Atlas / Comparisons / American Fusionist Conservatism vs Khomeinism
American Fusionist Conservatism and Khomeinism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. No axis places them within three points of each other. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, AU, SC, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Buckley, Meyer | Velayat-e faqih | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +08 | −03 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +06 | +10 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| 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 | +08 | 12 | 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 | +07 | 13 | 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.
Velayat-e faqih · EC −03
Coded −3: very large state and foundation ownership alongside a private bazaar economy.
- Documented act or statuteThe bonyad religious foundations control a substantial share of non-oil GDP and report to the supreme leader.
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.
Velayat-e faqih · AU +09
A genuine hybrid: real contested elections inside a hard unelected ceiling. Coded 9 rather than 10 for that reason.
- Documented act or statuteThe Guardian Council vets all candidates and disqualified the majority of applicants in recent parliamentary cycles.
- Documented act or statuteThe Supreme Leader is selected by an Assembly of Experts whose own candidates are vetted by the Guardian Council he appoints.
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.
Khomeinism
1979– · Iran
Guardianship of the jurist: sovereignty belongs to God and is exercised by a supreme clerical authority over 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