Week 8 Discussion: Political Compass Results

Required resources:
Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Lesson
• Political Compass Test Results
• Additional scholarly sources you identify through your own research

Link (webpage): Discussion Guidelines

Please follow the guidelines to get full credit.

Textbook:

 Magstadt, T. (2017). Understanding politics: Ideas, institutions, and issues (12th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.

Initial Post Instructions
Go to the site: https://www.politicalcompass.org. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.
Scroll to the end of the site where it says “take the test”.
Answer all of the questions.
After you answer the questions, there will be a chart with your Economic and Social numbers.

After taking the political compass test, tell the class what your scores are and what they mean. Then, analyze why you believe the results or do not believe the scores. Finally, discuss how this course has been beneficial to your daily life and career choice. Use evidence (cite sources) to support your response from assigned readings or online lessons, and at least TWO outside scholarly sources.

Class, take the Political Compass Test at www.politicalcompass.org (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.. Go to the Take the Test tab. Then answer the questions asked of you. Be sure to print or save your results!

Then tell the class what your scores are and what they mean. Then, analyze why you believe the results or do not believe the scores. 

Lesson:The Political Compass

Introduction:

This is it. You made it through political science! During this week, we will take the political compass test.

Understanding specific terms regarding the political spectrum is the key to unlocking its mysteries. This week, you will be taking the Political Compass Test. This is done to help you pinpoint your exact political stance on social and economic matters and to see how the government impacts your daily interactions. To fully grasp your results, let’s begin by exploring the graph structure and the terms presented in this assignment.

The Graph Structure

The horizontal perspective

This line represents your views regarding how much control the government should

have over the economy.

The further right your dot moves, the more you support no regulation or control by the

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The further left your dot moves, the more you support complete regulation or control

by the government.

The vertical perspective

This line represents your views regarding how much control the government should

have on social matters or items concerning your daily life.

The further up the scale your dot moves, the more you support governmental regulation

of daily life, such as the creation of laws to maintain order, or to support certain fundamental beliefs.

The further down the scale your dot moves, the more you support individual regulation,

rather than government control, of daily life.

The Terms

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The four terms provided on the graph represent the extremes people may support

The right: All the way to the right presents the concept of 100% capitalism.

This means no governmental regulation of business of any kind.

This means a completely market-regulated economy.

The left: All the way to the left presents the concept of 100% socialism.

This means complete governmental regulation of business.

Production is completely owned and operated by government.

Authoritarian: All the way to the top presents the concept of an authoritarian government.

This means complete government control over your daily life.

For example, the government declares there is no religion within the country, or there is a national religion that all must follow. Or it tells you what you can or cannot know, as in controlling the media or the Internet.

Libertarian: All the way to the bottom presents the concept of individual freedom to regulate your own actions.

This means that regulations regarding what you can or cannot do are in your hands, or at least local government hands, rather than at the national level.

For example, all individuals can possess guns, without any regulations such as gun safety classes, registration of firearms, or wait limits.

Usually, people do not fall on the far points of the graph, but somewhere in between the extremes. Again, your results will vary depending how much power you think the government should have in regulating business and your daily interactions.

Summary

We ended this course taking the political compass test that explained where you fall on the political spectrum. Although this course wasn’t all inclusive of all political science ideas, it gives you a good understanding of political science. Throughout this course, we discussed the importance of studying political science in our lives, the various branches and powers of the US democracy, how other countries have developed their democracies, who is an ideal citizen, living in a totalitarian nation, and domestic and foreign affairs.