Tayyar.

All axes · issue

Traditionalism vs modernization

التقليدية مقابل التحديث

Position on social and institutional modernization versus tradition. Captures stance on issues like womens rights, religious authority in public life, reform of family law, openness to technological and economic transformation. Distinct from the secular-religious axis: an actor can be religious and modernizing (Vision 2030) or secular and traditionalist (state-corporatist nationalism).

Scoring rubric

How positions are calibrated on this axis. The conventions guide the scorer; anchored examples show how known MENA actors land at -10, -5, 0, +5, +10.

Score the actor on the modernization vs traditionalism axis. Positive: actively pushes modernization (economic transformation, women's rights reform, openness to technological change, separation of religious and civil authority). Negative: tradition-protecting (women's rights restrictive, religious orthodoxy in public life, resistance to economic / social reform). Distinct from state-religion: an actor can be religious AND modernizing (Saudi Vision 2030 framing) or secular AND traditionalist (old FLN-style state corporatism).

  • -10
    Strict religious orthodoxy, anti-reform
    UTJ, Al-Asalah, Houthis
  • -7
    Strong traditionalism
    Shas, Religious Zionism, Northern Islamic Movement
  • -3
    Moderate traditionalism
    Brotherhood-aligned (FJP, Ennahda, Islah)
  • +0
    Pragmatic, no strong stance
    Some nationalist parties
  • +3
    Moderate modernization
    Some Maghreb ruling parties
  • +6
    Strong modernization framing
    Yesh Atid, Free Egyptians, ESDP
  • +10
    Maximal liberal modernization
    Some Israeli liberal-left (rare ceiling)
Parties scored
78
Mean
+1.24
Median
+3.00
Std dev
4.87
Range
-9.0 → 7.5

Ranking

All parties scored on this axis, sorted from most modernizing to most traditionalist.

traditionalist ← → modernizing

-10-5+0+5+10
  1. 1 The Democrats IL
    +7.5
  2. 2 Yesh Atid IL
    +7.5
  3. 3 New Hope IL
    +7.0
  4. 4 Sudanese Communist Party SD
    +7.0
  5. 5 Free Egyptians Party EG
    +7.0
  6. 6 Hadash IL
    +7.0
  7. 7 Egyptian Social Democratic Party EG
    +7.0
  8. 8 Israeli Labor Party IL
    +6.5
  9. 9 Authenticity and Modernity Party MA
    +6.5
  10. 10 Jordanian Communist Party JO
    +6.5
  11. 11 Socialist Forces Front DZ
    +6.0
  12. 12 Yemeni Socialist Party YE
    +6.0
  13. 13 Long Live Tunisia TN
    +6.0
  14. 14 National Rally of Independents MA
    +6.0
  15. 15 National Forces Alliance LY
    +6.0
  16. 16 Union of Forces of Progress MR
    +6.0
  17. 17 Yisrael Beiteinu IL
    +5.5
  18. 18 National Unity IL
    +5.5
  19. 19 Workers' Party DZ
    +5.5
  20. 20 New Wafd Party EG
    +5.0
  21. 21 Socialist Union of Popular Forces MA
    +5.0
  22. 22 Ta'al IL
    +5.0
  23. 23 Tunisian Workers Party TN
    +5.0
  24. 24 Balad IL
    +5.0
  25. 25 Mostaqbal Watan EG
    +5.0
  26. 26 Free Destourian Party TN
    +5.0
  27. 27 Progressive Socialist Party LB
    +5.0
  28. 28 Syrian National Coalition SY
    +4.5
  29. 29 Ba'ath Party (Syria) SY
    +4.0
  30. 30 Kataeb Party LB
    +4.0
  31. 31 Kurdistan Democratic Party IQ
    +4.0
  32. 32 Likud IL
    +4.0
  33. 33 National Charter Party JO
    +4.0
  34. 34 Tagammu Party EG
    +4.0
  35. 35 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan IQ
    +4.0
  36. 36 Reform Party JO
    +3.5
  37. 37 Southern Transitional Council YE
    +3.0
  38. 38 El Insaf (Equity Party) MR
    +3.0
  39. 39 Fatah PS
    +3.0
  40. 40 Lebanese Forces LB
    +3.0
  41. 41 Democratic National Rally DZ
    +3.0
  42. 42 PFLP PS
    +3.0
  43. 43 People's Movement TN
    +2.0
  44. 44 Free Patriotic Movement LB
    +2.0
  45. 45 National Liberation Front DZ
    +2.0
  46. 46 National Wisdom Movement IQ
    +2.0
  47. 47 National Umma Party SD
    +1.5
  48. 48 Ennahda TN
    +1.0
  49. 49 Istiqlal Party MA
    +1.0
  50. 50 General People's Congress YE
    +0.0
  51. 51 Democratic Unionist Party SD
    -0.5
  52. 52 Amal Movement LB
    -2.0
  53. 53 Movement of Society for Peace DZ
    -2.0
  54. 54 Justice and Development Party MA
    -2.0
  55. 55 Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society BH
    -2.0
  56. 56 Sairoon Alliance IQ
    -2.0
  57. 57 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham SY
    -3.0
  58. 58 Justice and Construction Party LY
    -3.0
  59. 59 National Rally for Reform and Development (Tewassoul) MR
    -3.0
  60. 60 State of Law Coalition IQ
    -3.0
  61. 61 Ra'am (United Arab List) IL
    -3.0
  62. 62 Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) YE
    -4.0
  63. 63 Freedom and Justice Party EG
    -4.0
  64. 64 Al-Menbar Islamic Society BH
    -4.0
  65. 65 Hezbollah LB
    -4.5
  66. 66 Religious Zionism Party IL
    -5.0
  67. 67 Islamic Action Front JO
    -5.0
  68. 68 Hamas PS
    -6.0
  69. 69 Otzma Yehudit IL
    -6.0
  70. 70 Northern Islamic Movement IL
    -6.0
  71. 71 Shas IL
    -7.0
  72. 72 Ansar Allah (Houthis) YE
    -7.0
  73. 73 Palestinian Islamic Jihad PS
    -7.0
  74. 74 Nour Party EG
    -7.0
  75. 75 Islamic Salvation Front DZ
    -8.0
  76. 76 Islamic Asalah Society BH
    -8.0
  77. 77 United Torah Judaism IL
    -8.0
  78. 78 Noam IL
    -9.0

Score distribution

Histogram of scores across all 78 parties. Mean +1.24, median +3.00, σ 4.87. Multi-modal distributions point to genuine cleavages on this axis; unimodal narrow ones to consensus.

-9: 1 party -8: 3 parties -7: 4 parties -6: 3 parties -5: 2 parties -4: 4 parties -3: 5 parties 5 -2: 5 parties 5 +0: 2 parties +1: 2 parties +2: 5 parties 5 +3: 6 parties 6 +4: 8 parties 8 +5: 9 parties 9 +6: 9 parties 9 +7: 8 parties 8 +8: 2 parties −10 0 +10

traditionalist modernizing

By country

Mean score per country.

  • Tunisia 5 parties
    +3.80
  • Morocco 5 parties
    +3.30
  • Sudan 3 parties
    +2.67
  • Egypt 7 parties
    +2.43
  • Jordan 4 parties
    +2.25
  • Mauritania 3 parties
    +2.00
  • Syria 3 parties
    +1.83
  • Libya 2 parties
    +1.50
  • Lebanon 6 parties
    +1.25
  • Algeria 6 parties
    +1.08
  • Iraq 5 parties
    +1.00
  • Israel 17 parties
    +0.97
  • Yemen 5 parties
    -0.40
  • Palestine 4 parties
    -1.75
  • Bahrain 3 parties
    -4.67

Cross-axis correlations

How parties' scores on this axis covary with their scores on each other axis. Pearson r runs from −1 (perfect inverse) to +1 (perfect identity); 0 means independent. Computed across all parties scored on both axes (n shown per row). Strong correlations expose which axes are really measuring the same cleavage in the data; near-zero values are the ones with the most additional explanatory power.

Other axes

Pick any axis in the table above, or combine two on the compass.