The Nolan Chart: An Illustration of Libertarianism

Although the Nolan Chart has a bit of utility in illustrating political spectra in general, it was originally designed by David Nolan, founder of the United States Libertarian Party, to demonstrate the third dimension that libertarianism added to traditional left wing/ right wing political classifications. Take a look:

obtained from freedomdemocrats.org

Ignoing the colored dots for the moment, we see that in addition to a left/right axis, Nolan added an Up/Down axis. So Dennis Kucinich could be considered a leftist, Ronald Reagan a rightist, (the venerable) Milton Friedman an uptist, and Adolf Hitler a downist. Libertarianism is located at the convergence of personal and economic freedom. Authoritarianism is the absence of both.

The dots displayed on this Nolan Chart represent the voting records of Congressinal members as of 2006. A blue dot indicates a Democrat, a red dot indicates a Republican, and a green dot indicates Bernie Sanders, an Independent Senator who describes his politics as democratic socialism. A dark blue dot marks the average Democrat, and a dark red dot does the same for GOP members.

Although both parties have a contingent which adheres to either personal or economic freedom, inhabitants of the authoritarian (anti-libertarian) quadrant are overwhelmingly Republican. Traditional thought associates the common thread of limited government with both the Republican and Libertarian parties, the Nolan Chart illustrates that a greater commonality actually exists between Democrats and Libertarians, despite Ron Paul's best efforts (yes, he is noticeably elevated towards the Libertarian pinnacle).

Hopefully this helps dispell the myth that Libertarians glorified extremist Republicans, because the party truly adds a third dimension to traditional political spectra, and requires request for both personal and economic liberties.