I found this link over to ER's site and thought it interesting.
If you go here, you'll find the Political Compass website, where you can choose to take a survey to find out where they place you on a political compass.
The interesting thing there is that they measure not just Left and Right (as in More Communist or More Neo-Liberal/Capitalist or Libertarian) on the economic side of things, but also how you measure on a social side of things - more Authoritarian or more Libertarian (more State-Controlled or More Individual Freedom).
My score was:
Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.05
Or to the Left of Gandhi economically and more libertarian socially.
As is always the case with this survey, there are problems with the questions. For instance, "A mother can have a job but her primary role should be home-maker"
The statement repulses the feminist in me and I would strongly disagree, but then, in reality, I think ALL of our primary role ought to be home-makers. That is what people should be about - making a home and a community.
So, strictly honestly-speaking, I would answer a Strong Yes, but instead - because of the oppressive/sexist sound of the question - I answered a Soft No.
Still, an interesting test. Give it a try.
Given those results, you might want to check this out:
ReplyDeletehttp://all-left.net/
Just to clarify: I don't think I'm anywhere near as "communist" as those results would suggest. I believe in private ownership. I'm not especially looking for gov't solutions.
ReplyDeleteBut neither do I trust corporations. At all. And so I want some gov't regulation. I suppose that is why it through me so far to the Left...
But thanks for the heads up, I'll check out that site.
I came up as a -8.25 on the economic left/right axis and a -6.72 on the social libertarian axis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that the questionaire has problems. It never lets you say you are neutral on any question. You are forced to agree or disagree with each statement. There needs to be a greater range. Also, as you point out, some of the questions are loaded.
I'm also not at all sure that all of their famous people are plotted correctly. Still this does have the strength of at least getting people to think in more than one dimension.
It's an interesting survey because it does not ask opinion on current specific political views, but rather wider basic philosophy about where government and the individual interface. I was surprised to score a -2,-1 (Ghandi with more clothes?). More peculiarly, after introducing it
ReplyDeleteover on Seth's 'Hard Astarboard' blog, he and one of his hard right
commentators were aghast to find
themselves over there in the Ghandi
area also!? Makes one wonder if all the divisive vitriol is 'sound and fury, signifying..."
I was wondering where some "righties" might land and it doesn't surprise me that most Americans would be down in the bottom and towards the center left.
ReplyDeleteI took the survey and tried to give the MOST right-ish answers I thought most conservatives would give and it did go up slightly into the upper right, but I was being pretty extreme.
It is interesting to see where bloggers fall on the chart. At
ReplyDeletehttp://the-zoo.blogspot.com/2004/06/blogosphere-political-compass-project_30.html
some 300 bloggers of varying view and clout have sent in their results. Michelle Malkin, for example, while being far right, fell midway on the authoritarian/libertarian axis.
Quite intriguing that of the 300
data points, extremely few bloggers
fell into the upper left quadrant.
(can we expect your test results to
show up at 'the Zoo'?)
My best friend since high school scored something like a +8, +6, way up in the upper right quadrant. After he saw my score, he said: "I don't even know why I like you." I replied, "We need each other." :-)
ReplyDeleteI scored Economic Left/Right: -2.63
ReplyDeleteSocial Libertarian/Authoritarian:
-3.79
It's a bad test. It gives all sorts of questions that have nothing to do with political views. This is a similar test, although it slants libertarian.
ReplyDelete"...because of the oppressive/sexist sound of the question - I answered a Soft No."
ReplyDeleteThat's standing up for your principles!
I, too, scored close enough to Gandhi to give him a hug!
ReplyDeleteEconomic Left/Right: 5.13
ReplyDeleteSocial Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.74
Interesting, I'm actually more on the "left" when it comes to social issues. I've taken this before, and my economic scale has shifted to the left. You evil socialists are rubbing off on me!