Centrism
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In politics, centrism is the ideal or the practice of promoting moderate policies which lie between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of left-right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between left-wing politics and right-wing politics.
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[edit] Definitions
An alternate definition is to assume that the two poles in question (e.g., Left/Right) are well-defined, and then (i) define as 'centrist' any position which the Left considers too far Right and the Right considers too far Left, and (ii) define as a 'Centrist' any person who self-identifies more with those positions than either the Left or the Right. The weakness in this argument is that it is difficult to unambiguously and objectively define both poles at once, but that difficulty affects all political definitions, not just centrists.
In practice, the two poles can only be well-defined in a specific place at a specific time, since they differ from place to place and change over time. Thus, "centrism" itself means different things in different places (depending on the local political spectrum) and changes over time. For example, ideas that were considered extremist 200 years ago (such as democracy and universal suffrage) are considered centrist today - while other ideas that were considered centrist 200 years ago (such as slavery and racism) are considered extremist today.
[edit] Centrism in context
[edit] France
France has a tradition of parties that call themselves centristic. The most notable centristic party, often also called liberal, was the Union for French Democracy created in 1978. Among its successors belongs the small Centrist Alliance, the most succesfull of them is the Democratic Movement of François Bayrou (since 2007).
[edit] Germany
In Germany, Zentrum has been the name of the party of the Catholics. It united left-wing and right-wing Catholics and is considered the first German Volkspartei (catch-all-party), but it was non neutral on religious issues. Its politics for about concerning education were definitely right wing. Zentrum, founded in 1870, had its name from the fact that its representatives sat between the liberals (left) and the conservatives (right).
The successor of Zentrum, the Christian Democratic Union, describes itself as centrist, as well as the liberal Free Democratic Party does. Economically (FDP) or culturally (CDU) they tend indeed to be definitely more right wing than left wing. The Social Democrats feel partially more unease to call their party centristic. Zentrismus is a term merely known to experts and may be confused with Zentralismus (as opposite to federalism); the usual term in German is politische Mitte (the political center).
Historically, the most centrist party of all German parties may have been the social liberal German Democratic Party of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933).
[edit] Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland the two main political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are both centrist[1] (and also relatively populist[1][2]) parties. They share broadly similar policies, with their primary division perceived as being steeped in Civil War politics. Fine Gael describes itself as aligned to Christian democratic groups in Europe, while Fianna Fáil is described as a liberal conservative party. Each party is made up of centre-left and centre-right members, and neither group will accept the ideological tags "left-" or "right-wing".
The largest non-centrist party is the Labour Party, which describes itself as democratic socialist (left-wing) and has links with numerous trade unions throughout Ireland.
[edit] Marxist movement
"Centrism" has a specific meaning within the Marxist political movement. It usually reflects an ideologically held position between a revolutionary and reformist position. For instance, the Independent Labour Party (ILP) was seen as centrist because they oscillated between advocating reaching socialism through reforms and advocating revolution. The members of the so-called Two-and-a-half and Three-and-a-half Internationals, who could not choose between the reformism of the democratic socialist Second International and the revolutionary politics of the Communist Third International, are exemplary of centrism in this sense; examples are the POUM, ILP and Poale Zion. Marxists often describe centrism in this sense as opportunistic, since it argues for a revolution at some point in the future but urges reformist practices in the mean time.
The term "Centrism" also denotes positions held by some of the Bolsheviks during the 1920s. In this context, "Centrism" refers to a position between the Right Opposition (which supported the New Economic Policy and friendly relations with capitalist countries) and the Left Opposition (which supported a planned economy and world revolution). By the end of the 1920s, the two opposing factions had been defeated by Joseph Stalin who eventually gained enough support from members of the factions through the application of various ideas formed by the factions' various leaders. (i.e. Trotsky, Bukharin, etc.) See: Two Articles on Centrism by Leon Trotsky
[edit] Nordic countries
See also: Liberalism and centrism in Sweden, Centrism in Iceland and Centrism in Finland
In most of the Nordic countries there are centrist parties. These share in addition to the centrist position on the socio-economic left-right scale a clear, separate ideology. This position is centered around decentralisation, a commitment to small business and environmental protection. Centrists have aligned themselves with the Liberal International and European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Historically, all of these parties were farmers' parties committed to maintaining rural life. In the 1960s these parties broadened their scope to include non-farmer related issues and renamed themselves Centre Party.
The Centre Democrats and the New Alliance in Denmark are not rooted in agrarianism.
[edit] See also
- Centrist Party
- Modern Whig Party and Modern Whig philosophy
- New American Independent Party
- New Democrat Coalition
- New Labour
- Nordic Centre parties
- Populism
- Populist Party
- Radical Center
- Red tory
- Rockefeller Republican
- Third way
- World's Smallest Political Quiz
- Compare: Syncretic Politics
[edit] References
- ^ a b Iran Daily - Dot Coms - 05-31-07, Bertie's Challenge, 5th paragraph
- ^ Irish Poll Hits Fianna Fáil, 2nd paragraph
