10 Political and Libertarian Quizzes

More and more I'm hearing from people who say things like "I always used to consider myself a conservative, but now I'm starting to wonder if I'm a libertarian," or "I am a recovering liberal who understands government is more often the problem than not- I'm starting to lean libertarian."

With the Tea Party protests, the renewed interest in America's Founding Fathers, and the relentless acceleration of government growth and abuses, there is a deep and growing interest in libertarianism in America today. So I've compiled a list of ten libertarian political quizzes I found on the Internet, along with my ratings and commentary:


1. The World's Smallest Political Quiz
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

This is perhaps the most popular and well-known libertarian political quiz on the Internet, a project of the libertarian Advocates for Self Government. Indeed, it's presently the first search result for "libertarian quiz" on Google. It is also self-billed as the "World's Smallest Political Quiz," clocking in at just ten short, simple statements that quiz-takers mark as "Agree," "Maybe," or "Disagree."

After filling out the survey, users will get the following result, which is where their political views fall on a Nolan Chart- a grid with two axes, one for the amount of government control over "personal issues" that is acceptable to the quiz-taker, and one for the amount of government control over "economic issues" that is acceptable to the quiz-taker:


2. Nolan Chart Survey
(take this political philosophy quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

The Nolan Chart Survey operates very similarly to the quiz above. Just ten questions then a graphic result displaying the quiz-taker's position on a Nolan Chart. The difference is that the questions are longer and a little more involved and nuanced than those on "The World's Smallest Political Quiz" above, and the website is not itself committed to libertarianism. Both of these differences could be considered either positive or negative things depending on what you're looking for in such a quiz.


3. Libertarian Purity Test
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

This 64 question libertarian quiz is ostensibly designed to rate how truly libertarian the quiz-taker actually is, but I would beg to differ. After taking the quiz, it became apparent that "libertarian purity" means "anarcho-capitalism" as far as the quiz-maker is concerned.

I believe there are legitimate and honest disagreements between committed libertarians (and that one of those disagreements is between anarchists and minarchists), so I think it is misleading and incorrect to call this a "libertarian purity test" -it's really an "anarcho-capitalist test." I also resent being told that if I'm not an anarcho-capitalist, I'm not a "real" libertarian.


4. "Yet Another Libertarian Quiz"
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

If you take this test, you'll see what I mean when I say that it is based on some sort of utilitarian premise oriented toward maximum "efficiency" (and the author's explanation doesn't do a very good job of clarifying what on earth is meant by that term here). Apparently, you can score "too libertarian" on this test if your libertarianism is so extreme that it causes you to support "inefficient" policies.

Though with that criticism above, I must also give the author credit for the following disclaimer: "The net is loaded with little quizzes that claim to assess how libertarian you are. Even though I think most of them are bogus and biased, I still enjoy taking them. In that spirit, I created my own bogus and biased quiz, which I invite you to take here."


5. Political Ideology Quiz
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

This is a fun quiz and the results are amusing. Give it a shot. (Let me say at this point that I think including the abortion controversy on any of these quizzes can easily throw off the results, because your stand on this issue should include two factors: your view of government AND your understanding of what a fetus happens to be, which is a philosophical and scientific question, not a political one.)


6. "What Kind of Libertarian Are You?" Quiz
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

What kind of libertarian are you? This quiz will help you find out. Are you a Minarchist? A left-libertarian? A libertarian socialist? (PS: If you are, we need to talk because you're very confused.) I actually think this is a pretty good libertarian quiz and that its results correspond well to its questions.


7. "Are You A Libertarian?" Quiz
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

This is a fun quiz, but not a very serious one. For example, one of the questions is: "Milton Friedman. Smart economist? Or smartest economist?" If you don't think he's the smartest (like say for instance, that you think Ludwig von Mises was "smarter"), then you get docked as less libertarian. But it is a fun quiz. I'll let the author's description speak for itself:

"Am I a libertarian? You ask yourself this question every day, I am sure. And until now there has been no way to find out if you are a libertarian. That's where this quiz comes in. The Ron Paul revolution lives on. Are you one of us?

This quiz tells if you are a libertarian, which is a political philosophy celebrating freedom, markets, capitalism, and personal responsibility. It'll weed out the dirty socialist thieves. Long live libertarianism!"


8. Libertarian or Authoritarian Quiz
(take this libertarian quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

Another ten question libertarian quiz. The quiz-taker gets to choose from between five answers to each question, which span pretty well-representative gradations from extreme agreement to extreme disagreement with questions like "Free trade: Yes or no?" and do so in a humorous way and with a lot of personality.


9. Political Ideology Quiz
(take this political quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

What's your political philosophy? Take the "Ideology Selector" Quiz and find out. As the quiz states: "This selector tests for a number of specific contemporary ideologies in the United States, including 'neoconservative,' 'paleolibertarian,' 'Third Way,' etc."

What I really like about it is that it is pretty sophisticated, and what I mean by that is that you can express your agreement or disagreement with the question (or say you're unsure), and then you can express what level of priority you place on the issue and your agreement or disagreement with it.

This allows for a much more nuanced understanding of the quiz-taker's political views because you might agree with something, but not care very much about it or give much thought to it.


10. Political Philosophy Quiz
(take this political quiz here)
Rating: x x x x x

This quiz will give you an overall category for your political leanings based on four spectra: Conservative vs. Progressive (which is more or less where you stand in the "culture wars" as far as I can tell), Capitalist Purist vs. Social Capitalist (less or more government intervention in economics), Libertarian vs. Authoritarian (less or more government intervention in "personal" decisions), and Pacifist vs. Militarist (less war or more war).