Atlas / Comparisons / Islamic State vs National Rally

Islamic State and National Rally

Measured distance across six axes

14.5 / 49.0 possible

Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, CU, ID. They diverge by eight points or more on CH.

Axis by axis

AxisISIS / DaeshRN, Front NationalGapReading
EC · Economic organisation+01−012AgreesEffectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about.
CU · Social and cultural order+10+082AgreesEffectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about.
AU · Organisation of power+10+046DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
SC · Scale of decision+09+036DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
ID · Rule of membership+10+073AgreesEffectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about.
CH · Method and tempo+10−0111DivergesCarries 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.

ISIS / Daesh · CH +10

At the ceiling: mass violence as constitutive rather than instrumental.

  • Documented act or statutePublic executions and their filming were a central instrument of governance and recruitment.

RN, Front National · CH −01

Coded slightly negative: a long strategy of normalisation through elections.

  • Documented act or statuteThe dédiabolisation strategy since 2011 involved expelling the founder and moderating public positions.

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.

Islamic State

2013– · Iraq, Syria

Restoration of a universal caliphate through mass violence, with obligatory allegiance and death for dissent.

National Rally

1972– · France

National priority for French citizens, sharp restriction of immigration, sovereignty against the EU, protection of purchasing power.

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