3 ms·

Is it just me or does politicalcompass.org seem to skew everything towards right wing authoritarianism?

buro9 11y ago
I think it's just the world we live in. The left and more liberal options exist but none of them are mainstream and we mentally re-draw the extents of the political compass to cover the politics we experience (the major parties).
- thomasfoster96 11y ago
  Having had a look through political compass's past predictions (primarily Australian, since I'm Australian) their analysis is very odd. I mean, there is no way that you can seriously put three quarters of the parties on the top right 16th of the chart.
- petercooper 11y ago
  That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? I think that chart is crazy though. The Conservatives are far from a far right party. Christ, if you dropped the Conservatives in America, they'd be considered a right bunch of commies - even the Democrats would be off the scale to the right by that chart.
  - masklinn 11y ago
    > That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? AFAIK, the political compass attempts to assess an absolute scale across world politics, not local choices.
    - thomasfoster96 11y ago
      Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph - unless there's a whole lot of countries with extreme left-wing governments which are very pro-choice, which I highly doubt.
      - masklinn 11y ago
        > Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph Dunno, if you consider that much of the anglosphere is patterning itself more and more after US politics which lives solely in the top-right corner of the top-right quadrant it makes sense that they would coalesce there. And "labour" parties have definitely been shifting their stances towards US dem inspiration.
        thomasfoster96 11y ago
        I'd still say the UK and Australia are a fair way away from the American parties (particularly the republicans).
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
masklinn 11y ago
Seem about right to me. The NZ[0] or German[1] compasses cover much more of the spectrum, especially towards left-libertarianism. It's not politicalcompass's fault that US politics live entirely in the right-authoritarian corner and English politics have significantly shifted towards it with New Labour's realignment on US democrats. [0] http://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2014 http://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2014 [1] http://www.politicalcompass.org/germany2013 http://www.politicalcompass.org/germany2013
- thomasfoster96 11y ago
  Yes those NZ and German charts look a bit more balanced - but being from Australia, their 2013 Aussie election chart is just a bit silly to be honest - two of the parties listed had no chance of even getting any seats, and despite most parties being fairly centrist in their economic policy they all seem to be bunched up in the top right corner. My only guess is that the analysis was done using a small sample of international media.

buro9 11y ago

I think it's just the world we live in. The left and more liberal options exist but none of them are mainstream and we mentally re-draw the extents of the political compass to cover the politics we experience (the major parties).

thomasfoster96 11y ago
Having had a look through political compass's past predictions (primarily Australian, since I'm Australian) their analysis is very odd. I mean, there is no way that you can seriously put three quarters of the parties on the top right 16th of the chart.
petercooper 11y ago
That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? I think that chart is crazy though. The Conservatives are far from a far right party. Christ, if you dropped the Conservatives in America, they'd be considered a right bunch of commies - even the Democrats would be off the scale to the right by that chart.
- masklinn 11y ago
  > That should be how the political compass is drawn since it is based on human experience, no? AFAIK, the political compass attempts to assess an absolute scale across world politics, not local choices.
  - thomasfoster96 11y ago
    Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph - unless there's a whole lot of countries with extreme left-wing governments which are very pro-choice, which I highly doubt.
    - masklinn 11y ago
      > Still a bit odd the concentration of western political parties in the right-wing authoritarian section of the graph Dunno, if you consider that much of the anglosphere is patterning itself more and more after US politics which lives solely in the top-right corner of the top-right quadrant it makes sense that they would coalesce there. And "labour" parties have definitely been shifting their stances towards US dem inspiration.
      - thomasfoster96 11y ago
        I'd still say the UK and Australia are a fair way away from the American parties (particularly the republicans).
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

masklinn 11y ago

Seem about right to me. The NZ[0] or German[1] compasses cover much more of the spectrum, especially towards left-libertarianism. It's not politicalcompass's fault that US politics live entirely in the right-authoritarian corner and English politics have significantly shifted towards it with New Labour's realignment on US democrats. [0] http://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2014 http://www.politicalcompass.org/nz2014 [1] http://www.politicalcompass.org/germany2013 http://www.politicalcompass.org/germany2013

thomasfoster96 11y ago
Yes those NZ and German charts look a bit more balanced - but being from Australia, their 2013 Aussie election chart is just a bit silly to be honest - two of the parties listed had no chance of even getting any seats, and despite most parties being fairly centrist in their economic policy they all seem to be bunched up in the top right corner. My only guess is that the analysis was done using a small sample of international media.