Monday, April 28, 2008

Here’s another quiz we might enjoy:

http://politicalcompass.org/

This quiz has the nuance of going beyond left vs. right, and adds a dimension of libertarian vs. authoritarian. Post your scores and we’ll see whose politics we’re most scared of.

My scores:

Economic Left/Right: -2.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.67

So, I'm slightly economically liberal, and slightly socially libertarian; which is disappointing because I'd rather have come out slightly conservative, slightly authoritarian. I guess I can always go back and change my answers...

9 comments:

Erin said...

I would like to mention that I am a theologically conservative, pro-life Christian. Who happens to be a radical lefty on all things economic. Here are my scores:

Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:
-4.82

Jason said...

Interesting test, I don't feel much like I know what to make of the results. You can give me your feedback.

Economic Left/Right: -3.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.05

-Dave said...

Economic Right: 4.00
Authoritarian: 0.05

I'd probably fall much more into the Libertarian Camp if I weren't answering my questions mindful of a God who describes Himself as a King.

Kenny said...

Dave, I’d be interested to know why your belief in God as King makes you less libertarian.

-Dave said...

The phrasing of some of the questions wasn't "should people rule people" but were along the lines of "people should be free to do whatever they want."

If the questions are explicitly about the ability of people to rule over other people, then my answers will shift decidedly away from centralized power and authoritarianism because I don't really trust anyone to manage that.

I'll strongly disagree with "no one has the right to tell me what to do," but it's because I firmly believe that God has that right.

Finally, I think that it's hard to go too far down the path of libertarianism if you believe in God as a Ruler, not just as the source of all belevolence, because your base assumption begins with a Lord-subject relationship.

Jeff said...

Economic: 0.00 (no joke!)
Social: -7.10.

I generally classify myself as a liberal with libertarian sympathies, so yeah, this works. Especially since I'm a civil liberties/church-state separation nut.

Anonymous said...

I'm not crazy about the questions. I could give many examples but here are two:

"a significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system."

Of course that's a significant advantage of dictatorship. It happens to have other drawbacks.

How about this:

"the businessperson and the manufacturer are more important than the writer and the artist."

We need manufactured things to live: Maslow's pyramid and all that. Does that mean I think writers and artists are fundamentally less important? Not really.

Also that chart at the end says a lot more about views of the author than the figures represented.

They've got Merkel, Brown, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, and Bush lined up on an almost completely straight slope in order of increasing odiousness to the Left. With Bush topping out as the second most authoritarian person in this universe next to...Robert Mugabe. Ahem.

Who are his photographic negatives on the opposite side? Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

I somehow think the "diverse professional team" who "assessed the words and actions" of these "internationally known contemporary leaders" consists of a guy with a "War is Not the Answer" sticker on his car and his Canadian friend. They probably had several deep phone conversations about it, and how, like, totally amazing it is that they each came out exactly BETWEEN the Dalai and Nelson in their scores.

Ben said...

Well, nevertheless, the quiz is useful for comparing ourselves to each other.

Somehow I missed it when Kenny first posted this blog.

I got -4.88 on Economic and -4.00 on Social.

So I'm economically more liberal than Dave (big surprise there), Kenny, Jason, and Jeff (now THAT surprises me). I'm economically more conservative than my communist friend Erin ;). That also surprises me somewhat.

Socially, I'm more liberal than Kenny, Jason, Dave, and (just barely) Erin. Unsurprisingly, I'm socially more conservative than my anarchist friend Jeff.

(Note to strangers reading this blog: Erin's not a communist and Jeff's not an anarchist.)

Ρωμανός ~ Romanós said...

I don't know most of the people commenting on this blog, and you probably don't know me, but I also took the test. I came out with this:

Economic Left/Right: -3.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:
+0.41

I'm actually not surprised. I am a failed commune-ist with vestiges of monarchist idealism in me. On a day to day basis, I believe in "the least government is the best government", and I draw some inspiration from East Asian philosophy, like the Tao Te Ching, and even Neo-Confucianism. I think of all political systems that I've studied, I like Chinese concepts the best (not current, but traditional political thinking), and I wish they worked. This is where the Gospel comes in. This is also why I've always thought that the Chinese socio-political world view could have succeeded if Christ was authentically placed in center position. And why the history of the Taiping "Rebellion" has always fascinated me, and still does.