| T
H E Q U I Z & T H E
A D V O C A T E S
.
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 3 million people
BY
BILL WINTER
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 Jennifer, a Wisconsin librarian. She took the Quiz and landed
smack-dab in the centrist quadrant. That's perfect, she says. "I
believe government has no business in certain areas, and all the business
in the world in others," she explains. "Call me a compassionate
centrist. I can think of worse things to be called."
When Courtney, a self-described "young Republican" from Texas,
took the Quiz, she was intrigued. "I [scored] libertarian centrist,"
she says, a bit surprised. "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 merely confirmed what she already knew. The
avowed liberal was identified as an avowed liberal. That "really
comes as no surprise to me," she says. "I could not agree more."
Then there's Krzysztof -- nicknamed "Critto" -- from Poland.
For him, the Quiz was just plain exciting. "I've acknowledged myself
that I am a libertarian, after taking the Quiz!" he says 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's not called the "World's Smallest Political Quiz"
for nothing. It takes less than two minutes to zip through. Useful?
Absolutely, if the tidal wave of people who have taken the Quiz is any
indication.
Every day, more than 4,000 people flock to the Web site of the Advocates
for Self- Government to take the Quiz. That's 166 people an hour, 24 hours
a day, 365 days a year. In fact, since 1996, when the Advocates first
started tracking results, more than 3.6 million people have clicked, moused,
and surfed their way to the online Quiz. For perspective, that's more
than the combined population of 21 states.
Why the enormous popularity -- especially when so many other self-proclaimed
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 says.
"And it gives people a fast, accurate way of determining who politically
agrees with them most."
Bingo. That "more diverse" insight may be the key to the Quiz's
success. Before it came along, politics was a two-way street. You were
either liberal or conservative, and that was that. (Sure, you could lurk
somewhere in the middle, but then people just assumed that you couldn't
make up your mind.)
 Enter
David Nolan (>). In 1969, Nolan decided that traditional
political definition just didn't make sense.
Nolan, who graduated from M.I.T. after studying architecture and political
science, observed that liberals traditionally supported personal liberty
(for example, they defended free speech), but opposed economic liberty
(they favored high taxes and strict regulation of business). Conservatives
were the exact 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 consistently supported both
personal and economic liberty? They didn't fit anywhere. Nether did people
who consistently opposed both personal and economic liberty.
The matter was especially vexing to Nolan because he was one of those
pro-personal liberty and pro-economic liberty mavericks. That sometimes
made him sound like an extreme conservative -- and sometimes like a doctrinaire
liberal.
"I kept scratching my head and wondering why people like us agreed
with conservatives on a lot of things, but obviously had fundamental disagreements
with conservatives on a lot of other issues," he told The Liberator
magazine in 1996. "And why were there areas where we could see that
liberals made sense."
Nolan finally resolved the paradox by merging his architectural background
with his political science interests. "I began to doodle around with
the idea of trying to reduce the political universe to a graphical depiction,"
he said. "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.
People could rank high or low on economic liberty issues, and high or
low on personal liberty issues.
Traditional conservatives and liberals fit comfortably in his new political
spectrum. So did libertarians and statists (who support big government),
who Nolan added to the mix. Libertarians scored high/high on liberty issues;
statists scored low/low. Centrists, who scored somewhere in the middle,
were added later. Every political viewpoint was now included, and a new
way of looking at politics was born. It became known as the Nolan Chart.
(In 1999, Nolan was named one of the "2,000 Outstanding Intellectuals
of the 20th Century" by by the Cambridgeshire, England-based International
Biographical Centre, in large part because of his creation of the four-way
political map.)
 The
Quiz, however, did not appear until 1985. That was when Marshall
Fritz (<), the founder of the Advocates for self-Government,
decided to make the Nolan Chart more useful.
Sure, he said, the chart was great for showing people a new political
map that included libertarians. But it didn't tell people where they
stood politically.
So Fritz hit upon the idea of adding questions to the chart. Your answers
would give you a score, and your score could be pinpointed on the chart.
He wanted to keep it simple, so he decided to ask just five questions
about personal issues, and five about economic issues.
After months of fine-tuning, Fritz designed a business card-size handout
that featured 10 political questions and the Nolan chart, and took it
to a local print shop.
When it was finished, he asked the clerk, "How'd you like to be the
first person in the world to take the world's smallest political quiz?"
Years later, Fritz recalled, "His eyes lit up at the words 'world's
smallest political quiz,' and then I knew I had the name."
The rest is history. The nonprofit, nonpartisan Advocates began to publicize
the Quiz as part of their mission to spread the word about libertarianism.
Before the Internet came along, they distributed millions of printed copies
of the Quiz. In 1995, the World's Smallest Political Quiz made the jump
to cyberspace, first as a crude ASSCI-text file, and then as the more
sophisticated, interactive model we see today. It is the original online
political quiz -- and easily the most popular, with 13,400 Web sites linked
to it.
But is the Quiz really accurate? After all, the Advocates for Self-Government
is a libertarian organization. Did they secretly rig the Quiz to make
everyone score libertarian?
No, say the experts. Cynthia Carter, a professor of History and Political
Science at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, says, "Although
this quiz is provided by a Libertarian organization, it does not lead
you to answer in any particular way." W. Phillips Shively, professor
of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, agrees. "While
there are many sites on the Web that profess to tell you your political
views, this one actually does a fairly good job," he says.
That may be why instructors around the country have incorporated the Quiz
into their Political Science and American Government lesson plans. If
you peeked into classrooms at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School
of Government, Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, and Texas A&M
University at Corpus Christi (to name just a few) over the past few years,
you'd find find students answering the Quiz's questions. The Quiz even
found its way into The American School in Tokyo, Japan, and to Bilkent
University in Ankara, Turkey.
It doesn't stop there. The Quiz has also been published in the textbook
The Politics of Diversity (West/Wadsworth Publishing), is part
of the online supplement to Power & Choice: An Introduction to Political
Science (McGraw-Hill), and is recommended by the Alberta Teachers' Association
Social Studies Council in Canada.
Even cynical reporters -- always eager to expose a phony -- have been
impressed by the Quiz's insight and honesty. The Washington Post
reported, "The Quiz has gained respect as a valid measure of a person's
political leanings." And USA Today said the Quiz "stands
ready to help you determine your political identity."
But don't let all the praise, credentials, and scholarly recommendations
fool you. The Quiz isn't a boring political science project. What the
college professors and reporters frequently forget to mention is that
the Quiz is fun. In fact, that may be the one reaction that just
about everybody who takes the Quiz does have in common.
Professional astrologer Adze Mixxe may have said it best. No matter what
your political identity turns out to be, 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?
Above: The evolution of the "Nolan Chart" used in the
World's Smallest Political Quiz. #1: A re-creation of David Nolan's original
square, two-axis chart from 1969. #2: Now flipped on end to create a diamond
shape, the black-and-white version used in the 1980s and 1990s. 3#: The
full-color version that debuted on the Advocates' website in 2004.
R E
T U R N T O
The
Quiz & the Advocates
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