| H
E L P S P R E A D T H E W O R D
.
Post
a Quiz Article
You've taken
the Quiz and you'd like to steer people to it. But you want to do more
than post a link on your blog, Web site, or online journal. What can you
do?
Here's
one idea: Copy and post the following article, entitled "The World's
Most Popular Political Quiz."
The article is short -- only 870 words. It's comprehensive and interesting.
It explains the origins of the Quiz, answers common questions, and illustrates
how much fun people have when they take the Quiz. And it's copyright free.
(We just ask that you include the link to the World's Smallest Political
Quiz.)
It's an easy way to get some fresh content on your blog, Web site, or
online journal -- and, at the same time, encourage your readers to take
the World's Smallest Political Quiz. They'll thank you for it!
* * * * *
The
World's Most
Popular Political Quiz
How the World's Smallest Political Quiz redefined
politics, took over the Internet, impressed the experts, and made politics
fun for more than 3 million people
After taking the World's Smallest Political Quiz, the famous online test
that instantly pinpoints your political ideology, no two people have exactly
the same reaction.
Consider Courtney, a self-described "young Republican." She
took the Quiz and was surprised by the result. "I [scored] libertarian
centrist," she said. "I really think I lean to the right, but
apparently some aspect of my social liberalism has centered me. Interesting."
For blogger Jessy, the Quiz confirmed what she already knew. The avowed
liberal landed smack-dab in the liberal quadrant and said, "I could
not agree more."
Then there's Krzysztof -- nicknamed "Critto" -- from Poland.
For him, the Quiz was exciting. "I am a libertarian, after taking
the Quiz!" he said enthusiastically. "I love the World's Smallest
Political Quiz, for it is cute, small, and very useful."
Cute? Well, OK; let's not argue with a guy named Critto.
Small? You bet. It takes less than two minutes to zip through. Useful?
Absolutely, if the surge of people taking the Quiz is any proof.
Every day, more than 4,000 people flock to the Web site of the Advocates
for Self- Government (www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html) to take the Quiz.
That's 166 people an hour, 24 hours a day. In fact, since 1996, when the
Advocates started tracking results, more than 3.6 million people have
clicked, moused, and surfed their way to the Quiz.
Why the enormous popularity -- especially when so many other political
quizzes clutter up the Internet?
Sharon Harris, president of the Advocates, has a theory. "The Quiz
offers a more diverse way of looking at politics," she said.
"It gives people a fast, accurate way of determining who agrees with
them most."
That "more diverse" insight is the key. Before the Quiz came
along, politics was a two- way street. You were either liberal or conservative,
and that was that.
Enter David Nolan, an MIT political-science graduate. In 1969, Nolan realized
that traditional political definitions didn't make sense. He observed
that liberals usually supported personal liberty (they defended free speech),
but opposed economic liberty (they liked high taxes and strict regulation
of business). Conservatives were the opposite. They supported economic
liberty (low taxes and minimal regulations), but opposed personal liberty
(they applauded laws against pornography).
So far, so good. But what about people who supported both personal
and economic liberty? They didn't fit. Nether did people who opposed
both personal and economic liberty.
Nolan finally resolved the paradox. "I began to doodle around with
the idea of trying to reduce the political universe to a graphical depiction,"
he told The Liberator magazine in 1996. "I thought, 'Maybe
we can delineate this on some kind of map, using a two-axis graph.' "
That was the breakthrough. Instead of looking at politics as a two-way
line, Nolan designed a political chart that went in four directions
-- high or low on economic issues, and high or low on personal issues.
Conservatives and liberals fit in this new political spectrum. So did
libertarians and statists, who Nolan added to the mix. Libertarians scored
high/high on liberty issues; statists scored low/low. Later, centrists
were added in the middle -- and the Nolan Chart, a new way of looking
at politics, was born.
In 1985, Marshall Fritz, founder of the Advocates for Self-Government,
added 10 questions to the chart. He squeezed it all onto a business card-size
handout, dubbed it the World's Smallest Political Quiz, and took it to
a local print shop.
The rest is history. Over the years, the nonpartisan Advocates distributed
7 million printed copies of the Quiz to help spread the word about libertarianism.
In 1995, the Quiz made the jump to cyberspace where it immediately became
the Internet's most popular political quiz, with 13,400 Web sites linked
to it today.
But is it accurate? After all, the Advocates is a libertarian organization.
Did they rig the Quiz so everyone would score libertarian?
No, says an expert. Cynthia Carter, professor of History and Political
Science at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, said, "Although
this quiz is provided by a Libertarian organization, it does not lead
you to answer in any particular way."
That may be why instructors around the USA use the Quiz in their classrooms.
If you peeked into classrooms at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy
School of Government, Carnegie Mellon University, or Texas A&M University
(to name just a few) over the past few years, you'd find find students
answering the Quiz's questions.
Even cynical reporters -- always eager to expose a phony -- have been
impressed by the Quiz's insight and honesty. For example, the Washington
Post reported, "The Quiz has gained respect as a valid measure
of a person's political leanings."
But don't let the scholarly recommendations fool you. The Quiz isn't a
boring political science project -- it's fun. In fact, that is
the one reaction that just about everybody who takes the Quiz does have
in common.
Professional astrologer Adze Mixxe said it best. No matter what your political
identity is, he told people, "You will get 100 percent enjoyment
from the World's Smallest Political Quiz." And isn't that a political
score everyone can agree on?
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