Atlas / Comparisons / AKP vs Islamic State
AKP and Islamic State
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, CU, AU, SC. They diverge by eight points or more on CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Justice and Development Party | ISIS / Daesh | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +04 | +01 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +08 | +10 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | +10 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +09 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +06 | +10 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −01 | +10 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
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.
Justice and Development Party · CH −01
Coded near neutral: change by referendum and legislation, under emergency powers after 2016.
- Documented act or statuteRule by emergency decree from July 2016 to July 2018 dismissed over one hundred thousand public employees.
ISIS / Daesh · CH +10
At the ceiling: mass violence as constitutive rather than instrumental.
- Documented act or statutePublic executions and their filming were a central instrument of governance and recruitment.
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.
AKP
2001– · Turkey
Conservative religious identity, national sovereignty, and a strong presidency claiming direct popular mandate.
Islamic State
2013– · Iraq, Syria
Restoration of a universal caliphate through mass violence, with obligatory allegiance and death for dissent.
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