Atlas / Comparisons / Castroism vs Pinochet Regime
Castroism and Pinochet Regime
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on AU, SC, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Cuban Communism | 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 | −01 | +08 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +09 | +10 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +07 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | 00 | +05 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +07 | +04 | 3 | 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.
Cuban Communism · EC −09
Coded −9: state ownership of nearly all production with limited private licences since 2011.
- Documented act or statuteAround 500 categories of self-employment were legalised from 2011 and expanded in 2021.
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.
Cuban Communism · CU −01
Coded −1: universal education and health alongside decades of persecution of homosexuals, later reversed.
- Documented act or statuteGay men were sent to UMAP labour camps in the 1960s; same-sex marriage was legalised by referendum in 2022.
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.
Castroism
1959– · Cuba
Anti-imperial national sovereignty plus socialist transformation, led by a guerrilla-derived party-state.
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