Atlas / Organisations / Shining Path
Shining Path
Sendero Luminoso · 1980–2000 · Peru · Maoist · Movement · 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
A Maoist insurgency that rejected all other left organisations and treated peasant communities that would not submit as enemies.
Economic model
Abolition of markets and of the money economy in areas it controlled.
Organisation of powers
An absolute personality cult around its founder, described in its own documents as the fourth sword of Marxism.
Reading note
Peru's truth commission attributed the majority of around 69,000 conflict deaths to this organisation rather than to the state.
Check a claim about Shining Path. 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 −10
At the floor: markets and money abolished where it held territory.
- ScholarshipPeasant markets were closed and traders killed in areas under its control.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +02
Coded +2: gender-egalitarian in its command structure and totalitarian in its social control.
- ScholarshipWomen held senior positions in the central committee while village life was policed absolutely.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +10
At the ceiling: an absolute cult around one leader and no institution besides.
- Programme textParty documents named its founder the fourth sword of Marxism after Marx, Lenin and Mao.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +08
Coded +8: a single centralised command directing regional committees.
- ScholarshipRegional commands executed a national plan issued by the central committee.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +05
Coded +5: peasant communities that refused submission treated as enemies.
- Documented act or statuteThe Lucanamarca massacre of 1983 killed 69 villagers, an act its leader publicly defended.
CH · Method and tempo · scored +10
At the ceiling: mass violence as the constitutive method.
- ScholarshipPeru's truth commission attributed 54% of around 69,000 deaths to this organisation, more than to the state.
Where it came from, and what came after
- takes its doctrine fromMaoism
Its founder styled the movement the fourth sword of Marxism after Marx, Lenin and Mao.
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
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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.