The Political Compass. Political spectrum. A political spectrum is a system of classifying different political positions upon one or more geometric axes that symbolize independent political dimensions.
Most long-standing spectra include a right wing and left wing, which originally referred to seating arrangements in the French parliament after the Revolution (1789–99).[1] According to the simplest left–right axis, communism and socialism are usually regarded internationally as being on the left, opposite fascism and conservatism on the right. Liberalism can mean different things in different contexts, sometimes on the left (social liberalism), sometimes on the right (economic liberalism). Prisoner Abuse: Patterns from the Past. 1984.