Governance Authority, Economic Orientation, Equality and Personal Freedom: An analysis of the Political Compass

Governance Authority, Economic Orientation, Equality and Personal Freedom: An analysis of the Political Compass
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Governance Authority, Economic Orientation, Equality and Personal Freedom: An analysis of the Political Compass
The right to freedom of opinion and expression in society is a common day practice for everyone. As such, this scenario forms the basis upon which people associate and or relate with different political views in regards to the economy establishment and authoritarian or liberal systems of governance, which determine the level of equality in a society. Back in time, people had limited freedom and or rights to act as they saw fit because of stringent political governance that placed power in the hand of a selected few. This led to traditional forms of liberalism that were characterized by instances of revolts and other forms of non-violent public actions. Still, political views and orientation stand to undergo changes over time considering the existence of dynamic economical, social, and political factors in the present world, which are important in the determination of a person’s thoughts and opinions (Heywood, 2007).
This paper focuses on the understanding of an individual’s political orientation using the ‘Political Compass’. I did an online test of the ‘compass’ that indicated my position to the left side of Authoritarian. Even so, the position is so near to the boundary between authoritarian and libertarian. I was compelled to agree with the results portrayed in the chart to some reasonable extent after a careful analysis of the same, with correlation to the political compass positioning of my preferred candidate in the 2012 U.S. election- Barrack Obama. Below is the chart diagram showing my political compass.


Comparison of Obama’s position and mine
My positioning on the chart affirms the thought that ‘Authoritarianism’ is not necessarily a right sided attribute, even though it places my political view similar to some of the most controversial leaders like Robert Mugabe, Hugo Chaves and Mahmoud Abbas. Even so, I find a rational common ground with these leaders despite of my support for right-sided Barrack Obama, whom I voted for, as president of the United States as far as socialism is concerned. I strongly feel that the larger community should own, influence and determine the country’s economy in terms of exchange, production and distribution of goods and services opposed with having numbered players in the private sector and government running the show. Still, I concur with the importance of capitalism hence my surprise of being relatively further left (-4.12) according to scale. All the same, I fail to read from the same page with Obama in terms of high military spending, protectionism and conservation of stringent national values that characterize his administration and leave the American taxpayer with a substantial tax burden.
As mentioned before, I agree with the resulted depiction of my position as an authoritarian with the position of Libertarian/Authoritarian of 0.46. I am a strong advocate for democracy, besides being able to relate with views of the Democratic Party compared to the Republican Party. I believe in the people’s power and collective involvement of citizens in the governance of the country (Heywood, 2007). As far as economic values are concerned, my position to the left Economic Left/Right: -4.88 Social, Barrack Obama, who was my preferred candidate in the 2012 elections is positioned as ‘Right Authoritarian’. I am surprised that he holds the position, mostly associated with republicans like George Bush for example and persons like Hitler. Nevertheless, my positioning to the left is in line with my social perspective. I believe in the freedom and empowerment of the people as a society in general instead of having governance systems that are capitalist hence favoring the rich and condemning the poor (Heywood, 2007). To the degree that the Country’s economic system is concerned, I am a believer of the free market system, hence my wonder of being positioned to the left.
The governance systems ought not to invade individuals’ personal space. Even so, people refraining from extremely unnatural acts of homosexuality per se should maintain the sanity of human nature. My positioning also indicates that a little of wealth distribution should be practiced in our societies to reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. I believe many poor people are suffering largely while the free market system is progressively facilitating the enrichment of a few wealthy citizens.
As an Authoritarian Socialist, I believe that the government should have only moderate levels of control of people’s lives and there should be a small degree of wealth redistribution, which considers moral responsibility directed to the poor and low-income earners. Citizens of any given country deserve equal opportunities in realizing social, economic and political wellbeing (Heywood, 2007). My position on the political compass associates with that of a communist, a point I did not quite expect. In the following sections, this pa...