Atlas / Comparisons / Maoism vs Institutional Revolutionary Party
Maoism and Institutional Revolutionary Party
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on AU, SC, ID. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mao Zedong Thought | PRI | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | +01 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | +04 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +10 | +08 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +09 | +07 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +04 | +03 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +10 | −04 | 14 | 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.
PRI · EC +01
Coded +1: the same party redistributed land, nationalised oil and then signed NAFTA and privatised.
- Documented act or statuteOil was nationalised in 1938; the banks were nationalised in 1982 and reprivatised from 1991.
- Documented act or statuteNAFTA entered force in 1994 under a PRI president.
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.
PRI · CH −04
Coded −4: built specifically to institutionalise a revolution and stop the coups that followed it.
- ScholarshipFounded in 1929 after the assassination of a president-elect, to route succession through a party rather than through the army.
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.
Institutional Revolutionary Party
1929– · Mexico
A party built to institutionalise a revolution and end military coups, which then held the presidency for seventy-one consecutive years.
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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