Pournelle Chart

The Pournelle Chart, developed by Jerry Pournelle (1963 Political Science Ph.D. dissertation), is a 2-dimensional coordinate system used to distinguish political ideologies. It is similar to the Nolan Chart in that it is a two dimensional chart, but the X-axis (labeled Statism) refers to your feelings toward state and centralised government (farthest right being state worship, farthest left being the idea of a state as the "ultimate evil" - the diagonal of the Nolan Chart), and the Y axis (labeled Rationalism) referring to your belief that all problems in society have rational solutions. (top being complete confidence in planning, bottom being skepticism of such approaches).

Related Topics:
Jerry Pournelle - Nolan Chart - Statism - Rationalism

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"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.

Related Topics:
Liberalism - Socialism - Communism - Conservatism - Fascism - Nazism - Anarchists - Libertarians - Objectivists

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Note that this two-axis 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 bear arms) while at the same time heavily regulating sexual activities, even between adults in private, see Comstock Law and Sodomy law.

Related Topics:
United States - Right to bear arms - Comstock Law - Sodomy law

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The Pournelle Chart was originally published in Pournelle's Ph.D. dissertation in 1962.

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