Political ideologies explained

131 political ideologies in 10 families, each placed on the same nine-dimension scale as test-takers, so you can compare them directly with each other and with yourself.

Left and right on the Atlas

“Left” and “right” usually describe economics: the Atlas’s economic dimension runs from collective ownership and state planning to private ownership and free markets. It measures social values, authority, national identity and foreign policy separately, because people often combine them in different ways. How the dimensions work.

Socialism

Socialism is a political and economic system in which the major means of production, such as land, natural resources and factories, are owned or controlled collectively rather than mainly by private individuals or companies. Its aim is for members of society…

Liberalism

Liberalism is a political doctrine that treats protecting and enhancing individual freedom as the central problem of politics. Liberals typically see government as necessary to protect people from harm by others, while recognizing that government itself can…

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political doctrine that emphasizes the value of traditional institutions and practices. Conservatives favor gradual change under conditions of continuity and stability, and hold that government should serve existing ways of life rather than…

Nationalism

Nationalism is an ideology based on the idea that an individual's loyalty and devotion to the nation-state should surpass other individual or group interests. Although often assumed to be very old, it became a decisive force in history only at the end of the…

Libertarianism

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that takes individual liberty to be the primary political value. Britannica describes it as a form of liberalism, linked to thinkers such as John Locke, John Stuart Mill, Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson.

Anarchism

Anarchism is a cluster of doctrines and attitudes centered on the belief that government is both harmful and unnecessary. The word comes from the Greek anarchos, “without authority.” Anarchist thought began in the West and spread worldwide, mostly in the…

Religion and politics

Religious political ideologies base law, authority or public life on religious teaching, from Christian democracy's social teaching to theocracy. They differ widely on economics and on democracy.

Green politics

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Centrism

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Technocracy

Technocracy means government by technicians guided by the imperatives of their technology: technical experts, rather than elected politicians or business leaders, make decisions. On the Atlas, this family also groups other state-led and regime-specific…