OPEN MODEL / HONEST LIMITATIONS

How the Atlas works.

We compare patterns of beliefs against political traditions. Here’s what that means, what it doesn’t mean, and where the model falls short.

THE SHORT VERSION

No quadrants. No identity verdicts.

Your answers form a profile across 24 dimensions. That profile is compared directly with 35 structured ideology profiles, with extra attention paid to doctrines that distinguish traditions. The output is similarity, not a diagnosis.

ANSWERS→DIMENSIONS→DOCTRINE CHECKS→MATCHES
01 / INPUTS

Questions & answers

The full assessment has 72 statements; the quick version selects 30 for broad coverage. Each answer ranges from strongly disagree (−3) to strongly agree (+3). A question contributes a signed, weighted effect to one or more dimensions. Some questions also measure defining doctrines. Skips are excluded, not counted as neutral.

Several dimensions are asked in different ways to check whether a position holds across abstract principles, concrete policies, and institutional preferences. A spread of answers lowers the consistency estimate; uncertainty is not treated as wrongdoing.

When your leading matches stay close together, the result page can offer a few extra statements — chosen because they separate those traditions on the dimensions your profile measures least. Answering them is optional, and completion is recalculated with the added questions so extra effort does not masquerade as a perfect score.

02 / MODEL

The dimensions

Dimensions are independent descriptive continuums, not a pair of master axes. Each measured value is normalized from −1 to +1. An omitted ideology dimension is not silently scored as neutral.

Political economy

Private propertySocial ownership ↔ Private ownership

Support for private ownership of productive assets.

Market exchangeNon-market allocation ↔ Market allocation

Preference for markets in coordinating production and exchange.

Economic planningDecentralized decisions ↔ National planning

Preference for coordinated economic plans.

RedistributionLimited redistribution ↔ Extensive redistribution

Support for narrowing income differences through public policy.

Worker controlInvestor / manager control ↔ Worker self-management

Support for direct worker governance of workplaces.

State ownershipNon-state ownership ↔ Public ownership

Support for government ownership of major industries.

Organized sectorsIndependent bargaining ↔ State-coordinated sectors

Support for formal state coordination of employers and labor.

Class politicsClass-neutral politics ↔ Class-centered politics

Extent to which class conflict shapes political priorities.

Institutions

Political pluralismRestricted opposition ↔ Competitive opposition

Support for open competition between political movements.

CentralizationDispersed authority ↔ Central authority

Preference for concentrating decision-making in central institutions.

Direct democracyRepresentative / delegated ↔ Direct participation

Support for binding citizen or assembly decisions.

Civil libertiesCollective restrictions ↔ Individual protections

Priority given to expression, association, and due process.

Expert governancePopular judgment ↔ Expert administration

Preference for expert-led policy decisions.

Local autonomyUniform central policy ↔ Local self-government

Support for regional and local decision-making.

Society & identity

Social hierarchyEgalitarian relations ↔ Accepted hierarchy

Acceptance of durable social rank and unequal authority.

National sovereigntyShared authority ↔ National primacy

Preference for national autonomy over supranational authority.

Ethnic identity in politicsCivic membership ↔ Ethnic membership

Importance of ancestry or ethnicity in defining national membership.

InternationalismNational priority ↔ Cross-border solidarity

Support for international cooperation and solidarity.

Migration opennessRestrictive migration ↔ Open migration

Support for welcoming immigration and plural membership.

Culture & change

Religion in governmentSecular institutions ↔ Religious guidance

Support for religious principles guiding law and institutions.

Cultural traditionalismCultural change ↔ Cultural continuity

Preference for preserving established social customs.

Ecological priorityGrowth priority ↔ Ecological priority

Priority given to ecological limits in economic decisions.

Structural ruptureIncremental reform ↔ Systemic rupture

Preference for fundamental breaks rather than gradual reform.

Foreign affairs

Use of forceMilitary restraint ↔ Military readiness

Willingness to use military power as a political instrument.

03 / CLASSIFIER

Similarity is not certainty

For each ideology, we calculate the mean absolute distance between its modeled dimensions and the dimensions measured in your answers. We convert that distance into a broad similarity score, then apply penalties for strong contradictions with defining doctrines — half the weight sits on the single worst conflict, so violating one defining position cannot be averaged away by agreeing with the rest. Unanswered doctrine questions receive neither credit nor a penalty. No two-dimensional political coordinates are involved in this ranking.

The result page also shows an economy and an authority coordinate, because readers ask for them. That pair is a projection of the already measured dimensions, computed after classification: it never changes a match score, and an axis with too few measured dimensions stays empty instead of defaulting to the centre.

The same projection is drawn for your closest traditions and politicians so you can see what sits nearby. Those models are deliberately sparse, so a marker appears only when at least three positions exist on both axes, and it says nothing about the conflicts the two lines cannot express.

Confidence is a separate estimate based on how many questions you answered, coverage across dimensions, answer consistency, decisive doctrine responses, the gap between the top matches, and whether you took the quick or full test. Differences of a few points should be read as near ties—not precise measurements.

04 / THE DIRECTORY

Encyclopedia coverage and test coverage differ

The explorer also indexes the named entries in two Russian Wikipedia articles. Those lists contain political movements, historical variants, institutions, strategies, and terms that are not necessarily independent ideologies. Inclusion in a source section does not establish a numerical political profile or imply endorsement.

Only the researched profiles in our model can appear in test results. Reference entries link to their source and are explicitly marked as unscored; inventing hundreds of unsupported scores would make the classifier less reliable. Wikipedia excerpts are attributed and linked under CC BY-SA 4.0.

05 / BOUNDARIES

What this test cannot tell you

Ideologies evolve across countries, eras, and thinkers. One numerical profile cannot capture every variant or historical government.

Question wording and editorial decisions shape outcomes. The model is educational and has not been validated as a scientific instrument.

A high similarity does not imply endorsement of every doctrine or historical action associated with a movement.

Traditions with similar scores may be meaningfully different. Always inspect the agreements, disagreements, and close-match comparison.

Private by default

No sign-up or server-side profile collection. Calculations happen in your browser. Local progress can be deleted on the result page. The optional share text contains only names and rounded match scores—never your answers.