I always thought the items in this test failed to deliver anything close to what it claims in the explanation. I don't accept the premises of half of these "propositions" they list, and have no interest in any of the rest. I'm sure a lot of people match my score with whom I don't actually have any common ground whatsoever. Hitler and Gandhi could match up easily in this test, depending on whether they followed the intended emotional leads or not, or whether they played along with the assumptions or just hit "disagree."
At least the writers are wise enough to admit the test is designed for inhabitants of western democracies. I'd go further and say the test just ends up, not necessarily by intent, making people feel good about themselves and how far away they are from various villains... whether or not this is actually the case.
My overall impression is that the left/right economic spectrum is straightforward enough to count as a possibly accurate test. Most things they list along this axis (gems like, "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations," Agree/Disagree) are utter crap. But the line of inquiry, economic positions, is dry enough to make up for the worthlessness of the test itself. The y-axis, though, is completely murky: more propositions that like the above example provoke either smugly self-satisfied agreement, rolled eyes, or bewilderment, in order to measure an unclear range of values by unclear views.
Retaking this test with a critical eye (and seeing some of the responses in this thread) has solidified some suspicions I wasn't ready to commit on. Whenever I see people proudly bearing the results of this test in their sig or wherever, I can get the vaguest sense of where they stand on economic issues. Great. As for the social axis, it means nothing whatsoever. And that they take the results seriously enough to report them marks them as fools. That's about all I can deduce from the test.
. That said, I have definitely shifted right a lot over the years, last time I took one of these things (about 5 years ago) I was basically over where they put Nelson Mandela now, I've shifted far right and little down since then.
