Why do they call it a Political Spectrum?

Question

Why do they call it a Political Spectrum? And why isn't it a straight line?

Answer 1

They should call it a political rectum...

Answer 2

Spectrum is meant to invoke the idea that there are more than just 2 (or 3 or 4) political opinions--that someone is on a gradually increasing scale in terms of opinion. Even spectrum, though, is a terribly misleading term, because it makes it seem like there are only two opposing ideas (say, conservative vs liberal), which is truly ridiculous. For example, a stereotypical Republican (especially a modern, neo-conservative), is supposedly conservative. But it's more accurate to say that said person is an economic conservative while being a social liberal--they want to both allow people/companies/the market total "freedom" to do whatever they want, but they want to regulate the personal choices people make in their private lives (censorship, family values, etc.). In other words, for any given issue or topic, there is at least a spectrum of opinion, if not a graph or a matrix. Add all of the specturms together to get a complete political picture. This is why, ultimately, political systems like the U.S.'s, where there are only two "choices" (at least, on the national level) are ultimately polarizing and ridiculous, because they pretend that politics is a simple left vs. right game.

Answer 3

They call it a spectrum because it holds a great many points of view, not just the extremes, and the differing points of view all blend together when you look at enough different ones.

And it's not a straight line because because the points in the spectrum are made up of different people, and one person can have different points of view on different issues. For example, a Libertarian would be considered "conservative" on gun control but "liberal" on freedom of speech, while a Socialist is very conservative on personal freedoms but very liberal on social programs. A balanced budget was trumpeted by the "conservative" Republicans a couple decades ago, but then it took a Democratic president to actually balance the budget and a Republican to bust it again.

Answer 4

It is a reference to the spectrum of light

The complete range of colors in the rainbow, from short wavelengths (blue) to long wavelengths (red).
http://www.paperspecs.com/resources/glossary/s.htm

The political spectrum theory is a way of comparing or visualizing different political positions, by placing them upon one or more geometric axes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum