So I think most people are familiar with the two axes test (Political Compass) and I think we can all agree that it's dog shit. I was thinking about how many axes we would need in order to have sufficient granularity while still keeping the number of possible classifications (i.e. paleoconservative) smaller than the number of genders. Last night, I came across a handful of tests and the each have their own merits and faults.
https://medium.com/@nausher.cholavaram/a-six-axes-political-compass-fa54a5e36e33https://8values.github.io/https://9axes.github.io/https://sixtriangles.github.io/Now, the question I have for PaRD is what should those axes be? Similar to the 6 axes test, I believe we can start by looking at 3 categories: how a country fits into the world (international relations and identity), your views on economics, and your views on social structure. The 8 values test takes the latter and separates it into state structure and social/cultural structure.
When I think of economics, I think one axis would be consumers vs. business. Another axis could be your views on wealth distribution (tax code, capitalism vs. socialism, etc.) Yet another could be your views protectionism vs. free trade (this could also be placed in the world box). These are likely correlated and we might be able to simplify them further without losing much insight into political views.
When it comes to social structure, I think there are several things to consider. One is how quickly you respond to change (literally status quo vs. radicalism). The other has to do with culture (multiculturalism vs. monoculturism). Lastly, you should probably consider the role of the state in society and how laws are enforced.
Lastly, there's America's place in the world. How often should military intervention be used? What about diplomatic soft power? General engagement with the rest of the world?
Based on all this, I think you're looking at the following axes:
-International Participation Index (i.e. isolationism vs. globalism, encompasses trade, diplomacy, military interventionism)
-Authoritarian Index (how strictly structure is enforced regardless if it's by society or government)
-Change Index (how quickly you respond to change in general)
-Economic centralization index (how comfortable you are economic power being concentrated...this handles small business vs. multinational corporation, government ownership of resources, capitalism vs. socialism)
-Collectivist index (economic individualism vs. collectivism, individual rights vs. group rights, etc.)
Obviously, with these axes, you're going to miss SOME political views. However, if you view these axes as binary, you already have 32 unique classifications. If you view them as ternary (-1, 0, 1 i.e. taking moderation/intensity into account) you have 243 unique classifications.
Anyway, I'd like to hear your thoughts on this matter.