Four Americas: Introducing the U.S. Political Compass

Understanding Populism Across the Left-to-Right Spectrum

Feb 02, 2023

Overview of the Framework

Adapted for the U.S., this model depicts the four largest official parties in the United States and changes the colors to those familiar in U.S. politics. In order of size, the parties are Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, and Green. Combining the largest with the smallest of the four has led to a fairly evenly matched political divide in national elections, with the individualist parties as a coalition versus the collectivist parties as a coalition.

U.S. Political Compass by Party

Predecessors of this model include the Nolan chart and an international-oriented political compass. The U.S. political compass follows the earlier charts by using a vertical axis as a social scale and a horizontal axis as an economic scale. While the earlier political compass has gained much popularity, it will likely benefit from a re-branding and reconceptualization in order to be immediately understood by a U.S. general audience. The U.S. political compass is a simplistic representation of political coalitions, but it adds in an increasingly important dimension that is absent from the even more simplistic left-to-right divide. The one-dimensional spectrum conflates issues, which obscures essential political realities. The main assertion of this article is that recent research shows consistency with this framework, and arguably validates the use of the quadrants model.

Pew Research Center Survey Shows Populism as Part of a Complex Political Landscape

A Pew Research Center survey of the U.S. general public, in 2021, showed nine clusters that were as divided within the Democrat and Republican parties as they were between them. The study used a statistical method called factor analysis that identifies groups of respondents who answer similarly to each other. In other words, the responses from each cluster tended to “hang together.” While the researchers did important and careful work, the clusters did not line up tidily along our standard left-right political spectrum. One writer interpreted the Pew study as follows:

Despite surveys having found broad support for a third party outside the two major ones, the study shows that there's no magic middle. In fact, the study finds that the three groups with the most self-identified independents "have very little in common politically." (Montanaro, 2021, para. 5)

The Pew researchers assigned each group a spot along the familiar right-to-left spectrum. However, the political compass offers a better way to understand the groupings. The Pew Research Center (2021) described the characteristics of nine clusters referred to as types. Below, eight of the types are mapped into quadrants of the U.S. political compass with a summary of the characteristics from the poll dataset. The ninth type, which the Pew researchers named stressed sideliners, are the most apolitical. I’ve left them off the quadrants, but they are still included in the discussion.

Pew Political Groups Placed in the U.S. Political Compass

Validation of Pew Category Placements

The following sections explain why it makes sense to place Pew’s categories in the quadrants above, rather than along a single spectrum as the Pew report did. The discussion makes use of political compass memes (PCMs) to validate some particular placements. For the benefit of PCM enthusiasts, their terms for the quadrants are added.

Pew Types Belonging in the Lower-right Quadrant (lib-right)

This PCM of male heads and this PCM of icons are examples of the majority that depict the lib-right quadrant (yellow) as emphasizing economic self-interest. The male-heads PCM does not fit a rural and/or working class Libertarian Party image, which is often highly patriotic (i.e., Pew’s populist right type). Yet it does fit an urban Libertarian image (i.e., Pew’s ambivalent right type, which leans liberal on social issues). San Francisco is a good geographic representative for the lib-right quadrant as presented in the above-linked PCMs. Think tech start-ups and young bitcoin enthusiasts. Within the San Francisco Bay area you will find plenty of financially driven people, both establishment liberals (more politically active) along with the ambivalent right (less politically active). The ambivalent right are likely those who have recently left California in droves, seeking a fit within the socially liberal tax haven of Austin Texas.

Pew Types Belonging in the Upper-Right Quadrant (auth-right)

The PCM of male heads depicts the auth-right quadrant as both patriotic and religious. The PCM of icons also places religion in the auth-right. This matches my placement of Pew’s “faith and flag conservatives” in the quadrant representing the Republican Party.

The committed conservatives are similarly patriotic and hawkish, but less religious, or at least less devout. Because they are committed to a strong national military, they are pro-establishment in that regard, even if many of them would prefer to diminish the social welfare programs of the government. These could be labeled corporate globalist hawks.

Pew Types Belonging in the Upper-Left Quadrant (auth-left)

Pew’s Democratic mainstays belong in this quadrant, as moderate but reliable dem voters. The Democratic mainstays are the largest voting block. It anchors the democratic party, and in that respect best represents the pro-establishment left. Of the left-leaning Pew types, they are the most content with the U.S. status quo. They are closer in ideology (on immigration, crime, and military) to the moderate Republicans making up some part of Pew’s committed conservatives. Both these moderate groups are solidly pro-establishment. In view of the horseshoe theory, these two less politically strident and more moderate types of republicans and democrats belong next to each other.

An alternative placement with Pew’s establishment left on top would make sense. Their higher educational attainment puts them in the category of elites who are more in positions of decision-making power within the Democrat party. They would there be juxtaposed with the right wing’s politically active educated elite, which are within the Committed conservatives. However, the establishment left are more interested in change than the Democratic mainstays are. In that respect they are not as tied to the existing status quo, if we take establishment to mean socially conservative, as in “keeping things as they currently are.” They are more willing to compromise than the democratic mainstays are. On the horseshoe spectrum, they are more comfortable with change, so they belong closer to the progressive left who demand change.

Pew Types Belonging in the Lower-Left Quadrant (lib-left)

In the PCM of male heads, both images on the left are identified as collectivist by the hammer and sickle symbol. In general, PCMs depict the auth-left as communist-leaning authoritarians. Lib-left would include the commune-dwelling hippie anarchists. From a global perspective, the authoritarian communist ideology might lead some to expect Pew’s progressive left would belong in the top right quadrant, because in English-speaking North America, Marxist sympathies are found almost exclusively in the counterculture. Marxism is acceptable as a topic of historical discussion, and as such it can be promoted by individual college instructors, resulting in Pew’s progressive left (young and highly educated) being the main (or at least most vocal) proponents. Among Pew’s progressive left are ardent advocates of immediate institutionally-mandated social liberalization and economic equity. While autocratic communism is associated historically with Marxist ideology, for the U.S. Political compass, the top-right quadrant would not be a correct placement for this activist group. Democrats are still the largest of the ruling parties that ground the pro-establishment quadrants. There are relatively few Democrats with power or wealth who will even go as far as promoting European-style democratic socialism. Given the McCarthyism that so thoroughly drove communist sympathies underground, the progressive left’s embracing of Senators Sanders and Warren was an anti-establishment “populist” stance in the U.S. context. Regardless of his tremendous popularity, the Democratic Party officials rejected Bernie as a nominee. The educational credentials of Pew’s progressive left keep them tied to the establishment left, so they are placed closer to the pro-establishment pole (within the green quadrant). They at least are trying to take over the establishment, which the outsider left rejects.

Pew’s outsider left clearly belongs in the Green Party, as it is the group most concerned about climate issues. It’s lack of voter consistency and dissatisfaction with the duopoly place it at the anti-establishment pole. These aren’t necessarily apolitical folks, but they have so little trust in the establishment that they believe change may more realistically come from grassroots efforts.

The official Green Party membership is smaller than the three other main parties. This smaller size is consistent with the outsider left being only 16% of Pew’s sample and the progressive left being only 12%. These two groups are almost half the size of the percentages of the Pew groups placed in the auth-left (blue) quadrant above (28% and 23%).

A Pew Type Outside the Quadrants

Pew’s apolitical “stressed sideliners” have mixed political views. They are the least politically engaged and are financially stressed. These somewhat fit the PCM depiction of the centrist barbeque grill guy, who has concerns other than politics.

Repeat of Quadrants Content

This section repeats the writing in the quadrants, for any who have difficulty reading in that format. Groups are presented in order of political party size. What’s the benefit of the quadrant format anyway? It’s a heuristic that can stick in the visual memory.

Blue Quadrant (top left)

Pew type: Democratic mainstays

•    Largest of the Dem-leaning groups
•    Older, less college educated
•    Most identify as moderate
•    Most racially and ethnically diverse of all the groups; many Black Democrats
•    Liberal views on race, economics and the social safety net, but more conservative on immigration, crime, military power
•    Reliable voters

Pew type: Establishment liberals

•    Liberal but prefer gradual change
•    Recognize societal ills around race and need for correction, but it should come from laws and institutions
•    More likely to back compromise
•    Generally optimistic about politics

Very politically active

Red Quadrant (top right)

pro-establishment

Pew type: Committed conservatives

•    Highly educated
•    Pro-business
•    Pro well-managed immigration
•    Globalist (support U.S. in world affairs)
•    Want limited government
•    Fans of Reagan but not Trump
•    Very politically active

Pew type: Faith and flag conservatives

•    Deeply conservative across issues
•    Christianity belongs in public life
•    Mostly white and older age
•    Strong trump supporters
•    Say Jan 6 event overblown by media
•    Very politically active

Yellow Quadrant (bottom right)

Pew type: Populist right

•    Least college educated
•    Negative view of public education
•    Most likely to live in a rural area
•    Most fervent hard-liners on immigration
•    Say U.S. law favors a powerful few
•    Say tax the rich more
•    Strong Trump supporters
•    Very politically concerned

Pew type: Ambivalent right

•    Young, not religious
•    Want limited government
•    Want stricter immigration policy, but it’s not a top issue
•    Lean lib on abortion, gay rights, & legalizing recreational drugs
•    Most are not Trump supporters
•    Not as politically active

Green Quadrant (bottom left)

Pew type: Progressive left

•    Young and highly educated
•    Largest group to say it backed Sen. Bernie Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the primaries (but voted Dem in general election)
•    More than two-thirds white
•    Extremely liberal policy positions
•    Very politically active

Pew type: Outsider left

•    Especially liberal on issues of race, immigration, and climate
•    Many identify as independents
•    Not thrilled with Dems or Republicans
•    Don’t believe the U.S. is the best nation
•    Less politically active; less reliable voters
•    Side Democratic when they do vote

References

Montanaro, D. (2021). Feel like you don't fit in either political party? Here's why. https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/1053929419/feel-like-you-dont-fit-in-either-political-party-heres-why#ambivalent

Pew Research Center. (2021). Beyond red vs. blue: The political typology. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2021/11/PP_2021.11.09_political-typology_REPORT.pdf

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