Atlas / Comparisons / Khomeinism vs Classical Marxism
Khomeinism and Classical Marxism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on CH. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Velayat-e faqih | Scientific socialism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −03 | −10 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +10 | −06 | 16 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +09 | +02 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +08 | +04 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +09 | −09 | 18 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +07 | +08 | 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.
Velayat-e faqih · CU +10
At the ceiling: compulsory dress, gender segregation and clerical authority over personal law.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2022–23 protests followed a death in morality police custody and were met with mass arrests and executions.
Scientific socialism · CU −06
Coded −6: the bourgeois family, religion and nationality all treated as historically transient.
- Programme textThe Manifesto answers the charge of abolishing the family and of abolishing countries by accepting both.
Velayat-e faqih · ID +09
Coded +9: full membership requires adherence to the official confession.
- Documented act or statuteNon-recognised religious minorities, notably Bahá'ís, are excluded from higher education and public employment.
Scientific socialism · ID −09
Coded −9: class rather than nation as the unit of solidarity.
- Programme text'The working men have no country.' The First International organised across borders from 1864.
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.
Khomeinism
1979– · Iran
Guardianship of the jurist: sovereignty belongs to God and is exercised by a supreme clerical authority over an elected government.
Classical Marxism
1848–1914 · Germany, Europe
History driven by class struggle; capitalism generates its own gravediggers; proletarian revolution abolishes classes and eventually the state.
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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