Atlas / Comparisons / Islamic State vs UK Labour Party

Islamic State and UK Labour Party

Measured distance across six axes

31.5 / 49.0 possible

Opposite ends of the recorded space. No axis places them within three points of each other. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, AU, ID, CH.

Axis by axis

AxisISIS / DaeshUK Labour PartyGapReading
EC · Economic organisation+01−034DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
CU · Social and cultural order+10−0515DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
AU · Organisation of power+10−0313DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
SC · Scale of decision+09+036DiffersReal difference, but not the dividing line.
ID · Rule of membership+10−0515DivergesCarries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this.
CH · Method and tempo+10−0818DivergesCarries 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 · CU +10

At the ceiling: a totalising religious order enforced by public violence.

  • Documented act or statuteSlavery was formally reinstituted and regulated by published guidance.

UK Labour Party · CU −05

Coded −5: liberal on social questions with recent qualification on gender recognition.

  • Documented act or statuteIntroduced civil partnerships in 2004 and the Equality Act in 2010; equal marriage passed in 2013 with its support.

ISIS / Daesh · AU +10

At the ceiling: absolute clerical-military command with no institution outside it.

  • Programme textA caliphate was declared in 2014 requiring the allegiance of all Muslims on pain of death.

UK Labour Party · AU −03

Coded −3: constitutional in method with a centralising executive record in office.

  • Documented act or statuteDevolution to Scotland, Wales and London was created by the 1997 government.

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.

UK Labour Party

1900– · Britain

Growth first, public service investment, workers' rights, stability and fiscal credibility.

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.

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