Your input is requested. by Walt Thiessen
(libertarian)
Saturday, March 6, 2010
With all the recent interest in our on-site, ten-question survey, I thought maybe it's time to take another look at the questions and answers in that survey to see if we can come up with ways to improve it. With that view in mind, I've set up a forum at forum.nolanchart.com where we can discuss them in detail.
While many (most?) visitors find the survey useful or interesting, there have been others who have complained that the survey is biased or poorly written or unrepresentative of certain camps on the chart. While I certainly did not intend for such biases to enter the questions and answers, I recognize that I'm as prone to bias as anyone else. My long-term policy here has been to be responsive to constructive, specific suggestions about wording the questions and answers used here, and I'm continuing that policy with the creation of this new forum.
Some will undoubtedly consider this yet another opportunity to do no more than complain, but I'm hoping they're willing to do more than that. I'm hoping they're willing to help make the survey better. I'm particularly hoping for constructive input from people who score in each of the camps.
I've organized the new board so that each question in the survey gets its own forum. This should provide ample room and opportunity for discussion about those questions. I've established the following rules for the needs that the final survey needs to meet:
(1) This is a ten question survey, and it needs to stay that way. People don't have long attention spans, and ten questions pushes the limits of many. The idea is for all visitors to the site to feel encouraged to answer the survey, not to drive people away because there are too many questions.
(2) All survey questions need to have one conservative answer, one liberal answer, one libertarian answer, and one statist answer.
(3) Survey questions should only be changed if they need to be updated or the community as a whole agrees that the question needs to be replaced by a more poignant and relevant question. The idea is for the survey to ask questions related to the most poignant and relevant questions of today.
(4) All answers, where possible, should be drawn from comments made by real people known to be representative of the camp to which the particular answer applies. Obviously, this isn't always easy to do. For instance, it's often hard to identify statist leaders because they usually don't identify themselves as statist. Still, the goal should be to draw from actual commentary whenever possible when framing the answer as representative of a particular camp.
(5) Survey answers should be relatively extreme. If an answer for a particular camp approaches a centrist position, then there's no reasonable way to score that answer so that it can apply to someone who should appear on an edge of the Nolan Chart. The idea here isn't to be offensive. Rather, the idea is to be crystal clear about the camp's position on the issue.
(6) Please limit discussion of a particular survey question to that question's forum.
(7) As founder of the Nolan Chart website, I reserve the right to overrule recommendations. This is a right I intend to exercise only when I think that the recommendation works contrary to the best interests of the website and the survey itself.
I've set up a forum at forum.nolanchart.com for our readers and columnists to make constructive suggestions regarding how to modify the survey's questions and answers in order to make it better. Please feel free to login and participate. Thanks for your participation!
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I once saw a chart much like this, maybe a Libertarian article in the early '90s that asked questions: Are you for more economic freedom or economic control; more personal freedom or personal control. It had four main parts to it. That is when I discovered I'm a libertarian and after denouncing both big parties for many years before. Sorry to see the website was slowed down by all the Glen Beck viewers last Friday, but now some those people may have come to an awakining.
"That way a person might end up back in the middle as a centrist."
?????
If you truly are a centerist, the results would show that. Why would one ask to have a cursory political quiz altered because the results do not match how they see themselves?
Truth hurts sometimes, but be real - it is only a CURSORY quiz, skims the surface, not in depth and you are not , "labelled for eternity."
If you are determined to be seen as a centerist regardless of results from any inquiries into your views, then don't take a quiz that may possibly upset your preconceptions.
Posted By: Self Made Man
Date: 2010-03-07 10:48:21
Hi Walt, from a statistics perspective I would say that 10 questions are not enough to accurately define a person’s political and ideological affiliation. I do agree with your logic in relation to an individual’s attention span but I would also argue that any person who is really interested in discovering a more in-depth and intellectual look into their political principles would be willing to take a longer quiz. I also believe that it would help to illustrate and generate the quality of reflective review and opinion to that of your current and future readers and contributors. There are so many diverse views and perceptions of each topic that it is very difficult to gain a truly accurate gauge of a person’s political philosophy. If the questions are established, direct and accurate; I believe that even a 20 question quiz would create a higher level of accuracy and would be just as efficient and applicable to the overall nature and its purpose.
With that being said, I would propose utilizing the site ontheissues.org for some more recommendations to topics and it would also fill the need for your request to draw from actual political opinion. I have used the site many times for research and quoting purposes.The site has a very comprehensive list of common election issues, definitions and how the recent candidates view those issues. It may also be useful to visit the main websites of the Republican, Democrat, Libertarian and Centrists parties for a more definitive explanation of political ideals. Each issue is typically covered by each party and their views associated to each. This would provide a more complete and finite line of query. Given the fact that there are so many fringe groups associated to the main political groups, a comparison could be performed to further develop the questions to cover those gaps.
This website is a great tool for political and philosophical discussion and I believe that the complexity and accuracy of the test will play a key role to its future sustainability.
Your questions are biased to libertarian because of the way you create the answers, and you don't ask any questions which typically divide people into political groupings, nothing on abortion, gun rights, gay rights, illegal immigration and border control, or America's role in the world. You could even homogenize all that into one question; On social issue are you generally:
a. Conservative b. Liberal c. A mixture d. Believe in state's sovereignty to address the question.
The way the questions are presently formulated you pair policy choices in one answer which require the test taker to prioritize and possibly embrace a policy he disagrees with because of what it is paired with. If you are trying to increase the "libertarian" response for some alterior motive, I guess its working for you...however, libertarians are a very small minority and election results seem to prove that.
Some of the questions should be worded to differentiate between federal gov't intervention and intervention by states. I believe the federal government should be kept within the confines of the constitution, and states and individuals should be granted all powers not specifically and clearly (withont convoluting the language) granted to the federal government. I don't necessarily think that there is no place for government involvement in some areas; just no place for federal government involvement. For example, education. Also, if states decide they need a state ID to be used at voting booths, to deter fraud, that is a legitimate state concern, but not a federal concern. There was no way for me to express this differentiation in the survey. Health care would also fall into this category. If states decide to get involved in health care, that might be a legitimate state concern, but no constitutional authority is granted to the federal govt.
I think the question on the 2nd. Amendment should be changed slightly to the following.
In general, I support the right to bear arms. It is however prudent for government to issue limited regulation for arms via registration requirements and other regulations to help ensure that mentally unstable People / Felons have a more difficult time obtaining firearms.
The question that read "End government barriers to international free trade. The regulation...." etc. actually combined the issues of free trade, the role of the Fed, and a return to "Hard Money" into one question when they are really three different issues.
Ensuring that trade is fair is one of the few things the government as constructed is actually empowered to do, so I agreed with the response that stated as much.
However, with regard to the Fed, I feel so passionately about this issue that I felt compelled to answer in a way that meant abolishing it. I would also favor eliminating a Fraction Reserve banking syste,
However, abolishing the Fed is not synonymous with a return to tjhe Gold Standard. I've seen many ideas about creating a "production based" fiat currency that make sense, so long as it can't be arbitrarily inflated. Most of these ideas also call for the abolition of Fractional Reserve Banking
There should be an additional questions about abortion, possibly about the environment, prayer in schools. Abortion is a big question that was left out, but is important in dividing the conservatives and liberals.
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