Times Political Spectrum Test
May 8th, 2005 at 9:44 am by David FarrarThe Tiimes Online site has a nifty political spectrum test. It is not totally dissimiliar to the well known political compass test but the questions are quite different, and you get to see your place on the spectrum move about as you answer.
Talking of political compass, I like the fact that this graph shows that the so called extreme-right British National Party is in fact an authoritarian left party.
Anyway back to the Times test, I scored 71 on the social scale and 74 on the economic scale which puts me in my normal favourite part of the spectrum. Possibly I should be worried that this test makes me appear slightly more libertarian than Peter Cresswell, who is the former Libertarianz Leader 
Hat Tip: Not-PC
No tag for this post.
May 8th, 2005 at 10:06 am
Surely with the BNP, the point is not whether or not they are right or left, but rather that they are openly racist, white supremacist a**holes?
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 11:02 am
The thing with the BNP is that racist authoritarian streak. I think the rest of racist politics is generally deeply confused, they’re primarily about one issue – a deluded ideology of race. Look at the National Front here, they make less sense than Destiny. Racist parties are usually excessively extreme right on the moral spectrum, pro-life, anti-feminist, etc. Very similar to christian conservatives on certain moral issues. I’ve never come across a racist who didn’t think homosexuals are deeply unnatural. And of course they’re always authoritarian in a way that Stalin woulds envy, it’s the only way their ideology could work. But they’re often a bit left on issues like collectivism, within the parameters of the ‘aryan race’, of course.
Translation – the biggest nutters on the political spectrum.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 11:03 am
40 social and 62 economic. Which puts me on the cusp of Libertarian/Right Wing and close to Reagan. I’ll start bombing Russia in five minutes. The questions are better thought out than the old political compass test
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 11:21 am
Did better in the old politcal compass test, for the pol spectrum I got Social 22 Economic 53.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 11:53 am
At this rate I’ll have to consider taking you off my Blogroll of ‘Authoritarian Blogs’, David, and ‘promote’ you to the ‘Libertarian Blogs’ list instead.
Although, to be fair, some of ‘The Times’ questions and assumptions are a little odd, such as the idea that painting graffiti and picketing is a libertarian thing to do.
A more accurate set of questions and quiz I’ve found is the Advocates for Self Government’s ‘World’s Smallest Political Quiz’ found at http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html.
If you score Libertarian in ~that~ quiz David I’ll definitely ‘promote’ you.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 1:25 pm
The website refused to respond once the test completed (well, near as I can tell, it asked me about 16 questions), so I can only guess at what the score was (according to the rolling spectrum). Looked about economic 58, social 13 though??? Will have to try it later and see whether that is right.
I guess getting pissed off at x-rated movies before the watershed and teenage hooligans vandalising stuff (among other things) has a real effect on the shift towards the authoritarian side.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 5:52 pm
Almost dead on top of Reagan
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 6:23 pm
That quiz is rubbish. I got pushed towards “authoritarian” for actions exactly consistent with libertarian concepts of individual responsibility and choice. For example, I got moved authoritarian for deciding to give a poor dude 5 pounds so he can sleep in a shelter. I also got pushed towards authoritarian for stopping kids defacing property – doing it myself without calling the police. I guess if you chose “call the police” you’d be pushed towards libertarian. Bizzaro.
So I state again – that particular test is rubbish IMNSHO.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 6:54 pm
Agree with Willie, some of the choices were obnoxious. I was also annoyed at getting pushed authoritarian by confronting the kids.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Me too was piggybacking Reagan.
Vote:May 8th, 2005 at 8:34 pm
I guess in the end it depends on the weightings given to each question by the designer – a couple there which should have moved people in two directions, rather than just one. This test has me both more economic right-wing (slightly) and more socially authoritarian (by a fair amount).
Could depend on definitions of each as well – it is possible that the “authoritarian” implied here has a bias towards “social cohesion” (as in not individualism which the guy who designed it perceives as “selfishness”) thus making any generous offering to some poor homeless bloke an authoritarian act. There would also be discrepencies in forcing people to pick a certain option, which would stereotype them to an extent and thus skew the result slightly away from the reality.
In the end I was really economic 60, social 16. That’s slightly more authoritarian and economically right-wing than Thatcher. Hmm. The ecocomic score makes sense, but I think the social is a tad harsh. I’d probably be more out in the mid twenties, if I was to position myself.
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 8:17 am
get a grip people..it’s just a game..(some of you seem disturbed by the glimpse in the mirror though, cor!)
yeah the questions are a bit suss (with multiple answers relevant for many)..but hey!
i scored midway between left and libertarian(i was disturbingly centreist for much of it but was saved at the end from that ignomony)..on a direct line between green party and chomsky..i can live with that company..
yiam (whoar.co.nz)
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 8:44 am
Agree Willie. But in the end I scored 29 social and 58 economic which seems to put me near Thatcher.
And not PC, I score firmly libertarian on the test you mention
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 11:20 am
I scored 44 for Libertarian and 74 for economic. Mind you I once scored a “perfect” 10 for economic on the political compass test.
Agree with Willie about the questions. The definition that is given for Libertarian in no way goes with the questions that are asked.
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 11:31 am
DPF – time for a NZ version. I am sure the group could come up with some questions to define the Kiwi political landscape.
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 5:39 pm
“Hat Tip: Not-PC”. Apparently we are now in the post-PC age.
Vote:May 9th, 2005 at 11:05 pm
Tonto, you said: “Apparently we are now in the post-PC age.”
But I can’t really call myself Not-Post-PC, now could I?
Berend, you said: “And not PC, I score firmly libertarian on the test you mention
”
Well, well! But 29-58 on the Times test is a little suss then, don’t you think? ;-/
Paul, you said: “DPF – time for a NZ version. I am sure the group could come up with some questions to define the Kiwi political landscape.”
I have been compiling over the last ten years the answers to the Advocates’ World’s Smallest Political Quiz, as they’ve been completed by party MPs and party supporters at various events we Libz have held. (As you might know, we’ve been using these quizzes since the party began, and you can find it at the Libz website, http://www.lp.org.nz. Different questions to the Times quiz. Feel free to email me your results – along with the party you support – to organon at ihug dot co dot nz.)
Anyway, the collected results over those years do make very interesting reading.
One thing that has been clear right from the early days of running the quiz is that there is a distinct ‘phase shift’ between party supporters and that party’s MPs; ie., a party’s MPs are almost always closer to the Authoritarian end of the diamond than are their supporters.
I think we see an example of that here with some of the results, such as those of DPF.
I’ve found consistently this ‘phase shift’ is most distinct with the Green Party, many of whose supporters score well up in the left-libertarian position of the diamond, but none of whose MPs even come close. (A similar but ‘mirrored’ result is found with the ACT Party, though a little less distinctly, with many ACT supporters in the right-libertarian position.)
With most of these Green supporters and their MPs their problem comes in not being able to score well on issues of economic freedom – and the most consistent reason for not doing so is a poor understanding of economics.
With the ACT Party supporters I’ve found one problem is often a low commitment to personal freedom – not so much a poor understanding of what personal freedom means, as a blank refusal to countenance that some things are just not the government’s business, or that other people should be allowed to do things that they themselves wouldn’t want to. Another problem is an insistence on ‘compromise’!
So as I say, interesting reading these results over the years, and very refreshing to see The Times recognise that the diamond spectrum is of much more use in explaining political allegiance than is the one-dimensional left-right spectrum.
Amongst other virtues, the diamond spectrum – or ‘Nolan Chart’ as it is known – explains quite simply why Libertarianz will often agree with ACT on issues of economic freedom, and with the Greens on issues of personal freedom … and that many supporters of both Greens and ACT are not really either left or right, they are really libertarian-leaning. It shows too that both sets of supporters have much to learn from each other – such a shame about their respective MPs!
It also demonstrates that Labour and National barely differ at all on issues of substance (there, thought I’d slip that in at the end just to surprise you if you’ve read this far.)
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