Atlas / Comparisons / Juche vs Maoism
Juche and Maoism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, AU, SC. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Kimilsungism | Mao Zedong Thought | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | −10 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +09 | −02 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +10 | +10 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +10 | +09 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +10 | +04 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −02 | +10 | 12 | Diverges | Carries 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.
Kimilsungism · CU +09
At the traditional pole: a hereditary leader cult and a hierarchical social order with no autonomous association.
- Programme textThe Ten Principles for the Establishment of the One-Ideology System govern private conduct including speech within families.
Mao Zedong Thought · CU −02
Coded near neutral: radical on the family and on women's labour, and violently hostile to inherited culture.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1950 Marriage Law abolished arranged marriage and concubinage and permitted divorce.
- Documented act or statuteThe Four Olds campaign of 1966 destroyed temples, texts and artefacts systematically.
Kimilsungism · CH −02
Coded negative: the regime has been the established order for three generations and its doctrine is preservation.
- Programme textJuche is presented as a completed system requiring defence rather than as a programme requiring transformation.
Mao Zedong Thought · CH +10
Coded at the ceiling because the regime repeatedly used mass mobilisation to attack its own institutions.
- Documented act or statuteThe Cultural Revolution from 1966 closed universities and destroyed party and state bodies from below on the leader's instruction.
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.
Juche
1955– · North Korea
National self-reliance under a hereditary leader treated as the source of all social life; military-first priority.
Maoism
1949–1976 · China
Peasant-based revolution, continuous class struggle after the seizure of power, permanent mobilisation against the party's own institutions.
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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