Political compass
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A political compass or political diamond is a multi-axis model used to label or organize political thought on several dimensions. They are intended as an alternative to the originally one-axis (Left versus Right) model, which has been widely adopted over the past two centuries; see glossary of the French Revolution.
[edit] Overview
The first illustration appeared in Floodgates of Anarchy, by Albert Meltzer and Stuart Christie, published in 1970. However, the term Political Compass was first used by a website which runs an online questionnaire that will rate political views on two axes: Economic (Left-Right) and Social (Authoritarian-Libertarian). The site also includes an explanation of the two-axis system they use, a few charts which place various past and present political figures according to their estimation, and reading lists for each of the main political orientations.
The underlying principle of the Political Compass is that political views may be better measured along two separate and independent axes. The Economic (Left-Right) axis measures one's opinion of how the economy should be run: "The Left" is defined as the view that the economy should be run by a cooperative collective agency (which can mean the state, but can also mean a network of communes), while "the Right" is defined as the view that the economy should be left to the devices of competing individuals and organisations. The other axis (Authoritarian-Libertarian) measures one's political opinions in a "Social" sense, regarding a view of the appropriate amount of "personal freedom": "Libertarianism" is defined as the belief that personal freedom should be maximised, while "Authoritarianism" is defined as the belief that authority and tradition should be obeyed.
The labels given to the different fields and axes on the compass are based on the long-standing European and Commonwealth terminology. Some of those labels are used differently in the politics of the United States, which may confuse some American visitors to the website, although most of these terms are explained as they are used. This issue is discussed in the Political Compass FAQ.
An analysis of contemporary political figures and electorates can be found at The Political Compass Website. See also the graph of contemporary political leaders set out on that site.
[edit] See also
- Political spectrum (discusses the dimensionality concept at length)
- Nolan Chart
- Pournelle chart
