right about why I am the lone 'capitalist,' though; my distrust of government regulation does bleed over into the ecomomic sphere. Of course, when it comes to trusting either big corporations or big government, that's where it gets sticky...
I also think I skew right economically because I make a big distinction between individual morality and government policy. What's compassion in an individual is often folly in a government.
Aside from that, I'll take Socratic's "the game is flawed" and raise him an "incomplete! incomplete!"
Actually, I really like capitalism itself, and think that Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations is seriously one of the best books ever.
I don't like any system to the absolute, of course, so don't misconstrue me, but capitalism works and it's totally fun.
I just had a thought about the quiz itself. I think what it's missing (aside from less ham-fisted questions) is a "what importance do you give this matter?" for each subject. I mean, right now the quiz robots probably assume that I give equal weight to my views on bottled water and racism!
If only there were some mathematical savant *cough* Boudicca *cough* who could explain the way to best weight a quiz such as this...
LoWrit,
Fantastic link! The Mrs. and I will take the quiz and report on our results in short order. Thanks!
**Note** When you take this, you have the option of copying HTML code for your results. Blogger does NOT like this code. FYI.
You are a
Social Liberal
(63% permissive)
and an...
Economic Liberal
(21% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Democrat
You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (49, -106)
modscore: (13, 38)
raw: (1735)
**Interesting.... I move from Quadrant III to Quadrant IV... I feel like my core results are the same, but the Social Axis has undergone a reflection across the Economic Axis... **
You are a
Social Liberal
(71% permissive)
and an...
Economic Moderate
(56% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Democrat
You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness. loc: (81, 24)
**I assert that I'm closer to the Libertarian line. They have me almost in-line with Adam Sandler, though, and I don't know what to make of that.**
My okcupid results...
You are a
Social Liberal
(83% permissive)
and an...
Economic Liberal
(21% permissive)
You are best described as a:
Socialist
You exhibit a very well-developed sense of Right and Wrong and believe in economic fairness.
Which is true, though I'd never call myself a socialist. I was placed squarely between Hilary, Ghandi, and Bono, by the way, in case that surprises anybody.
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