A three-dimensional political spectrum quiz

The Vocem Chart Locator of American Politics

Published on September 1, 2004 By historyishere In Politics

Some told me about The Vocem Chart Locator of American Politics, and I found it so interesting(though a little crude in implementation) that I thought I would share it with everyone here.

If you don't know what a Vocem chart is(and I didn't when I first heard about this quiz), it is a political chart that has a third dimension to it, so it can make differentiations based on fiscal, corporate and cultural issues, so instead of having a line(2 general areas) or a square(4 general areas) as a reflection of your political spectrum, a Vocem chart is more like a cube with 8 regions, four in the front and four in the back. A longer, and better thought-out explanation of this concept is available here.

The quiz is 25 questions, and it gives how closely you fit into one of the 8 squares. My own results were as follows.

1: Liberal (100%) Big surprise
2: New Labour (75%)
3: Anarcho-syndicalist (73%)
4: Totalitarian (63%)
5: Libertarian (46%)
6: Traditional Societies (44%)
7: Authoritarian (35%)
8: Conservative (13%)

And here is the breakdown of where those categories would appear on the cube:

Back bottom right: conservative
Back top right: authoritarian
Front bottom right: the pattern of traditional societies (those without social and technological change with each generation)
Front top right: totalitarian
Back bottom left: libertarian
Back top left: New Labour
Front bottom left: anarcho-syndicalist
Front top left: liberal

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Comments (Page 2)

Muggaz

on Sep 01, 2004

Here is an Australian Selector for the Aussies amongst us...

BAM!!!

trina_p

on Sep 01, 2004

After reading the first couple of questions and really not know where I stood I decided I might be better off with an Australian quiz
Link
It's by no means 3 dimensional and doesn't give as many results but was interesting none the less.

1) Australian Democrats
2) Labor Party
3) The Greens
4) Liberal Party
5) National Party
6 One Nation

I went back and did the American quiz - asking questions on msn about things I didn't understand.

1: Totalitarian (100%)
2: Liberal (94%)
3: Authoritarian (80%)
4: New Labour (75%)
5: Traditional Societies (48%)
6: Anarcho-syndicalist (47%)
7: Conservative (39%)
8: Libertarian (27%)

I wonder how that correlates with the other quiz I did?

Phil Osborn

on Sep 01, 2004

Here's mine, which are pretty much what I expected:

Rank Item Percent
1: Anarcho-syndicalist (100%)
2: Libertarian (95%)
3: Traditional Societies (78%)
4: Conservative (70%)
5: Liberal (56%)
6: New Labour (55%)
7: Totalitarian (34%)
8: Authoritarian (28%)

trina_p

on Sep 01, 2004

Muggaz posted while I was typing.

Meanwhile here's a British one Link

vincible

on Sep 01, 2004

Anyone figured out what the quiz writer means by "Anarcho-syndicalist?" I mean, we don't all want to violently overthrow the government, do we?

historyishere

on Sep 01, 2004

Vincible :From an article linked to the explanation of the Vocem Chart

Left, lower, anterior: Personal freedom, elimination of services such as welfare, social security and student money from the government, and anti-corporate ideology. This is the combination of anarcho-syndicalism. It's what many people call the "left-libertarians". More liberal than the libertarians, anarcho-syndialists are anti-government, but they find business to be behaving in too oppressive and authoritarian a manner. Your stereotypical anti-corporate, anti-WTO, anti-anything protestors.

Now, from another quiz I remember taking a long time ago, the person they put with a point of view like that was Noam Chomsky.

Draginol

on Sep 01, 2004

One interesting thing, neither good nor bad, is that the liberals on this site tend to be WAY liberal whereas most of the conservatives on this site (i.e. the vocal ones) tend to be just a little right. Though, I suspect we all know what Marvin C would score on such a test.

Gideon MacLeish

on Sep 01, 2004

Another interesting note I have found is the vast majority who report their scores that aren't way left come up with libertarian percentages of 50% or higher. Interesting to note, to say the least.

historyishere

on Sep 01, 2004

Well, I'm a liberal, and I agree with much of the Libertarian platform myself... though not enough by the way the quiz is skewed.

Lee1776

on Sep 02, 2004

1: Totalitarian (100%)
2: Authoritarian (94%)
3: Conservative (94%)
4: Traditional Societies (89%)
5: Anarcho-syndicalist (72%)
6: Liberal (72%)
7: Libertarian (56%)
8: New Labour (56%)

I guess this makes me a "Jack Booted Thug". notsure:

The sad thing is the wording of some of the questions didn't help either.:

eieio

on Sep 02, 2004

1: Libertarian (100%)
2: Conservative (87%)
3: Anarcho-syndicalist (85%)
4: Traditional Societies (82%)
5: New Labour (68%)
6: Authoritarian (54%)
7: Liberal (50%)
8: Totalitarian (44%)

Gene Nash

on Sep 02, 2004

Rank Item Percent
1: Traditional Societies  (100%)
2: Anarcho-syndicalist  (96%)
3: Liberal  (96%)
4: Libertarian  (88%)
5: New Labour  (88%)
6: Totalitarian  (86%)
7: Conservative  (85%)
8: Authoritarian  (75%)

Leauki

on Sep 02, 2004

1: Liberal (100%)
2: Anarcho-syndicalist (90%)
3: Totalitarian (77%)
4: New Labour (70%)
5: Traditional Societies (68%)
6: Libertarian (58%)
7: Authoritarian (44%)
8: Conservative (33%)

But this quiz was completely useless. It didn't ask any questions about foreign policy (except foreign aid, which can mean a lot of things). And there was no way to indicate that you want to reform the social security system rather than support or abolish it.

I would judge myself a neo-conservative (except for my position on healthcare), but "Conservative" came in lowest for me.

I support the Iraq invasion and Israel. And I am strictly against income taxes. How can this possibly make me a "liberal" according to the current definition of the word used in the US?

Winterblade

on Sep 02, 2004

I have no idea what the first thing is. I'm guessing it has to do with my distrust of "mega corporations." I didn't like the question on immigration . There was no answer that fit my attitude/opinion on immigration.

I thought the "topless" question was funny. I live in New York where it's legal for women to go topless at public parks. At first some did, but after the novelty of it wore off you saw less and less of it. Granted there's nothing like watching a topless woman playing volleyball.

Most women who want to go topless go to some secluded section of the park and sunbathe there.

1: Anarcho-syndicalist (100%)
2: Liberal (98%)
3: Traditional Societies (79%)
4: Totalitarian (71%)
5: New Labour (63%)
6: Libertarian (61%)
7: Authoritarian (30%)
8: Conservative (30%)

oligarchy314

on Sep 02, 2004

1: Conservative (100%)
2: Authoritarian (73%)
3: Traditional Societies (66%)
4: Libertarian (61%)
5: Totalitarian (46%)
6: Anarcho-syndicalist (36%)
7: New Labour (36%)
8: Liberal (10%

I didn't like some of the questions. I'm an atheist but I think the values of christianity are good. So I had to put not sure for the "should the government promote christianity and christian values" question.

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