All axes · compass
Social
الاجتماعيPersonal and moral social freedom — lifestyle, LGBTQ+ rights, individual expression, religion-in-private — permissive (+) vs traditional collective moral authority (−). This axis is about SOCIAL / MORAL liberty, NOT security policy, nationalism, or economics: a party can be nationalist-hawkish yet socially permissive (secular nationalists), or dovish yet socially conservative.
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 degree to which it favors individual autonomy (high positive) versus collective authority and tradition (high negative). Captures stance on personal-life regulation (dress, lifestyle, gender norms), tolerance for dissent, and the role of family and community structures over individual rights. Not the same as state-religion: an actor can favor strong civic-secular authority (authoritarian-secular) and be highly authority-leaning.
- -10Total collective authority over the individualHouthis on personal-life regulation
- -7Strong authority, religious or nationalistUTJ, Religious Zionism, Al-Asalah
- -3Moderate authority-leaningFLN Algeria, Mostaqbal Watan
- +0Balanced civic frameIstiqlal Party, Tagammu
- +3Liberal-leaning, defends personal autonomyHadash, FFS
- +7Strong libertarian framingThe Democrats Israel, Egyptian SDP
- +10Maximal individual autonomyNo clear MENA exemplar at the pole
- Parties scored
- 83
- Mean
- -1.41
- Median
- -2.00
- Std dev
- 5.36
- Range
- -9.0 → 8.0
Ranking
All parties scored on this axis, sorted from most Libertarian to most Authority.
- 1 The Democrats IL +8.0
- 2 Yesh Atid IL +7.0
- 3 Hadash IL +6.5
- 4 Sudanese Communist Party SD +6.0
- 5 Meretz IL +6.0
- 6 Hadash-Ta'al IL +6.0
- 7 Israeli Labor Party IL +5.8
- 8 Free Egyptians Party EG +5.5
- 9 Jordanian Communist Party JO +5.5
- 10 Tunisian Workers Party TN +5.0
- 11 Yemeni Socialist Party YE +5.0
- 12 Balad IL +5.0
- 13 Egyptian Social Democratic Party EG +5.0
- 14 Palestinian People's Party PS +5.0
- 15 Mubadara PS +4.5
- 16 DFLP PS +4.5
- 17 Socialist Forces Front DZ +4.0
- 18 Socialist Union of Popular Forces MA +4.0
- 19 Ta'al IL +4.0
- 20 Yisrael Beiteinu IL +4.0
- 21 National Unity IL +4.0
- 22 Authenticity and Modernity Party MA +4.0
- 23 Long Live Tunisia TN +4.0
- 24 PFLP PS +4.0
- 25 Tagammu Party EG +4.0
- 26 Union of Forces of Progress MR +4.0
- 27 Progressive Socialist Party LB +4.0
- 28 Workers' Party DZ +3.5
- 29 New Wafd Party EG +3.0
- 30 National Rally of Independents MA +3.0
- 31 National Forces Alliance LY +3.0
- 32 New Hope IL +2.0
- 33 Syrian National Coalition SY +1.0
- 34 People's Movement TN +1.0
- 35 Ba'ath Party (Syria) SY -0.5
- 36 Lebanese Forces LB -1.0
- 37 Free Destourian Party TN -1.0
- 38 Fatah PS -1.5
- 39 Kataeb Party LB -1.5
- 40 Southern Transitional Council YE -2.0
- 41 Free Patriotic Movement LB -2.0
- 42 Likud IL -2.0
- 43 Reform Party JO -2.0
- 44 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan IQ -2.0
- 45 National Umma Party SD -3.0
- 46 Kurdistan Democratic Party IQ -3.0
- 47 National Liberation Front DZ -3.0
- 48 National Charter Party JO -3.0
- 49 Democratic Unionist Party SD -4.0
- 50 Istiqlal Party MA -4.0
- 51 National Wisdom Movement IQ -4.0
- 52 Mostaqbal Watan EG -4.0
- 53 Democratic National Rally DZ -4.0
- 54 General People's Congress YE -4.0
- 55 Ennahda TN -5.0
- 56 Amal Movement LB -6.0
- 57 El Insaf (Equity Party) MR -6.0
- 58 Justice and Development Party MA -6.0
- 59 Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society BH -6.0
- 60 State of Law Coalition IQ -6.0
- 61 Sairoon Alliance IQ -6.0
- 62 Ra'am (United Arab List) IL -6.0
- 63 Justice and Construction Party LY -6.5
- 64 Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) YE -7.0
- 65 Movement of Society for Peace DZ -7.0
- 66 Northern Islamic Movement IL -7.0
- 67 Freedom and Justice Party EG -7.5
- 68 Al-Menbar Islamic Society BH -7.5
- 69 Religious Zionism Party IL -8.0
- 70 Ansar Allah (Houthis) YE -8.0
- 71 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham SY -8.0
- 72 Hamas PS -8.0
- 73 National Rally for Reform and Development (Tewassoul) MR -8.0
- 74 Otzma Yehudit IL -8.0
- 75 Islamic Action Front JO -8.0
- 76 Hezbollah LB -8.0
- 77 Shas IL -8.5
- 78 Noam IL -9.0
- 79 Islamic Salvation Front DZ -9.0
- 80 Palestinian Islamic Jihad PS -9.0
- 81 Nour Party EG -9.0
- 82 Islamic Asalah Society BH -9.0
- 83 United Torah Judaism IL -9.0
Score distribution
Histogram of scores across all 83 parties. Mean -1.41, median -2.00, σ 5.36. Multi-modal distributions point to genuine cleavages on this axis; unimodal narrow ones to consensus.
Authority Libertarian
By country
Mean score per country.
- Tunisia 5 parties +0.80
- Morocco 5 parties +0.20
- Israel 19 parties +0.04
- Palestine 7 parties -0.07
- Sudan 3 parties -0.33
- Egypt 7 parties -0.43
- Libya 2 parties -1.75
- Jordan 4 parties -1.88
- Lebanon 6 parties -2.42
- Syria 3 parties -2.50
- Algeria 6 parties -2.58
- Yemen 5 parties -3.20
- Mauritania 3 parties -3.33
- Iraq 5 parties -4.20
- Bahrain 3 parties -7.50
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.
- Gender equality strongly positively correlated +0.98 n=22
- State & religion strongly positively correlated +0.95 n=83
- Traditionalism vs modernization strongly positively correlated +0.91 n=78
- Press freedom strongly positively correlated +0.88 n=21
- Civil liberties strongly positively correlated +0.80 n=81
- Liberal democracy strongly positively correlated +0.76 n=83
- Iran posture weakly inversely correlated -0.27 n=19
- Regional stance weakly positively correlated +0.24 n=82
- Centralism vs federalism weakly positively correlated +0.21 n=78
- Economic roughly independent -0.19 n=83
- West alignment roughly independent +0.17 n=81
- Sectarian power-sharing roughly independent +0.14 n=11
- Pan-Arab vs particularist roughly independent +0.14 n=66
- Palestinian question roughly independent +0.12 n=83
- Regime stance roughly independent -0.04 n=78