Atlas / Comparisons / American Fusionist Conservatism vs Institutional Revolutionary Party
American Fusionist Conservatism and Institutional Revolutionary Party
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on CU, ID, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, SC.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Buckley, Meyer | PRI | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +08 | +01 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +06 | +04 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | +08 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | −04 | +07 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | +03 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −06 | −04 | 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.
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.
PRI · AU +08
Coded +8: elections held without interruption and never lost for seventy-one years.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1988 result was declared after a computer failure that destroyed the ballots, later admitted by the incumbent president.
- Documented act or statuteThe party lost the presidency in 2000 and conceded, which is why this is not higher.
Buckley, Meyer · SC −04
Coded −4: federalism domestically, and interventionism abroad.
- ScholarshipThe tension between limited government at home and global containment abroad was never resolved.
PRI · SC +07
Coded +7: governors and state parties subordinated to the presidency through the dedazo.
- Documented act or statutePresidents designated their own successors and the party's state candidates by private nomination.
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.
Institutional Revolutionary Party
1929– · Mexico
A party built to institutionalise a revolution and end military coups, which then held the presidency for seventy-one consecutive years.
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