Atlas / Comparisons / Bharatiya Janata Party vs Neoliberalism
Bharatiya Janata Party and Neoliberalism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on CH. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | BJP | Mont Pèlerin, Chicago | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +04 | +09 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +08 | +01 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +06 | −02 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +02 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +08 | −02 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −02 | −02 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
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.
BJP · AU +06
Coded +6: elections remain genuinely competitive and the institutions around them are under pressure.
- Documented act or statuteOpposition bank accounts frozen and leaders arrested during the 2024 campaign; the party lost its majority in that election.
- Comparative datasetPress freedom and academic independence indices for India have fallen consistently since 2014.
Mont Pèlerin, Chicago · AU −02
Coded slightly negative: the doctrine constrains majorities through rules and independent bodies, which disperses rather than concentrates authority.
- ScholarshipCentral bank independence, fiscal rules and treaty commitments remove decisions from ordinary majority revision.
- ScholarshipThis is delegation, not concentration; the entry for technocratic centrism is coded positive on the same reasoning and separates the two.
BJP · ID +08
Coded high on the strength of statutory citizenship criteria and constitutional change in Kashmir.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act fast-tracks naturalisation for named religious groups and excludes Muslims.
- Documented act or statuteArticle 370 was revoked in 2019, removing Jammu and Kashmir's special constitutional status.
Mont Pèlerin, Chicago · ID −02
Coded mildly universalist: free movement of capital, goods and, for most exponents, labour.
- ScholarshipFriedman and Hayek both defended open immigration in principle, with Friedman qualifying it against a welfare state.
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.
Bharatiya Janata Party
1980– · India
Hindu cultural nationalism, national security, welfare delivery, and infrastructure-led development.
Neoliberalism
1947– · International
Market competition as the organising principle of policy, insulated from democratic interference by rules and independent institutions.
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