Political Compass -

[TBF]

Out in the GD forum they are talking about political compass - http://www.democraticunderground.com/100291514

I bet the folks in this group are mostly down in the far left hand corner. It would be very interesting to see this test given nation-wide, as opposed to polls which ask if you are "liberal or conservative". I bet it would be very telling.

[PETRUS]

1. Read (and posted on DU in "Good Reads") an article earlier today

It was a review of a book about the Tea Party. Here are a couple of quotes:

<snip>

"Falling real wages, rising inequality, and unresponsive government have all fueled the Tea Party’s popularity, even if its false solutions would intentionally exacerbate such problems ... individuals may strongly support welfare programs like Medicare or Social Security—as most of the public does—but oppose “welfare” ...

A similar pattern seems to apply to public opinion on a wide range of issues. Most of the public thinks workers should have more income and power, but is more ambivalent toward the idea of unions ... the public overwhelmingly agrees with the Occupy Wall Street movement’s goals of reducing inequality, taxing the rich to fund social programs, and ending corporate domination of government, but stated support for the Occupy movement itself is lower"

<snip>

I also read a study a few weeks ago. The authors analyzed data comparing differing countries (that hold elections) and looked for correlations between public policy and the structure of government. One of the chief findings was that countries with proportional representation always had policies further left than other forms (like ours, for example).

These things suggest to me Americans are probably further left than the rate of self-identification as "liberals" or "conservatives" might lead one to believe, and that the structure of our political environment - single member district representation; first past the post, winner-take-all voting; the two-party system - is at least partly responsible.

[socialist_n_TN]

2. RE: further left than self identification polls....

I agree. In fact if you look at the polls on ISSUES and the polls on identification side by side, the numbers ONLY match up if you actually add the "moderates" in the identification polls in with the ones who identify as further left than "moderate".

Well that was awkward. I'll try to be clearer. The numbers on ISSUES only match the numbers on identification if you add the moderates in with the liberals and the very left. Ergo, although they don't think of themselves as "liberal" or "left" for identification, on ISSUES the moderates are just as left as the "liberals" or the "left". They just don't self identify as "liberal" or "left".

[Odin2005]

6. Economic -9.75, Social -7.33

[toddaa]

3. While it's an interesting exercise, I question it's value

What's the difference between Agree and Strongly Agree? It would be more interesting if they constructed the questions like Beliefnet's Belief-O-Matic, where you weigh the importance of the question. I think that would be more interesting.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

4. Left -9.12, Social -8.31

Right where I am every time I take this test.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/facebook/pcgraphpng.php?ec=-9.12&soc=-8.31

[Shortsleevedmagician]

7. -8.88, -6.15

I answer right wing on some of the questions regarding crime, abortion (undecided), and work ethic. Other than that pretty much all left.