Wednesday 16 September 2009
Problem Task
Is the nation awash in libertarians? The Libertarian Party is one of the most established and active minor political parties in the United States. In the 2000 elections, for example, it appeared on ballots in all 50 states and ran nearly 2,000 candidates for public office at various levels, including president. Go to the Libertarian Party's web site located at http://www.lp.org/. From this page follow the link to a feature called the World's Smallest Political Quiz. Once you get to the quiz, you can leave the default settings in place-you do not have to fill it out, unless you're interested-and hit the "submit" button. Pay close attention to the overall results of the quiz that the Libertarian Party reports. Notice that the overall number of libertarian identifiers is almost 40%, a figure that is nearly double the number reported in the Challenge of Democracy (see figure 5.5). What do you think is the best possible explanation for this large discrepancy? Would you be more likely to trust the numbers reported by the Libertarian Party or the textbook as being representative of the nation as a whole? Why?
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First and foremost, I believe the book has more chance to be impartial, as opposed to the web-site, generated and operated by the political party. Any party’s interest is to attract the electorate – thus, the likelihood of this quiz being created in the way that favors libertarian needs is probably high.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, some of the questions are too general, too broad. Some of them are likely to have the only possible answer for any respondent, regardless of age, sex, money, income etc (ok, is there really anyone who opts for legalized serious substance abuse through “repealing laws prohibiting adult possession and use of drugs”?!?). Hence, no wonder the nation is “awash in libertarians”.
Therefore, such an unbridgeable discrepancy can be attributed to people simply sharing libertarian values (many of the former being those of common good and welfare) and also to the fact that the quiz has “libertarian” origins.
The quiz is likely to be just a good “political tool for the outreach”. One simply needs to check out “Other Parties Philosophies” after taking the quiz. The description of the libertarian party is visibly different from the rest. As opposed to other parties, the libertarian description has literally no “if’s” and “but’s”. It is a pretty blatant case of poltical propaganda.
PS Took the quiz twice – scored nowhere near "libertarian".
Thank you, a brilliant answer!
ReplyDeleteI believe that a book has more accurate results than this quiz.
ReplyDeleteFirst, it is obvious that the quiz is made for all groups of people, some of them don’t know a lot about political parties governmental structure. It is really a “smallest”, and it’s number of questions can’t help to distinguish properly one party from another. The authors of the quiz do not pay attention to many important features: the attitude towards abortion, marriage, education, religion, etc, etc.
Second, some questions have very controversial origin. “Let people control their own retirement” – sure, I want people control their own retirement. It sounds like the libertarian party just shows us a problem and asks do we want this problem to be solved. O, you do you really want this problem to be solved? Brilliant, you are a libertarian. From a linguistic point of view, here in the questions we have words with very strong semes: “end”, “replace”, “cut” (taxes). This libertarian quiz is not just asking, it is showing that we do have things to “cut” and “end”.
I would not be surprised if this quiz had other questions like:
- Are you against war?
- Do you want to live in the world without corruption?
Yes, yes, yes. Definitely, I would call this quiz a “pre-election propaganda”.
Third, I took the quiz and tried to answer in quite “un- libertarian” way. The quiz told me, that I’m a centrist, but in the figure my “centrist” views were likely to border on libertarian. Obvious, that this quiz has a “pro-libertarian” origin and if you happen to be (oh my God=) ) a centrist, it shows you that you nearly a libertarian and should look closer to their programs. Surely, people, interested in politics, after such results will study a Libertarian Party site. Quite a nice propaganda.
So, it is not surprising that we have a discrepancy. The book ought to be impartial in spite of the quiz.
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ReplyDeleteAs any textbook is written by a person, there is no doubt that it's more or less biased. A quiz can also be biased because a person can only answer a predefined set of questions only one way, which makes choice something rather abstract.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this little quiz may look like the party's advertisement, it is in fact much closer to the so-called "truth" than any textbook and official statistics. Those who are interviewed by an unknown person may lie about their political views simply because they don't want to look strange or old-fashioned, which can lead to such a large discrepancy.
The quiz, on the other hand, offers a 100% anonimity and security. Yes, the website is designed by libertarians in order to convert as many people as possible into their "faith". But it is done in such a pleasant and comfortable way, that we don't mention the pressure: lots of quotes from respected magazines and newspapers are presented, equal amounts of information about centrists, liberals, conservatives and libertarians. A list of movie and TV stars, famous authors etc. may also contribute to the party's success among americans (at least Clint Eastwood, who seems to be the person who really understands the processes that are going on inside the American society, his latest and perhaps last movie "Gran Torino" shows it).
Thus, I believe that the quiz is more likely to be the real mirror of the society and nation. I personally turned out to be a liberal. However, the libertarian ideas seem appealing to me.
Is the nation awash of libertarians? We need to take a closer look at the process of identifying yourself as a libertarian. In my opinion, out of the two sources – the official web-site and the textbook – the last one tends to be more impartial. Every party is doing its best to attract more members. That’s why it comes out as no surprise, when the questions of the quiz are so thoroughly chosen in order to describe you as a libertarian.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, let’s look at the definition of the word “libertarian” given before taking the quiz. According to Webster’s a libertarian is… a): a person who upholds the principles of absolute and unrestricted liberty especially of thought and action b): a member of a political party advocating libertarian principles. It’s pretty tricky. When a person reads that definition, the ideas of “liberty” are appealing to him, he is more likely to end up identifying himself\herself as a libertarian! Such an easy way to persuade everybody who shares libertarian values (even a bit) and attract the electorate! That’s why it creates such a great discrepancy.
“If you believe that you are responsible for yourself and your family, and not the government, then you belong with us”. Beyond a shadow of doubt, 99% of the nation will reply: “Duh, that’s where I belong, I’m pretty responsible”.
According to the test, the political group that agrees with me most is Centrist, but closer to Conservatives. How would they figure that out, based on 8 simple questions? Moreover, they are not only simple, but way too broad. It’s impossible to distinguish a true Libertarian by analyzing the answers to some common questions. I was quiet surprised by the statement “There should be no National ID card”. Maybe only some criminals would strongly agree with it. Obviously, the quiz is nothing more than some effective means to reach out for electorate.
All things considered, I personally would trust the data in the textbook, because I strongly believe that it’s more impartial. People shouldn’t be too naïve, when dealing with these kinds of tests. If you really consider yourself responsible, than you should opt for exploring every avenue: just take some Conservative test and compare results with this one!
It is an old truth that book is a reliable source. Books are by their nature, proved and certain . First of all because they are not anonymous, so the reader knows the author of the book ,and has information when and where the book was published . With the Internet websites situation is quite different. I would definitely trust the data from the book rather than from the Website . As a web users we developed a critical eye to evaluate the credibility of Internet information, so it is an easy task for us to differentiate trustworthy from fraudulent information .
ReplyDeleteIn this case we are working with special interest site , that is maintained by the Libertarian party . Special interest sites are, by their nature, biased. When taking quizzes like that ,we should be aware of the source’s special interests . It is obvious that this quiz is used to commercialize libertarian party and somehow to attract people to participate .
The quiz is extremely unprofessional even in the terms of physiology. How can possibly this quiz identify ones political view after answering 8 simple questions ?
Moreover questions in the test are too general. It is impossible to detect person’s political appliance , after answering questions like “Government should not censor speech, press, media or Internet” , “There should be no National ID card.”. It is the same if someone asks “Do you like to live in democracy or not ” or “Should we violate the Constitution of the USA ?”
Therewith the diagram is too blurred, so that the person can be a conservative and libertarian at the same time . And there are not much points that separate you from being liberal and statist . I believe that this quiz is not even close to psychological quizzes that sometimes a person can take in order to find out something interesting about himself . It’s rather a commercial trick , to reach out the electorate ,that in fact does work .It attracts people: short , simple and informative . That is why there is high percentage of those who are “libertarian” after taking the test .It is the goal , that is why it was created . Just imagane13,400,204 1 have taken this test , and this number will increase .
I’ve taken it also- liberal !
Great job everybody!!!
ReplyDelete