Atlas / Comparisons / Mensheviks vs Minarchist Libertarianism
Mensheviks and Minarchist Libertarianism
Measured distance across six axes
Opposed programmes with little shared ground. They agree within three points on CU, ID. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, SC.
Axis by axis
| Axis | RSDLP(m) | Nozick, LP | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | −08 | +10 | 18 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −05 | −03 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −04 | −08 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +03 | −07 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | −04 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | +02 | −03 | 5 | 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.
RSDLP(m) · EC −08
Coded within one point of the Bolsheviks: the disagreement was about sequence and method, not about ownership.
- Programme textBoth factions accepted the same Second Congress programme of 1903 on socialisation of the means of production.
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.
RSDLP(m) · SC +03
Favoured a democratic republic with substantial regional autonomy rather than centralised command.
- Documented act or statuteThe Georgian Menshevik republic of 1918–21 operated a parliamentary constitution until the Red Army invasion.
Nozick, LP · SC −07
Coded −7: strong federalism and secession sympathies.
- Programme textPlatform commitments to devolve nearly all federal functions to states or individuals.
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.
Mensheviks
1903–1921 · Russia
Russia must pass through a bourgeois-democratic stage; socialism cannot be decreed by a minority.
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.
Open in the atlas