Atlas / Comparisons / Classical Liberalism vs American Fusionist Conservatism
Classical Liberalism and American Fusionist Conservatism
Measured distance across six axes
The same broad family. They agree within three points on EC, AU, SC, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on CU.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Manchester School | Buckley, Meyer | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +09 | +08 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | +06 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −07 | −04 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | −03 | −04 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −03 | +03 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −04 | −06 | 2 | 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.
Manchester School · CU −02
Coded −2: religious toleration and legal equality against inherited privilege.
- Programme textMill's On Liberty (1859) sets the harm principle against social as well as legal coercion.
Buckley, Meyer · CU +06
Coded +6: traditional morality as the end that liberty serves.
- Programme textNational Review's founding statement in 1955 declared it stood athwart history yelling stop.
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.
Classical Liberalism
1776–1900 · Britain, Europe
Individual liberty, free trade, freedom of contract, religious toleration, constitutional and limited government.
American Fusionist Conservatism
1955–2000 · United States
Free markets, traditional morality and anti-communism fused into one movement; liberty as the political means to a virtuous end.
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