Atlas / Comparisons / Maoism vs Thatcherism
Maoism and Thatcherism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on ID. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, AU.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mao Zedong Thought | Thatcherism | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −10 | +09 | 19 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −02 | +06 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| 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 | +05 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| 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 | +03 | 7 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
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.
Thatcherism · EC +09
Deep privatisation and financial deregulation places this near the market pole.
- Documented act or statuteTelecoms, gas, water, electricity, steel and airports were sold between 1984 and 1990.
- Documented act or statuteCouncil housing was sold to tenants at statutory discounts from 1980.
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.
Thatcherism · CU +06
Coded +6: an explicit programme of moral restoration alongside the economic one.
- Documented act or statuteSection 28, enacted in 1988, prohibited local authorities from promoting homosexuality.
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.
Thatcherism
1979–1990 · Britain
Roll back the state, break union power, sell public assets, restore the authority of law, order and family.
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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