There’s an old chestnut that one sometimes sees repeated, that the political spectrum looks like a circle. But that excellent tool, the political compass, makes it clear that there are multiple dimensions to politics.
The political compass has four quadrants: libertarian left, libertarian right, authoritarian left, and authoritarian right.
The libertarian left is socially left wing, supporting same-sex marriage, abortion rights, divorce, etc; and it’s economically left wing, supporting the welfare state, taxing the rich, and fairly distributing wealth. I know the details of this quadrant much better than the other quadrants, because I am on the libertarian left.
The authoritarian left has similar economic views to the libertarian left but is socially conservative.
The libertarian right wants to be able to do whatever it wants (own guns, not wear seatbelts: they are basically Mad Max).
The authoritarian right wants an economy that will prevent the working class from getting richer or having any autonomy and enable the rich to get richer (one of the key features of fascism is extreme capitalism) and they’re usually opposed to social reforms like same-sex marriage.
That’s why it looks like a circle to some people: because the authoritarian left and right superficially resemble each other — but they’re not exactly the same.
The authoritarian left is more likely to want to control the economy; whereas the authoritarian right wants to allow “market forces” (actually, billionaires) to control the economy.
It’s also worth mentioning that there are many different positions on the political compass and different political parties in different countries will occupy different positions on the compass—so always read a summary of their policies before voting. Sometimes you can find a quiz where you put in your answers to key political questions and it will then tell you which party’s policies most closely match your answers.
And if you’re one of those people who doesn’t do politics, or worse, believes that Paganism shouldn’t be political: consider that the personal is political, and issues of social justice affect who is welcome in your circle, or not welcome. Everything is political.
Take the political compass test
Here’s how the political compass explains how it works:
Dowsing for Divinity 