Intro
This will be a very, very extremely rough post so anybody viewing this will have to try to ignore that.
I’ve been ping-ponging (it’s a word) in my head the idea of building my own political compass-style quiz for a while, but due to lazyness (see how many wordpress updates I have?), I’ve never actually got around to doing so.
So this will be a very rough draft of my ideological quiz based upon my own grand layman’s theory of ideology. It is more than likely wrong – I am no (Insert your favourite political philosopher here).
Problems with other political quizzes/theories -
Many political quizzes and theories assume that politics is fixed – i.e people who are left-wing are solely left-wing or who’re libertarian are solely libertarian. I feel that this is far too simple and that everybody is far-right, right, centrist, left and far-left but to varying degrees and which ideological viewpoint they take is contextual.
This also assumes that ideology isn’t fixed but morphological – so you can have people have a mixed ideological viewpoint. So for example, they may want health providers which are far-left (collectively owned, distribution based on need) but with far-right power structures (strict hierarchy). Or mixed within a certain category – so pay structures based upon merit, but with a maximum and minimum (concern for equality) pay structure around that. Or mixed-market (so a national health provider, but with private healthcare for those who want them).
A major problem is that they also tend to be very culturally specific – Abortion may be a taboo in one culture but not another, but anti-Abortion questions are often asked and are usually placed down the right-wing end of the spectrum – so this intends to be non-culturally specific.
Basic theory outline -
The basic theory assumes that there are five (plus one) ideological groups -
- Far-Left/Communal – Concern for all individuals.
- Left/Equality – Concern for equality
(obviously). - Centrist/Objective – Based upon merit/cost-benefit.
- Right/Egotistical – Competitive self-interest.
- Far-Right/Conformity – Conforming to the ‘natural order’/Authority.
- Representative vs Direct – Not really ideologically bound, but important to a grammar of politics, i.e doesn’t count toward left/right (Only applies to decision making, obviously).
Or as was attributed to the founder of the Illuminati -
“Liberty and Equality are the essential rights of man in his original and primitive perfection received from nature. Property (Economic) struck the first blow at Equality; political society of Governments (Political) were the first dispossessors of Liberty; the supporters of Government and Property are the religious and civil laws (Social); therefore to reinstate man to his his primitive rights of Equality and Liberty, we must begin by destroying all Religion (Social), then all Government (Political) and finish by the destruction of all Property (Economic)“.
Also terms like Libertarian were previously solely a word of the left/far-left but have been distorted now that the right use them for an Egoist philosophy (e.g Objectivism).
Economic ownership/Distribution - Communopoly (Far-Left), Co-opoly (Left), Meritopoly (Centrist), Egopoly (Right), Oligopoly (Far-Right)
Economic power structure – Anarchy (FL), Equiarchy (L), Technarchy (C), Egoarchy (R), Oligarchy (FR)
Political power structure – Acracy (FL), Democracy (L), Technocracy (C), Egocracy (R), Monocracy (FR)
Justice – Socius (FL), Equius (L), Utilitius (C), Egoius (R), Severius (FR)
Demographics – Omnipopulous (FL), Equipopulous (L), Meritopopulous (C), Egopopulous (R), Monopopulous (FR)
Expression – Omnivox (FL), Equivox (L), Meritovox (C), Egovox (R), Orthovox (FR)
Lifestyle Choices – Omnidox (FL), Equidox (L), Meritodox (C), Egodox (R), Orthodox (FR)
Questions should be asked according to a 5-point likert scale (Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree nor disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
Questions -
- [A] ..
.. should be owned collectively (Communopoly)
.. should be owned co-operatively by it’s members/users (L)
.. should be owned based upon merit (C)
.. should be owned individually (R)
.. shouldn’t be owned by certain people (FR) - [B]..
.. should be distributed based upon need (Communopoly)
.. should be distributed equally (L)
.. should be distributed based upon merit (C)
.. should be distributed based on ability to pay (R)
.. shouldn’t be distributed to certain people (FR) - [C]..
.. should be based on the ability to pay (Communopoly)
.. should be set at flat rate (L)
.. should be set according to cost-benefit analysis (C)
Individuals should seek to reduce their [C] burden (R)
.. shouldn’t apply to those at the top (FR) - Rates of pay..
.. should be based upon need (Communopoly)
.. should be equal (L)
.. should be based on merit (C)
Employees should seek to increase their pay (R)
Employees should just accept what they’re given (FR) - [D]..
.. should be made by consensus (Anarchy)
.. should be made by a majority vote (L)
.. should be made according to objective analysis (C)
Individuals should try to get their own way (R)
.. should be made by leaders (FR)
.. should be made by representatives (RE) - [E]..
.. should be chosen according to consensus (Anarchy)
.. should be chosen according to a majority vote (L)
.. should be chosen based upon merit (C)
Individuals should seek their own appointment to [E] (R)
.. should be appointed (FR) - [F]..
.. should be made by consensus (Acracy)
.. should be made by a majority vote (L)
.. should be made according to objective analysis (C)
Individuals should try to get their own way (R)
.. should be made by leaders (FR)
.. should be made by representatives (RE) - [G]..
.. should be chosen according to consensus (Acracy)
.. should be chosen according to a majority vote (L)
.. should be chosen based upon merit (C)
Individuals should seek their own appointment to [G] (R)
.. should be appointed (FR) - Punishment..
.. should seek to rehabilitate the offender (Socius)
.. should be proportional to the crime (L)
.. should seek to objectively deter future crime (C)
Individuals should try to reduce the severity of their punishment (R)
.. should be tough (FR) - Justice..
.. should be applied based on individual case factors (Socius)
.. should be applied equally (L)
.. should be applied according to cost-benefit analysis (C)
Individuals should try to reduce the length of their sentence (R)
.. should be applied differently based on social rank (FR) - [H]..
All [H] should be treated with decency (Omnipopulous)
All [H] should be treated equally (L)
[H] should be judged based on merit (C)
Individuals should prioritise their own [H] (R)
Certain [H] should accept their place (FR) - Expression of [I] opinions..
.. should all be protected (Omnivox)
.. should be treated equally (L)
.. should be judged based on merit (C)
Individuals should try to have their own [I] opinions dominate (R)
Only normal [I] opinions should be expressed (FR) - [J] choices..
.. should all be protected (Omnidox)
.. should be treated equally (L)
.. should be judged based on merit (C)
Individuals should try to have their own [J] choices dominate (R)
Only normal [J] choices should be permitted (FR)
Short version questions -
- [A]
Businesses, Public service providers, Natural Resources, Financial Capital, Personal wealth - [B]
Consumer Goods, Consumer service use, Public service use, Natural Resources, Financial Capital, Personal wealth - [C]
Taxes on disposable income, Taxes on disposable wealth - [D]
Executive business decisions, Managerial decisions - [E]
Executives, Managers, Representatives - [F]
Legislative decisions, Executive political decisions, Fiscal decisions, International decisions (“Individuals” becomes “Individual nations”) - [G]
Heads of State, Political leaders, Political representative, International leaders, International representatives - [H]
Demographics - [I]
Opinions (So [I] is blank) - [J]
Lifestyle, Spiritual
A longer version would break down further – Examples -
[A] could include various types of businesses (entertainment, energy, etc), public services (police, education, etc), types of natural resources (land, etc), etc
[B] could be broken down further in to it’s types (as above)
[C] Various types of taxes (Property, income, etc)
Rates of Pay for each industry or public service
[D] Decision making for each industry or public service
[E] Decision makers/managers/etc for each industry/public service
[F] Decisions for each area of politics/legislation (energy, education, tax, etc)
[G] Leaders or representatives for each area of politics
[H] Each type of demographic (Gender, Race, Nationality, Immigration status, etc)
[I] Each area where opinions could be expressed (Social, Political, Moral, etc)
[J] Each sort of lifestyle choice or taboo (Sexual, Food, Health, Spiritual, Drugs, etc)
And obviously terms/questions are subject to change – this is just a rough generic outline.
A calculation for Far-Left/Left/Centrist/Right/Far-Right -
Each category (Economic, Political, Social) would have it’s own scores – displayed as a percentage. Generic Far-Left/etc would be the average of those three scores.
Example – 30% EFL, 40% PFL, 35% SFL would give an overall FL score of 35%.
Each subcategory would be worked out in a similar fashion, with each category being an average of those percentages.
Using percentages would mean the number of questions for each subcategory could be unequal but each subcategory would have an equal score.
Categories & Sub-Categories -
- Economic -
-opoly = [A] + [B] + [C] + Rates of Pay
-archy = [D] + [E] - Political
-cracy = [F] + [G]
-ius = Punishment + Justice - Social
-populous = [H]
-vox = [I]
-dox = [J]
