I did a quiz last night on my political views. It had 50 questions, and I found some of them a little hard to get my head around. Anyway, I thought I’d share my results. And also ask for reading suggestions so I can get a bit more up to speed on issues about how much the state should intervene in our lives. Nothing too long or too hard, please. I find my brain a little fried these days. I found it particularly difficult to answer political questions in an abstract way, as the fallenness of our world and the politicians available to us colour my views. An interesting exercise, though. I also suspect some of the questions to be tailored to US politics.
Anyway, according to the quiz I am a centrist moderate social authoritarian. I don’t think that sounds too inaccurate…
Left: 0.73, Authoritarian: 3.13
You can find where you fit in the grid at Political Spectrum Quiz
The Vicar's Wife 
It’s a very American quiz, and seems biased towards a Tea Party mindset. The question on taxation of the rich was especially fatuous, as it doesn’t take account of the intelligent debates about flat tax ratesation. Of course the “result” must be skewed by the weighting you and the the compilers give to your answers as well as the questions themselves. Another fifteen minutes I will never have again! Why do I fall for this foolishness? Now THAT is a good question…….
I thought it was a bit US biased, but actually a lot of the questions made me think about what I thought in principle rather than what I thought should happen here now. And I guess that’s the problem with politics – you need to think of what’s possible, but you need to have an ideal in mind too.
What did you come out as, GG? Seeing as you spent all that time on it and everything…
Affinity produced a book out of a conference – Tales of Two Cities, which is good inasmuch as I’ve read it, and Jubilee Manifesto should also be good: I haven’t read it yet, but have heard/read/discussed their stuff elsewhere, and it seems v helpful.
Oh, and right after I saw your post, I saw that the Reformed Forum podcast in the States had Carl Trueman addressing this issue in the latest podcast. Enjoy!
Thanks for those étrangère – they look excellent.
According to Compass I am:
a centrist social authoritarian.
Left: 0.81, Authoritarian: 5.38
I don’t think that is where I would put myself!
On the Big Government/Little Government debate I thought I tended towards the Little Government argument
But Joseph did make Egypt “suffer” Big Government, for God’s purposes.
I came out to the North-West of you, so that’s obviously wrong! I also did not send my comment, I thought, as I was trying to sort out how to edit the typo when I was distracted – and it seems to have left me on its own: or maybe it’s finger trouble again……..
Yes, these surveys can make you think, but as soon as you start you’re lost, as in the case of the tax question, because few of the answers seem to me susceptible to a tick-box multiple choice response, or they shouldn’t be.
Perhaps the survey should be subtitled “for amusement only”.