Centre-left politics
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Centre-left politics, or moderate left politics, is an adherence to views leaning to the left but closer to the centre on the left-right political spectrum than other left-wing variants. Centre leftists believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice.[1] The centre-left promotes a degree of social equality that it believes is achievable through promoting equal opportunity.[2] The centre-left has promoted luck egalitarianism, which emphasises the achievement of equality requires personal responsibility in areas in control by the individual person through their abilities and talents, and social responsibility in areas outside control by the individual person in their abilities or talents.[3]
The centre-left opposes a wide gap between the rich and the poor and supports moderate measures to reduce the economic gap, such as a progressive income tax, laws prohibiting child labour, minimum wage laws, laws regulating working conditions, limits on working hours, and laws to ensure the workers' right to organise.[2] The centre-left, unlike the far-left, typically claims that complete equality of outcome is not possible (sometimes not even desirable), but instead that equal opportunity improves a degree of equality of outcome in society.[2]
In Europe, the centre-left includes social democrats, social liberals, greens, progressives and also some democratic socialists.[citation needed] Some social liberals are described as centre-left, but also many social liberals are in the centre of the political spectrum.[4][5]
Positions associated with centre-left
The main ideologies of the centre-left are social democracy[citation needed], social liberalism, green politics, and sometimes democratic socialism[citation needed].
Throughout the world, centre-left groups generally support:
- A mixed economy consisting of both private enterprise and publicly owned or subsidised programmes of education, universal health care, child care and related social services for all citizens.
- A useful system of social security, with the stated goal of counteracting the effects of poverty and insuring the general public against loss of income following illness, unemployment or retirement (National Insurance contributions)
- Government bodies that regulate private enterprise in the interests of workers and consumers by ensuring labour rights (i.e. supporting worker access to trade unions), consumer protections, and fair market competition.
- A progressive taxation that includes tax breaks and subsidies for those under poverty extended from Government.
- A wealth tax and/or a value-added tax to fund government expenditures.
- Public investments and Keynesianism.
The term may be used to imply positions on the environment, religion, public morality, et cetera, but these are usually not the defining characteristics, since centre-right parties may take similar positions on these issues.[6] A centre-left party may or may not be more concerned with reducing industrial emissions than a centre-right party.[7][8]
See also
Centre left publications
References
- ^ Oliver H. Woshinsky. Explaining Politics: Culture, Institutions, and Political Behavior. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2008. Pp. 146.
- ^ a b c Oliver H. Woshinsky. Explaining Politics: Culture, Institutions, and Political Behavior. Oxon, England, UK; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, 2008. Pp. 143.
- ^ Dr. Chris Armstrong. Rethinking Equality: The Challenge of Equal Citizenship. Manchester, England, UK: Manchester University Press, 2006. P. 89.
- ^ John W. Cioffi and Martin Höpner (21 April 2006). "Interests, Preferences, and Center-Left Party Politics in Corporate Governance Reform" (PDF). Council for European Studies at Columbia University. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ Manfred Ertel, Hans-Jürgen Schlamp and Stefan Simons (24 September 2009). "The Credibility Trap – Europe's Center-Left Parties Stuck in a Dead End". Der Spiegel. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ John Lloyd (2 October 2009). "Europe's centre-left suffers in the squeezed middle". Financial Times. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ "Spotlight on pollution and the environment". Workers Power. 8 May 2008. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
- ^ Tierra Curry (6 November 2009). "Dirty Coal Czar Confirmed by Senate". Center for Biological Diversity. Retrieved 14 November 2009.
External links
- "Leftist parties of the world". Nico Biver. Retrieved 14 November 2009.