Left vs Right: US Political Spectrum
A concept-map exploring the Left vs Right political spectrum. A collaboration between David McCandless and information artist Stefanie Posavec, taken from my book The Visual Miscellaneum (out Nov 10th).
THIS IS THE US VERSION WHERE BLUE=LEFT WING. RED=RIGHT WING.
from my book The Visual Miscellaeum (HarperCollins, Nov 2009)
www.harpercollins.com/book/pre-order.aspx?isbn13=97800617...
Find out more here:
: www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/left-vs-right/"
: www.itsbeenreal.co.uk
Order a limited edition, signed poster of this image here: informationisbeautiful.bigcartel.com/
Comments and faves
polmuadi, Nicholas Kozma [NEW], jpruizs, Carlos Caicedo, and 289 other people added this photo to their favorites.
biggestfanpro (44 months ago | reply)
oh my... just goes and shows how the "left right" divide are pretty much irrelevant and misguided divisors for US politics. glaring example #1 - "Libertarian" is shown on the Left where as "Focus on the Individuals" (pretty much the very definition of libertarianism) is on the right. In fact I find very few things on this chart that are supportable generalizations. try making a division between focus on government role/responsibilities (statism) and individual role/responsibilities (freedom) and generalizations start making sense even when you cross party lines.
mkandlez (44 months ago | reply)
thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure how liberatarianism crept in on the left. I will amend. Cheers! david
biggestfanpro (44 months ago | reply)
I think you're missing the point. Libertarianism would show up on both sides. The point is that Left vs. Right is not a meaningful divisor in the USA for any party/political persuasion. It *might* make sense in Europe but not America. The entire Constitution revolves around the balance of individual freedom vs. state powers. It's what makes the USA unique, frankly.
ripsaw ridge (44 months ago | reply)
Libertarianian economic arguments look just like conservative (right) arguments to me. Just "hipper."
lemasney (43 months ago | reply)
A very beautiful piece -- really great way of illustrating our differences, and helping us to understand. Well done, and I'd be happy to purchase a poster if one is made. Just sent you an email.
John.
solarbreeze69 (43 months ago | reply)
shouldnt the nurturing parent on the left have an aborted fetus next to it? maybe a baby with eyes all 'x x' and an arrow going from the woman's womb into a grave? just wondering
pedraono (43 months ago | reply)
this is inspring..
very understandable, well done chart..
thanks for sharing..
Andreas-- (43 months ago | reply)
I agree with
but what I find disturbing is that in a
country where focus is on the balance between
individual freedom and state, neither side
has more than 54 % supporting gay rights or
more than 66 % in favor of abortion rights
for that matter. I don't know where you have
your data from, but if that is the case, it
is truly frightening.
Ray Tomes (43 months ago | reply)
I like it. I have thought about this idea, and recognizing that there are sensible beliefs on both sides. Maybe there is a way to have all the best together? Well demonstrated.
careylin09 (40 months ago | reply)
I love the design, haven't read over the entire piece yet, but it is visually pleasing. I like the subtle transition from urban to rural as well.
barrieabalard (40 months ago | reply)
As someone who's been a libertarian for 35 years, I agree with biggestfanpro. Libertarianism embraces positions on both sides. Many libs are left wing on personal liberties and right wing on economic issues; however, that's not the full story. Very hard to put the libertarian philosophy in a box. Managing libertarians, like managing programmers, is truly like herding cats. :)
Plus, I'm not getting how a "self-reliant" child is different than a "self-nurturing" child. Isn't a self-nurturing person by definition self-reliant? (I raised my child to be both.)
But the design/layout are well done. Kudos for that!
[SNK]Alex (40 months ago | reply)
bullshit
solarbreeze69 (40 months ago | reply)
I am puzzled why "scientist" ended up on the left side of the vocational spectrum. Successful scientists must observe the real world, and are therefore quite quickly disabused of the "Idealism" which this chart indicates is one of the traits of the left. Perhaps "social scientists" should be on the left, while biologists, chemists, geologists, and geneticists should probably be on the right.
Please see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientist#Types_of_scie ntists for more examples of various kinds of scientists, and details on what they study.
AdrDem (40 months ago | reply)
GDS Infographics (40 months ago | reply)
Great piece - inspired me and my partner to stay up until the small hours discussing the issues, never happened before. Cheers
ANTONIO SÁNCHEZ-BARRIGA (39 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called TASTE'S THEORY (Photos with philosophy), and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Petrichor_ (39 months ago | reply)
SO TRUE. Well done.
hopscotch-uemeu (38 months ago | reply)
good lord. I'm a liberal and this looks like leftist propaganda, to me... engaging graphic, though.
BcLand (35 months ago | reply)
I guess this illustrates why somewhere in the middle is a much more balanced view. I'd have to dispute a few details though. To a degree, I'd have to agree with the comment above.
bluefade99 (34 months ago | reply)
Sorry guys, but this isn't a well done poster. It was clearly made by a left wing democratic supporter and only shows his view of things. Someone else could clearly make the same poster in favor of the right wingers view. It isn't a fair look at things as a whole.
Revolution_Number_9 (34 months ago | reply)
I agree with bluefade. I'm not on either side (I'm somewhere in the middle), and it was definitely favoring the left side much much more. Someone like me should make one so it wouldn't be so biased.
retropean (34 months ago | reply)
frail.
truemattjones (28 months ago | reply)
there are so many things wrong with this. a one-sided bias attempt
georgiejarmancarr (27 months ago | reply)
This is beautifully drawn.
It's slightly ironic that the illustrator paints the left quite positively as though he associates himself with it, yet the very action of the diagram - dividing, generalising, judging, clarifying difference and 'otherness', generally drawing out the battle lines - are all quite negative things that he would probably associate with the 'reds'.
The statistics amongst the judgements are revealing though.
sammeobar (25 months ago | reply)
this is exactly what we should NOT be doing. not all liberals believe in whats on the liberal side and not all conservatives believe whats on the conservative side.
Shannon Green Photography (25 months ago | reply)
I think people should stop discussing the views of the creator, this is not a specific diagram that every individual can be fitted into, it is simply a general overview of what left-wing and right-wing mean in commonly discussed contexts. I am now sixteen and find myself suddenly affected by government decisions. This image has been a great help to me in understanding political parties all over the world and has led me to realise I am living in a country that is vastly accelerating from left to right wing due to government decisions.I can now make political decisions independantly knowing that I have an understanding of basic political systems. This image has given me many ideas and I thank you for posting it.
will.d (25 months ago | reply)
Is no one else bothered by the blue dotted line on the right side?
..::wexfor::.. (25 months ago | reply)
many things are wrong there. and colors are switched.
Ken and Nyetta (24 months ago | reply)
Goes to show how impossible it is to capture modern American politics in two dimensions. On the right, for example, we see "Don't interfere with Society and Social Lives." While that was once a tenant of the right, the emergence of the religious right means that interference with -- and government mandated dictates covering -- the most intimate, personal details of people's lives are now part of the core beliefs of the Republican / Conservative base. On the left, we see "fair trade" while many democrats have emerged as strong protectionists, partly due to the labor roots while conservatives are equally split on where they fall on this issue.
People can pick lots of nits because it is an impossible task, but a good job in engendering though and discussion.
jmh-man (24 months ago | reply)
good stuff. To say conservatives don't want to interfere with "social lives, society" doesn't seem right. What about gay marriage, reproductive rights, or dwindling bill of rights protections (due process, warrents, habeas corpus)? I'd say protecting the constitution is "conservative" but today's "conservatives" are trashing it. Liberals, you say, want to interfere, but how does that square with quest for "personal freedom"?
ivansnavi (23 months ago | reply)
a liberal made this
texxsmith (19 months ago | reply)
Can you release the source file so this can be edited?
Seattle.roamer (18 months ago | reply)
Like many, I spot all kinds of over-genaralizations in this chart. The whole idea of making two categories is ridiculous on it face. I like to think about a spectrum for each dimension, I recall a humorous 2-dimensional chart that appeared in ... The Atlantic (?)... heck I forget. There is 2D thing called a Nolan Chart, economic freedom and personal freedom, but it seems nearly as bad as this, but at least it is 2 dimensions, so is an improvement. It helps to solve the oddity of folks on left or right who want to have govt reg of one thing, but freedom in another area, yet if some folks have a strong interest in certain areas govt reg, but weak in others but both are economic or personal they seem even in the 2D Nolan to only fall in one category, in that case a general "Statist" category. Well at least there are 5 buckets not 2.
One variation of the Nolan thing:
server.theadvocates.org/quiz-score/draw.php?p =10&e=10
But there are those who would add extra dimensions
David Ahrentz (16 months ago | reply)
Libretarianism probably creept in on the left because that is where its origins are.
They would probably make a totaly own category to be honest since they in general do not support alot of the Rightist or Leftist stands.
Patrick Henry 2000 (13 months ago | reply)
Check out www.politicalcompass.org.
This chart feels like it has bias towards the left side in the language used to describe the right side.
torgman1 (13 months ago | reply)
oldsportish1 (12 months ago | reply)
Maybe the right should have 'ignores structural arguments because can't see the big picture - that family planning is THE CURE for poverty - and focuses on tasteless emotional arguments and doing what they are told by authority figures instead of thinking for themselves.'
The literal (as opposed to ironic and scientific) mind at its best - thats what you asinine comment speaks to me.
T. James (4 months ago | reply)
A libertarian map would be very different. For starters many of us are very agorist.