Atlas / Comparisons / Bolsheviks vs Pinochet Regime
Bolsheviks and Pinochet Regime
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on AU, SC. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(b) | Pinochet Regime | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | +09 | 18 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −05 | +08 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| 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 | +07 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | +05 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | +04 | 6 | Differs | Real 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.
RSDLP(b) · EC −09
Banks, land and large industry were taken into state ownership within a year of the seizure of power.
- Documented act or statuteThe Decree on Land abolished private landownership in November 1917.
- Documented act or statuteBanks were nationalised in December 1917 and large-scale industry in June 1918.
Pinochet Regime · EC +09
Among the deepest market liberalisations attempted anywhere, executed under a military government.
- Documented act or statutePensions were transferred to private individual accounts in 1981.
- Documented act or statuteState enterprises, health and schooling were privatised or voucherised through the late 1970s and 1980s.
RSDLP(b) · CU −05
Culturally radical in the first phase: the most permissive family and gender law then in existence anywhere.
- Documented act or statuteDivorce on demand, civil marriage and the legalisation of abortion were introduced between 1917 and 1920.
- Documented act or statuteThe criminalisation of homosexuality was removed with the tsarist code in 1922.
Pinochet Regime · CU +08
Social order restored by decree alongside the economic liberalisation.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1980 constitution was drafted by an appointed commission and ratified under a state of siege with no electoral register.
- Documented act or statuteAbortion, legal in some circumstances since 1931, was banned outright in 1989.
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.
Bolsheviks
1903–1924 · Russia
A disciplined vanguard party seizes power in the name of the working class and imposes socialism from above.
Pinochet Regime
1973–1990 · Chile
Free-market restructuring imposed by a military junta after the violent overthrow of an elected government.
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