I came across a site today that I found really interesting, particularly considering recent musings here on Wordridden as to the exact nature of the spectrum of political ideology.

The site is called The Political Compass. The creators of the site felt that the typical linear view of political ideology (left-right) was too restricted. Instead, they have come up with a grid consisting of a left wing - right wing x-axis and an authoritarian - libertarian y-axis which is supposed to take into account not just the economic aspect of politics, but the social aspect as well.

By filling out their online questionnaire (you know how I love those) you can evaluate your position on this grid. After you take the test, you can read the analysis and check out the estimated positions of famous figures from history - Hitler, Stalin - and of current UK politicians (a US version is apparently in the making).

There’s no sitting on the fence with the questions - "maybe" is never one of the options. Because you are forced to come down on one side or the other of issues that you might otherwise hem and haw about, your final results could be quite startling. Mine surprised me - I thought I had a pretty good idea of where I stood, but I wound up pushed much farther into one corner than I expected. Of course, whether the results are totally accurate is another question - but I guess that’s where the "stimulating-a-discussion" aspect comes in.