All axes · issue
Civil liberties
الحريات المدنيةSpeech, protest, dissent, association, press freedom — expand and protect (positive) vs. restrict (negative).
Scoring rubric
How positions are calibrated on this axis. The conventions guide the scorer; anchored examples show how known MENA actors land at -10, -5, 0, +5, +10.
Score the actor's record on protecting civil liberties: freedom of press, assembly, association, dissent. Distinct from the social axis (which is about personal-life regulation) and from democracy (which is about elections and rule of law). An actor can favor democracy abstractly while having a poor civil liberties record (e.g., majoritarian populism). Score on the actor's record where in power.
- -10Active suppression of dissentHouthis, Sisi-era Egyptian state parties
- -7Strong illiberalism, restricts pressState of Law Iraq, Otzma Yehudit
- -3Mixed recordFLN Algeria, Most Maghreb ruling parties
- +0Standard governance compromisesMany centrist parties
- +3Pro-civil-liberties in principleEgyptian SDP, ESDP
- +7Strong civil-liberties focusFFS Algeria, Hadash
- +10Civil-liberties absolutismLiberal Israeli left (rare)
- Parties scored
- 75
- Mean
- -0.26
- Median
- -0.50
- Std dev
- 5.11
- Range
- -9.0 → 9.0
Ranking
All parties scored on this axis, sorted from most Expand to most Restrict.
- 1 Hadash IL +9.0
- 2 Sudanese Communist Party SD +7.5
- 3 Ta'al IL +7.0
- 4 Israeli Labor Party IL +7.0
- 5 Mubadara PS +7.0
- 6 Egyptian Social Democratic Party EG +7.0
- 7 Yesh Atid IL +7.0
- 8 Syrian National Coalition SY +6.5
- 9 Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society BH +6.5
- 10 Union of Forces of Progress MR +6.5
- 11 Socialist Forces Front DZ +6.0
- 12 Jordanian Communist Party JO +6.0
- 13 Tunisian Workers Party TN +5.0
- 14 Workers' Party DZ +5.0
- 15 National Forces Alliance LY +5.0
- 16 Palestinian People's Party PS +5.0
- 17 Free Egyptians Party EG +4.5
- 18 New Wafd Party EG +4.3
- 19 Socialist Union of Popular Forces MA +4.0
- 20 National Unity IL +4.0
- 21 Yemeni Socialist Party YE +4.0
- 22 National Umma Party SD +4.0
- 23 Long Live Tunisia TN +4.0
- 24 Tagammu Party EG +4.0
- 25 Lebanese Forces LB +3.5
- 26 New Hope IL +3.0
- 27 Ennahda TN +2.5
- 28 Democratic Unionist Party SD +2.5
- 29 Reform Party JO +2.5
- 30 PFLP PS +2.5
- 31 DFLP PS +2.5
- 32 Ra'am (United Arab List) IL +2.5
- 33 People's Movement TN +2.0
- 34 National Rally for Reform and Development (Tewassoul) MR +1.0
- 35 Yisrael Beiteinu IL +0.5
- 36 Istiqlal Party MA +0.0
- 37 National Rally of Independents MA +0.0
- 38 Islamic Action Front JO -0.5
- 39 Authenticity and Modernity Party MA -1.0
- 40 National Wisdom Movement IQ -1.0
- 41 National Charter Party JO -1.0
- 42 Patriotic Union of Kurdistan IQ -1.5
- 43 Sairoon Alliance IQ -2.0
- 44 Free Patriotic Movement LB -2.5
- 45 Justice and Construction Party LY -2.5
- 46 Likud IL -2.5
- 47 El Insaf (Equity Party) MR -3.0
- 48 Movement of Society for Peace DZ -3.0
- 49 Kurdistan Democratic Party IQ -3.0
- 50 Northern Islamic Movement IL -3.0
- 51 Shas IL -4.0
- 52 Southern Transitional Council YE -4.0
- 53 Yemeni Congregation for Reform (Islah) YE -4.0
- 54 Amal Movement LB -4.0
- 55 Al-Menbar Islamic Society BH -4.0
- 56 Free Destourian Party TN -4.0
- 57 United Torah Judaism IL -4.5
- 58 Democratic National Rally DZ -4.5
- 59 General People's Congress YE -5.0
- 60 Religious Zionism Party IL -6.0
- 61 Fatah PS -6.0
- 62 National Liberation Front DZ -6.0
- 63 Islamic Asalah Society BH -6.0
- 64 Hayat Tahrir al-Sham SY -6.5
- 65 State of Law Coalition IQ -6.5
- 66 Nour Party EG -6.5
- 67 Mostaqbal Watan EG -7.0
- 68 Noam IL -8.0
- 69 Islamic Salvation Front DZ -8.0
- 70 Hamas PS -8.0
- 71 Otzma Yehudit IL -8.0
- 72 Hezbollah LB -8.0
- 73 Palestinian Islamic Jihad PS -8.0
- 74 Ansar Allah (Houthis) YE -8.5
- 75 Ba'ath Party (Syria) SY -9.0
Score distribution
Histogram of scores across all 75 parties. Mean -0.26, median -0.50, σ 5.11. Multi-modal distributions point to genuine cleavages on this axis; unimodal narrow ones to consensus.
Restrict Expand
By country
Mean score per country.
- Sudan 3 parties +4.67
- Tunisia 5 parties +1.90
- Jordan 4 parties +1.75
- Mauritania 3 parties +1.50
- Libya 2 parties +1.25
- Egypt 6 parties +1.04
- Morocco 4 parties +0.75
- Israel 15 parties +0.27
- Palestine 7 parties -0.71
- Bahrain 3 parties -1.17
- Algeria 6 parties -1.75
- Lebanon 4 parties -2.75
- Iraq 5 parties -2.80
- Syria 3 parties -3.00
- Yemen 5 parties -3.50
Cross-axis correlations
How parties' scores on this axis covary with their scores on each other axis. Pearson r runs from −1 (perfect inverse) to +1 (perfect identity); 0 means independent. Computed across all parties scored on both axes (n shown per row). Strong correlations expose which axes are really measuring the same cleavage in the data; near-zero values are the ones with the most additional explanatory power.
- Press freedom strongly positively correlated +0.99 n=18
- Liberal democracy strongly positively correlated +0.98 n=75
- Gender equality strongly positively correlated +0.86 n=19
- Social strongly positively correlated +0.79 n=75
- Traditionalism vs modernization moderately positively correlated +0.69 n=72
- State & religion moderately positively correlated +0.68 n=75
- Iran posture weakly inversely correlated -0.36 n=17
- Centralism vs federalism weakly positively correlated +0.35 n=72
- Regime stance weakly inversely correlated -0.25 n=72
- Pan-Arab vs particularist weakly positively correlated +0.20 n=61
- Palestinian question roughly independent +0.18 n=75
- Regional stance roughly independent +0.16 n=75
- West alignment roughly independent +0.12 n=75
- Economic roughly independent -0.11 n=75
- Sectarian power-sharing roughly independent +0.04 n=9