I know this seems to be asking for a huge argument, but I just want to see where the majority of people who follow LT stand. I'm not trying to offend anyone. The political parties are NOT placed best to worst. Nazi is just an "I don't care" option. I don't think anyone on the forums is a Nazi.

You're welcome to post your actual political party if you selected other (I'm sure I missed some important one) but I understand if you want to remain anonymous. PLEASE no huge arguments.

This is kind of hard to answer because where I come from liberal and conservative are the same thing, and the only democrat party we have supports the liberals...

^That's because "liberal" is a party name and it refers to regulation, not to social liberalism.

I'm interested though in why 'democratic' is there as an option. In America at least, both liberals and conservatives are democratic - the democrat party happens to be more socially liberal than the republican party, so 'democracy' isn't... somehow... distinct from those subspectra on the continuum of ideologies

Where is socialism?

I'm a communist. Down with the capitalist pigs!

Scytale wrote:I'm interested though in why 'democratic' is there as an option. In America at least, both liberals and conservatives are democratic - the democrat party happens to be more socially liberal than the republican party, so 'democracy' isn't... somehow... distinct from those subspectra on the continuum of ideologies

You're very correct. I was just thinking along the lines of Republican/Democrat parties, and then the people who were more liberal than the democrat party. Maybe I should've thought the poll through a little more...

I think another potential problem here is the distinction between ideology and party - but ideology is itself a multifaceted issue, including discourses regarding both economic and social attitudes. And there's always one kind that one forgets to mention! ...and then people get upset =P

You might find the Nolan Chart closer to what you're looking for.

A way to get similar results here might be to have six poll options:

Society needs clear rules that everyone should follow.
Individuals should be free to do anything that doesn't hurt other people.
-------
The government needs to closely regulate and manage the economy.
Individuals should be free to negotiate contracts to their best advantage.
-------
We should actively intervene in the world where our interests are at stake.
We should spend our resources on our own citizens and not interfere elsewhere.

and then let poll respondents pick any three answers, one from each of the three groups of two, that's closest to their perspective.

Not perfect, but probably more accurate than simple but easily misunderstood labels.

*)everyone who wears any of those labels in a political role is either corrupt, dumb or unqualified for his position.

Flat:
I think nothing can really work without the "clear rules" option.
on the other points:

Free to do unless they harm someone else.

Free to negotiate (although that clashes with the "not harm anyone else" at times)

Intervene when it falls under maintaining the first rule.

Idunno wrote:I'm a communist. Down with the capitalist pigs!

voted for others

I reject the notion of party. People tend to forget that "parties" stemmed from general commonly held beliefs. There is no such thing as a party. Funny thing though, it used to be, that a person used to be placed into a party based upon their general beliefs, now people tend to change their beliefs to more conform with their perceived need to follow a party's tenets.

I am fiscally conservative, but generally liberal in many things, i.e, you are free to do whatever you want as long as you don't harm someone else in the process. I won't tell you how to run your life and I expect the same.

Cornflakes_91 wrote:Flat:
I think nothing can really work without the "clear rules" option.
on the other points:

Free to do unless they harm someone else.

Free to negotiate (although that clashes with the "not harm anyone else" at times)

Intervene when it falls under maintaining the first rule.

I've certainly got my own views on these things; the point is that the Nolan chart is a reasonably concise way of capturing basic political views. The phrasings that I suggested above are the extreme cases, which I used just to describe how someone's views on social and economic issues place them in one of the four quadrants.

A more accurate approach would be to ask a number of questions regarding social and economic policy views and then plot their average on those two axes. (The third dimension of foreign policy ought to be considered, but it's somewhat less determinative than the other two measures. Also, charts are hard to read in 3D that's mapped to two dimensions.)

Poet1960 wrote:I am fiscally conservative, but generally liberal in many things, i.e, you are free to do whatever you want as long as you don't harm someone else in the process. I won't tell you how to run your life and I expect the same.

Under the Nolan chart model that would put you in the Libertarian quadrant:
Again, this model certainly is not perfect, but as a shorthand for understanding approximately where your views lie compared to others, it's OK.

Hmm, if I remember right, I've seen some of those charts with the word anarchist in place of libertarian. I am not an anarchist. I think there is some value in having government, as long as it sticks to what it's supposed to be doing, and doesn't interfere in the individual lives of it's people. The constitution of the US is a pretty good document, the problem is, they rarely follow it anymore, therein lies the problem, not with the document itself.

I assume these are UK parties? Because I dont see Republican or Independent anywhere.