Atlas / Comparisons / American Fusionist Conservatism vs Hamas
American Fusionist Conservatism and Hamas
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on CU. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, AU, SC, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Buckley, Meyer | Hamas | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +08 | −02 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +06 | +09 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | +09 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | −04 | +04 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | +09 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −06 | +08 | 14 | 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.
Buckley, Meyer · EC +08
Coded +8: free markets treated as morally rather than merely technically superior.
- Programme textFrank Meyer's In Defense of Freedom argues liberty is the political precondition of virtue.
Hamas · EC −02
Coded −2: welfare and clinic networks funded externally with no productive programme.
- ScholarshipSocial service networks operate alongside taxation of trade and external transfers.
Buckley, Meyer · AU −04
Coded −4: constitutional originalism and limited federal power.
- Documented act or statuteThe Federalist Society, founded 1982, made originalism the movement's judicial method.
Hamas · AU +09
Coded +9: won an election and then held no other.
- Documented act or statuteWon the 2006 legislative election, seized sole control of Gaza by force in 2007, and held no election in the following seventeen years.
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.
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.
Hamas
1987– · Gaza, West Bank
Armed Palestinian nationalism in an Islamist frame, rejecting the negotiated framework in favour of resistance.
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