Atlas / Organisations / Bolivarian Republicanism

Bolivarian Republicanism

Simón Bolívar · 1810–1830 · Northern South America · Republican · Movement · coding confidence medium

+05ECmarket
+01CUtraditional
+05AUmonist
+05SCcentral
+01IDascriptive
+08CHcoercive

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

Independence from Spain and a federated Spanish American republic, governed by strong executives because the population was judged unready for more.

Economic model

Free trade, abolition of tribute and eventually of slavery, retained landed elite.

Organisation of powers

Presidential republics with a proposed lifetime presidency and hereditary senate; centralism against provincial caudillos.

Reading note

Invoked by governments across the entire economic axis for two centuries. Included partly as a test case for name-versus-position.

Check a claim about Bolivarian Republicanism. 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 +05

Coded +5: free trade with a retained landed elite.

  • Documented act or statuteTribute and slavery were abolished progressively; land tenure was largely untouched.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +01

Coded +1: republican and modernising within a Catholic society.

  • Documented act or statuteChurch privileges were reduced without disestablishment.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +05

Coded +5: strong executives justified by a judgement that the population was unready.

  • Programme textThe 1826 Bolivian constitution proposed a lifetime presidency and a hereditary senate.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +05

Coded +5: centralism against provincial caudillos, and a federated Spanish America.

  • Documented act or statuteThe 1826 Panama Congress attempted a league of the new republics.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +01

Coded +1: citizenship across colour lines, with literacy and property qualifications.

  • Programme textThe Angostura address argued for a single American identity across racial categories.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +08

Coded +8: independence won by fifteen years of war.

  • Documented act or statuteThe campaigns ran from 1810 to 1825 across six modern countries.

Where it came from, and what came after

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). Bolivarian Republicanism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/bolivar/ (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.