Atlas / Comparisons / Social Liberalism vs UK Conservative Party
Social Liberalism and UK Conservative 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 | Rawlsian liberalism | Tories | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +01 | +06 | 5 | Differs | Real difference, but not the dividing line. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | −06 | +05 | 11 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| AU · Organisation of power | −06 | +02 | 8 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +02 | +03 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | −07 | +03 | 10 | Diverges | Carries the disagreement. Any claim that these two are alike has to explain this. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −07 | −05 | 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.
Rawlsian liberalism · CU −06
Coded −6: equal basic liberties as lexically prior to everything else.
- Programme textThe first principle of justice takes priority over the distributive one in Rawls's ordering.
Tories · CU +05
Coded +5: socially liberal legislation from the party's own governments alongside a traditionalist base.
- Documented act or statuteSame-sex marriage was legislated by a Conservative government in 2013 against a majority of its own MPs.
Rawlsian liberalism · AU −06
Coded −6: entrenched rights and judicial review.
- Programme textThe framework places basic liberties beyond ordinary majority revision.
Tories · AU +02
Coded +2: parliamentary in method, with several recent confrontations with legal constraint.
- Documented act or statuteThe 2019 prorogation of parliament was ruled unlawful by the supreme court.
- Documented act or statuteJudicial review was narrowed and legislation was introduced to disapply parts of human rights law in specific policy areas.
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.
Social Liberalism
1971– · Global North
Equal basic liberties first, then fair equality of opportunity, then inequalities only where they benefit the worst off.
UK Conservative Party
1834– · Britain
Fiscal restraint, national sovereignty, property ownership, controlled migration, gradualism.
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