Atlas / Comparisons / Maoism vs Minarchist Libertarianism
Maoism and Minarchist Libertarianism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposite ends of the recorded space. They agree within three points on CU. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, AU, SC, ID, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mao Zedong Thought | Nozick, LP | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | +10 | 20 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | −03 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +10 | −08 | 18 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | −07 | 16 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +04 | −04 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | −03 | 13 | 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.
Mao Zedong Thought · EC −10
Total state and collective ownership including the abolition of household farming.
- Documented act or statuteCommunes established from 1958 abolished private plots and household cooking.
- ScholarshipThe Great Leap Forward famine of 1959–61 is estimated at between fifteen and forty-five million deaths.
Nozick, LP · EC +10
At the market pole: police, courts and defence only.
- Programme textNozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) derives a night-watchman state and no more.
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.
Nozick, LP · AU −08
Coded −8: strict constitutional limits and civil liberties.
- Programme textThe US party platform has opposed surveillance, conscription and drug prohibition since 1972.
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.
Minarchist Libertarianism
1971– · United States, worldwide
A night-watchman state limited to police, courts and defence; maximum personal and economic freedom otherwise.
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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