Atlas / Comparisons / Bukelismo vs Maoism
Bukelismo and Maoism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on AU, SC, ID. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Nuevas Ideas | Mao Zedong Thought | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +05 | −10 | 15 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +06 | −02 | 8 | 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 | +06 | +09 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | +04 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +02 | +10 | 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.
Nuevas Ideas · EC +05
Coded +5: investment promotion and the bitcoin experiment alongside an IMF programme and high public debt.
- Documented act or statuteBitcoin was made legal tender in 2021 and its mandatory-acceptance status removed under the 2025 IMF agreement.
Mao Zedong Thought · EC −10
Total state and collective ownership including the abolition of household farming.
- Documented act or statuteCommunes established from 1958 abolished private plots and household cooking.
- ScholarshipThe Great Leap Forward famine of 1959–61 is estimated at between fifteen and forty-five million deaths.
Nuevas Ideas · CU +06
Coded +6: a security-first social order with conservative positions on family policy.
- Documented act or statuteGender studies content was removed from the public school curriculum in 2024.
Mao Zedong Thought · CU −02
Coded near neutral: radical on the family and on women's labour, and violently hostile to inherited culture.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1950 Marriage Law abolished arranged marriage and concubinage and permitted divorce.
- Documented act or statuteThe Four Olds campaign of 1966 destroyed temples, texts and artefacts systematically.
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.
Bukelismo
2019– · El Salvador
Mass incarceration of suspected gang members under a permanent state of exception, sold as the trade of civil liberties for physical safety.
Maoism
1949–1976 · China
Peasant-based revolution, continuous class struggle after the seizure of power, permanent mobilisation against the party's own 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