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12 axes vs Ideoshapes: compare political profiles
Compare Ideoshapes’ eight political axes and ideology shapes with the twelve separate topic scores in 12 axes. See overlaps and gaps without converting scores.
Reviewed 2026-09-29 · 12axes.org editorial guide
A shape and a set of topic bars
Ideoshapes presents eight political axes and uses the scores to describe an ideological shape with four nearest ideology matches. 12 axes reports twelve paired bars and leaves interpretation to the reader. Both can encourage you to look beyond a single left–right position. They organise that discussion differently: one emphasises an overall shape and nearby labels, while the other keeps the topic scores in view.
Similar names need careful interpretation
Freedom, liberty and openness sound interchangeable in everyday conversation, but a questionnaire may assign them different meanings. The table offers our editorial reading of related topics. It does not claim that similarly named scales use the same questions or that a score in one can predict a score in the other. Where a topic spans several 12 axes scales, read their explanations separately.
How to compare your own profiles
Start with a concrete issue on which you have a clear view, then inspect how each framework categorises it. Someone may support civil liberties, oppose military intervention and favour restrictions on migration. A combined outline can make that profile easy to recognise visually, while separate bars make each policy preference easier to discuss. Neither presentation establishes how stable those preferences will be over time.
Choosing a result format
Try Ideoshapes if an overall shape and suggested ideology labels are useful prompts for reflection. Try 12 axes if you prefer an explicit breakdown including Welfare, Environment and Technology. There is no official partnership or shared scoring service. Retaking a different questionnaire is more informative than attempting to stretch eight numbers into twelve. Treat both outputs as descriptions within their own framework, not certificates of political identity.
How the topics map
This is our editorial comparison of topic coverage. It is not a score conversion table.
| Other framework | 12 axes topics | How to interpret the connection |
|---|---|---|
| Liberty / Authority | Civil liberties; Democracy | Related questions about rights and political power. |
| Freedom / Discipline | Civil liberties | Partial overlap; personal discipline is not identical to state authority. |
| Secularity / Religion | Religion & state | Compare institutional influence, not personal religious identity. |
| Progress / Tradition | Social change | Related reform and continuity themes. |
| Market / Equality | Economy; Welfare | The visual direction is reversed for Economy here. |
| Openness / Control | Migration; Civil liberties | Only partial overlap; no single matching scale. |
| World / Nation | Global relations | International cooperation and sovereignty are related themes. |
| Pacifism / Intervention | Conflict | Related foreign-policy trade-offs. |
Explore the twelve axes
Sources and scope
Official framework descriptions checked on 2026-09-29. Mappings and examples are our interpretation. This website is independent of the tests named here.