Nolan Chart - Positions

Positions

Differing from the traditional "left/right" distinction and other political taxonomies, the Nolan Chart in its original form has two dimensions, with a horizontal x-axis labeled "economic freedom" and a vertical y-axis labeled "personal freedom". It resembles a square divided into four quadrants, with each sample in the population assigned to one of the quadrants:

  • Top left – the political Left. Those supporting low economic freedom and high personal freedom.
  • Bottom right – the political Right. Those supporting high economic freedom and low personal freedom.
  • Top right – libertarianism. David Nolan's own ideology, corresponding with those supporting high economic and personal freedom.
  • Bottom left – the antithesis of libertarianism, corresponding with those supporting low economic and personal freedom. David Nolan originally termed this philosophy populism, but many later renditions of the chart have used the label statism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, or fascism instead. Many libertarian groups have labeled that section as communitarianism.

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Famous quotes containing the word positions:

    “Extreme positions are not succeeded by moderate ones, but by contrary extreme positions.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “The season developed and matured. Another year’s installment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles. Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings.”
    —Thomas Hardy (1840–1928)

    “... liberal intellectuals ... tend to have a classical theory of politics, in which the state has a monopoly of power; hoping that those in positions of authority may prove to be enlightened men, wielding power justly, they are natural, if cautious, allies of the “establishment.””
    —Susan Sontag (b. 1933)