Political chessboard

The political chessboard is the representation on a scale of the positioning of parties or political movements. It makes it possible for example to classify the political parties, generally on a Dimension, Extreme left with the Extrême right-hand side. However, certain analysts define multidimensional political chessboards, take into account of concepts interventionists, social, souverainists, etc

This classification is generally the reflection of a common opinion, and certain parties refuse to appear in the box where they are generally classified.

Many countries use in their language the expression “spectrum political” ( political spectrum in English) in reference to the spectrum of the white Lumière.

Distinction left-right-hand side

In the Western countries, the political chessboard is generally translated on an axis left-right-hand side. The chess-board is held since the extreme left and the left represented by the socialist parties and Communists, then, while passing through the social democrats, the line and the extreme line in the form of the conservative parties, liberals, theocratic and fascistic. The national and cultural differences in the use of the terms of left and right-hand side are legion. And this the more so as the political currents can take a direction different It is the case of the liberalism which, in Europe except for Great Britain, is associated with the right-hand side, and which represents a current of center-left in the United States. Or the socialism, which indicates various degrees of industrial relations policies and interventionists.

There exist thus various interpretations of the axis left-right-hand side, which correspond to various points of view from what measurement precisely this axis, and the appreciations generally make call to relative concepts.

Alternate chess-boards

Certain political analysts affirm that cleavage left-right-hand side is inadequate if one does not know what these terms recover exactly. They estimate that it is necessary to define the axes of classification as a preliminary.

Many other axes thus could be defined; the development of such axes aims sometimes itself at political objectives.

One of the alternate axes measures the degree of intervention of the State, thus creating a scale active of the Totalitarisme to the Anarchisme.

Another axis describes the importance of the ecology in the political action.

Other axes are also interested in various criteria:

Role of the Church : Clericalism/Anticlericalism. This axis, according to the countries, is sometimes directly superimposed on the axis left-right-hand side.
Politics foreign : Interventionism/Isolationism, refusal of the interference.

Related to the preceding axis, on military businesses , various positions concerning the Warmongering and the Pacifism, whose partisans in certain countries are designated by the terms of " faucons" and " colombes".

Foreign trade : Under this subject one can describe various axes, concerning the Mondialisation or the Autarcie in the exchanges (Protectionnisme), as well as the type of desired universalization (cf also the article Altermondialisme).
social Diversity : Multiculturalisme, Assimilationnisme opposed to the Nationalism.
Representativeness of the capacity : Democracy/Oligarchy. Also on this topic the various republican designs .
Changes : Progressionism opposed to the Conservatism (also concept of policy Reactionary).
Authority of the State : Souverainisme/Federalism.

(in Europe) Integration in Europe : Europhilie/Europhobia.

Multidimensional models

There exist many alternatives to a traditional axis right-hand side-left: first consisted in general adding to this axis another axis for freedom, able to distinguish from the people like Stalin and Noam Chomsky: it was Hans Eysenck into 1964 which created it.

Diagram of Nolan

Another model is that of the Libertarien David Nolan. This diagram shows what he regards as being “economic freedoms” (like the level of the taxes, the free gone and the free enterprise) on the x-axis, and “individual freedoms” (freedom of circulation, Laïcité, free possession of its body which gathers the Légalisation of drugs, the Avortement, the Euthanasie,…) on the y-axis.

This places the left wing on the left in top of this diagram, the right wing in bottom on the right, the libertariens in top on the right, and bottom on the left the totalitarists (of extreme-left like extreme line). The latter were gathered by Nolan under the name of populist for their tendency to be pressed on the “small people”, however that does not recut the recent use of the populist term to indicate programs economically very liberal. The left axis right-hand side/is thus represented by a diagonal crossing the diagram of the left corner higher than the corner lower right.

Political compass

According to largely the method of Eysenck, another model was designed, which positions the economic questions about the horizontal axis and the questions of freedom about the vertical axis.

Diagram of Pournelle

The diagram of Jerry Pournelle class ideologies according to their degree of state control and Rationalism, by two axes, one in X-coordinate which goes from the “State like ultimate evil” to the “worship of the State”, and one in ordinate which goes from “irrationalism” to the “established reason”. Rationalism is defined there like the belief in a planned social progress, with in top of the diagram those which believe that the societies' problems can be solved rationally, and in bottom those which fear such approaches.

Three-dimensional models

Two cubic models were built according to the diagram of Nolan:

That of Friesian Institute adds to the two axes already existing a third representing “positive” freedoms (right policies).
the other is entitled the Vosem Chart , and breaks up “economic freedoms” into “freedom of company” and “tax freedom”.

External bonds

Politest: test which makes it possible to be compared to the French parties according to 3 axes

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