Is Iraqi Shia Party Blocs left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Iraqi Shia Party Blocs scores −01 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 Iraqi Shia Party Blocs 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, Iraqi Shia Party Blocs scores +05. Genuine competitive elections with very low turnout, alongside armed factions that are also parties.

Atlas / Organisations / Iraqi Shia Party Blocs

Iraqi Shia Party Blocs

2003– · Iraq · Confessional Blocs · Electoral party · coding confidence low

−01ECcollective

+07CUtraditional

+05AUmonist

+05SCcentral

+07IDascriptive

+02CHcoercive

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

Confessional parties competing for control of a state whose offices are allocated by sect and ethnicity by convention.

Economic model

Oil revenue funding a very large public payroll; almost no non-oil economy.

Organisation of powers

Genuine competitive elections with very low turnout, alongside armed factions that are also parties.

Reading note

The muhasasa apportionment system was designed to prevent domination by one group and has produced a state that no one can reform.

Check a claim about Iraqi Shia Party Blocs. 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 −01

Coded −1: oil revenue funding a very large public payroll.

Comparative datasetPublic sector salaries and pensions consume the majority of the federal budget.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +07

Coded +7: confessional parties with religious authority in personal status law.

Documented act or statuteA 2025 amendment permitted personal status matters to be transferred to religious jurisdiction.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +05

Coded +5: genuinely competitive elections alongside armed factions that are also parties.

Documented act or statuteTurnout fell to around 41% in 2021; several parliamentary blocs maintain their own armed forces.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +05

Coded +5: a federal constitution with one functioning autonomous region.

Documented act or statuteThe Kurdistan Region has its own government, parliament and armed forces under the 2005 constitution.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +07

Coded +7: offices allocated by sect and ethnicity by convention.

ScholarshipThe muhasasa system assigns the presidency, premiership and speakership to different communities.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +02

Coded +2: electoral politics conducted alongside militia power.

Documented act or statuteThe 2019 protest movement was met with the killing of around 600 demonstrators.

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

Iraq

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). Iraqi Shia Party Blocs. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/iraqshia/ (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.