Atlas / Comparisons / Maoism vs Classical Marxism
Maoism and Classical Marxism
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on EC, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mao Zedong Thought | Scientific socialism | 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 | −02 | −06 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +10 | +02 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +04 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +04 | −09 | 13 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | +08 | 2 | 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.
Mao Zedong Thought · AU +10
At the ceiling, with the distinctive feature that the party's own institutions were destroyed from above and below.
- Documented act or statuteThe head of state was purged and died in detention in 1969 without trial.
Scientific socialism · AU +02
Coded +2: a transitional dictatorship of the proletariat theorised as majority rule, followed by the withering away of the state.
- Programme textThe Critique of the Gotha Programme names a transitional period; Engels' Anti-Dühring describes the state dying out.
- ScholarshipThe gap between that endpoint and every regime built in its name is the most important discontinuity in this dataset.
Mao Zedong Thought · ID +04
Coded moderately positive: class background was hereditary in practice and determined life chances.
- ScholarshipClass labels assigned in the land reform were inherited and governed schooling, marriage and employment for decades.
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.
Maoism
1949–1976 · China
Peasant-based revolution, continuous class struggle after the seizure of power, permanent mobilisation against the party's own institutions.
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.
Open in the atlas