Poitical Compass Test and Political Typology Quiz

[badger_prince]

Apparently i'm a fascist??

See, the test gives more varied results

[InsectPoison]

Apparently i'm a fascist??

See, the test gives more varied results

Apparently caring more about your own countries defence and interests over foreign countries makes you a fascist...

[thomasgreen6]

Apparently i'm a fascist??

See, the test gives more varied results

Apparently caring more about your own countries defence and interests over foreign countries makes you a fascist...

I think it's that combined with the authoritarianism

[fightinfrenchman]

I have a feeling this will be a long and interesting thread, can't wait to see how it develops

[badger_prince]

Apparently i'm a fascist??

See, the test gives more varied results

Apparently caring more about your own countries defence and interests over foreign countries makes you a fascist...

Does it actually label you a fascist?
All I see is: you have strong national, authoritarian and traditional axis.
Don't know if you want to label yourself a fascist, though.
Those tests obviously cannot describe the ideology of a human being accurately.
At best they can give you a slight hint where you stand, imho.

EDIT: Ah yeah, says fascism at the top. Didn't see that. Still think my point stands.

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

The fun fact with those kind of tests is that I manage to hold a somewhat centrist position by averaging extreme position on most subjects.
(By the way the political compact tests looks pretty USA-centered - what it describes as a "leftist" position would be pretty consensual centrism in France).

The political typology quizz, on the other hand, is pretty dumb. I can't answer question 4 on racial discrimination, as neither of the two option proposed fit in with what I think.

[scarm]

I mean it is pretty stupid that they label that fascism, and as elaborated in this and similar threads these tests are not really a great measurement for various reasons, but yes formally speaking strong authoritarian combined with nationalist attitudes are what many scholars see as the political base for fascism.

Whether thinking that "your country should prioritize its own interests" measures nationalism depends on the age of a study. Survey-Designs from the second half of the 20th century tend to do that, similar for being proud off your country in sports, because they were under the influence of WW2. Nowadays stuff such as that merely is considered a sign of being more culturally conservative usually.

This is another issue of quantitative research on ideology: different generations tend to view issues differently.

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

Strong authoritarian combined with nationalist attitudes and conservative values also describes De Gaulle who certainly was not a fascist. The main difference is the trust in a democratic government I guess, but it is a huge difference and if your analysis does not take it into account you really are not carving reality at its joints.

[scarm]

This depends on your definition of nationalism. These surveys tend to differentiate between Patriotism (being proud of your country on a democratic, constitutional basis) and Nationalism (being proud of your country on the base of a feeling of superiority in terms of history and culture). But at this point we are entering a highly contested field of theory.

Also i wouldn't say DeGaulle was authoritarianist by any stretch. Authoritarianism usually incorporates a lack of pluralism and a preference for concentration of power. He was very firmly conservative sure, but i do not think i'd call him authoritarian.

[badger_prince]

Strong authoritarian combined with nationalist attitudes and conservative values also describes De Gaulle who certainly was not a fascist. The main difference is the trust in a democratic government I guess, but it is a huge difference and if your analysis does not take it into account you really are not carving reality at its joints.

I agree with you, there is much more nuance to political ideology. EDIT: Agree with scarms post as well.

De Gaulle also ended the Algerian war and there were several assassination attempts by disgruntled people further right on the spectrum.
I also seem to dimly remember some other thing about De Gaulle and a (at that time) fascist country in Europe...

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

Also i wouldn't say DeGaulle was authoritarianist by any stretch. Authoritarianism usually incorporates a lack of pluralism and a preference for concentration of power. He was very firmly conservative sure, but i do not think i'd call him authoritarian.

Well he definitely had a preference for concentration of power. It is the main goal of his 5th Republic's Constitution : having a President who concentrates a lot of power in his hands compared to the previous Constitutions were power was mainly in the hands of a diverse and divided Parliament. Also his way of governing the country was very top-down and he expected the National Assembly to basically follow him and vote the laws initiated by his government. I don't know where you are from, but France is really quite exceptional among Western democracies in the way the political party of the President tends to completely control both the legislative and executive powers for long period of time (typically 5 years compared to the 2 years with control of the House and Presidency, two years with the President unable to do anything due to lacking control of the Congress that the USA have. And the judiciary power is by no means as strong as in the USA too.
His ideal, in some sense, was that the elected President had a mandate to do whatever he thought good, but only until the people expressed through elections that it did not trust him any more.

On the other hand De Gaulle respected the will of the people as expressed through elections and referendums so he was completely a democrat, although an authoritarian one.

[chris1089]

This political ideology quiz feels much closer to reality than the political compass test. Maybe that's because it asks questions related to small government, which is largely missing in the PC test and which characterise a large proportion of my politics.

[knusch]

Im basicly Gandhi.

no, im gandhi!

[scarm]

On the other hand De Gaulle respected the will of the people as expressed through elections and referendums so he was completely a democrat, although an authoritarian one.

This. I know he was a big proponent of centralism and presidentialism, that does not make him authoritarian, just also not a direct democrat. Concentration of power as in concentration of power in the hands of a small elite, also not necessarily an elected one. Put in other words in the common scientific understanding authoritarian systems aren't democracies (or defunct ones), and being authoritarian usually means preferring systems of government that are authoritarian. You might almost make me look up a formal definiton

[thomasgreen6]

Im basicly Gandhi.

no, im gandhi!

One of you is gonna have to settle for Akbar The Great

[Djigit]

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

On the other hand De Gaulle respected the will of the people as expressed through elections and referendums so he was completely a democrat, although an authoritarian one.

This. I know he was a big proponent of centralism and presidentialism, that does not make him authoritarian, just also not a direct democrat. Concentration of power as in concentration of power in the hands of a small elite, also not necessarily an elected one. Put in other words in the common scientific understanding authoritarian systems aren't democracies (or defunct ones), and being authoritarian usually means preferring systems of government that are authoritarian. You might almost make me look up a formal definiton

Oh so if I understand you correctly authoritarianism is the opposite of democrat ? I'm neither a native English speaker nor a political scientist so I'll accept your definition. But I'm pretty sure a lot of what De Gaulle thought would push him up the political compass nonetheless - which is kind of my point in fact: the political compass fail to capture the nuance that separates De Gaulle from Pétain... which is a huge failure in my book.

[scarm]

"This character [the Authoritarian Personality] is programmed to obey societal authorities, accept their norms and values, and releases its hatred towards members of weaker societal groups. It has been assumed that this type of character is especially susceptible to fascist movements and propaganda." Stellmacher/Petzel 2005: 246, in Political Psychology, Vol. 26., Nr. 2., 245-264.

Note that this goes on saying sth along the lines of this conception of the authoritarian Personality has been widely critised by

• 
  
  edit: not necessarily the opposite per se but authoritarianism encompasses the idea that people prefer being told what to do or to think and therefore often prefer systems that do that i.e. non-democracies.
  
  Yes and i agree on that, which is why i think qualitative research is more fruitful to actually capture ideology, but is more easily applied to parties or movement than individuals.
  
  Just to clarify: quantitative research is survey and statistics based, qualitative research relies more on "ideas" and analyzes large amounts of material (interviews, party programmes) along a "grid" or system of codes.

[badger_prince]

Im basicly Gandhi.

no, im gandhi!

One of you is gonna have to settle for Akbar The Great

Let the two Gandhis fight it out!

[Hawk_Girl]

i swear this explains my aoe career

[Hawk_Girl]

[Le Hussard sur le toit]

i swear this explains my aoe career

What does this even mean ? That some people somewhat defy the laws of physic and probabilities to get less than their fair share when playing dices ? Or that some peoples are born in a poor family have a rare genetic disease, and below average intelligence and physical skills ? Because I strongly agree with one and strongly disagree with the other...

[knusch]

i swear this explains my aoe career

What does this even mean ? That some people somewhat defy the laws of physic and probabilities to get less than their fair share when playing dices ? Or that some peoples are born in a poor family have a rare genetic disease, and below average intelligence and physical skills ? Because I strongly agree with one and strongly disagree with the other...

this and everything else is up to interpretation by wise and unbiased individuals that made the test

[Squamiger]

Just to clarify things here, the political compass test was made by libertarians in the US back in the early 2000s as propaganda with the pretty explicit goal of convincing college kids that they are libertarians. If you know how libertarians think you can pretty easily get any result you want, but if you just answer how a normal American answers you're either going to get put into the left libertarian or right libertarian side pretty much every time. I remember some libertarian booth at a political event for high schoolers and all the kids lining up and taking this test and some old gross man with a ponytail telling them they're all actually libertarians!

It's a flawed test because I think it weights every answer the same, so if you generally answer questions that put you on the right wing side, but then you also also strongly agree with "from each according to his ability to each according to his need" because you are an actual communist, it will still say you are a right wing conservative or something even if you are in fact literally just a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Pew test is absolute garbage lol. It's a test of who you will vote for in the American presidential election and literally nothing else. Polling that characterizes people along a spectrum from "very conservative" to "very liberal" is bad and dumb unless youre trying to figure out who someone is going to vote for in this sham country I guess

[InsectPoison]

pol.png

Just to clarify things here, the political compass test was made by libertarians in the US back in the early 2000s as propaganda with the pretty explicit goal of convincing college kids that they are libertarians. If you know how libertarians think you can pretty easily get any result you want, but if you just answer how a normal American answers you're either going to get put into the left libertarian or right libertarian side pretty much every time. I remember some libertarian booth at a political event for high schoolers and all the kids lining up and taking this test and some old gross man with a ponytail telling them they're all actually libertarians!

It's a flawed test because I think it weights every answer the same, so if you generally answer questions that put you on the right wing side, but then you also also strongly agree with "from each according to his ability to each according to his need" because you are an actual communist, it will still say you are a right wing conservative or something even if you are in fact literally just a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

The Pew test is absolute garbage lol. It's a test of who you will vote for in the American presidential election and literally nothing else. Polling that characterizes people along a spectrum from "very conservative" to "very liberal" is bad and dumb

fucking hippy