An example of a multi-axis political spectrum chart. It is a variant of the Nolan chart without the libertarian bias.

A political spectrum (plural spectra) is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions. Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Geometry ( Greek γεωμετρία; geo = earth metria = measure is a part of Mathematics concerned with questions of size shape and relative position In Mathematics and its applications a coordinate system is a system for assigning an n - Tuple of Numbers or scalars to each point

Most spectra include a right wing and left wing. According to the simplest left-right axis, communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, opposite nationalism and fascism on the right. Left-right politics or the Left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions political ideologies, or political parties Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology Liberalism means different things in different contexts, sometimes left, sometimes right. Liberalism is a broad array of related ideas and theories of Government that consider individual Liberty to be the most important political goal Conservativism is almost always considered on the right. Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined

However, researchers have frequently noted that a single left-right axis is insufficient in describing the existing variation in political beliefs, and often include other axes. Though the descriptive words at polar opposites may vary, often the axes are split between cultural issues and economic issues, each scaling from some form of individualism (or government for the freedom of the individual) to some form of communitarianism (or government for the freedom of the community). Communitarianism, as a group of related but distinct philosophies began in the late 20th century opposing in its opinion exalted forms of Individualism while advocating phenomena In this context, the left is often considered individualist on cultural issues and communitarian on economic issues, while the right is communitarian on cultural issues and individualist on economic issues.

Historical origin of the terms

The terms Right and Left refer to political affiliations which originated early in the French Revolutionary era, and referred originally to the seating arrangements in the various legislative bodies of France. A political party is a Political organization that seeks to attain and maintain political power within Government, usually by participating in electoral Politics Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions Left-right politics or the Left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions political ideologies, or political parties In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities Syncretic politics involves taking political positions that attempt to reconcile seemingly opposed ideological systems usually by combining some elements associated with the A party platform, also known as a Manifesto, is a list of the principles which a Political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose A party system is a concept in comparative Political science concerning the system of government by political parties. A dominant-party system, or one party dominant system, is a Party system where only one Political party can realistically become the Government A multi-party system is a system in which three or more political parties have the capacity to gain control of government separately or in coalition Non-partisan democracy (also no-party democracy) is a system of representative government or organization such that universal and periodic Elections A single-party state, one-party system or single-party system is a type of Party system Government in which a single Political party A two-party system is a form of Party system where two major Political parties dominate voting in nearly all Elections at every See also List of political parties by United Nations geoscheme This is an overview of political parties by country, in the form of a table with a link See also List of political parties by country This is a lists of political parties by United Nations geoscheme around the world in the form This is a list of political parties around the world by ideology. The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an This is a glossary of the French Revolution. It generally does not explicate names of individual people or their political associations those can be found in List of people associated This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The aristocracy sat on the right of the Speaker (traditionally the seat of honor) and the commoners sat on the Left, hence the terms Right-wing politics and Left-wing politics. In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities

Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum was the ancien régime ("old order"). Ancien Régime ( pronounced: /ɑ̃sjɛ̃ ʁeʒim/ refers primarily to the aristocratic social and political system established in "The Right" thus implied support for aristocratic or royal interests, and the church, while "The Left" implied opposition to the same. Because the political franchise at the start of the revolution was relatively narrow, the original "Left" represented mainly the interests of the bourgeoisie, the rising capitalist class. At that time, support for laissez-faire capitalism and Free markets were counted as being on the left; today in most Western countries these views would be characterized as being on the Right. Laissez-faire ( pronunciation: French,; English,) is a French phrase literally meaning Let do (“allow to do” A free market is a Market in which property rights are voluntarily exchanged at a price arranged completely by the mutual consent of sellers and buyers Similarly, the opposition to capitalism was counted as being as "Right-wing", whereas now it is likely to be characterised as "Left-wing". Capitalism is the Economic system in which the Means of production are owned by private Persons and operated for Profit and where

As the franchise expanded over the next several years, it became clear that there was something to the left of that original "Left": the precursors of socialism and communism, advocating the interests of wage earners and peasants. Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based

Academic investigation

For almost a century, social scientists have considered the problem of how best to describe political variation; a sample of their results is given below.

Early research

In 1939, Leonard W. Ferguson carried out an analysis of political values using ten scales measuring attitudes toward:

• War
• Reality of God
• Patriotism
• Treatment of criminals
• Capital punishment
• Censorship
• Evolution
• Birth control
• Law
• Communism

Submitting the results to factor analysis, he was able to identify three factors, which he named Religionism, Humanitarianism, and Nationalism. Factor analysis is a statistical method used to explain variability among observed Variables in terms of fewer unobserved variables called factors Ferguson's Religionism was defined by belief in God and negative attitudes toward evolution and birth control; Humanitarianism was related to attitudes opposing the harsh treatment of criminals, capital punishment, and war; and Nationalism described variation in opinions on censorship, law, patriotism, and communism. Note that this system was derived through purely empirical methods; rather than devising a political model on purely theoretical grounds and testing it, Ferguson's research was purely exploratory. Although replication of the Nationalism factor was spotty, the finding of Religionism and Humanitarianism had a number of replications by Ferguson and others. ^[1][2]

Eysenck's research

Shortly afterward, Hans Eysenck began researching political attitudes in Britain. Hans Jürgen Eysenck ( March 4, 1916 in Berlin, Germany - September 4, 1997 in London, UK) was a He believed that there was something existentially similar about the National Socialists on the one hand, and the Communists on the other, despite their opposite positions on the left-right axis. As he described in his 1956 book Sense and Nonsense in Psychology,^[3] Eysenck compiled a list of political statements found in newspapers and political tracts and asked subjects to rate their agreement or disagreement with each. Submitting this value questionnaire to the same process of factor analysis used by Ferguson, Eysenck found two factors, which he named "Radicalism" (R) and "Tender-Mindedess" (T). Factor analysis is a statistical method used to explain variability among observed Variables in terms of fewer unobserved variables called factors Eysenck's R-factor is easily identified as the classical "left-right" dimension, although the T-factor is less intuitive; high-scorers favored pacifism, racial equality, religious education, and restrictions on abortion, while low-scorers had attitudes more friendly to militarism, harsh punishment, easier divorce laws, and companionate marriage. Despite the difference in methodology, location, and theory, the results attained by Eysenck and Ferguson matched; simply rotating Eysenck's two factors 45 degrees renders the same factors of Religionism and Humanitarianism identified by Ferguson in America. ^[4]

Eysenck was an outspoken opponent of what he perceived as the authoritarian abuses of the left and right, and accordingly he believed that, with this T axis, he had found the link between fascism and communism: according to Eysenck's research findings, members of both ideologies were tough-minded. Central to Eysenck's thesis was the claim that tender-minded ideologies were democratic and friendly to human freedoms, while tough-minded ideologies were aggressive and authoritarian. Although he was a longstanding opponent of fascism, having left Nazi Germany to live in Britain, Eysenck was not shy in attacking communism, noting the anti-Semitic prejudices of the Russian communist government, the luxurious lifestyles of the USSR's leaders despite their talk about equality and the poverty of their people, and the Orwellian "double think" of East Germany's naming itself the German Democratic Republic despite being "one of the most undemocratic regimes in the world today. Antisemitism (alternatively spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism; also rarely known as judeophobia) is the Prejudice against or hostility "^[5] Accordingly, he carried out studies on fascist and communist groups, finding members of both groups to be more dominant, and more aggressive, than controls. ^[6]

At the time, Eysenck's conception of tough-mindedness was criticized for a number of reasons. Firstly, virtually no values were found to load only on the tough/tender dimension. Secondly, his interpretation of tough-mindedness as a manifestation of "authoritarian" versus tender-minded "democratic" values was incompatible with the Frankfurt school's single-axis model, which conceptualized authoritarianism as being a fundamental manifestation of conservatism, and many researchers took issue with the idea of "left-wing authoritarianism. Authoritarianism describes a Form of government characterized by an emphasis on the Authority of the State in a republic or union Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist Critical theory, Social research, and Philosophy. "^[7] Thirdly, the theory which Eysenck developed to explain individual variation in the observed dimensions, relating tough-mindedness to Extroversion and Psychoticism, returned ambiguous research results. The trait of Extraversion-Introversion is a central dimension of human personality. Psychoticism is one of the three traits used by the psychologist Hans Eysenck in his P-E-N model (psychoticism extraversion and neuroticism model of personality ^[8] Lastly, Eysenck's finding that fascists and communists were more tough-minded than members of mainstream political movements was criticised on technical grounds by Milton Rokeach. ^[9]

Despite the problems of Eysenck's model, his dimensions of R and T were found by factor analyses of values in Germany and Sweden^[10], France^[11], and Japan^[12]. One interesting result Eysenck noted in his 1956 work was that in the United States and Britain, most of the political variance was subsumed by the left/right axis, while in France, the T-axis was larger, and in the Middle East, the only dimension to be found was the T-axis: "Among mid-Eastern Arabs it has been found that while the tough-minded/tender-minded dimension is still clearly expressed in the relationships observed between different attitudes, there is nothing that corresponds to the radical-conservative continuum. "^[13]

Rokeach's Research

Dissatisfied with Eysenck's work, Milton Rokeach developed his own two-axis model of political values in 1973, basing this on the ideas of freedom and equality, which he described in his book, The Nature of Human Values. ^[14] Rokeach claimed that the defining difference between the left and right was that the left stressed the importance of equality more than the right. Despite his criticisms of Eysenck's tough-tender axis, Rokeach also postulated a basic similarity between communism and fascism, claiming that these groups would not value freedom as greatly as more conventional social democrats and capitalists would, and he wrote that "the two value model presented here most resembles Eysenck's hypothesis. "^[15] To test this model, Rokeach and his colleagues used content analysis on works exemplifying fascism (written by Hitler), communism (written by Lenin), capitalism (by Goldwater) and socialism (written by various socialist authors). Multiple raters made frequency counts of sentences containing synonyms for a number of values identified by Rokeach, including freedom and equality, and Rokeach analyzed these results by comparing the relative frequency rankings of all the values for each of the four texts:

In excerpts from. . .

• Socialists - Freedom ranked 1st, Equality ranked 2nd
• Hitler - Freedom ranked 16th, Equality ranked 17th
• Goldwater - Freedom ranked 1st, Equality ranked 16th
• Lenin - Freedom ranked 17th, Equality ranked 1st

Later studies using samples of American ideologues^[16] and American presidential inaugural addresses^[17] were consistent with this model.

Later research

In further research^[18], Eysenck refined his methodology to include more questions on economic issues. Doing this revealed a split in the left-right axis between social and economic policy, with a previously undiscovered dimension of socialism-capitalism (S).

While factorially distinct from Eysenck's R factor, S did positively correlate with R, indicating that a basic left-right tendency underlies both social and economic values, although S tapped more into items discussing economic inequality and big business, while R is known to relate more to the treatment of criminals, and to sexual and military issues. An online quiz tests users on the three Eysenckian political dimensions. [2]

Most research and political theory since this time has replicated the factors shown above, either with two axes or three. For example, a recent analyis of survey data using principal component analysis was carried out in 2003 in the UK; the results of this study yielded the same two dimensions as found by Eysenck's original research: the familiar "left-right" R-dimension that mixes economic and social issues, and a second T-dimension that is described as "pragmatism vs idealisism. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located " See [3] [4] for more information.

Another replication came from Dr. Ronald Inglehart's research into national opinions based on the World Values Survey, although Inglehart's research described the values of countries rather than individuals or groups of individuals within nations. Ronald F Inglehart (born September 5, 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a political scientist at the University of Michigan The World Values Survey is an ongoing academic project by Social scientists to assess the state of sociocultural moral religious and political values of different Cultures Inglehart's two-factor solution took the form of Ferguson's original Religionism and Humanitarianism dimensions; Inglehart labelled them "secularism-traditionalism," which covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism, abortion, euthanasia and the importance of obeying the law and authority figures, and "survivalism-self expression," which measured issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners) and innovation, and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as homosexuality and vegetarianism, as well as willingness to partake in political activism. Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country An Euthanasia (literally "good death" in Ancient Greek) refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner In the political arena the term diversity (or diverse is used to describe political entities (neighborhoods cities nations student bodies etc The term innovation means a new way of doing something It may refer to incremental radical and revolutionary changes in thinking products processes or organisations Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes Meat (including game and slaughter by-products Fish (including Shellfish and other sea Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change See [5] for Inglehart's national chart.

Other Proposed Dimensions

Numerous alternatives exist, usually developed by those that feel their views are not fairly represented on the traditional right-left spectrum. One alternative spectrum offered by the conservative American Federalist Journal emphasizes the degree of political control, and thus places totalitarianism at one extreme and anarchism (no government at all) at the other extreme. Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a concept used to describe Political systems where a State regulates nearly every aspect of public and private Anarchism is a Political philosophy encompassing theories and attitudes which support the elimination of all compulsory Government, i In 1998, political author Virginia Postrel, in her book The Future and Its Enemies, offered a another single axis spectrum that measures one's view of the future; on one extreme are those who allegedly fear the future and wish to control it: stasists, and on the other hand are those who want the future to unfold naturally and without attempts to plan and control: dynamists. Virginia I Postrel (born 14 January 1960) is an American political and cultural Writer of broadly Libertarian The Future and Its Enemies is a 1998 book by Virginia Postrel where she describes the growing conflict in post- Cold War society between " Dynamism The distinction corresponds to the utopian versus dystopian spectrum used in some theoretical assessments of liberalism, and the book's title is borrowed from the work of the anti-utopian classic-liberal theorist Karl Popper. Utopia is a name for an ideal community taken from the title of a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional Island in the Sir Karl Raimund Popper ( July 28 1902  &ndash September 17 1994) was an Austrian and British Philosopher and a professor

Other axes include:

• Focus of political concern: Communitarianism vs. Communitarianism, as a group of related but distinct philosophies began in the late 20th century opposing in its opinion exalted forms of Individualism while advocating phenomena Individualism. This axis is often considered perpendicular to the left-right axis in popular multi-axis charts (often rendered "populism" vs. "libertarianism"), but is a legitimate axis in itself, comparing a focus on the community vs. a focus on the individual. This language is preferred to the prejudiced language of "totalitarianism" (anti-freedom) vs. "libertarianism" (pro-freedom), because one can have a political focus on the community without being totalitarian and undemocratic (see the Nolan chart below). Christian Democracy is a political philosophy that would be counted as communitarian on this axis, but is not totalitarian or undemocratic. Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian (and often specifically Catholic) principles to public policy
• Role of the church: Clericalism vs. Clericalism is the application of the formal church-based leadership or opinion of ordained clergy in matters of either the church or broader political and sociocultural import Anti-clericalism. Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes Religious (generally Catholic institutional power and influence real or alleged in all aspects of public and political This axis is less significant in the United States (where views of the role of religion tend to be subsumed into the general left-right axis) than in Europe (where clericalism versus anti-clericalism is much less correlated with the left-right spectrum).
• Urban vs. Rural: This axis may be the most useful and significant today in European as well as Australian and Canadian politics. The Urban vs. Rural axis was equally prominent in the United States' political past, but its importance is debatable at present. In the late 18th century and early 19th century, it would have been described as the conflict between Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Democrats. The term " federalist " describes several political beliefs around the world Jeffersonian Democracy is the set of political goals that were named after Thomas Jefferson
• Foreign policy: interventionism (the nation should exert power abroad to implement its policy) vs. non-interventionism (the nation should keep to its own affairs); similarly, multilateralism (coordination of policies with other countries) vs. Nonintervention or non-interventionism is a foreign policy which holds that political rulers should avoid alliances with other nations and avoid all wars not related to direct Multilateralism is a term in International relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue isolationism and unilateralism

• Relations with individual states or groups of states may also be vital to party politics. Isolationism is a Foreign policy which combines a non-interventionist military policy and a political policy of Economic nationalism ( Protectionism Unilateralism ("one+side -ism " is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action During the Cold War, parties often had to choose a position on a scale between pro-American and pro-Soviet, although this could at times closely match a left-right spectrum. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the At other times in history relations with other powerful states has been important. In early Canadian history relations with Britain were a central theme, although this was not "foreign policy" but a debate over the proper place of Canada within the British Empire.

• Political violence: pacifism (political views should not be imposed by violent force) vs. militancy (violence is a legitimate or necessary means of political expression). For the British newspaper and Marxist organization see Militant tendency. In North America, holders of these views are often referred to as "doves" and "hawks", respectively. War Hawk is a term originally used to describe a member of the House of Representatives of the Twelfth Congress of the United States who advocated
• Foreign trade: globalization (world economic markets should become integrated and interdependent) vs. Globalization (or globalisation) in its literal sense is the process of transformation of local or regional phenomena into global ones autarky (the nation or polity should strive for economic independence). An autarky is an economy that is self-sufficient and does not take part in International trade, or severely limits trade with the outside world During the early history of the Commonwealth of Australia, this was the major political continuum. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. At that time it was called Free trade vs. Free trade is a system in which the trade of goods and services between or within countries flows unhindered by government-imposed restrictions Protectionism. For the protectionist Australian political party from the 1880s to 1909 see Protectionist Party
• Trade Freedom vs. Trade Equity: Free trade (businesses should be able trade across borders without regulations) vs. Free trade is a system in which the trade of goods and services between or within countries flows unhindered by government-imposed restrictions Fair trade (international trade should be regulated on behalf of social justice). Fair trade is an organized Social movement and market-based approach to empowering developing country producers and promoting sustainability
• Diversity: multiculturalism (the nation should represent a diversity of cultural ideas) vs. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified assimilationism or nationalism (the nation should primarily represent, or forge, a majority culture)
• Participation: Democracy (rule of the majority, or mob rule) vs. A region or society where several different groups are spontaneously assimilated is sometimes referred to as a Melting pot. The term nationalism can refer to an Ideology, a sentiment, a form of Culture, or a Social movement that focuses on the Nation Democracy is a form of government in which the supreme power is held completely by the people under a free electoral system Herd behaviour describes how individuals in a group can act together without planned direction Aristocracy (rule by the enlightened) vs. Aristocracy is a form of Government, where rule is established through an internal struggle over who has the most status and influence over society and internal relations Tyranny (total degradation of Aristocracy, ancient Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle recognized tyranny as a state in which the tyrant is ruled by utter passion, and not reason like the philosopher, resulting in the tyrant pursuing his own desires rather than the common good. In modern usage a tyrant is a single ruler holding absolute power over a State or within an Organization. Stoic Passions refers to various forms of emotional suffering in Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy )
• Freedom: Positive liberty (having rights which impose an obligation on others) vs. ||-||} Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential as opposed to Negative liberty, which refers to freedom from Negative liberty (having rights which prohibit interference by others)
• Social Power: Fascism vs. The concept of negative liberty refers to freedom from interference by other people Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology Anarchy (Control vs. Anarchy (from αναρχία anarchía, "without ruler " may refer to any of the following "Absence of government a state of lawlessness No Control) Analyzes the fundamental political interaction between people, and between individuals and their environment. Often posits the existence of a 'moderate' system as existing between the two extremes.
• Change: radicals (who believe in rapid change) and progressives (who believe in measured , incremental change) vs. Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of international social and political philosophies. reactionaries (who believe in changing things to the way they were) and conservatives (who believe in minimal or cautious change). Reactionary (also reactionist) is a derogatory term usually used by the Left wing in regards to movements which oppose radical change in society and seeks a return Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined
• Origin of state authority: popular sovereignty (the state as a creation of the people, with enumerated, delegated powers) vs. Popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of the people is the belief that the legitimacy of the State is created by the will or consent of its people, who various forms of absolutism and organic state philosophy (the state as an original and essential authority) vs. the view held in anarcho-primitivism that "Civilization originates in conquest abroad and repression at home. Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of Civilization. "^[19]
• International action: Multilateralism (states should cooperate and compromise) versus Unilateralism (states have a strong, even unconditional, right to make their own decisions). Multilateralism is a term in International relations that refers to multiple countries working in concert on a given issue Unilateralism ("one+side -ism " is any doctrine or agenda that supports one-sided action
• Levels of sovereignty: for example unionism vs. A unitary state is a State whose three Organs of state are governed Constitutionally as one single unit with one Constitutionally created federalism vs. Political federalism is a Political philosophy in which a group of members are bound together (Latin foedus, covenant) with a governing separatism; or centralism vs. Separatism refers to the advocacy of a state of cultural ethnic tribal religious racial or gender separation from the larger group often with demands for greater political autonomy Centralization (or centralisation) is the process by which the activities of an organization particularly those regarding decision-making become concentrated within regionalism. In Politics, regionalism is a Political ideology that focuses on the interests of a particular Region or group of regions whether traditional or formal Especially important in societies where strong regional or ethnic identities are political issues.

Other Multi-Axis Models

Nolan: Economic freedom, Personal freedom

Nolan chart

World's Smallest Political Quiz

Main article: Nolan chart

The Nolan chart was created by libertarian David Nolan. The Nolan Chart is a political diagram popularized by the American libertarian David Nolan. The World's Smallest Political Quiz is a 10-question quiz designed as an outreach and educational tool by the Libertarian Advocates for Self-Government, created The Nolan Chart is a political diagram popularized by the American libertarian David Nolan. The Nolan Chart is a political diagram popularized by the American libertarian David Nolan. This chart shows what he considers as "economic freedom" (issues like taxation, free trade and free enterprise) on the horizontal axis and what he considers as "personal freedom" (issues like drug legalization, abortion and the draft) on the vertical axis. Economic freedom is freedom to produce trade and consume any goods and services acquired without the use of force fraud or theft Drug liberalization is the process of eliminating or reducing Drug prohibition laws An Conscription (also known as the draft, the call-up or national service) is a general term for involuntary labor demanded by some established authority This puts left-wingers in the left quadrant, libertarians in the top, right-wingers in the right, and communitarians (whom Nolan originally named populists) in the bottom. Libertarianism is a term used by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which prioritize individual Liberty and seek to minimize or even abolish the In Politics, right-wing, the political right, and the Right are positions that uphold traditional values and/or authorities Communitarianism, as a group of related but distinct philosophies began in the late 20th century opposing in its opinion exalted forms of Individualism while advocating phenomena Populism is a discourse which supports "the people" versus "the Elites " Populism may involve either a political philosophy urging social and political It is possible to consider the Nolan chart to be an Eysenck model that has been rotated 90 degrees. The popular "diamond" presentation of the Nolan chart makes this particular comparison readily apparent.

The traditional left-right spectrum forms a diagonal across the Nolan chart, with communism and fascism both in the ultra-populist corner, an assignment hotly disputed by more liberal-minded communists who do not advocate state control over matters of personal freedom.

The Nolan chart has been reoriented and visually represented in many forms since David Nolan first created it, and has been the inspiration for an endless array of political self-quizzes, perhaps the most famous of these being the World's Smallest Political Quiz, which places one on the Diamond Chart. The World's Smallest Political Quiz is a 10-question quiz designed as an outreach and educational tool by the Libertarian Advocates for Self-Government, created As of 2005 this quiz is being used in 420 schools. Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. [6] It can be found in at least a dozen popular textbooks that feature the Quiz as part of their enhanced digital content. [7] In August 2000 Portrait of America did a telephone survey that was done using the same questions and scale. August 2000: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September [8]. More recently, The Institute for Humane Studies has created Politopia, a similar quiz.

Three Axis Variants of Nolan Chart

There are two three-axis models based on the Nolan Chart. The Friesian Institute has suggested a model that combines the economic liberty and personal liberty axes with positive liberty, creating a cube. ||-||} Positive liberty refers to the opportunity and ability to act to fulfill one's own potential as opposed to Negative liberty, which refers to freedom from The Vosem Chart splits the economic axis of the Nolan chart into two axes, corporate economics (z-axis) and individual economics (y-axis), which combine with the civil liberty axis (x-axis) to form a cube.

Political compass

Main article: political compass

The political compass largely follows the Eysenck method with the two-axes representing economic issues as right-vs-left and issues of freedom as authoritarian-vs-liberal. A political compass or political diamond is a multi-axis model used to label or organize political thought on several dimensions A political compass or political diamond is a multi-axis model used to label or organize political thought on several dimensions One can determine their position on the political compass through a popular online quiz by the same name.

Greenberg & Jonas: Left-Right, Ideological Rigidity

In a 2003 Psychological Bulletin paper,^[20] Jeff Greenberg and Eva Jonas posit a model comprising the standard left-right axis and an axis representing ideological rigidity. Psychological Bulletin is a scholarly journal specializing in literature reviews Jeff Greenberg is a professor at the University of Arizona.He is notable for coining the concept of Terror Management Theory, with two of his colleagues Sheldon For Greenberg and Jonas, ideological rigidity has "much in common with the related concepts of dogmatism and authoritarianism" and is characterized by "believing in strong leaders and submission, preferring one’s own in-group, ethnocentrism and nationalism, aggression against dissidents, and control with the help of police and military. " Greenberg and Jonas posit that high ideological rigidity can be motivated by "particularly strong needs to reduce fear and uncertainty" and is a primary shared characteristic of "people who subscribe to any extreme government or ideology, whether it is right-wing or left-wing. "

UK Inferred Model: Left-Right, Political Pragmatism

While multiple axes on the political spectrum had been postulated for a while, statistical analysis of survey data using principal component analysis to verify the theory and establish their existence, number and meaning was not done until recently. A 2003 study in the UK yielded two significant eigenvectors (that is, groups of questions that tend to be answered consistently), one less well-constrained than the other. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located In Mathematics, given a Linear transformation, an of that linear transformation is a nonzero vector which when that transformation is applied to it changes If one examines the survey questions and tries to assign a meaning to the axes it turns out that one is like the familiar "left-right" axis that mixes economic and social issues, and the other indicates a degree of political pragmatism. The outcome of that study is that the UK political spectrum is most sensibly described with two axes. [9] [10]

Pournelle: Liberty-Control, Irrationalism-Rationalism

The Pournelle chart

Main article: Pournelle chart

This very distinct two-axis model was created by Jerry Pournelle. The Pournelle chart, developed by Jerry Pournelle (in his 1963 political science Ph Jerry Eugene Pournelle (born August 7, 1933) is an American Science fiction Writer, Essayist and Journalist The Pournelle chart has liberty (a dimension similar to the diagonal of the Nolan chart, with those on the left seeking liberty and those on the right focusing control, farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil") perpendicular to Rationalism, defined here as the belief in planned social progress, with those higher up believing that there are problems with society that can be rationally solved, and those lower down skeptical of such approaches. The Pournelle chart, developed by Jerry Pournelle (in his 1963 political science Ph Liberty, the freedom to act or believe without being stopped by unnecessary force In Epistemology and in its broadest sense rationalism is "any view appealing to Reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286

Inglehart: Tradition-Secular, Self Expression-Survivalist

In its January 4, 2003 issue, The Economist discussed a chart [11], proposed by Dr. Ronald Inglehart and supported by the World Values Survey (associated with the University of Michigan), to plot cultural ideology onto two dimensions. Events 46 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. The Economist is an English-language weekly news and International affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd and edited in London Ronald F Inglehart (born September 5, 1934 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a political scientist at the University of Michigan The World Values Survey is an ongoing academic project by Social scientists to assess the state of sociocultural moral religious and political values of different Cultures The University of Michigan Ann Arbor ( U of M, U-M, UM or simply Michigan) is a top-ranked Coeducational public research On the y-axis it covered issues of tradition and religion, like patriotism, abortion, euthanasia and the importance of obeying the law and authority figures. Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country An Euthanasia (literally "good death" in Ancient Greek) refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner At the bottom of the chart is the traditionalist position on issues like these (with loyalty to country and family and respect for life considered important), while at the top is the secular position. The x-axis deals with self-expression, issues like everyday conduct and dress, acceptance of diversity (including foreigners) and innovation, and attitudes towards people with specific controversial lifestyles such as homosexuality and vegetarianism, as well as willingness to partake in political activism. In the political arena the term diversity (or diverse is used to describe political entities (neighborhoods cities nations student bodies etc The term innovation means a new way of doing something It may refer to incremental radical and revolutionary changes in thinking products processes or organisations Homosexuality refers to sexual behavior with or attraction to people of the same sex or to a Homosexual orientation. Vegetarianism is the practice of a diet that excludes Meat (including game and slaughter by-products Fish (including Shellfish and other sea Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change At the right of the chart is the open self-expressionist position, while at the left is its opposite position, which Dr. Inglehart calls survivalist. This chart not only has the power to map the values of individuals, but also to compare the values of people in different countries. Placed on this chart, EU countries in continental Europe come out on the top right, Anglophone countries on the middle right, Latin American countries on the bottom right, African, Middle Eastern and South Asian countries on the bottom left, and ex-Communist countries on the top left. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in

Political Survey 2005

Based on a March 2005 opinion poll of the whole British population. They claim that there are two different axes which are important in describing British people's political views. The first axis describes people's views on crime and punishment, Europe, and other transnational issues including immigration and international law. This is an identifiably left-right axis, but it is not the traditional left-right scale of economic views.

The second axis describes views on public and private involvement in the economy, international trade, redistributive taxation, and Iraq. People who believe in free markets are also likely to support the war in Iraq and prefer an American to a European model of government. This too might be called left-right, but questions about international relations and other issues are mixed in with the economic issues. [12]

Mitchell: Eight Ways to Run the Country

In his book Eight Ways to Run the Country: A New and Revealing Look at Left and Right (ISBN 0275993582) Brian Patrick Mitchell identifies four main political traditions in Anglo-American history (republican constitutionalism, libertarian individualism, progressive democracy, and plutocratic nationalism), which have given rise to eight distinct political perspectives: communitarian, progressive, radical, individualist, paleolibertarian, paleoconservative, theoconservative, and neoconservative. A potential ninth perspective, in midst of the eight, is populism, which is vaguely defined and situation dependent, having no fixed character other than opposition to the prevailing power. These perspectives vary according to their regard for kratos (the use of force) and arche (the recognition of rank). Mitchell roots his distinction of arche and kratos in the West's historical experience of church and state, crediting the collapse of the Christian consensus on church and state with the appearance of the four main traditions. Mitchell's vertical axis is a scale of kratos/akrateia; his horizontal axis is a scale of archy/anarchy. Anarchy, for Mitchell, is not the absence of government, but the rejection of rank. Thus there can be both anti-government anarchists (left-libertarians, whom Mitchell calls libertarian individualists) and pro-government anarchists (Mitchell's progressive democrats, who use government against social hierarchies such as patriarchy). Mitchell also distinguishes between left-wing anarchists and right-wing anarchists, whom Mitchell renames akratists.

Notes

References

• Charles Blattberg Political Philosophies and Political Ideologies (PDF); online, previous version published in Public Affairs Quarterly 15, No. 3 (July 2001) 193–217.

See also

• Jennifer Government: NationStates
• Left-right politics
• List of politics-related topics
• Nolan Chart
• Political compass
• Social liberalism#Social liberalism versus social democracy
• Spectrum (disambiguation)
• Syncretic politics
• World's Smallest Political Quiz

External links

• Politopia (Quiz)
• The Political Compass
• Friesian Institute
• Vosem Chart
• Idealog (Education+Quiz)
• Models, Maps and Visions of Tomorrow
• World's Smallest Political Quiz
• Italian political spectrum