Atlas / Comparisons / US Democratic Socialism vs Putinism
US Democratic Socialism and Putinism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposite ends of the recorded space. They agree within three points on CH. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | DSA, Sanders wing | United Russia, sovereign democracy | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −06 | +03 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −08 | +09 | 17 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | +10 | 14 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +03 | +09 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −08 | +08 | 16 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −04 | −03 | 1 | 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.
DSA, Sanders wing · EC −06
Coded −6: universal public provision funded by taxation, with no proposal to abolish private ownership of production.
- Programme textSingle-payer health insurance and tuition-free public college are the central commitments.
- Comparative datasetThe programme is close to Nordic social democracy of the 1970s and roughly fourteen units from classical Marxism.
United Russia, sovereign democracy · EC +03
Coded right of centre: flat taxation and private ownership, contingent on political loyalty.
- Documented act or statuteA thirteen percent flat personal income tax was introduced in 2001.
- Documented act or statuteThe Yukos case in 2003–04 established that private ownership is revocable for political reasons.
DSA, Sanders wing · CU −08
Coded −8: the movement's cultural positions are as central to it as its economics.
- Programme textProgramme commitments on reproductive rights, trans health care, decarceration and immigration are foundational.
United Russia, sovereign democracy · CU +09
Coded +9: traditional values written into the constitution and enforced by criminal law.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2020 amendments defined marriage as a union of a man and a woman and invoked faith in God and historical truth.
- Documented act or statuteThe 'international LGBT movement' was designated extremist by the supreme court in 2023.
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.
US Democratic Socialism
1982– · United States
Universal public provision funded by taxing concentrated wealth, achieved entirely through elections and unions.
Putinism
2000– · Russia
A strong personalised state restoring great-power status, with traditional values against a decadent West.
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