Is National People's Power left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation National People's Power scores −06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −03. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is National People's Power 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, National People's Power scores −02. Won the presidency and a parliamentary supermajority in 2024 through ordinary elections.

Atlas / Organisations / National People's Power

National People's Power

NPP / JVP · 1978– · Sri Lanka · Democratic Socialist · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

−06ECcollective

−03CUpluralist

−02AUpluralist

+02SCcentral

−03IDuniversal

−04CHlawful

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

Anti-corruption and redistribution after economic collapse, from a party that twice led armed insurrections and now governs by election.

Economic model

IMF programme continued, welfare expansion, state enterprise reform, wealth taxation proposals.

Organisation of powers

Won the presidency and a parliamentary supermajority in 2024 through ordinary elections.

Reading note

One of the clearest documented traverses of the method axis in the dataset: from insurgency in 1971 and 1987 to constitutional government in 2024.

Check a claim about National People's Power. 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: redistribution and anti-corruption after sovereign default.

Documented act or statuteContinued the IMF programme while renegotiating its social spending floors after taking office in 2024.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −03

Coded −3: secular and anti-corruption, from a Sinhala nationalist history.

ScholarshipThe current programme campaigns across ethnic lines; the party's earlier insurrections were Sinhala-nationalist.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −02

Coded −2: won the presidency and a two-thirds parliamentary majority by election.

Documented act or statuteTook office in 2024 through ordinary elections and has governed within the existing constitution.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +02

Coded +2: a unitary state with unimplemented devolution provisions.

Documented act or statuteThe 13th amendment's provincial council powers remain partly unimplemented.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −03

Coded −3: multi-ethnic campaigning in a majority-Sinhala polity.

Documented act or statuteThe 2024 campaign made explicit appeals to Tamil and Muslim voters and won seats in the north.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −04

Coded −4: the clearest traverse of the method axis in the dataset.

Documented act or statuteThe JVP led armed insurrections in 1971 and 1987–89 and entered electoral politics in the 1990s.

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

Sri Lanka

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). National People's Power. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/npp_jvp/ (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.