Atlas / Comparisons / Neoliberalism vs Institutional Revolutionary Party
Neoliberalism and Institutional Revolutionary Party
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on CU, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on EC, AU.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Mont Pèlerin, Chicago | PRI | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +09 | +01 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +01 | +04 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −02 | +08 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +02 | +07 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −02 | +03 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −02 | −04 | 2 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
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.
Mont Pèlerin, Chicago · EC +09
Far market pole on doctrine, with the important caveat that most named exponents rejected pure laissez-faire.
- Programme textThe 1947 Mont Pèlerin statement of aims defends the market order and also the rule of law and a competitive framework.
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.
Mont Pèlerin, Chicago · AU −02
Coded slightly negative: the doctrine constrains majorities through rules and independent bodies, which disperses rather than concentrates authority.
- ScholarshipCentral bank independence, fiscal rules and treaty commitments remove decisions from ordinary majority revision.
- ScholarshipThis is delegation, not concentration; the entry for technocratic centrism is coded positive on the same reasoning and separates the two.
PRI · AU +08
Coded +8: elections held without interruption and never lost for seventy-one years.
- Documented act or statuteThe 1988 result was declared after a computer failure that destroyed the ballots, later admitted by the incumbent president.
- Documented act or statuteThe party lost the presidency in 2000 and conceded, which is why this is not higher.
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.
Neoliberalism
1947– · International
Market competition as the organising principle of policy, insulated from democratic interference by rules and independent 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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