Political compass

Wednesday 5 November 2003 — This is exactly 21 years old. Be careful.

Unsure where you fall in the broader political spectrum? Political Compass will tell you. Answer a quick (some would say simplistic) survey, and they will plot you against two axes: Economic Left/Right, and Libertarian/Authoritarian.

For the official record, my score:

Economic Left/Right: -3.38

Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.74

Of course, the authors of the site have a political view as well. The problem with trying to identify anything as left or right is that the placement of the center is subjective. I think that’s one of the reasons why conservatives believe the media is biased left. Politics in the US today don’t have any serious voices that are truly radical left. For example, Political Compass identifies most of the Democratic presidential candidates as right of center: The US Presidential Primaries 2003.

Comments

[gravatar]
Bernard Farrell 1:01 PM on 5 Nov 2003
I think the link should be http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/index.html.

The one that you have points to some web 'index' type of site.
[gravatar]
Ned Batchelder 1:18 PM on 5 Nov 2003
Whoops! .com, .org, why be so picky!

It's fixed now.
[gravatar]
Ben Langhinrichs 2:12 PM on 5 Nov 2003
I am
Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.92

so I guess that means I am further left and more libertarian than you. Not sure what that means, but it is interesting to know.
[gravatar]
Mike G. 3:34 PM on 5 Nov 2003
Economic Left/Right: -1.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.97

It's a wee bit scary that I'm almost at the same spot in the
graph as Jean Chretien. We're both Canadian, but I don't
agree with him THAT much... :)
[gravatar]
andrew 12:19 PM on 6 Nov 2003
What a sadly biased survey. The questions are all on the same plane as (choose one):

- I believe in universal health care for all children
- I believe that children should die horrible, diseased deaths.

Pathetic.

I answered them as honestly as possible, trying not to snort derisive laughter:

Economic Left/Right: 7.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: 2.05

Apparently, Hitler's got nuthin' on me.
[gravatar]
Chris 7:49 PM on 12 Nov 2003
All 6 page tests are essentially useless really - but fun time-wasters!! It's currently 'cool' to be a leftist libertarian - so that's where people will end up!! (expectedly, it's where I ended up as well..:)

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