Is Suffragism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Suffragism scores 00 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −07. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Suffragism 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, Suffragism scores −05. Constitutional lobbying, and in the militant wing, arson and property destruction.

Atlas / Organisations / Suffragism

Suffragism

1866–1928 · Britain, US, worldwide · Emancipatory · Movement · coding confidence high

00ECbalanced

−07CUpluralist

−05AUpluralist

00SCbalanced

−05IDuniversal

+02CHcoercive

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

Extension of the franchise and legal personhood to women; a single-issue demand cutting across all other alignments.

Economic model

No common economic programme; members ranged from Conservative to revolutionary socialist.

Organisation of powers

Constitutional lobbying, and in the militant wing, arson and property destruction.

Reading note

A clean demonstration that a movement can be extreme on one axis and unclassifiable on the rest.

Check a claim about Suffragism. 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: no common economic programme.

ScholarshipMembers ranged from Conservative peers to revolutionary socialists.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −07

Coded −7: legal personhood and the franchise for women.

Programme textThe demand extended to property, divorce and custody law as well as the vote.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −05

Coded −5: extension of the franchise as a constraint on existing power.

Documented act or statuteThe Representation of the People Act 1918 enfranchised women over 30; 1928 equalised it.

SC · Scale of decision · scored 00

Coded at zero: a national legislative demand with international organisation.

Documented act or statuteThe International Woman Suffrage Alliance was founded in 1904.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −05

Coded −5: a demand to remove a categorical exclusion.

Programme textThe claim was that sex was an illegitimate criterion for political membership.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +02

Coded +2: constitutional lobbying alongside a militant wing.

Documented act or statuteThe WSPU used arson and window-breaking from 1912; over a thousand members were imprisoned.

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

Britain · United States

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). Suffragism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/suffrage/ (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.