Methodology

The Six Perspectives

Rather than mapping policy debates onto a simple left/right axis, PolicyLens uses six analytical frameworks that each represent a coherent set of values and priorities:

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  Free Market — Prioritizes economic freedom, voluntary exchange, and price signals as the most efficient mechanism for allocating resources.
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  Social Democratic — Accepts market economies while arguing for robust redistribution, universal services, and regulation to ensure collective welfare.
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  Labor / Union — Centers worker power, collective bargaining, and the protection of jobs and wages as primary policy concerns.
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  Communitarian / Conservative — Emphasizes community bonds, cultural continuity, family stability, and the role of work in social identity.
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  Pragmatic / Technocratic — Evaluates policies primarily on measurable outcomes — cost-effectiveness, administrative feasibility, and empirical evidence.
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  Libertarian Left — Combines skepticism of both state and corporate power with a strong commitment to personal autonomy and freedom from coercion.

These perspectives are analytical lenses, not partisan affiliations. Real political parties and individuals rarely map cleanly onto a single framework.

Content Generation

Policy analyses are generated offline using a multi-step pipeline powered by large language models. Each policy goes through four sequential steps:

1. 1.Overview — factual background, current status, and key stakeholders
2. 2.Perspectives — arguments in favor and against from within each framework
3. 3.Tradeoffs — core tensions identified across perspectives
4. 4.Quiz — value-probing questions with dimension weights

All content is validated against a structured schema. Balance validation ensures every perspective has substantive arguments on both sides of the policy debate.

The Values Quiz

The quiz is designed to measure six underlying value dimensions rather than policy preferences:

• ·Role of the State — how much government intervention is appropriate
• ·Individual vs Collective — whether individual rights or collective welfare take precedence
• ·Work & Obligation — whether economic support should be tied to labor
• ·Market Trust — confidence in market mechanisms to allocate resources fairly
• ·Pragmatism vs Idealism — empirical outcomes versus principled commitments
• ·Redistribution — attitudes toward transferring wealth through policy

Scoring is entirely deterministic and runs in your browser — no data is sent to any server. Results are URL-encoded so you can share them directly.

Limitations

• !LLM-generated analysis may contain errors or reflect training data biases. Treat it as a starting point, not authoritative analysis.
• !The six perspectives are a simplification. Many political traditions don't fit neatly into any category.
• !Quiz results show values alignment, not policy endorsement. You may align with a perspective on values while disagreeing with their policy conclusions.
• !Citations are generated and should be independently verified before use.