A political compass to the 2008 election is something I have been missing (or unable to find). These things are usually interactive web-based surveys that based on your own positions on a range of issues calculate what party/candidate you are closest to. They invariably simplify politics but not so much that they lose their charm. The Swedish surveys I have taken have always predicted what my favorite party is. There are seven major parties in Sweden so predicting the correct one is harder than it might seem from a two-party system perspective.
Andrew Gelman writes about it, following a tip from Maarten Buis. Gelman is absolutely right in his critique of some of the questions. He exemplifies with a question about climate change:
The questions are set up as statements where you say if you strongly agree, agree, …, strongly disagree. I have problems with some of the questions, for example, “The effects of global warming are grossly exaggerated.” I didn’t know how to answer this, since (a) the effects are presumably grossly exaggerated by some and understated by others, and (b) I don’t know the effects either, since there’s lots of uncertainty. I mean, I know what they’re getting at with the question, but I didn’t really know how to answer it in a direct (as compared to a “political”) way.
I can exemplify with this one: “Some form of torture is acceptable if it can prevent terrorist attacks”. What kind of terrorist attacks are we talking about? How many lives will be saved? How is torture defined? Does torture mean waterboarding, CIA-prisons, sleep deprivation, listening to Metallica songs or what?
But regardless of these problems, this is fun! If you want to take it, go to Electoral Compass USA, click start, and answer 36 questions. Some more info about the compass is filed under FAQ at the bottom of their homepage.
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