Drawing a political spectrum

Question

What would be the best way of drawing a political spectrum diagram like this one:

Answer 1

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{graphics}

\begin{document}

\fbox{\begin{picture}(200,200)
\thicklines
\put(100,10){\line(0,1){180}}
\put(10,100){\line(1,0){180}}
\put(100,190){\makebox(0,0)[b]{\textsc{TiKZ}}}
\put(100,10){\makebox(0,0)[t]{\textsc{PsTricks}}}
\put(10,100){\makebox(0,0)[r]{\rotatebox{90}{\textsc{Picture Mode}}}}
\put(190,100){\makebox(0,0)[l]{\rotatebox{-90}{\textsc{MetaPost}}}}
\put(50,150){\makebox(0,0){Easy}}
\put(150,150){\makebox(0,0){Hard}}
\put(50,50){\makebox(0,0){Clear}}
\put(150,50){\makebox(0,0){Obscure}}

\end{picture}}
\end{document}

Answer 2

I would (of course) use PGFPlots for this. Once the axis is set up, you can add your data in a really easy and clear way:

Difficulty Clarity Package
0.8        0.6     PSTricks
0.6        0.8     TikZ

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pgfplots}

\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}
\begin{axis}[
    xmin=-1, xmax=1,
    ymin=-1, ymax=1,
    axis equal image,
    xtick=\empty, ytick=\empty,
    axis lines*=middle,
    after end axis/.code={
        \node at (current axis.right of origin) [anchor=west] {Easy};
        \node at (current axis.left of origin) [anchor=east] {Hard};
        \node at (current axis.above origin) [anchor=south] {Clear};
        \node at (current axis.below origin) [anchor=north] {Obscure};
    }
]

\addplot [
    nodes near coords, 
    mark=*, 
    only marks, 
    point meta=explicit symbolic
] table [meta=Package] {
    Difficulty Clarity Package
    0.8 0.6 PSTricks
    0.6 0.8 TikZ
};
\end{axis}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

Answer 3

This is quite straightforward with »tikZ/PGF«.

\documentclass[11pt]{standalone}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{tikz}

\begin{document}
  \begin{tikzpicture}
    \draw (0,6)  node[above]                 {Freedom}  -- (0,-6) node[below]                 {Authority}
          (-6,0) node[xshift=-6pt,rotate=90] {Equality} -- (6,0)  node[xshift=6pt,rotate=-90] {Inequality};
    \node at (-3,3) {Social Democracy};
    \node at (3,3) {Classical Liberalism};
    \node at (-3,-3) {Communism};
    \node at (3,-3) {Facism};
  \end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

---

Answer 4

An option using the positioning library from tikz

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{positioning}
\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[node distance=5cm]
  \node(origin) at (0,0){};
  % nodes on horizontal and vertical
  \node(freedom)[above=of origin]{FREEDOM};
  \node(authority)[below=of origin]{AUTHORITY};
  \node(equality)[left=of origin]{\rotatebox{90}{EQUALITY}};
  \node(inequality)[right=of origin]{\rotatebox{-90}{INEQUALITY}};
  % nodes on diagonals
  \node(socdemo)[above left=3cm of origin]{Social democracy};
  \node(classlib)[above right=3cm of origin]{Classical liberalism};
  \node(facism)[below right=3cm of origin]{Facism};
  \node(facism)[below left=3cm of origin]{Communism};
  % connect horizontal and vertical nodes
  \draw(equality)--(inequality);
  \draw(freedom)--(authority);
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}