Is Guided Democracy left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Guided Democracy scores −06 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +02. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Guided Democracy 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, Guided Democracy scores +09. Elected assembly dissolved and replaced by appointment; the president named president for life.

Atlas / Organisations / Guided Democracy

Guided Democracy

Sukarno · 1959–1965 · Indonesia · Nationalist / Socialist · Held state power · coding confidence medium

−06ECcollective

+02CUtraditional

+09AUmonist

+08SCcentral

+05IDascriptive

+05CHcoercive

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 synthesis of nationalism, religion and communism under a single leader who dissolved the elected assembly to achieve it.

Economic model

Nationalised Dutch enterprises, state planning, hyperinflation, non-aligned economic diplomacy.

Organisation of powers

Elected assembly dissolved and replaced by appointment; the president named president for life.

Reading note

Ended in a coup and a mass killing of between five hundred thousand and a million people, followed by three decades of military rule.

Check a claim about Guided Democracy. 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: nationalisation of Dutch enterprise and central planning.

Documented act or statuteAll Dutch-owned firms were nationalised in 1957–58.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +02

Coded +2: Pancasila pluralism with a nationalist cultural programme.

Programme textThe five principles were formulated in 1945 to hold a religiously plural state together.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +09

Coded +9: the elected assembly dissolved and replaced by appointment.

Documented act or statuteThe constituent assembly was dissolved by decree in 1959 and the 1945 constitution restored by fiat.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +08

Coded +8: a unitary state suppressing regional rebellions.

Documented act or statuteRebellions in Sumatra and Sulawesi were defeated militarily in 1958.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +05

Coded +5: an Indonesian national identity imposed across hundreds of ethnic groups.

Documented act or statuteBahasa Indonesia was made the sole national language.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +05

Coded +5: a synthesis doctrine imposed from above and ended by mass killing.

ScholarshipBetween 500,000 and one million people were killed in the anti-communist purge of 1965–66.

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

Indonesia

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). Guided Democracy. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/sukarno/ (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.