Is Post-War Liberia left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Post-War Liberia scores +04 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +06. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Post-War Liberia 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, Post-War Liberia scores −01. Competitive elections with incumbents conceding, including a sitting president losing in 2023.

Atlas / Organisations / Post-War Liberia

Post-War Liberia

2005– · Liberia · Post-conflict Democratic · Held state power · coding confidence medium

+04ECmarket

+06CUtraditional

−01AUpluralist

+03SCcentral

+04IDascriptive

−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

A state rebuilt after two civil wars, which elected Africa's first woman head of state and has transferred power by ballot three times.

Economic model

Iron ore and rubber concessions, debt relief, very low state capacity, Ebola and commodity shocks.

Organisation of powers

Competitive elections with incumbents conceding, including a sitting president losing in 2023.

Reading note

A truth commission recommended barring several figures from office for war crimes; the recommendation was never implemented.

Check a claim about Post-War Liberia. 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 +04

Coded +4: iron ore and rubber concessions with debt relief.

Documented act or statuteLiberia reached HIPC completion and had most external debt cancelled in 2010.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +06

Coded +6: religiously conservative with strong customary law.

Documented act or statuteSame-sex relations remain criminalised; customary courts operate alongside statutory ones.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −01

Coded −1: three peaceful transfers including a sitting president losing in 2023.

Documented act or statuteThe 2005 election was the first after fourteen years of civil war.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +03

Coded +3: a centralised state with county superintendents appointed.

Documented act or statuteLocal government reform devolving authority was legislated only in 2018.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +04

Coded +4: citizenship constitutionally restricted to people of African descent.

Documented act or statuteArticle 27 of the constitution limits citizenship by race, a provision inherited from the settler founding.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −04

Coded −4: constitutional throughout since 2005.

Documented act or statuteThe truth commission's recommendation to bar several figures from office was never implemented.

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

Liberia

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). Post-War Liberia. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/sirleaf/ (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.