Atlas / Comparisons / Bolsheviks vs National Rally
Bolsheviks and National Rally
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 EC, CU, ID, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(b) | RN, Front National | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | −01 | 8 | 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 | +04 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +03 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | +07 | 14 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | −01 | 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.
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.
RN, Front National · EC −01
Moved from a market position in the 1980s to a protectionist and pro-welfare position, which is why it now sits near the centre.
- Programme textOpposition to raising the pension age and support for price controls on energy and food staples.
- Comparative datasetCHES records a substantial leftward movement in radical right economic positioning across recent waves.
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.
RN, Front National · CU +08
Coded +8 on national identity, secularism as applied to Islam, and opposition to expanded gender recognition.
- Programme textProgramme commitments to ban the headscarf in public spaces and to restrict legal recognition of gender transition.
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.
National Rally
1972– · France
National priority for French citizens, sharp restriction of immigration, sovereignty against the EU, protection of purchasing power.
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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