Is Kemalism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Kemalism scores −02 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −04. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Kemalism 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, Kemalism scores +08. Single-party rule until 1946; the army as guardian of the constitutional order.

Atlas / Organisations / Kemalism

Kemalism

Six Arrows · 1923–1950 · Turkey · Authoritarian Modernising · Held state power · coding confidence medium

−02ECcollective

−04CUpluralist

+08AUmonist

+09SCcentral

+06IDascriptive

+07CHcoercive

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

Republicanism, nationalism, populism, statism, secularism and revolutionism imposed from above.

Economic model

State-led industrialisation, state banks and factories, mixed economy.

Organisation of powers

Single-party rule until 1946; the army as guardian of the constitutional order.

Reading note

Culturally progressive and institutionally authoritarian at the same time — a combination the one-dimensional model cannot express.

Check a claim about Kemalism. 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 −02

Coded −2: state banks, state factories and a mixed economy.

Documented act or statuteThe 1934 five-year plan built state enterprises in textiles, paper, glass and steel.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −04

Coded −4: the caliphate abolished, the alphabet changed and women enfranchised.

Documented act or statuteWomen received the national vote in 1934, ahead of France and Italy.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +08

Coded +8: single-party rule with the army as guardian of the order.

Documented act or statuteOpposition parties founded in 1924 and 1930 were both closed within months.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +09

Coded +9: a unitary republic with regional and linguistic difference suppressed.

Documented act or statuteThe Kurdish language and Kurdish place names were banned; the 1925 and 1937 revolts were crushed.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +06

Coded +6: a Turkish national identity imposed on a multi-ethnic population.

Documented act or statuteThe 1923 population exchange with Greece moved around 1.6 million people on religious criteria.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +07

Coded +7: transformation imposed from above at speed.

Documented act or statuteDress, script, calendar, law and language were changed by statute within a decade.

Where it came from, and what came after

succeededYoung Turks
Much of the officer corps and administrative cadre carried over from the Unionists to the republic.
becameRepublican People's Party
The founding party of the republic, now its main constitutionalist opposition.

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

Turkey

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). Kemalism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/kemalism/ (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.