So What Political Stripe Are You?
Although this is not a political blog, as my readers have seen, I do blog on occasion about so-called “political issues” simply because from my standpoint, all of us are affected by the decisions made by those in office and as such, there should be a vested interest in what they do year round and not every 4-5 years (or if you’re in Canada, every couple of months as the case seems to be lately. But I digress). Invariably, such discussions often lead to the question of what political party do you support – are you Conservative or Liberal, Republican or Democrat. Personally, I don’t affiliate with any party as I do with specific issues and how each party addresses them. In some ways, you could say I’m a special-interests group of one.
It’s not that I don’t understand the need some people have to attempt to categorize people into these tidy political ideology boxes; with a background in the sciences, I’m only too aware of the concept of categorization to group items based on a given set of criteria. However, the political landscapes in Canada and the US have been undergoing significant shifts over the last decade, with Canadian politics moving more and more toward regionalistic party representation and the US demonstrating an excessive polarization in right-wing/left-wing ideological labeling. As such, this previous categorization of political viewpoints based on political party lines is becoming less and less representational or accurate in truly describing anyone’s position on socio-economic issues.
It’s for this reason that a post from a fellow blogger I met on Twitter caught my attention as it addressed this very issue. In Saleema’s blog “metaphysical conceit”, she wrote about a website called “The Political Compass” and a test they created that offers a more accurate representation of your political viewpoint. The creators of the site come right out of the gate on the front page, pointing out how the current categorization of ‘left’ or ‘right’ is “overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape”, going on to question the reader on how they’d make a distinction between Stalin and Gandhi, who under such a simplistic classification system would be lumped together in the “left-wing” box despite their diametrically opposite viewpoints regarding how much power the state should have.
That’s why the creators of the site opt to use a four-dimensional model for analyzing political ideologies as opposed to the oft-used two-dimensional left-right approach much favoured these days both in media and in personal circles.
Of course when one does the test, it’s easy to see that some people will view the questions to be biased to one side or the other, a fact the writers of the test admit to as being necessary to better evaluate “whether you lean towards extremism or moderation on the Compass”. And as they state, the point of their website is “the model for political analysis. The test is simply a demonstration of it.”
So, how did I fare? Well, here’s the result I got after taking their test -
As you can see, I’m a libertarian leftist, whatever that’s worth (and yes, for my American readers, it is very much possible to be both as the writers of this test eloquently point out on their site). To get a proper frame of reference for these results, here’s two graphs showing where some of world’s leaders would place on this scale (including Stephen Harper interesting enough).
The Political Compass site provides an interesting examination of the current political landscape and the need for a more accurate and reflective means for defining political ideologies beyond the simplistic left vs right attitude many rely on these days. In addition to trying out this political test, I’d also suggest you take their “Iconochasms” quiz to see how well you know various leaders based on who you think said the quote in question. It does shed light on some surprising, if not shocking, ideas people who are normally held in high esteem have said on the record.
So take their test and find out what’s your real political stripe.
Some other posts you may enjoy:
It's such an interesting site, isn't it? It really clarified a few things for me, namely the economic aspect of neoliberalism — I was always puzzled by the term — I couldn't tell where they were finding the 'liberal' part of it!
Indeed, I think it's a very informative site, especially given the current attempts by some political groups to demonize certain political positions without so much as a proper explanation – and perhaps even understanding – of what these terms actually mean or represent. As with everything, I think the more people arm themselves with accurate information about such ideas, the greater the chance for truly understanding the issues and what position they probably would feel most comfortable with.
In any case, thanks for sharing news about the site, Saleema. And thanks also for stopping by.