A website that has an interactive political compass, with 169 political ideologies plotted on it. It includes a description for every ideology, and lists the people, views, and grouping of said ideologies.
What is the Political Compass?
The Political Compass is a political spectrum chart that places a person's political beliefs on a coordinate chart that has two axes.
The two axes are the Economic and the Governmental axes. The economic axis measures a person's preferred economic system, with Left on one end, and Right on the other.
The governmental axis measures the size of the government within a person's political views, with Authoritarian on one end, and Libertarian on the other.
It categorizes people into four quadrants, based on their placements: Authoritarian Right, Authoritarian Left, Libertarian Left, and Libertarian Right.
The Two Axes
The Governmental Axis: This axis measures the size of the government within a person's political beliefs. People who want the government to have more power
are placed in the upper portions of the compass, while people who wish to have a smaller government, or no government, are placed in the lower portions of the compass.
Totalitarianism is placed on the top, Authoritarianism is placed near the top, and democracies and republics are placed in the middle of the graph. Libertarianism is placed
near the bottom, and finally, Anarchism is placed on the bottom.
The Economic Axis: This axis measures the economic system that one prefers. People who favor left-leaning economic policies are placed in the left of the compass, while
people who favor right-leaning economic policies are usually placed on the right of the compass. Communism is placed on the far left, Socialism is placed a bit more right than that,
and Social Democracy is placed in the Center-Left. Regulated Capitalism is in the Center-Right, slightly Right of that is Free-Market, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism is placed on the far-right.
A Bit of History
The idea of a political "compass" was explored by Hans Eysenck,
who thought that there was an essential similarity between National Socialists, who were traditionally considered to be the furthest Right, and
Communists, associated with the Far Left. He created a two dimensional graph, with two axes: Authoritarian-Democratic and Radical-Conservative.
David Nolan, the 1st Chair of the National Committee in the United States Libertarian Party, created a two-axis chart called the
Nolan Chart, which was directed at Libertarians. It had two axes, representing economic freedom
and personal freedom. In 2001, the Political Compass website was created.