Is Congolese Post-War Politics left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Congolese Post-War Politics scores +04 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +06. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Congolese Post-War Politics 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, Congolese Post-War Politics scores +06. The 2018 election produced the first transfer of power since independence, on results the Catholic Church's observers disputed.

Atlas / Organisations / Congolese Post-War Politics

Congolese Post-War Politics

2003– · DR Congo · Big-Tent Clientelist · Held state power · coding confidence low

+04ECmarket

+06CUtraditional

+06AUmonist

+06SCcentral

+04IDascriptive

+01CHcoercive

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 formally democratic state contending with armed groups across its east and a mineral economy it does not control.

Economic model

Cobalt and copper extraction with substantial foreign and artisanal mining; very low state revenue relative to output.

Organisation of powers

The 2018 election produced the first transfer of power since independence, on results the Catholic Church's observers disputed.

Reading note

Coded at low confidence. The war and its successors have caused millions of deaths and receive a fraction of the coverage of far smaller conflicts.

Check a claim about Congolese Post-War Politics. 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: cobalt and copper extraction with very low state revenue capture.

Comparative datasetThe country supplies most of the world's cobalt while collecting a small fraction of the value.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: religiously conservative with strong church influence in public life.

Documented act or statuteThe Catholic Church deployed 40,000 observers to the 2018 election and disputed the declared result.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +06

Coded +6: the first transfer of power since independence, on contested figures.

Documented act or statuteThe 2018 result was announced after the church's parallel count showed a different winner.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +06

Coded +6: a centralised state with limited authority in the east.

Documented act or statuteDozens of armed groups operate in North and South Kivu outside state control.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +04

Coded +4: nationality disputes over Kinyarwanda-speaking populations persisting from 1981.

ScholarshipCitizenship of the Banyamulenge remains politically contested and is a driver of the conflict.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +01

Coded +1: elections held alongside continuous armed conflict.

ScholarshipThe wars since 1996 are estimated among the deadliest since 1945.

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

Congo

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). Congolese Post-War Politics. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/drc_now/ (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.