Atlas / Comparisons / Alternative for Germany vs US Democratic Party

Alternative for Germany and US Democratic Party

Measured distance across six axes

23.0 / 49.0 possible

Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on SC. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, ID.

Axis by axis

AxisAfDUS Democratic PartyGapReading
EC · Economic organisation+04−037DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
CU · Social and cultural order+09−0514DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
AU · Organisation of power+05−027DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
SC · Scale of decision+03+041AgreesEffectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about.
ID · Rule of membership+08−0614DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
CH · Method and tempo 00−066DiffersReal 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 · 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.

US Democratic Party · CU −05

Coded −5: the party has moved substantially toward the liberal pole on family and identity questions since 2004.

  • Programme textPlatform support for same-sex marriage moved from opposition to endorsement between 2004 and 2012.
  • Comparative datasetCHES-equivalent placements put the party well toward the GAL pole relative to European mainstream parties.

AfD · ID +08

Coded +8: remigration and descent-based conceptions of belonging.

  • Documented act or statuteA 2023 meeting on deportation plans including naturalised citizens triggered mass counter-demonstrations in 2024.

US Democratic Party · ID −06

Universalist on the formal membership rule.

  • Programme textPlatform commitments to a path to citizenship for long-resident undocumented migrants have appeared in every cycle since 2004.

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 Party

1828– · United States

Regulated capitalism, expanded health coverage, civil rights, climate action, and defence of existing institutional procedure.

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.

Open in the atlas