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Reference

The twelve axes, defined

Each axis is a tension rather than a virtue-versus-vice choice. A score near the middle is not a better answer than a score at either end — it means the statements you saw did not pull you consistently one way. Definitions are deliberately narrow so that a result can be argued with.

01

Power

How much power should the state hold over the individual?

Where you draw the line between collective security and personal freedom.

−100 · Civil libertySurveillance, censorship and emergency powers should be tightly limited, even when that makes the state slower to act.
+100 · State authorityA state strong enough to enforce order, monitor real threats and act decisively when a crisis breaks.
02

Democracy

Who should take the final decision — the public or the qualified?

Whether legitimacy comes from numbers or from competence.

−100 · Popular ruleDecisions gain legitimacy from the consent of the governed: referendums, recalls and open debate.
+100 · Expert governanceSome questions are too technical and too consequential to be settled by popularity alone.
03

Economy

Should production be directed or left to compete?

Who decides what gets built — markets, ministries, or both.

−100 · Planned economyStrategic ownership and directed investment, so that essential production answers to public need.
+100 · Free marketPrices, profit and competition as the fastest available way to discover what people actually want.
04

Welfare

How far should the collective carry the individual?

The balance between a shared safety net and personal responsibility.

−100 · Social provisionHealth, housing and income floors guaranteed to everyone as a condition of a decent society.
+100 · Self-relianceLower burdens, family and community, with support targeted narrowly at those who cannot cope.
05

Sovereignty

Should the nation or the international order hold the final word?

How far you would pool power beyond the border.

−100 · Global integrationShared rules, open movement and pooled authority, because the hardest problems ignore borders.
+100 · National sovereigntyBorders, laws and money under domestic control, with international bodies kept advisory.
06

Force

What actually keeps the peace?

Whether influence is won by arms or by argument.

−100 · DiplomacyNegotiation, sanctions and development, on the reasoning that armies create the enemies they fear.
+100 · Hard powerCredible military strength and the willingness to use it as the only guarantee that holds.
07

Culture

Is inherited custom a resource or an obstacle?

How much weight you give to what a society already is.

−100 · ProgressInstitutions, hierarchies and habits should justify themselves to each generation or be replaced.
+100 · TraditionFamily, custom and national memory carry lessons that reform cannot improvise from scratch.
08

Religion

How much room should faith have in public life?

Whether public morality needs a sacred anchor.

−100 · Secular stateNeutral institutions, secular law and no public money or authority for any faith.
+100 · Religious foundationShared religious traditions as the moral foundation that law and schooling can legitimately reflect.
09

Ecology

Is the economy bounded by nature, or the reverse?

What you would trade for a stable climate.

−100 · Ecological limitsHard constraints: taxes, rationing and restraint, because a broken biosphere cannot be spent.
+100 · Economic growthGrowth and technology first, on the argument that wealth is what pays for a cleaner world.
10

Technology

Should new capability be released or restrained?

How much risk you accept in exchange for progress.

−100 · PrecautionProof of safety before deployment, and the willingness to pause what cannot be controlled.
+100 · AccelerationDeploy, learn and iterate, because delay has a body count of its own.
11

Structure

At what level should power sit?

Whether the capital or the community governs.

−100 · DecentralisationCities, regions and communities deciding, with the centre holding only what must be shared.
+100 · CentralisationNational standards and national capacity, because a patchwork cannot face a national problem.
12

Rights

Can a majority vote away a fundamental right?

Whether democracy needs a limit it cannot itself remove.

−100 · Majority ruleElected opinion as the highest authority, with judges and charters kept out of its way.
+100 · Entrenched rightsRights that no majority may strip, defended by courts even against popular anger.

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