The Nolan Chart

If you're going to consort with libertarians (at all), you're going to encounter the Nolan Chart. It's best that we get this over with.

This is the Nolan Chart. I hope you like it, because you're probably never going to escape it.

The idea behind the Chart is that a simple left/right spectrum doesn't adequately describe the groupings of political thought. In an attempt to rectify this, David Nolan grouped issues into two categories: economic and personal, which form the chart's dimensional axes. The further out along an axis an individual falls, the more freedom they believe people should have regarding those aspects of their lives.

Libertarians, as the name might suggest, support freedom in both areas. Conservatives tend to be annoyed that we support social freedoms, liberals tend to get annoyed when we push free markets. Everyone tends to be annoyed when libertarians won't shut up about how significant using two dimensions is.

The Nolan Chart isn't perfect. It doesn't measure philosophy or attitude. Consequently, people with enormously different perspectives might get similar results on political quizzes--especially the simpler ones--that use the chart as part of their evaluation. Many people have tried to improve upon this design, and there have been many other attempts to develop multi-dimensional political references. You can read about some of these over on Wikipedia and choose which variation is your favorite.