Is Colorado Party left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Colorado Party scores +06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +07. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Colorado Party 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, Colorado Party scores +04. Competitive elections which the party has lost once since 1947; extensive patronage in public employment.

Atlas / Organisations / Colorado Party

Colorado Party

ANR · 1887– · Paraguay · Conservative Clientelist · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

+06ECmarket

+07CUtraditional

+04AUmonist

+04SCcentral

+04IDascriptive

−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

One of the longest continuously governing parties in the world, in office for all but five of the last seventy-seven years.

Economic model

Soy and beef exports, very low taxation, large informal sector, hydroelectric revenue.

Organisation of powers

Competitive elections which the party has lost once since 1947; extensive patronage in public employment.

Reading note

Governed through the Stroessner dictatorship from 1954 to 1989 and continued governing after it, without dissolving.

Check a claim about Colorado Party. 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 +06

Coded +6: among the lowest tax burdens in the hemisphere.

Comparative datasetTax revenue is around 10% of GDP, among the lowest in Latin America.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +07

Coded +7: Catholic social conservatism and a strong rural traditional base.

Documented act or statuteAbortion is criminalised except to save the mother's life; a 2017 same-sex civil union bill was defeated.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +04

Coded +4: continuous incumbency with genuine but rarely successful competition.

Documented act or statuteThe party has lost the presidency once since 1947, in 2008, and regained it in 2013.
Documented act or statuteIt governed through the 1954–89 dictatorship and continued in office after it without dissolution.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +04

Coded +4: a unitary state with departmental governors.

Documented act or statuteDepartmental governors are elected but fiscally dependent on the centre.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +04

Coded +4: a Guaraní-Spanish bilingual national identity.

Documented act or statuteGuaraní is a co-official language, unusual for an indigenous language in the Americas.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −06

Coded −6: continuity through a dictatorship and after it.

Documented act or statuteThe party governed through the 1954–89 dictatorship and continued in office after it.

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

Paraguay

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). Colorado Party. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/colorado/ (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.