Conservative and authoritarian get used as insults for the same people. On a two-axis map they answer different questions. Conservative is mostly a claim about economics, tradition, and the pace of change. Authoritarian is a claim about how much power the state should have over personal and political life.
Where conservatism sits
On PoliMap, conservatism is right of centre and moderately high on the social axis. It assumes private property, existing institutions, and a preference for order. It is not the top edge of the chart. That top edge is where fascism and monarchism sit, and they make a much stronger claim for hierarchy and command.
Authoritarian is an axis, not a team
The authoritarian end of the social axis also includes the far left. Leninism is economically the opposite of conservatism and socially as controlling as the cells on the right. Calling every authoritarian "conservative" hides that. Calling every conservative "authoritarian" flattens a centre-right liberal democrat and a dictatorship into one word.
How to tell them apart in a result
- Read the economic number for left and right.
- Read the social number for liberty and authority.
- A positive social score with a positive economic score is the right-authoritarian region. The height of the score, not the word "conservative", tells you how strong the state claim is.
If you want your own numbers rather than a definition, start with the political spectrum test. The UK Conservatives and Reform UK pages are a concrete example of two right-of-centre parties that do not share a social score.