Atlas / Organisations / Hamas
Hamas
1987– · Gaza, West Bank · Islamist Nationalist · Held state power · coding confidence medium
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
Armed Palestinian nationalism in an Islamist frame, rejecting the negotiated framework in favour of resistance.
Economic model
Taxation of trade and tunnels, external funding, welfare and clinic networks, blockaded economy.
Organisation of powers
Won the 2006 legislative election, took sole control of Gaza by force in 2007, and held no election afterwards.
Reading note
Designated a terrorist organisation by many states and not by others. That designation is a legal act and is not what these six axes measure.
Check a claim about Hamas. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe 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 −02
Coded −2: welfare and clinic networks funded externally with no productive programme.
- ScholarshipSocial service networks operate alongside taxation of trade and external transfers.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +09
At the ceiling: religious authority over social life in the territory it governs.
- Documented act or statuteDress and conduct regulations were imposed in Gaza after 2007.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +09
Coded +9: won an election and then held no other.
- Documented act or statuteWon the 2006 legislative election, seized sole control of Gaza by force in 2007, and held no election in the following seventeen years.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +04
Coded +4: a Palestinian national frame within a transnational Islamist movement.
- Programme textThe 2017 document accepted 1967 borders as a national stage without recognising Israel.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +09
Coded +9: an Islamist national frame set out in the founding charter.
- Programme textThe 1988 charter frames the conflict in religious terms; a 2017 document accepted 1967 borders without recognising Israel.
CH · Method and tempo · scored +08
Coded +8: armed struggle as the constitutive method.
- Documented act or statuteThe 7 October 2023 attack killed around 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
Where it came from, and what came after
- takes its doctrine fromMuslim Brotherhood
Founded in 1987 as the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood.
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
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.
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.