First things first. In the United States there’s Left and Right. But there are two major classifications of Issues Economic (Taxes, Funding, Spending, Big vs. Small Government) and Social (Equal Rights, Abortion, Moral Issues, Religion). However to be a “Republican” you have to be right of average on both issues. To be a “Democrat” you apparently have to be left on both types of issues. But that’s in a American perspective, in a world wide perspective, Democrats are right on both issues most of the time as well. What if there’s someone like me who’s Right on one and Left on the other? Where do I fall? Oh independent, of course. It’s really that we need Four parties. We may see that being created over the next couple of years/decades/centuries.

Here’s how The Political Compass works:

It plots the beliefs of someone on an grid. The X Dimension is how far left right you are on economic Issues. The more Right you are the more Economically Conservative you are. The more Left you are the more Economically Liberal you are. The Y Dimension is how you are on social issues. Down is more Libertarian (Socially Liberal) Up is more Authoritarian (Socially Conservative).

I think this system is much better to look at then our political landscape. This is how people would be in the ENTIRE world. Here’s a look at some common historical names.

I found it not surprising at all that Hitler was all the way at the top. How about some current world leaders? Anyone want to know where George W. Bush would fall on this little test? Let’s look!

So why don’t we use this to help us vote? WE CAN! Here are the current US Presidential candidates on this test. Note most of them are in the Upper Right Quadrant.

It’s interesting that our split between Republicans and Democrats seems to be at the +5 on the economic scale. I find it strange that there are only two Quadrants of this grid that are populated at all. We need new parties. There is no choice here. Most of Europe would have the whole board populated.

The question is where are you? Take the test! It takes only 5 minutes, and you learn a lot about yourself. I learned for instance that I am close to dead center. Just a little to the right and a little down. These are my results.

Economic Left/Right: 2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.00

Please comment and let me know where you are! I’d really like to know!