Atlas / Comparisons / Alternative for Germany vs US Democratic Socialism
Alternative for Germany and US Democratic Socialism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on SC. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | AfD | DSA, Sanders wing | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +04 | −06 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +09 | −08 | 17 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +05 | −04 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +03 | +03 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +08 | −08 | 16 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | 00 | −04 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
Each axis runs from −10 to +10; the distance is the straight-line separation across all six at once, out of a maximum of 49.0. How the scoring works →
The evidence behind the widest gaps
A distance figure is worth nothing unless the scores behind it can be checked. These are the artefacts supporting the axes that separate these two most.
AfD · EC +04
Coded +4: founded on euro policy, now mixed between market liberalism and eastern regional welfarism.
- Programme textProgramme commitments to abolish inheritance tax and to leave the euro sit alongside eastern demands for higher pensions.
DSA, Sanders wing · EC −06
Coded −6: universal public provision funded by taxation, with no proposal to abolish private ownership of production.
- Programme textSingle-payer health insurance and tuition-free public college are the central commitments.
- Comparative datasetThe programme is close to Nordic social democracy of the 1970s and roughly fourteen units from classical Marxism.
AfD · CU +09
Coded +9: national identity, Leitkultur and opposition to what the party calls gender ideology.
- Programme textProgramme rejects multiculturalism explicitly and opposes recognition of gender beyond the binary.
DSA, Sanders wing · CU −08
Coded −8: the movement's cultural positions are as central to it as its economics.
- Programme textProgramme commitments on reproductive rights, trans health care, decarceration and immigration are foundational.
What this comparison does not establish
Proximity means similarity of stated position. It carries no claim about competence, circumstance, scale of operation, or what either organisation actually did to the people under it. Two organisations can sit close together and produce entirely different histories, because those things are not on any axis and could not be.
Alternative for Germany
2013– · Germany
Founded against euro bailouts, reoriented around immigration, national identity and rejection of climate policy.
US Democratic Socialism
1982– · United States
Universal public provision funded by taxing concentrated wealth, achieved entirely through elections and unions.
Distance is not the whole answer. Two organisations can sit the same distance apart for entirely different reasons, and the reason is the content of any claim about them. Open the comparison in the atlas to weight the axes yourself.
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