Sick of the overly-simplistic left vs. right view of the political spectrum? Unsure about the relationship between libertarians and conservatives, or liberals and communists? Take 1 minute to try
the smallest political quiz in the world. It might just change the way you view the political spectrum; it did for me.
Instead of a one-dimensional left vs. right split, it uses a two-dimensional categorisation, where the two dimensions are:
- Personal self-government
- Economic self-government
The two-dimensional space is divided into five categories, depending on how much self-government proponents advocate in the two dimensions:
- Left Liberal: high personal, low economic
- Libertarian: high personal, high economic
- Right Conservative: low personal, high economic
- Totalitarian: low personal, low economic
- Centrist: medium personal, medium economic
After seeing this, things made so much more sense to me. I'm a solid left liberal, and I now realise why libertarians and communists seemed partly sensible, but partly crazy to me,
and why pure conservatism raises my hackles so.
Amazing what a simple change in perspective can bring.