Atlas / Comparisons / Italian Fascism vs Thatcherism
Italian Fascism and Thatcherism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on CU. They diverge by eight points or more on EC.
Axis by axis
| Axis | PNF | Thatcherism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +01 | +09 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +08 | +06 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +09 | +02 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +05 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +07 | +03 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +07 | +03 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
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.
PNF · EC +01
Near the centre: private ownership retained, unions abolished, and a very large state shareholding built during the depression.
- Documented act or statuteThe IRI, created in 1933, gave the state the largest industrial holding in Europe outside the Soviet Union while leaving firms nominally private.
- Programme textThe 1927 Labour Charter organised employers and workers into state syndicates and outlawed strikes.
Thatcherism · EC +09
Deep privatisation and financial deregulation places this near the market pole.
- Documented act or statuteTelecoms, gas, water, electricity, steel and airports were sold between 1984 and 1990.
- Documented act or statuteCouncil housing was sold to tenants at statutory discounts from 1980.
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.
Italian Fascism
1922–1943 · Italy
The nation as an organic whole realised in the state; violence as regenerative; liberalism and Marxism both to be destroyed.
Thatcherism
1979–1990 · Britain
Roll back the state, break union power, sell public assets, restore the authority of law, order and family.
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