Atlas / Comparisons / Anarcho-Communism vs Saudi Religious Monarchy

Anarcho-Communism and Saudi Religious Monarchy

Measured distance across six axes

40.4 / 49.0 possible

Opposite ends of the recorded space. No axis places them within three points of each other. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, AU, SC, ID, CH.

Axis by axis

AxisKropotkinSaudi Religious MonarchyGapReading
EC · Economic organisation−09+0514DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
CU · Social and cultural order−07+1017DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
AU · Organisation of power−10+1020DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
SC · Scale of decision−10+0717DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
ID · Rule of membership−08+0917DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
CH · Method and tempo+06−0713DivergesCarries 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.

Kropotkin · EC −09

Abolition of private property in the means of production and of money and wages together.

  • Programme textKropotkin's Conquest of Bread argues for distribution according to need with no wage system at all.

Saudi Religious Monarchy · EC +05

Coded mildly market: a state oil monopoly financing very large transfers alongside an otherwise private commercial economy.

  • Documented act or statuteSaudi Aramco remains majority state-owned with a minority public listing since 2019.

Kropotkin · CU −07

Strongly egalitarian on every inherited hierarchy, including within the family and the workplace.

  • ScholarshipNineteenth-century anarchist movements campaigned for free union, secular education and women's autonomy well ahead of socialist parties.

Saudi Religious Monarchy · CU +10

At the ceiling: religious authority over public conduct, with substantial relaxation since 2017.

  • Documented act or statuteThe driving ban on women was lifted in 2018 and the religious police lost arrest powers in 2016.
  • Documented act or statuteMale guardianship requirements were reduced from 2019 but not abolished.

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.

Anarcho-Communism

1872– · Russia, Europe

Abolish the state and private property simultaneously; distribution according to need through voluntary federation.

Saudi Religious Monarchy

1932– · Saudi Arabia

Dynastic rule legitimated by a strict religious establishment; no parties, no elections, no constitution other than scripture.

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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