IESET.
the framework's spine

Axes — how the framework scores policy content

Pick any axis below to see every policy that moved it — direction by direction, country by country. This is the substrate the rest of the site rides on: hypotheses test outcomes downstream of axis movements, positions get scored on whether their predictions about each axis hold up, and movements are fingerprinted by which axes they shifted.

What axes are, and how they work

Party labels are a bad measurement device. "Left" and "right" mean opposite things in different countries — Hungary's Orbán is statist-left on fiscal but hard-right on rule-of-law; Macron is centrist-left on social policy but supply-side on labour and tax. Lumping them by label destroys the information that matters. So instead the framework codes every policy on a fixed set of channel-separated axes that describe what the policy actually does.

fiscal · 6
How the state taxes and spends — progressivity, corporate, capital, transfers, spending share, sectoral subsidies.
regulatory · 8
Rules outside the budget — labour, product-market, environment, finance, immigration, trade, licensing, energy security.
monetary · 2
Central bank independence, monetary expansion direction.
institutional · 3
Rule of law, property rights, judicial independence — the rails everything else runs on.

How the four entity types interlock through axes

POLICY     ──axes_moved──▶  AXES (19 ids, +/−/0)
  │                           ▲
  ▼                           │
MOVEMENT   ──axes_summary─────┘   (aggregates: + / − / 0 / mixed)
  │
  ▼
HYPOTHESIS  ──tests: when an axis moves direction X, does outcome Y follow?

POSITION   ──claims: axis X moving direction Y produces good outcome Z
            (predictions linked to specific hypotheses, scored on Scoreboard)

Example — Thatcher 1979 cuts top income tax 83 → 60%

  1. The policy YAML lists axes_moved: [{axis: fiscal.tax_progressivity, direction: −}].
  2. The Thatcherism movement aggregates this with other policies into its axes_summary showing progressivity ↓, product-market competition ↑, financial deregulation ↑.
  3. The Chicago position predicts: when fiscal.tax_progressivity moves −, growth rises within five years. That's a falsifiable claim linked to a specific hypothesis.
  4. The hypothesis runs against real data and produces a verdict. The verdict feeds back into Chicago's support rate on the Scoreboard.

That whole chain — from a specific policy enactment to a school of thought's track record — is only possible because of the axes. Without them, the discussion is stuck arguing about whether Thatcherism was "neoliberal" — a word fight, not an empirical question.

Invariant 3: two governments that move the same axes the same direction get scored identically, regardless of their party label. Ideological tribes don't earn or lose points from who they look like; only from what their policies actually move.
Browse all 19 axes →Methodology — why this design

The 19 axes, grouped by channel

Fiscal

sectoral subsidy
fiscal.sectoral_subsidy
597 policies

Targeted industrial and sectoral subsidies (renewable energy, chip manufacturing, agriculture, green hydrogen, etc).

spending level
fiscal.spending_level
1164 policies

General government spending as share of GDP, excluding transfers already captured under fiscal.transfer_expansion to avoid double-counting.

tax capital
fiscal.tax_capital
106 policies

Taxation of capital income (dividends, capital gains, inheritance, wealth). Distinct from corporate rate.

tax corporate
fiscal.tax_corporate
272 policies

Statutory and effective corporate tax rates, treatment of depreciation, and international competitiveness.

tax progressivity
fiscal.tax_progressivity
372 policies

Progressivity of the personal income tax schedule, including top marginal rates, bracket spread, and targeted credits (EITC-equivalents).

transfer expansion
fiscal.transfer_expansion
728 policies

Size of cash and near-cash transfer programmes (unemployment benefits, means-tested assistance, universal child benefits). Architecturally distinct from forced-saving schemes — see…

Regulatory

energy supply security
regulatory.energy_supply_security
114 policies

Policy posture toward energy supply security — domestic production capacity, import diversification, strategic reserves, nuclear stance, fossil-fuel mix discipline.

environmental stringency
regulatory.environmental_stringency
181 policies

Environmental regulation stringency — emissions caps, standards, phase-out mandates, carbon pricing, renewable portfolio standards.

financial deregulation
regulatory.financial_deregulation
328 policies

Financial-sector regulation — banking separation, capital requirements, cross-border activity rules, derivatives oversight.

housing rent control
regulatory.housing_rent_control
2 policies

Rent ceilings, rent freezes, renewal caps, eviction restrictions tied to regulated rent contracts, and exemption rules for new construction or small landlords.

immigration openness
regulatory.immigration_openness
93 policies

Immigration policy openness — work visas, family reunification, asylum processing, border enforcement posture.

labour market flexibility
regulatory.labour_market_flexibility
418 policies

Ease of hiring/firing, collective-bargaining scope, minimum wage rigidity, temporary/permanent contract regulation.

price control intensity
regulatory.price_control_intensity
11 policies

Statutory or administrative ceilings, freezes, margin caps, or mandated below-cost pass-through rules for goods and services outside housing. This axis separates direct price ceili…

product market competition
regulatory.product_market_competition
805 policies

Product-market regulation, entry barriers, licensing burdens, network-industry regulation, price controls.

sectoral licensing
regulatory.sectoral_licensing
371 policies

Sector-specific licensing regimes, concentration / quota allocation, state-controlled entry (energy, telecoms, healthcare, banking).

trade openness
regulatory.trade_openness
676 policies

Trade policy openness — tariffs, non-tariff barriers, FTAs, industrial protection.

Monetary

central bank independence
monetary.central_bank_independence
390 policies

De jure and de facto independence of the central bank from fiscal authority. Per D.1.5 scope, one of the framework's defensible monetary positions.

monetary expansion direction
monetary.monetary_expansion_direction
208 policies

Direction of monetary-base expansion decisions relative to trend. Separate from fiscal.transfer_expansion even when correlated.

Institutional

judicial independence
institutional.judicial_independence
167 policies

Independence of the judiciary from executive and legislative encroachment. Specifically captures court-packing, selective prosecution, judicial reshuffles.

property rights
institutional.property_rights
441 policies

Security of private property rights — formal recognition, expropriation risk, titling systems.

rule of law
institutional.rule_of_law
840 policies

Rule of law as institutional substrate — contract enforcement, judicial independence, equal treatment before the law. Upstream of most other axes.