Introduction

In the wake of the most recent Presidential Election in the United States, the entire country is getting prepared to vote in the Primary Elections. Today, most of us have learned that the Republican Party as the "conservative" party and the Democratic Party as the "liberal" party, and many of us choose our party based on what we hear, what we see, what our parents choose, where our friends stand, or for many other reasons. However, the matter of the fact is there are so many more political parties and so many more political stances, that it is not as easy to just pick a political party, and many people change their party over the course of their voting lives.

Some of you may already has alined yourselves with a specific political party, and some of you are still not quite sure. So the question is: What's your political party?

Article #1

The Directory of U.S. Political Parties discusses the many different and interesting political parties that are a part of American politics.
At http://politics1.com/parties.htm, you should find a listing of the two most popular political parties (Republican, Democratic) and many more that you may not have known about. Your job is to read through the list and pick the top three political parties that interest you.

After you have chosen the three parties that you think reflect your opinions, answer the following:

• What type of party (major, third, other)


• What are 3 core beliefs?


• What are the other branches of this party?


• What current politicians side with this party?


• Why do you like this party?

After answering these questions, I want you to think about how the information you learned about the political parties persuades you to oppose or agree with its ideas. Think back to the comercials and political campaigns you may have seen on television. Do they accuratly display what the party is suppose to be advocating? Do you like or side with all of the party's beliefs, or only some of them? Or is it the actual politician that captures your vote?

Article #2

Now that you have chosed a few political parties that you think best support your beliefs, let's see how your actual beliefs match your chosen political party.

It is difficult to measure exactly where someone's beliefs about government actually lie using only a a straight line in which one side is conservative, and the other liberal. At the Political Compass website, you are offered to take a multiple choice test about your beliefs about politics of today, and are presented with a graph (see above) that will better measure your political compass and compare it to other politicians.

Go to http://www.politicalcompass.org/test, take and complete the test. Each question on the test will ask about your personal opinions on ideas about social, environmental, and governmental activites and laws. You will answer all these questions with a "Strongly Disagree", and "Disagree", an "Agree", or a "Strongly Agree," depending on how you feel about the subject.

Your answers will assign you a position on a scaled map of 4 quadrents. This graph displays is your economic opinion scale with your social beliefs scale. Your overall political opinions are displayed in a wider spectrum that allows you to see what enviromental, social, or personal beliefs and practices are important to you personally and how that influences your choice in a presidential candidate.

After you have finished, you will be shown ayour very own print out a copy of your political compass, print and staple it to a piece of paper on which you have answered these questions:

• Where would you descride your dot is on the map?



• What politician's dot is close to yours?



• Which is farthest away?

Inquiry

It seems as though the political spectrum is a bit more complicated that it appears. It is no longer "black" and "white", but has dimension. Reflect on your findings by answering the following questions:



What suprised you most about where your dot landed on the scale?

Were you surprised at where some politicians resided on the scale?





• Were the questions on the test easy or difficult to answer?


How did the test questions and results relate to the definitions of the political parties on the first website?





• Does your originally chosen political party change now that you've taken the Political Compass test?

Teacher Help

The intended audience are high students. High school students are at about the right age to start thinking about voting in Presidential elections as many of them are close to age 18.

The biggest learning goals is for the students to gain a better understanding of what creates political opinions and how they fit into the political spectrum. Only then can they truly understand where they stand politcally.

Students need a general understanding of America's economics, government, and society's most controversial subjects of today. They will also need a general understanding on how to use the internet.

The students will probably need a week of learning in the classroom, 1-2 days learning about the United States political parties, and about a class period to take the Political Compass Test and 1 day to follow up on their findings.




You will want to make sure the students have answered the questions about their initial political party, and have written the 1 page follow-up requirment with their political compass map attached. To goal is for students to get an understanding that there is more the a political party than just what people are supposed to believe. Look for a well-rounded understanding of political parties by examing the students suprises about political parties described in the answers to the given questions.