Atlas / Comparisons / American Fusionist Conservatism vs Social Liberalism
American Fusionist Conservatism and Social Liberalism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on AU, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Buckley, Meyer | Rawlsian liberalism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +08 | +01 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +06 | −06 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | −06 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | −04 | +02 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | −07 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −06 | −07 | 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.
Buckley, Meyer · CU +06
Coded +6: traditional morality as the end that liberty serves.
- Programme textNational Review's founding statement in 1955 declared it stood athwart history yelling stop.
Rawlsian liberalism · CU −06
Coded −6: equal basic liberties as lexically prior to everything else.
- Programme textThe first principle of justice takes priority over the distributive one in Rawls's ordering.
Buckley, Meyer · ID +03
Coded +3: a civic constitutional membership with a traditionalist cultural frame.
- ScholarshipThe movement's fights were over federal power and communism rather than over citizenship.
Rawlsian liberalism · ID −07
Coded −7: the original position excludes knowledge of one's own social position by construction.
- Programme textThe veil of ignorance removes nationality, class and talent from the deliberation.
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.
Social Liberalism
1971– · Global North
Equal basic liberties first, then fair equality of opportunity, then inequalities only where they benefit the worst off.
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