Atlas / Comparisons / Institutional Revolutionary Party vs US Democratic Party
Institutional Revolutionary Party and US Democratic Party
Measured distance across six axes
Different families with real common ground. They agree within three points on SC, CH. They diverge by eight points or more on CU, AU, ID.
Axis by axis
| Axis | PRI | US Democratic Party | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +01 | −03 | 4 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +04 | −05 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +08 | −02 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +07 | +04 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | −06 | 9 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −04 | −06 | 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.
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.
US Democratic Party · CU −05
Coded −5: the party has moved substantially toward the liberal pole on family and identity questions since 2004.
- Programme textPlatform support for same-sex marriage moved from opposition to endorsement between 2004 and 2012.
- Comparative datasetCHES-equivalent placements put the party well toward the GAL pole relative to European mainstream parties.
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.
US Democratic Party · AU −02
Negative but not strongly so: the party has expanded federal authority repeatedly while defending procedural constraints on it.
- Programme textSupported statutory federal standards for election administration in 2021–22.
- Documented act or statuteParty leadership declined to abolish the legislative filibuster in 2022 despite holding a majority.
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.
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.
US Democratic Party
1828– · United States
Regulated capitalism, expanded health coverage, civil rights, climate action, and defence of existing institutional procedure.
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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