Here's a linky (http://www.politicalcompass.org/test) to a site called 'The Political Compass'. I feel sure I've seen it on this forum before, but maybe that was before the wipeout.

The idea is that basic left/right wing labels are not very useful in determining someone's political stance. This model plots your views on both economic and social lines and then you can compare yourself to various famous political figures.

It takes about 5 mins and is quite interesting for those into politics.

Here's the analysis chart for famous political figures:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/international.jpg

And here's how I came out:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/politicalcompass.jpg

The questions are also interesting in their own right - feel free to start a discussion on any points about which you feel strongly! We all like a mass debate, afterall :)

Wow! Very interesting Vik - thank you for the link!

This is my score:

Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.92

http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u94/TempusFugitFun/Politics.png

On the whole, for a lot of the questions I was kind of sitting on the fence and probably only ranked about six with Strongly Agree/Disagree.

Perhaps I should do it again (but have to rush out the door in a minute :rolleyes:)

Interesting questions.
I scored in the same area....not as far left as Vik though.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9540/politicalcompassvh7.png

Economic Left/Right: -6.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.87

http://www.politicalcompass.org/facebook/pcgraphpng.php?ec=-6.12&soc=-4.87


See, I answered practically, and not ideologically. I don't have enough trust in humans to have a utopian vision, but if I were to answer that way the dot would be pushed far into the bottom left corner. I did expect that, with my practical attitude, the dot would be further up towards or even inside of the authoritarian field, but I guess my strong ideas on economic restrictions and social freedom are interpreted as 'libertarian lefty' by this test ;)

Many questions had me on the fence too, and I found reasons to both agree and disagree. But hey, that's what my field of study is all about -- I could have endless discussions about a lot of these questions. However, this one bugged me most:

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

You see, this is just an undeniable truth. Now, I don't like one-party states in any shape or form, but it is true that without opposition, you can get a lot more done...! How do you answer this, then? I chose 'strongly disagree' with the spirit of the message, in the end.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii224/jsinghd/pcom.jpg

I found the choice of multiple choices flawed since there was no middle ground to answer.

For example on this question: In criminal justice, punishment should be more important than rehabilitation.

Criminal justice would be better suited in the most severe of cases and rehabilitation for minor offences for those who pose less risk to society.

http://i524.photobucket.com/albums/cc324/PeanutSoup/politcal.gif

My results are pretty much what I'd expect, and while that's how I feel, I believe there is a naivety or innocence attached to how I would love the world to be and that human nature being as it is, these things may never happen.

I don't think my results were very accurate on this test. It had me in the green quadrant.

When I teach political studies to students in American Government, I use the one on the OK Cupid website because it does a great chart on aligning the answers with real political parties in the American system. Over the years most of my students come up as centrist.

Here is that link http://www.okcupid.com/politics

http://cdn.okcimg.com/_img/layout2/tests/politics/chart-intro2.jpg

I'm pretty much the same but in a different graph...

http://i524.photobucket.com/albums/cc324/PeanutSoup/politcal2.gif

Thanks Sam, that's another good one!

...
However, this one bugged me most:

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

You see, this is just an undeniable truth. Now, I don't like one-party states in any shape or form, but it is true that without opposition, you can get a lot more done...! How do you answer this, then? I chose 'strongly disagree' with the spirit of the message, in the end.

Agreed -- Obviously it's true. However, I don't support the idea of a having a one-party state. I chose 'agree', because I decided to take advantage of the choice of the word 'significant', because it could be argued that it was not 'signicant', and that sat better with me than agreeing whole-heartedly.


My results:

Economic Left/Right: -3.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00


http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y271/aurora_rose2005/politicalcompass.jpg

I answered most the test in a cynical but idealistic way (is that an oxymoron? :razz:).

For example, the question about not trusting corporations to voluntarily give and therefore they should be regulated: I said 'agree', because I know they won't (cynical/realistic), but I feel they should (idealistic) so therefore, they should be watched.

Found myself wanting to justify my choice on practically all of them!

Yes, that bugged me too, Nay! There were one or two that were like that, and one or two where I would have preferred a 'no opinion either way' option.

What did you choose for that one, if you don't mind sharing, and why?

On these tests... I think it would be interesting to have a dot that symbolised the 'average' location of opinions. Would be interesting to see where people are generally in contrast to where a politician is.

I come out the sameish on Sam's one too:

http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j156/vikstar80/othercompass.jpg

I do this political compass test every once in a while, thinking 'I must have grown up a little bit and become a little more conservative by now' and yet it always comes out the same.

There's that saying, isn't there - that if a man isn't a socialist when he is 18 then he has no heart, and if he isn't a conservative by 35 then he has no head - or something along those lines. I'm fast becoming brainless, oh noes.

Storm, do you mean me? If you did then I put 'disagree' because while it is a true statement, it does assume that delaying the political process by debate hinders progress, where I would argue that progress is made through debate, mostly. There are of course always exceptions such as when it's vital to make a spur of the moment decision, but those 1. are few and far between and 2. often cause the two or more parties in the system to make temporary truce as they are normally not party political issues, and 3. are often catered for by existing legislation, such as emergency committees, etc.

oh lol, i've taken this before :) im like really close to the middle, cant do it now :D but i dunno, my mind changes a lot, so those questions ..dunno if my answers then apply now :)

I'm not really a political person as I don't understand some of the language that is used, but this is how I scored.
All of us, so far, have scored quite similarly.

http://i373.photobucket.com/albums/oo177/db1986/Political_Compass.jpg

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8156/pcgraphpngpoliticalgrapal9.th.png (http://img217.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pcgraphpngpoliticalgrapal9.png)http://img217.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)