Test Your Ideology

Economic Left/Right: -1.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64

Economic Left/Right: -2.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

Economic Left/Right: -1.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.51

The votematch site labeled me "moderate libertarian" and put McCain at the top of the list with 40%, followed by Clinton, Bob Barr and Obama all tied at 28%. According to votematch, on economic issues I'm closer to McCain and on social issues I'm closer to Obama.

Not completely accurate, but pretty close I'd say.

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77

Economic Left/Right: 2.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.33

hah I was almost exactly in the center where the two axis intersect.

I guess you can all leave now. Im the only moderate at TMV. Or does that make me a CENTRIST>>??

Economic left/right -0.10
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian 0.11

Pretty interesting, Patrick! I've taken a number of these in the past, and generally end up within a hair of this one:

Economic Left/Right: -0.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.90

The matching of presidential candidates to scores on the VoteMatch quiz was a bit strange, I think. It prioritized social issues (and gave me Hillary, followed by Obama), but when I looked at who matched on economic issues instead, it was Bob Barr (with Chuck Baldwin(??) and Obama next).

Political compass:

Economic left/right: -4.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.95

I've taken several of these tests and each seems to be weighted differently. More often than not I arrive near center on average.

Vote match:

Highest economic score: Clinton @ 63%
HIghest social score: McCain @ 50%
Highest combined score: Obama @ 50%

Suggested political philosophy: Moderate populist

Economic Left/Right: -4.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.64

I just retook this test for the first time in a couple of years, and although it approximates my political leanings, I feel that it is a highly subjective and somewhat misleading tool.

For one thing, many of the questions asked have nothing to do whatsoever with politics. Whether I think abstract art is meaningful or not has nothing to do with my political leanings. Believing that most abstract art is meaningless does not indicate that someone has socially conservative leanings (as The Political Compass would imply), not does believing that most abstract art is meaningful indicate that someone has socially liberal leanings (as The Political Compass would imply).

Also, questions regarding the motives and appropriate aims of businesses and corporations are also not fundamentally political in nature. I might believe many corporations to be greedy and feel that they have a personal responsibility toward society as a whole (a supposedly economically liberal position), but that does not necessarily indicate that I feel that government should have the responsibility to regulate such practices (with opposition to governemnt regulation being a economically conservative position).

Since none of these questions offers a "none of the above" or "unsure" option, the test taker is given no opportunity to abstain from questions which are politically ambiguous (at best) or having nothing to do with ones political beliefs (at worst).

Secondly (and this is an admittedly minor objection compared to the first), the whole layout of the Compass itself is all wrong. Instead of assigning the terms "authoritarian" and "libertarian" their traditional meanings (with "authoritarian" meaning favoring broadly increased government power and "libertarian" meaning favoring broadly decreased government power) the creators of this test apply the terms "authoritarian" and "libertarian" solely to the social freedom axis. The result is the distorted labels that test takers derive from this test. People in the left lower quandrant will call themselves "Left Libertarians", despite the fact that a good number of these people have views that are economically authoritarian. Similarly, people in the right upper quandrant will call themselves "Right Authoritarians", despite the fact that a good number of these people have views that are economically libertarian. And finally, Authoritarians in the upper left quadrant and Libertarians in the lower right quandrant are labeled as on the "left" and "right" respectively. Such logic would erroneously lead us to conclude that Adolf Hitler was "left-wing" while Tommy Chong would be "right-wing."

Personally, I'd recommend the political test at www.quiz2d.com. It's politically biased to some extent (as are just about any political test you'd take), but the chart makes more intuitive sense in its layout, the questions are more politically relevant and allow for middle-of-the-road type answers, and the test allows you to gauge how important each political topic is to you so that your answers can be weighted accordingly.

Political Compass results:
Economic left/right: 0.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05
Political label: (left-leaning) Right Libertarian

Political Quiz in 2D results:
Economic axis: ~65%
Social axis: ~95%
Political label: Left-Leaning Freedom Lover

There is one thing that I believe does tend to discredit the Political Compass. Looking at their examples I find that my results put me within a fraction of a point of Gandhi. And I agree with nic about the lack of having a "not sure" or in my case "It depends" option. It would shift my "score" a lot.

what nic said.

"Or as the Buddhist said to the hot dog vendor...'make me one with everything!"

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.18

On the other one, I was a 58% or Populist-leaning Libertarian

Oh I dunno Jim. I always though that you Gandhi as virtually indistinguishable. If you lost a few pounds and wore a sarong I mean.

I dunno. I think he might resent someone whose ancestry is largely Anglo-Saxon/Celt being in that spot.

Ok, since others posted actual scores

Political Compass

Economic Left/Right:: 2.24

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.10

Political Compass:

Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.10

Just took the test @ www.quiz2d.com and landed almost smack-dab in the center, which is where I usually score on these tests. Thanks nicrivera for your well-considered analysis of the first test. Either I'm getting more complacent as I age, or experience has moderated my views. I'm afraid to hazard a guess as to which...