Is African National Congress left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation African National Congress scores −04 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −03. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is African National Congress authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, African National Congress scores +01. Constitutional democracy with a strong bill of rights and an independent judiciary that has ruled against the party repeatedly.

Atlas / Organisations / African National Congress

African National Congress

ANC · 1912– · South Africa · Social Democratic · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

−04ECcollective

−03CUpluralist

+01AUmonist

+04SCcentral

−03IDuniversal

−04CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Non-racial constitutional democracy, redistribution and black economic empowerment.

Economic model

Social grants reaching a third of the population, state enterprises in energy and rail, employment equity mandates.

Organisation of powers

Constitutional democracy with a strong bill of rights and an independent judiciary that has ruled against the party repeatedly.

Reading note

Lost its parliamentary majority in 2024 and formed a coalition — a normal alternation event that many liberation parties never reach.

Check a claim about African National Congress. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

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The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −04

Coded −4: large social transfers and state enterprises inside a market economy with orthodox macroeconomics.

Documented act or statuteAround 28 million people receive social grants; the reserve bank has operated an inflation target since 2000.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −03

Coded −3: one of the most liberal constitutions in the world, adopted under its government.

Documented act or statuteSouth Africa was the fifth country in the world to legalise same-sex marriage, in 2006.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +01

Coded slightly positive on governing practice and strongly constrained by a judiciary that has ruled against it repeatedly.

Documented act or statuteThe constitutional court ordered a sitting president to repay public funds in 2016 and later jailed him for contempt.
Documented act or statuteThe party lost its parliamentary majority in 2024 and entered coalition without incident.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +04

Coded +4: a unitary state with provinces holding delegated rather than sovereign powers.

Documented act or statuteProvincial powers are concurrent and subject to national override.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −03

Coded −3: explicitly non-racial in constitutional doctrine, with race-based redress in employment law.

Programme textThe 1955 Freedom Charter declared that South Africa belongs to all who live in it; employment equity legislation sets demographic targets.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −04

Coded −4: an armed wing suspended in 1990 and a negotiated transition thereafter.

Documented act or statuteThe armed struggle was suspended in August 1990 and the transition negotiated at CODESA.

How it moved

Positions are recorded at dated anchor points tied to a documented moment — a programme adopted, a government formed, a reversal. Nothing is interpolated between them, because nothing is known between them. Figures in amber moved by two points or more from the previous anchor.

Anchor	EC	CU	AU	SC	ID	CH	What it is tied to
1955	−07	−04	−02	+03	−04	+04	Freedom Charter: mines, banks and monopoly industry to be transferred to the people; armed struggle begins 1961.
1990	−06	−03	−01	+04	−03	+01	Unbanned; armed struggle suspended in August.
1996	−02	−03	00	+04	−03	−04	GEAR macroeconomic programme adopted; the constitution comes into force.
2024	−04	−03	+01	+04	−03	−04	Loses its majority after thirty years and enters coalition.

Net movement, 1955 to 2024: EC +3, AU +3, CH −8. A trajectory records where an organisation has been. It does not forecast, and several organisations in this corpus moved a long way with no warning available in advance.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

South Africa

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). African National Congress. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/anc/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.