If you ever wondered where you fit on the political spectrum but couldn’t be asked to take some quiz, this post will seek to generally explain how political philosophies can be simply deconstructed and where you might stand. Firstly, we divide political philosophies between social and economic issues. Social issues are concerned with personal freedoms: abortion, gay marriage, drug legalization etc. Economic issues are concerned with economic freedoms: taxes, free trade, unregulated markers etc.

• Social conservatives (traditionalists/religious moralists) – This groups opposes abortion rights, gay marriage, drug legalization etc because they feel these are moral issues and would harm society if they were made legal.
• Social liberals (personalists) – This group favor abortion rights, gay marriage, drug legalization etc because they feel the government has no right to dictate morality. They feel morality is a very personal thing.
• Economic conservatives (individualists) – This group favors unrestricted free trade, unrestricted freedom for businesses, unregulated markets etc. because they think individuals must be the center of all economic activity and so should be free to do what they want with their own money. They feel that if everyone looked out for their own self-interest, society as a whole would progress farther and faster.
• Economic liberals (communitarians/statists) – This group favors government involvement in the economy to reduce wealth inequality. Therefore, the economy should be run primarily by the state in order to fairly manage the wealth of society.

I do not intend to define the above terms as if political views on social and economic issues are dichotomous. Each philosophy contains several political views that their adherents may not agree with. In reality, each policy issue has a sliding scale where most people find themselves in the middle. Unfortunately, the political discourse in the US has become so wrapped up in a left-right political atmosphere that there is a need to simplify ones views.

I’d recommend taking the political compass quiz to accurately identify your political philosophy. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on the political spectrum which you can find here.

And that’s jus’ the tip.