Select a point to read what that dimension measures.
My Political Matrix
Answer 34 political decisions and see your views form one shape across 14 dimensions.
34 questions · About 10 minutes · Result sent to your email
The 14 dimensions
The questions
Each item gives you a concrete situation and asks what should happen.
See how it works →A town’s only electric company has raised average bills 30% in five years while outages have become more common. Buying it would cost $600 million, and taxpayers would take on the debt if the plan fails.
What should happen?
Explore a result
Each dimension runs between two poles and answers one plain-English question. Select a point in the Matrix to bring one forward, or read all fourteen here.
Who should settle big questions: the public voting on them directly, or the people we elect deciding on our behalf and answering for it at the next election?
When an issue is technical, like approving a drug or setting a safety rule, should trained specialists make the final call, or should the public and its representatives keep the last word even over the experts?
How much should courts, watchdogs, and fixed rules be able to stop an elected government from doing what it was elected to do? One end says let winners govern; the other says power should always be slowed and checked, even when that frustrates the majority.
Who should steer the economy's big outcomes: prices and competition between businesses, or public plans, rules, and investment? One end trusts buying and selling to sort things out; the other wants government directing more of where the economy goes.
Should everyone be guaranteed a basic standard of living, paid for by taxes on those with more, or should what people end up with track what they earn, even if the gaps grow large?
To stop crime and threats before they happen, how much monitoring and early action is acceptable? One end accepts more surveillance to prevent harm; the other requires proof and legal process first, even if that means some harm isn't prevented.
Should law and policy promote a shared way of life and common moral standards, or stay out of how people live as long as no one else is harmed?
When groups in a society differ by religion, language, or custom, should public institutions adapt to those differences, or expect everyone to fit one shared civic culture?
When a country signs international agreements, should those rules genuinely bind it even when it later disagrees, or should the nation always keep the final say at home?
How high should the bar be for using military force? One end acts earlier to deter or stop threats; the other treats force as a last resort, accepted only when nearly everything else has failed.
Should the country commit to standing alliances and long-term arrangements it sticks with through good times and bad, or stay flexible, joining efforts one at a time and avoiding permanent commitments?
Should decisions be made close to home by states and towns, even if rules end up different across the country, or nationally, so the rules are the same for everyone?
When national decisions get made, should states and regions hold a formal seat and real leverage in making them, or should national majorities decide alone?
When decisions get made, should they deliver what the public directly asks for, or be worked out through bargaining among different groups and representatives, accepting a compromise that is nobody's first choice?
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34 questions · About 10 minutes · Result sent to your email
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