Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Another Political Test

I was looking for some information for my next blog post when I stumbled on to this political quiz. I can't be sure but I don't think I've seen it before. Unlike the other two quizzes I just covered, this one seems to be focused on the Libertarian and Authoritarian sectors with social and economic leanings influencing those.

Their introduction to the test is pretty good. Using an example of both Stalin and Gandhi being leftists, would it be fair to say one was more to the left than the other to account for their differences? Good point. Certainly more than a linear political spectrum is needed in that case.

I'm not sure I like the test itself. At least some of the questions seem to be leading you toward an answer. The first one, for example, asks "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.". I guess if you agree that assumes you think interests of international businesses are contrary to the world at large? Maybe that's their point, but still.

Or the third question: "No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it's foolish to be proud of it.". What kind of question is that? I almost feel as if they're trying to start an argument with me.

What if you don't agree with the premise of the question? Or don't really understand its intent from the way it's worded? Then again, I suppose you can always just agree or disagree- or strongly agree or disagree- with the question as I did and let the scores fall where they may.

I also don't like not having "Not Sure" available as an option. With the questions they asked I would have answered NS to a number of them. As it was I only Strongly Agreed or Disagreed with a few questions with the rest just agreeing or disagreeing, even if I wasn't sure I felt that way.

I scored in the upper left area of the right Libertarian quadrant, where I put the X in the illustration. I guess that makes me a Right Libertarian, but I'm pretty close to the center overall. I'd be willing to bet I'd score differently every time I took the test depending on what mood I was in.

2 Comments:

At 6:46 PM, Anonymous A Guy said...

Man, some of those questions are quite confusing, but it's an interesting range of material. I landed in the lower-left quadrant with an Economic Left/Right of -7.75 and a Social Libertarian/Authoritarian number of -6.21, which is about where I figured I'd end up.

 
At 12:49 PM, Anonymous democraticJon said...

I think with out reading further - which I hope to eventually - I'm just booked up right now. Any chart that places opposites as Libertarialn and Authoritarian is probably written by a Libertarian and thus is biased. But one get's to define themselves, it's up to other's to critque that definition - which I will - when I get time. I'm surprised these threads are not more popular. I love this topic. I think that is the problem - people just don't like or care about politics generally. Which is a shame because it is so important. If you call "politics" by another related name you might get why I think it is important - it's closely related to "policy" or "civics" - or whatever you might add - and those topics are pretty boring - at least compared to crime.

 

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