Treatise on method

From the Cartesian plane to the atlas

To keep the accessibility and comparability of current models while raising their rigour and their fidelity to the real complexity of political positions.

§ 1 · The diagnosis

Shallow, non-orthogonal axes

The usual axes blend dimensions that ought to be treated independently. “Authority” confuses the reach of power with the scale at which it is exercised and with the source that legitimises it; “economy” confuses the desired arrangement with the method by which one intends to reach it. An anarcho-communist who accepts voluntary communes and one who means to impose collectivisation land on the same point of the plane — and they should not.

Missing, moreover, are the deeper layers: the source of political legitimacy, social ontology, epistemology, the preferred institutional scale and the nature of social arrangements. And questions framed to force contemporary dichotomies, assuming the state as the main arena of decision, deepen the distortions.

§ 2 · The principle

Content and method

Every political position answers two distinct questions: what order is desirable? and by what path does that order become legitimate? ORDVS measures the two separately — and the relation between them reveals meta-positions no single axis can capture.

§ 3 · The layers

Thirteen independent dimensions

Legitimacy

Foundation	Transcendent · Traditional ↔ Rational · Contractual
Bearer of authority	Individual consent ↔ Collective will

Social ontology

Political subject	Individual ↔ Organic community
Human nature	Constrained ↔ Perfectible

III

Property & economy

Property	Private ↔ Common
Coordination	Spontaneous order ↔ Planning
Character of arrangements	Voluntary ↔ Imposed

Culture & society

Moral orientation	Tradition ↔ Progress
Pluralism	Moral plurality ↔ Moral unity

Institutions & scale

Scale	Local ↔ Central
Reach of power	Minimal ↔ Broad

Political epistemology

Knowledge	Dispersed · Tacit ↔ Technical · Centralisable
Justification	Principles ↔ Consequences

§ 4 · Genealogy

The models that came before

Each overcame part of the compass's limitations. ORDVS seeks to take the next qualitative step.

Political Compass2 — economic and authorityA comparative reference; correlated axes and the state as implicit arena.

SapplyValues3 — economic, authority, progressAdds the cultural dimension, still on fixed axes.

Votely3, in a three-dimensional viewMatching with ideologies; keeps the logic of axes.

NeoValuesDecision treesBranching by answers, but along predefined branches.

ThirdPositionValues, VanguardValuesNiche axesHigh resolution within specific slices of the spectrum.

IdeosorterSequential flowRelevant questions in sequence; classification by elimination.

ORDVS6 layers · 13 dimensionsSeparates content and method; multidimensional premises + a tree of 60 lineages; interpretive reading.

§ 5 · The procedure

Hybrid and adaptive

Phase I presents high-level questions on fundamental premises, combining agreement scales and choices of up to six options. Each answer shifts one or more dimensions with explicit weights; the system also records ambivalence — answers that pull the same dimension in opposite directions.

In Phase II, the scores open the three nearest ideological houses, and the respondent chooses which to enter. From there, a genealogical tree of multi-option forks separates neighbouring traditions until one of sixty lineages is reached. Unlike a pure tree, every answer keeps scoring the thirteen dimensions; at the end, three deepening questions target the most ambiguous dimensions.

In Phase III, the interpretive engine confronts the chosen lineage with the geometric position across the thirteen dimensions — and, where they diverge, shows why. It reads each layer, points out coherences and tensions, identifies meta-positions, measures the distance to every family and proposes counterfactual scenarios. Everything is calculated in the browser, with no data sent anywhere.

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