Is Semilla left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Semilla scores 00 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 Semilla 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, Semilla scores −06. The attorney general sought to suspend the party and annul the result; the transfer of power proceeded after mass indigenous-led protest.

Atlas / Organisations / Semilla

Semilla

Guatemalan anti-corruption bloc · 2017– · Guatemala · Social Liberal · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

00ECbalanced

−04CUpluralist

−06AUpluralist

+02SCcentral

−03IDuniversal

−05CHlawful

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

An anti-corruption party that won the presidency against the expectation of the entire political establishment and took office despite attempts to stop it.

Economic model

Tax administration reform, rural investment, remittance-dependent economy, market orientation.

Organisation of powers

The attorney general sought to suspend the party and annul the result; the transfer of power proceeded after mass indigenous-led protest.

Reading note

The strongest recent case of institutional obstruction defeated by mobilisation rather than by courts.

Check a claim about Semilla. 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 00

Coded at zero: tax administration reform inside a market economy.

Programme textProgramme commitments to strengthen tax collection and rural investment rather than to restructure ownership.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −04

Coded −4: anti-corruption liberalism in a socially conservative country.

Documented act or statuteAbortion remains criminalised and same-sex marriage unrecognised.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −06

Coded −6: an election result defended against institutional obstruction.

Documented act or statuteThe attorney general sought to suspend the party's legal status and to annul the result; the inauguration proceeded after indigenous-led national protest.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +02

Coded +2: a unitary state with indigenous authorities as a parallel power.

Documented act or statuteThe 48 Cantones of Totonicapán led the protests that secured the inauguration.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −03

Coded −3: civic citizenship with indigenous rights commitments.

Programme textProgramme commits to implementing ILO Convention 169 on prior consultation.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −05

Coded −5: entirely electoral and constitutional.

Documented act or statuteWon the presidency from fourth place in first-round polling without any extra-constitutional action.

Where it came from, and what came after

succeededGuatemalan October Revolution
The reform tradition ended in 1954, and the party that reached office in 2024 claims it explicitly.

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

Guatemala

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). Semilla. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/semilla/ (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.