Pournelle chart
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The Pournelle chart, developed by Jerry Pournelle (in his 1963 political science Ph.D. dissertation), is a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies. It is similar to the Political compass and the Nolan Chart in that it is a two-dimensional chart, but the axes chosen in the Pournelle chart are different from those in other systems.
The two axes are as follows:
- The x-axis, "Attitude toward the State" (labeled Statism), refers to a political philosophy's feelings toward state and centralised government. The farthest right is state worship, and the farthest left views a state as the "ultimate evil", preferring individual freedom.
- The y-axis, "Attitude toward planned social progress" (labeled Rationalism), refers to a political philosophy's belief that all problems in society have solutions that can be found through the use of reason. The top indicates complete confidence in planned social progress; the bottom represents skepticism of such approaches, often seeing them as naively utopian. Those at the top of this axis would tend to discard a traditional custom if they do not understand what purpose it serves (considering it antiquated and probably useless), while those at the bottom would tend to keep the custom (considering it time-tested and probably useful).
"Leftist" ideologies, such as American liberalism, socialism and communism, are placed by Pournelle in the upper right-hand quadrant of high state control and high rationalism. Conservatism, fascism and Nazism are placed in the lower right hand quadrant of high state control and low rationalism. Classical anarchists are in the lower left hand corner of low state control and low rationalism. Libertarians and Objectivists are placed in the upper lefthand corner of low state control and high rationalism. Each diagonal axis contains "natural" political allies; in the United States, Republicans would tend to cluster along one axis and Democrats along the other.
[edit] Criticisms of the model
This model lacks some nuances as to what is referred to as "control". For example, one may wish to divide the question into issues of personal freedom, and other issues. For instance, up into the 20th century, the United States gave a significant leeway to its citizens with respect to security (right to keep and bear arms) while at the same time heavily regulating sexual activities, even between adults in private, see Comstock Law and sodomy law. However, this goes beyond what the model was intended to do. The Pournelle chart was designed to overcome the failings of the common right-left political paradigm by providing two axes along which the major modern political ideologies might be situated.
Some have criticized the model for the pejorative use of the word "irrational". However, this word does not indicate that the political philosophies near the "bottom" are irrational, nor that those who hold them are irrational. Rather, the "bottom" of the scale represents the belief that human rationality cannot perfect society. For example, the conservatism of Edmund Burke would be near the middle on the left-right scale, but near the bottom on the "rationality" scale (3/1', in Pournelle-style notation), because Burke believed that human society was not perfectible and was skeptical about initiatives aimed at vast improvements to society. Since Pournelle himself has views not far from those of Burke, it is clear that the term "irrational" is not intended as a pejorative. Pournelle noted that the belief that all societal problems can be solved rationally may not itself be rational.
