Atlas / Comparisons / Classical Marxism vs Institutional Revolutionary Party
Classical Marxism and Institutional Revolutionary Party
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on SC. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, CU, ID, CH.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Scientific socialism | 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 | −06 | +04 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +02 | +08 | 6 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +04 | +07 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −09 | +03 | 12 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +08 | −04 | 12 | 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.
Scientific socialism · EC −10
At the floor: abolition of private property in the means of production.
- Programme textThe Manifesto states the theory of the communists in a single sentence: abolition of private property.
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.
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.
PRI · CU +04
Coded +4: revolutionary anticlericalism succeeded by a conservative corporatist order.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1917 constitution's anticlerical articles were softened by amendment in 1992.
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.
Classical Marxism
1848–1914 · Germany, Europe
History driven by class struggle; capitalism generates its own gravediggers; proletarian revolution abolishes classes and eventually the state.
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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