SeekerBlog

I may be one of the few people not familiar with political scientist David Nolan’s 1969 innovation of the “Nolan Chart”, the basis for the World’s Smallest Political Quiz. I searched it up today in the process of looking up definitions of political philosophies.

Nolan’s idea is really quite interesting! I had felt for some time that the one-dimensional Left <–> Right scaling was not useful. Whether the Nolan Chart is the end of the search for a more useful mapping I do not know. My first thought, was "I wonder if the Quiz is rigged such that most people map into the Libertarian region?" I read through the FAQ on the Advocates site – all I can say is their arguments for the validity of the test are persuasive to me [disclaimer - I'm not a student of Political Science]. I find myself in company with Dave Barry so that validates the whole exercise for me!

Here is a very short piece in the Washington Post on the Nolan Chart and the web-based quiz. Try it, see what you think – the quiz takes about 15 seconds.

Important note on Non-United States political terminology: The words "liberal," "conservative," and "libertarian" can have very different meanings in some cultures outside the United States. See the FAQ for clarifications.