US Primaries '07- Political Compass

[West 36]

This is from everyone's favorite Political Compass website:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/usprimaries2007

In response to many requests, not only from Americans, The Political Compass™ has charted the most prominent names in the 2007 US Primaries. They have been evaluated through scrutiny of public statements, manifestos, interviews and, crucially, voting records. Our apologies for those not included.

It is important to recognise that The Political Compass™ is a continuum rather than consisting of hard and fast quadrants. For example, Ron Paul on the social scale is actually closer to Dennis Kucinich than to many figures within his own party. But on the economic scale, they are, of course, far apart.

When examining the chart it is important to note that although most of the candidates seem quite different, in substance they occupy a relatively restricted area within the universal political spectrum. Democracies with a system of proportional representation give expression to a wider range of political views. While Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Hillary Clinton is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while in any other western democracy her record is that of a moderate conservative.

Your thoughts?

 

[Godwynn]

Your thoughts?

Sane Republicans '08!

 

[Japanrocks12]

I think this was posted a little while ago but its interesting how most of the democrats are in the same quadrant as the republicans.

 

[The Yankee]

Sane anything '08! Yankee in coup d'etat in '20!

Well, either the candidates are arguing on minutiae even smaller than I thought or something's a bit out of whack here.

 

[Integral]

I had no idea Newt was such an authoritarian...

Maybe we could superimpose this over the CFC compilation? Just to see the disparity?

Integral

 

[DragonHawk]

When examining the chart it is important to note that although most of the candidates seem quite different, in substance they occupy a relatively restricted area within the universal political spectrum. Democracies with a system of proportional representation give expression to a wider range of political views. While Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are depicted on the extreme left in an American context, they would simply be mainstream social democrats within the wider political landscape of Europe. Similarly, Hillary Clinton is popularly perceived as a leftist in the United States while in any other western democracy her record is that of a moderate conservative.

So is the graph based on European point of view ? The article admits that Hillary Clinton is perceived as leftish in US but in the graph she is shown as right leaning moderate

 

[Japanrocks12]

I had no idea Newt was such an authoritarian...

Maybe we could superimpose this over the CFC compilation? Just to see the disparity?

Integral

there's a CFC compilation? ooh give me the link

 

[Azale]

Ron Paul ISNT a libertarian?

Obama ISNT a raving lefty?

 

[Integral]

there's a CFC compilation? ooh give me the link

Page 13 on the political compass thread, post 247 or thereabouts. It's got ~100 CFCers on it.

Granted, the compilation doesn't have names for each point, but it would be kinda hard to squeeze the 100 names into the bottom two quadrants.

Integral

 

[JollyRoger]

I think if you end up in the left/libertarian quadrant, you can be declared an enemy combatant and shipped to Gitmo.

 

[Integral]

I think if you end up in the left/libertarian quadrant, you can be declared an enemy combatant and shipped to Gitmo.

I thought that was the left-authoritarian quadrant.

 

[Irish Caesar]

Surprising to see that Congressman Paul isn't any farther to the right economically than the average range of the Republican candidates.

 

[GenMarshall]

Obama is more authoritarian than Hillary?!

 

[Japanrocks12]

How exactly are they determining their exact locations? are the politicans given this quiz or something?

 

[Hygro]

the political compass is known to be a politically motivated website. They have an agenda, and their graph is full of . .. .. .. .. How they order the candidates, and how they all fall where they do. For God's sake Romney isn't a fascist and Clinton is more authoritarian than Obama. What a useless graph.

 

[The Yankee]

How exactly are they determining their exact locations? are the politicans given this quiz or something?

They have been evaluated through scrutiny of public statements, manifestos, interviews and, crucially, voting records.

I suppose they went through each of the questions and determined what they thought a candidate would answer based on the above.

 

[JollyRoger]

I suppose they went through each of the questions and determined what they thought a candidate would answer based on the above.

Yep. It's really a measure of how authoritatively right each candidate is willing to pander to gain votes.

 

[Hygro]

I suppose they went through each of the questions and determined what they thought a candidate would answer based on the above.

If they then plugged the responses into the answers on the website they'd most end up as "libertarian" as the rest of us.

 

[dh_epic]

I really question their metrics. But I don't doubt the politicians are closer to each other than people think. And "the center" probably would surprise most people.

I also probably agree that Hillary isn't nearly as left wing as people think. Nor is Ron Paul much of a libertarian.

I'm surprised Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani don't have more dots on the map though.

 

[bhsup]

Everybody seems to be getting confused over the Democrats apparently showing up in the upper-right quadrant. In an effort to help everyone out, I've Americanized the results to show how they actually fit into the American sense of left/right and authoritarian/libertarian. Note how Gravel and Kucinich are so far off the reservation now that it's a wonder anybody gives them any credence.