Atlas / Comparisons / UK Conservative Party vs US Republican Party
UK Conservative Party and US Republican Party
Measured distance across six axes
Effectively the same position. They agree within three points on EC, CU, AU, SC, ID, CH. No axis separates them by eight points or more.
Axis by axis
| Axis | Tories | GOP | Gap | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EC · Economic organisation | +06 | +06 | 0 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CU · Social and cultural order | +05 | +06 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| AU · Organisation of power | +02 | +03 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| SC · Scale of decision | +03 | 00 | 3 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| ID · Rule of membership | +03 | +04 | 1 | Agrees | Effectively the same position. Not what an argument between them is about. |
| CH · Method and tempo | −05 | −03 | 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.
Tories · SC +03
Coded +3: unitary and centralising, with mayoral devolution as the exception.
- Documented act or statuteThe Internal Market Act 2020 constrained devolved competences after EU withdrawal.
GOP · SC 00
Coded at zero: federalist in doctrine and centralising in practice on the issues it prioritises.
- Programme textStates' rights invoked on education and health, while federal preemption is sought on immigration enforcement and energy permitting.
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.
UK Conservative Party
1834– · Britain
Fiscal restraint, national sovereignty, property ownership, controlled migration, gradualism.
US Republican Party
1854– · United States
Limited federal government, lower taxes, strong defence, religious and family traditionalism, gun rights.
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