Atlas / Comparisons / Castroism vs US Democratic Socialism
Castroism and US Democratic Socialism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on EC. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, ID, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Cuban Communism | DSA, Sanders wing | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −09 | −06 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −01 | −08 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +09 | −04 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +03 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | 00 | −08 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +07 | −04 | 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.
Cuban Communism · AU +09
Coded +9: a single legal party with no competing candidates.
- Documented act or statuteThe constitution names the Communist Party the superior guiding force of society and the state.
DSA, Sanders wing · AU −04
Coded −4: strongly pro-democratisation of existing institutions rather than concentration.
- Programme textCommitments to abolish the electoral college, expand voting rights and end the filibuster.
Cuban Communism · ID 00
Coded at zero: explicit internationalism and anti-racism doctrine with a Cuban national frame.
- Documented act or statuteSent hundreds of thousands of troops and medical personnel to Africa and Latin America from 1963.
DSA, Sanders wing · ID −08
Coded −8: among the most universalist positions of any organisation in the dataset.
- Programme textCommitments to decriminalise border crossing and to extend labour rights regardless of status.
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.
Castroism
1959– · Cuba
Anti-imperial national sovereignty plus socialist transformation, led by a guerrilla-derived party-state.
US Democratic Socialism
1982– · United States
Universal public provision funded by taxing concentrated wealth, achieved entirely through elections and unions.
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