Atlas / Comparisons / Anarcho-Capitalism vs UK Conservative Party
Anarcho-Capitalism and UK Conservative Party
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. No axis places them within three points of each other. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, SC, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Rothbard | Tories | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +10 | +06 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +01 | +05 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −10 | +02 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | −10 | +03 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −02 | +03 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +03 | −05 | 8 | 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.
Rothbard · AU −10
At the floor with anarcho-communism, from the opposite economic pole. The pairing is the strongest single refutation of the one-dimensional model.
- Comparative datasetBoth traditions reject the state as such; they differ by nineteen points on the economic axis.
Tories · AU +02
Coded +2: parliamentary in method, with several recent confrontations with legal constraint.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2019 prorogation of parliament was ruled unlawful by the supreme court.
- Documented act or statuteJudicial review was narrowed and legislation was introduced to disapply parts of human rights law in specific policy areas.
Rothbard · SC −10
At the floor with anarcho-communism: no unit above voluntary association.
- Programme textDefence, adjudication and law are supplied by competing firms serving individual clients.
Tories · SC +03
Coded +3: unitary and centralising, with mayoral devolution as the exception.
- Documented act or statuteThe Internal Market Act 2020 constrained devolved competences after EU withdrawal.
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-Capitalism
1970– · United States
All state functions including courts, police and defence should be supplied competitively on the market; taxation is theft.
UK Conservative Party
1834– · Britain
Fiscal restraint, national sovereignty, property ownership, controlled migration, gradualism.
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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