Is African Union left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation African Union scores +01 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 Union 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 Union scores +02. Suspends member states after unconstitutional changes of government, with uneven enforcement.

Atlas / Organisations / African Union

African Union

AU, formerly OAU · 1963– · Africa · Supranational · Coalition · coding confidence medium

+01ECmarket

+03CUtraditional

+02AUmonist

+07SCcentral

+02IDascriptive

−06CHlawful

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

A continental body that replaced the doctrine of absolute non-interference with a stated right to intervene against coups and atrocities.

Economic model

A continental free trade area agreed in 2018, the largest by member count in the world.

Organisation of powers

Suspends member states after unconstitutional changes of government, with uneven enforcement.

Reading note

Its founding charter in 1963 made borders inherited from colonialism inviolable, which is the single most consequential decision in modern African politics.

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

Open in the atlas

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 +01

Coded +1: a continental free trade area with no common economic doctrine.

Documented act or statuteThe African Continental Free Trade Area agreement entered force in 2019 with 54 signatories.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +03

Coded +3: a charter committing to rights, with member states spanning the whole cultural axis.

Programme textThe African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights entered force in 1986.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +02

Coded +2: a right to intervene, exercised unevenly.

Programme textThe 2000 Constitutive Act asserts a right to intervene in cases of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity — a reversal of the OAU's absolute non-interference.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +07

Coded +7: authority pooled above the nation state by treaty.

Documented act or statuteMembers have been suspended after coups in Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +02

Coded +2: pan-African membership defined by territory rather than descent.

Programme textMembership is open to every African state; the diaspora is designated a sixth region.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −06

Coded −6: change by treaty, summit and suspension.

ScholarshipThe 1963 charter's inviolability of inherited colonial borders remains the single most consequential decision in modern African politics.

Where it came from, and what came after

takes its doctrine fromNkrumahism
The Organisation of African Unity was founded in 1963 with him among its architects.

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.

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 Union. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/au/ (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.