Before proceeding to read this article, google "the political compass test" and click the first link you see. Take the test and see the results. Congratulations, you just earned yourself a membership ticket to a niche political community.
Young political enthusiasts might be familiar with "the political compass": a political ideological tool that locates one's views on a political spectrum with two axes, each representing an economic and social scale.
At first, this tool was lauded for its method of clarifying one's social and economic views. However, an unexpected byproduct of this tool is the "personalization" of the four quadrants of the political compass. Suddenly, one can "identify" as an "Authoritarian Left" and thus their main rival is a "Libertarian Right". Knowing your position at the political compass doesn't only give clarity to your views, it also associates you with a certain political community.
While this might seem harmless at first glance, the sense of "membership" perpetuated by the political compass can greatly impact how an individual's views and economic behaviour evolve. To be assigned a certain quadrant at the political compass means that one can be led to a political community and identity that affects their economic decisions.
The Political Compass: Its Origins
The political compass has been on the internet since 2001 and was created by political journalist Wayne Brittenden. It was a response to improve the binary "Left to Right" standard political spectrum used in measuring economic views but failed to include social views. Generally, the "left side" advocates for a cooperative, centrally planned economy, while the "right side" desires for an individualistic, free market economy.
Figure 1, Source: The Political Compass
Despite being a primary staple in the U.S. political landscape, the single-axis model has long been criticized for being too simplistic. With this axis, the political landscape is primarily divided between "liberals" and "conservatives", with the former and latter being equated with the economic "left wing" and "right wing", respectively. This binary single-axis pressures people to follow the dominant perspectives from one of either side of the spectrum, even if one has considerably deviating views. For this reason, it is harder for individuals to completely identify with one of either side.
Therefore, inspired by the ideas of German psychologist Hans Eysenck, Brittenden believed that it's better to measure political ideologies on two separate axes: a left-to-right economic axis and an authoritarian/libertarian social axis, which the latter measures one's opinions on the personal freedom an individual is allowed to have. This political compass ultimately adds nuance to a person's political views. In the test itself, one has to answer to what specific extent they agree with certain economic and social propositions, which at the end will pinpoint their location on the chart.
Figure 2, Source: The Political Compass