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Designing a Quiz to Determine if SOme One is a Liberal Or Conservative

Redress

Liberal Fascist For Life!
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This idea started from this thread: http://www.debatepolitics.com/us-partisan-politics-and-political-platforms/149166-you-liberal.html

The quiz linked in that thread, was to mind mind just terrible. It basically took a bunch of issues and assigned a liberal position to those issues, and tried to determine if some one was then a liberal. I scored straight up conservative on the quiz. It got me thinking that not only was the problem that the person who designed the quiz had no real clue about liberal ideology, but more importantly that the quiz tried to decide ideology based on positions on the issues, which I think does not work. Both a liberal and a conservative can agree 100 % on an issue, but they will arrive at that position in different ways. One example would be SSM, where for a liberal SSM is beneficial to society and as such should be legal, while for a conservative the government should limit when it tells people who they can or cannot marry kinda thing(phrased poorly I know).

So what I did was try and come up with a quiz question that I thought would show the basic philosophy behind the ideology. I assumed that the basic difference between liberals and conservatives was the level of government intervention, the size of government appropriate, and with that tried this question:

For any given problem with the country, the most likely best solution is:
A) Government intervention
B) Government deregulation
Click to expand...

The question fails miserably in large part because it tries to do too much in one question. I do however like the concept of a quiz that tries to measure the background philosophy as opposed to simply the stance on issues. It is a kinda neat mental exorcize. SO with that in mind, my question: What questions would you ask on a quiz to determine if some one is liberal or conservative, and what do you think is that underlying philosophical difference? If we get some good responses here(oh, I am so hoping), I will edit them into this OP and we can see if we can put together a good quiz instead of all the crap ones online.
 
I think you're heading in the right direction with the "Why do you take this position?" concept but I can't really think of a good way to get that into a multiple choice format.
 
I think a better quiz would be "are you a Republican or a Democrat" since they design policies. If one wants to design a test to determine ideology they should structure questions around ethical things or ranking things in priorities. All political tests I've taken place me left of center (halfway between the center and the far left) and personally I wouldn't say that that's an accurate description of how I would label myself.
 
First of all it is not so much the matter of ANY government involvement, but at which level (I prefer the lowest possible levels) of gov't and whether the gov't simply sets standards (e.g. building codes) or attempts to make it so (e.g. housing subsidies without any need for individual citizen effort).

My biggest beef with liberal policies is that the seem to want to provide equality of outcome without equality of effort, while my biggest beef with conservative policies is that they wish to impose "morality" without regard to any logical effect on outcome.

A good example is abortion. Liberals use their favorite word "access" to mean that unless the gov't gives you something free then you are denied "access" to it. Of course, they never go so far as to say all should be granted "access" to nose jobs, lipposuction and tummy tucks, but seem to see abortion (reroactive birth control?) as a "need" rather than simply as a right of choice. Conservatives, on the other hand, seem to want only that "elective procedure" banned on the basis that it is "murder" to voluntarily terminate a pregnacy, yet will also refuse to support (financially and emotinally) the unwanted result of carrying that preganacy to term, thus placing one in a position of having a child that they neither want nor can (want to?) afford to care for.

While crony capitalism is seen by both liberals and conservatives as wrong "in principle", the definitions seem to vary based on the "intended" outcome. Liberals see using gov't funds to help produce US solar panels as "good", even if the technology does not yet make them viable (marketable/profitable), while conservatives see using gov't funds to "get more US oil" as "good" simply because it "reduces dependency on foreign sources" even while knowing that it is not good for the environment and is plenty profitable without any such gov't subsidy at all.

I think you are on the right track, viewing the philosophical differences, rather than actual implementation of any solutions proposed. The "ends justify the means" logic can be just as wrong as "the means justify the ends" logic.
 

Ideology is exactly what I am after, and yes, it is hard.
 

Correct, it is the level of government involvement, not all or nothing.


Equity of opportunity is the goal, not equity of outcome.


The liberal position on abortion is that people should be able to choose to have an abortion, just as they can choose to have liposuction.


Never thought of it in those terms, but I can't argue much with it. However, those are not ideological issues.

I think you are on the right track, viewing the philosophical differences, rather than actual implementation of any solutions proposed. The "ends justify the means" logic can be just as wrong as "the means justify the ends" logic.
Click to expand...

Interesting.
 
Redress said:
Equity of opportunity is the goal, not equity of outcome.



The liberal position on abortion is that people should be able to choose to have an abortion, just as they can choose to have liposuction.
Click to expand...

Oh lord, the irony of me posting that after starting this thread....I am ashamed.
 

Very true. Awhile back on another forum we had a debate over strip clubs (or maybe it was porn) and I actually found myself on the same side of some staunch liberal feminists.



I remember seeing that. I don't think it was that bad at all. The main challenge, I think, is to keep value judgments out of the questions.


Y'know, I was thinking about this, and I was thinking of questions along the lines of, "Do you believe morality/religious beliefs should play any role in politics?", but that's not really good either, is it? Social conservatives may say yes to that but right leaning libertarians may not. And that led me to this question, are there different "types" of liberals"? I ask in all sincerity and of course I recognize that not all liberals (as with conservatives) think the same way. I'm just not as familiar with different schools of liberal philosophy. Are there some positions that are at odds with other positions yet both would be considered "liberal"?
 
The questions I would ask:

1. Which do you believe has a greater influence over the outcome of a person's life? Choice or circumstance.

2. How would you prefer society solve society-wide problems such as financial inequality and global warming? Government or Private Institutions (charities, private schools, etc.).

(An alternative would be to define these questions in terms of scale. For example, on #1, "On a scale of 1-10, how much does circumstance influence the outcome of a person's life?")

The underlying philosophical differences:

I think the main differences between American liberals and conservatives (more broadly, the American left and right) are rooted in a different perception of the role of choice and circumstance in determining a person's life. I believe that liberals tend to see circumstance as having a more deterministic role and conservatives tend to see choice as having a more deterministic role. It's through that basic perception of life that I think many other principles and policies of liberalism and conservatism develop.

For example, in discussions on poverty, liberals tend to argue that government must rectify the problems of poverty because many of those in poverty need help and cannot provide it for themselves easily because of their circumstances. On the other hand, conservatives often counter this by pointing to those who have escaped poverty as evidence that the poor are not limited by their circumstances and sometimes as evidence that liberals are underestimating the ability of the poor to make choices that will help them lift themselves out of poverty. Put in a simpler manner, when it comes to poverty, liberals tend to focus on how to change the circumstances of poverty while conservatives focus on how the individuals can choose to change their situation.
 
ThePlayDrive said:
2. How would you prefer society solve society-wide problems such as financial inequality and global warming? Government or Private Institutions (charities, private schools, etc.).
Click to expand...

This is still a weighted question because it assumes everyone agrees that those are "society-wide problems".
 
I always noticed that for the most part, regardless of strange questions, I get fairly "accurate" placements. I'm frequently in the center, perhaps ever-so-slightly conservative, or perhaps in the direction of authoritarian right. It's the rest of you folks that seem to be in for trouble. So, my own personal measurement is you might be doing something strange if I get thrown into "hardcore anything."
 
X Factor said:
This is still a weighted question because it assumes everyone agrees that those are "society-wide problems".
Click to expand...
You could also say that my first question is weighted because it assumes that everyone believes in "choice" when many people do not. However, it's generally accepted that choice exists just as it's generally accepted that global warming is social problem since it has negative effects on the entirety of society. I'll replace financial inequality with "discrimination" since financial inequality isn't necessarily a problem.
 

I still disagree that global warming is generally accepted to be a problem in the first place, much less a problem that man or society can solve. I do think your questions about choices vs circumstance are pretty good.
 
1. How often do you use the word 'ilk'?

2. Do you substitute the word 'absolutely' for the word 'yes'?

3. Do you have a 'goatee' that's really a Van-Dyke?

4. Do you drive a Hummer or an Excursion?

5. Was W. simply misunderstood?

6. How long is your hair?
 
Select from a series of base truth-claims ; a priori assumptions.
 
I frequently get challenged on DP with respect to my self-identification as a conservative. Americans have a very different concept of what a conservative is than I and most Canadians do. For me, the philosophy is based on "keep the government out of my wallet and out of my bedroom". In simple terms, it means keep government lean and focussed and keep it far away from any attempt to manage my private life. To me, that's the definition of a conservative. If American conservatives tried to follow that philosophy, they'd win large majorities in almost every election.
 
Really, any questionnaire will be flawed. The only way to do a test like this is a live session between an individual and someone trained to identify the personality type.

The best way I can see to do it would be to ask many complex questions with several complex answers, weighing each answer to a specific lean. This would look for specific queues without being obvious position questions. Participants would have to simply choose which answer they most agree with.
 
This test The Political Compass measures political views on two aspects authoritarian vs libertarian (socially) and left vs. right (economically). It is much more revealing than a mere left vs. right test could be.


"About The Political Compass™
Both an economic dimension and a social dimension are important factors for a proper political analysis. By adding the social dimension you can show that Stalin was an authoritarian leftist (ie the state is more important than the individual) and that Gandhi, believing in the supreme value of each individual, is a liberal leftist. While the former involves state-imposed arbitrary collectivism in the extreme top left, on the extreme bottom left is voluntary collectivism at regional level, with no state involved. Hundreds of such anarchist communities exisited in Spain during the civil war period."

 

Okay, on the original test I was a total conservative which I am not.

Here is another test I took, it is okay, much better than the one you cited. I came across as 65% conservative 35% liberal which I feel is more in line with my beliefs.

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

Here is another I liked.

How Liberal Or Conservative Are You?

On this one, the Nolan chart, I was just above the centralist about a couple of millimeters in the Libertarian position.

By googling test to see if you are a conservative or liberal, there are a ton of these type quizs.

I do not think you could come up with a worst quiz that the one you cited. I should say the authors of the quiz, not you personally.
 

The only evidence validated test I have seen that accurately predicts liberalism versus conservationism is the Moral Foundations Test developed by Jon Haidt.

Moral Foundations Theory Homepage
 

Doubtful. The framing of American politics would make that a difficult sell.

Actually, that view of conservatism had been receiving an enormous amount of upsurge in the past 10 years, but like most things, the slogans often conflict with what an individual wants that to mean, and then how to sell that to the wider body politic.
 

I love this one, it is even better than the Nolan Chart. I almost came in right in the middle. I scored 1.00 on Economic left/right and a minus 0.62 between Libertarian and authoritarian. now being I would consider myself a fiscal conservative and more social liberal. I think this test comes out to say just that.
 

I doubt it, considering that's almost the exact opposite message than what the Democrats ran with and won. Keeping Government out of economics in American politics means poisonous water, rotten meat, and favoritism towards the wealthy, while keeping the government out of social issues is just plain racist.
 
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