Your Political Compass
Economic Left/Right:
-0.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian:
-4.15
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About the Political Compass
The starting point of the (original) Political Compass was in 2001, when we recognised the inadequacies of the standard political measure:
It’s certainly fine for discussing economics but to this day is still widely — and wrongly — used to describe social attitudes. France’s National Rally, for example, is popularly described as “far right”, yet its economic policies have sometimes been to the left of even the French Socialist Party. The party’s real extremism is in its social attitudes. That’s why we added a social scale.
Nevertheless, the more nationalistic and authoritarian a party or individual is, the more ‘right-wing’ they’re still labelled. This, of course, is absurd. Taken to its logical conclusion, it means that the further left a country sits, the more socially liberal its attitudes are. On that basis, North Korea must be a shining model of human rights and social freedoms!
Conversely, a country may be very right wing (ie libertarian) in its economics, and be authoritarian at the same time. Singapore is a perfect example.
The Index of Economic Freedom produced by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, hails Singapore as one of the economically freest nations on Earth (in 2021). On the social scale, however, it’s a very different story. }Human Rights Watch details its reasons for finding Singapore a deeply authoritarian state.
The strong emergence of authoritarian nationalist parties in a number of democracies demonstrates the inadequacy of popular political terminology. While Germany’s AfD is high on the social (ie authoritarian) scale, it is also committed to neoliberal (ie right wing) economic policies. On the other hand, Hungary’s ‘extreme right’ Mi Hazánk Party is quasi fascist in its social policies and world view, but deeply opposed to neoliberal economics.
Switzerland has always been rated highly on the Index of Economic Freedom, while also maintaining a high level of social freedoms. The same is true of New Zealand and some of the traditionally social democratic Nordic states. At the same time Saudi Arabia has veered towards a libertarian economy in recent years, but with no relaxation of its sweeping authoritarian powers.
Join 27 caricatures of your most loved and loathed political figures in a personalised colour certificate that you can download and print in moments.
It’s beautifully designed by graphic designer Ralph Izzard and serves as a permanent record of your position on the Compass, and the political company you keep.
To claim your certificate, use the link above. You will be invited to supply your name, to be printed on the certificate. The certificate will download to your browser as a pdf, which you can save and print at your leisure. You can save the link and re-download it at any time.
Claim your (free) Political Compass Certificate
A PERSONALISED POLITICAL COMPASS CERTIFICATE SHOWING YOUR OWN POSITION IS AVAILABLE ONLINE
Ralph Izzard
Ralph Izzard is an illustrator, cartoonist and graphic designer from Brighton, England.
During the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, he undertook a personal challenge to produce a drawing a day, resulting in the Lockdown Pics series of cartoons. This became a volume of cartoons chronicling the experience of absurdities and anxieties that 2020 served up worldwide, often prompted by the news of the day. Some examples can be seen here.
Ralph sometimes undertakes commissions and bespoke artwork - please contact through the website or via www.ralphizzard.design for availability.
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Thanks from the Political Compass team.
US Presidential Election 2020
UK Election 2019
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