Is Panamanian Populism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Panamanian Populism scores +02 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores +05. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Panamanian Populism 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, Panamanian Populism scores +06. Military rule from 1968; the 1989 election was annulled by the regime and the country invaded weeks later.

Atlas / Organisations / Panamanian Populism

Panamanian Populism

Torrijos and after · 1968– · Panama · Nationalist Populist · Held state power · coding confidence medium

+02ECmarket

+05CUtraditional

+06AUmonist

+05SCcentral

+04IDascriptive

+01CHcoercive

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 military populism that won the canal back by treaty, then degenerated into a narco-dictatorship removed by invasion.

Economic model

Canal revenue, an offshore financial centre, a dollarised economy, agrarian reform in the 1970s.

Organisation of powers

Military rule from 1968; the 1989 election was annulled by the regime and the country invaded weeks later.

Reading note

Democratic since 1990 with regular alternation. The canal treaty of 1977 remains the movement's defining achievement.

Check a claim about Panamanian Populism. 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 +02

Coded +2: canal revenue, an offshore financial centre and 1970s agrarian reform.

Documented act or statuteThe 1977 treaties transferred the canal to Panama by 1999.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored +05

Coded +5: populist and Catholic with a military social base.

Documented act or statuteAgrarian and labour codes were expanded under military rule.

AU · Organisation of power · scored +06

Coded +6: military rule from 1968; the 1989 election annulled by the regime.

Documented act or statuteThe annulment was followed weeks later by a US invasion.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +05

Coded +5: a centralised state built around the canal zone.

Documented act or statuteThe canal authority is a constitutionally autonomous national body.

ID · Rule of membership · scored +04

Coded +4: a nationalism defined against the canal zone's extraterritoriality.

Documented act or statuteThe 1964 flag riots over the zone are the movement's founding grievance.

CH · Method and tempo · scored +01

Coded +1: power taken by coup, and democratic since 1990.

Documented act or statuteRegular alternation has occurred at every election since.

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

Panama

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). Panamanian Populism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/torrijos/ (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.