Atlas / Comparisons / FARC vs Sinn Féin
FARC and Sinn Féin
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, CU. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | FARC | Sinn Féin | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −08 | −05 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | −04 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +07 | −02 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +03 | −01 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −03 | +04 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +09 | −03 | 12 | 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.
FARC · AU +07
Coded +7: a secretariat with military command and no electoral participation.
- Documented act or statuteNo candidate was fielded in any election before the 2016 accord.
Sinn Féin · AU −02
Coded −2: power-sharing under the Good Friday Agreement.
- Documented act or statuteHolds the office of First Minister in Northern Ireland under mandatory coalition.
FARC · CH +09
Coded +9: fifty-two years of armed struggle, ended by a verified disarmament.
- Documented act or statuteAround 7,000 combatants disarmed under UN verification in 2017 and the movement became a legal party.
Sinn Féin · CH −03
Coded −3: a documented traverse from an armed campaign to constitutional politics.
- Documented act or statuteThe IRA declared a ceasefire in 1994 and decommissioned in 2005.
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.
FARC
1964–2017 · Colombia
A peasant self-defence force turned Marxist insurgency, financed in its later decades by the cocaine trade.
Sinn Féin
1905– · Ireland
Irish reunification by referendum, housing and health investment, workers' rights.
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