Centrism is a
political
Politics (from , ) is the set of activities that are associated with making decisions in groups, or other forms of power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of resources or status. The branch of social science that stud ...
outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of
social equality
Social equality is a state of affairs in which all individuals within a specific society have equal rights, liberties, and status, possibly including civil rights, freedom of expression, autonomy, and equal access to certain public goods and ...
and a degree of
social hierarchy
Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As ...
while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to
the left or
the right.
Both
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
and
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
politics involve a general association with centrism that is combined with leaning somewhat to their respective sides of the
left–right political spectrum
The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions characteristic of left-right politics, ideologies and parties with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to position ...
. Various political ideologies, such as
Christian democracy,
Pancasila, and certain forms of
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
like
social liberalism
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
, can be classified as centrist, as can the
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
, a modern political movement that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating for a synthesis of centre-right economic platforms with centre-left social policies.
Usage by political parties by country
Australia
There have been centrists on both sides of politics who serve alongside the various factions within the
Liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
and
Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the la ...
parties. Centrism is represented by the
moderates
Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...
in the Liberal Party and
Labor Right
The Labor Right, also known as Modern Labor, is a political faction of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) at the national level that is characterised by being more economically conservative and, in some cases, more socially conservative. The Labor ...
in the Labor Party.
The
Australian Democrats
The Australian Democrats is a centrist political party in Australia. Founded in 1977 from a merger of the Australia Party and the New Liberal Movement, both of which were descended from Liberal Party dissenting splinter groups, it was Austral ...
are the most prominent centrist party in Australian history. The party had representation in the senate from 1977 to 2007, frequently holding the balance of power. Formed by
Don Chipp on a promise to "Keep the Bastards Honest", it was known to have represented the "middle ground". The party regained registration in 2019.
In addition, many smaller groups have formed in response to the bipartisan system that uphold centrist ideals. South Australian Senator
Nick Xenophon
Nick Xenophon ( Nicholas Xenophou; born 29 January 1959) is an Australian politician and lawyer who was a Senator for South Australia from 2008 to 2017. He was the leader of two political parties: Nick Xenophon Team federally, and Nick Xenophon ...
launched his centrist political party called the
Nick Xenophon Team
Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the House of Represe ...
(NXT) in 2014, renamed
Centre Alliance
Centre Alliance, formerly known as the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), is a centrist political party in Australia based in the state of South Australia. It currently has one representative in the Parliament, Rebekha Sharkie in the Australian House o ...
in 2018.
Belgium
The traditional centrist party of
Flanders
Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to cultu ...
was the
People's Union which embraced
social liberalism
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
and aimed to represent Dutch-speaking Belgians who felt culturally suppressed by Francophones. The
New Flemish Alliance
The New Flemish Alliance ( nl, Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) is a Flemish nationalist and conservative political party in Belgium. The party was founded in 2001 by the right-leaning fraction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU).
...
is the largest and, since 2009, the only extant successor of that party. It is, however, primarily composed of the right wing of the former People's Union and has adopted a more
liberal-conservative
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by libe ...
ideology in recent years.
Among French-speaking Belgians, the
Humanist Democratic Centre
Humanist Democratic Centre (french: Centre Démocrate Humaniste, CDH) was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) w ...
is a centre party as it is considerably less
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
than its Flemish counterpart,
Christian Democratic and Flemish
Christian Democratic and Flemish (, , CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism (ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...
.
Other parties in the centre of the political spectrum are the liberal
Reformist Movement
The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions.
The party is in coalition as ...
and the French-speaking minority party
DéFI
DéFI () is a social-liberal, liberal, regionalist political party in Belgium mainly known for defending French-speakers’ interests in and near the Brussels region. The party is led by François de Smet, a member of the Chamber of Represen ...
.
Brazil
There are several centrist parties in Brazil, such as the
Brazilian Democratic Movement
The Brazilian Democratic Movement ( pt, Movimento Democrático Brasileiro, MDB) is a Brazilian political party. It is considered a "big tent party" and it is one of the parties with the greatest representation throughout the national territory, ...
(MDB), a
catch-all party, one of the largest political parties in Brazil.
The
Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) is another example of a centrist party in Brazilian politics.
Other centrist parties include the
Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011)
The Social Democratic Party ( pt, Partido Social Democrático, PSD) is a political party in Brazil led by Gilberto Kassab and uniting dissidents from various political parties, especially the Democrats, Brazilian Social Democracy Party and Pro ...
(PSD),
Green Party (Brazil)
The Green Party ( pt, Partido Verde, PV) is a political party in Brazil. It was constituted after the military dictatorship period and, like other green parties around the world, is committed to establishing a set of policies on ensuring social ...
(PV),
Citizenship (Brazil) (CID),
PODEMOS (PODE) and
Republican Party of the Social Order
The Republican Party of the Social Order (Portuguese: ''Partido Republicano da Ordem Social'', ''PROS'') is a political party in Brazil, founded in 2010, and officially recognized in 2013.[pejoratively
A pejorative or slur is a word or grammatical form expressing a negative or a disrespectful connotation, a low opinion, or a lack of respect toward someone or something. It is also used to express criticism, hostility, or disregard. Sometimes, a ...]
called
Centrão
In Brazilian politics, the ''centrão'' ( – ) refers to a group of political parties that do not have a specific or consistent ideological orientation and aim at ensuring proximity to the executive branch in order to guarantee advantages and al ...
(The Big Center)..
Canada
Throughout modern history,
Canadian government
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in ...
s at the federal level have governed from a
moderate
Moderate is an ideological category which designates a rejection of radical or extreme views, especially in regard to politics and religion. A moderate is considered someone occupying any mainstream position avoiding extreme views. In American ...
, centrist political position, practising "brokerage politics".
Both the
Liberal Party of Canada and the
Conservative Party of Canada (or its
predecessors) rely on attracting support from a broad spectrum of voters.
The historically predominant Liberals position themselves at the centre of the Canadian political scale, being more moderate and centrist than the
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
Conservative.
In the late 1970s, Prime Minister
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada from 1968 to 1979 and ...
claimed that his Liberal Party of Canada adhered to the "
radical center
The term radical center can refer to:
* Radical centrism, a political movement
* a mathematical construct: also called the power center (geometry)
In geometry, the power center of three circles, also called the radical center, is the interse ...
".
[Graham, Ron, ed. (1998). ''The Essential Trudeau''. McClelland & Stewart, p. 71. .] Far-left and
far-right politics have never been a prominent force in Canadian society.
Croatia
Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats
The Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democrats ( hr, Hrvatska narodna stranka – Liberalni demokrati or HNS – LD) is a social-liberal political party in Croatia.
As of April 2015 HNS forms a parliamentary club with 5 members in the Croati ...
and
People's Party – Reformists
People's Party – Reformists ( hr, Narodna stranka – Reformisti or NS-R) is a liberal political party in Croatia.
History
The civil initiative for the establishment of the party was launched by former Croatian People's Party – Liberal Democr ...
may be considered centrist parties. The agrarian
Croatian Peasant Party
The Croatian Peasant Party ( hr, Hrvatska seljačka stranka, HSS) is an agrarian political party in Croatia founded on 22 December 1904 by Antun and Stjepan Radić as Croatian Peoples' Peasant Party (HPSS). The Brothers Radić believed that t ...
became moderate and centrist during its last years, having been centre-right in the past.
Czech Republic
The
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...
has many prominent centrist parties, including the
syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
movement
ANO 2011
ANO 2011, often shortened to simply ANO ("Yes" in English), the initials meaning Action of Dissatisfied Citizens ( cs, Akce nespokojených občanů), is a populist political party in the Czech Republic. The party was founded by Andrej Babiš.
Hi ...
, the
civil libertarian
Civil libertarianism is a strain of political thought that supports civil liberties, or which emphasizes the supremacy of individual rights and personal freedoms over and against any kind of authority (such as a state, a corporation, social no ...
Czech Pirate Party
The Czech Pirate Party or Pirates ( cs, Česká pirátská strana , abbreviated ''Piráti'' ) is a liberal progressive political party in the Czech Republic, founded in 2009. The party was founded as a student-driven grassroots movement campaig ...
, the long-standing
Christian and Democratic Union – Czechoslovak People's Party
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρισ ...
and the
localist
Localism describes a range of political philosophies which prioritize the local. Generally, localism supports local production and consumption of goods, local control of government, and promotion of local history, local culture and local identi ...
party
Mayors and Independents
The Mayors and Independents ( cs, Starostové a nezávislí), abbreviated to STAN, is a liberal political party in the Czech Republic that is focused on localism and subsidiarity. The party grew out of four minor parties, including Independe ...
.
Estonia
France
France has a tradition of parties that call themselves "''centriste''", though the actual parties vary over time: when a new political issue emerges and a new political party breaks into the mainstream, the old centre-left party may be de facto pushed rightwards, but unable to consider itself a party of the right, it will embrace being the new centre: this process occurred with the
Orléanism,
Moderate Républicanism,
Radical Republicanism
Radicalism (from French , "radical") or classical radicalism was a historical political movement representing the leftward flank of liberalism during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and a precursor to social liberalism, social democ ...
and
Radical-Socialism.
Currently, the most notable centrist party is
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...
, founded by
Emmanuel Macron, elected
President of France
The president of France, officially the president of the French Republic (french: Président de la République française), is the executive head of state of France, and the commander-in-chief of the French Armed Forces. As the presidency i ...
in May 2017. Another party is the
Democratic Movement of
François Bayrou, founded in 2007, which was the successor of the
Christian democratic Union for French Democracy
The Union for French Democracy (french: Union pour la démocratie française, UDF) was a centre to centre-right political party in France. It was founded in 1978 as an electoral alliance to support President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in order to ...
.
Germany
![2010-11-29 JoachimGauck 211](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/2010-11-29_JoachimGauck_211.JPG)
The usual term in German for the political centre/centrism is ''politische Mitte'' (literally "political middle", or "political centre"). Historically, the German party with the most purely centrist nature among German parties to have had current or historical parliamentary representations was most likely the
social-liberal
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
German Democratic Party
The German Democratic Party (, or DDP) was a center-left liberal party in the Weimar Republic. Along with the German People's Party (, or DVP), it represented political liberalism in Germany between 1918 and 1933. It was formed in 1918 from the ...
of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
(1918–1933).
During the Weimar Republic (and again after the Nazi period), there existed a ''
Zentrum'', a party of German
Catholics founded in 1870. It was called Centre Party not for being a proper centrist party but because it united left-wing and right-wing Catholics, because it was the first German party to be a ''Volkspartei'' (
catch-all party) and because his elected representatives sat between the liberals (the left of the time) and the conservatives (the right of the time). However, it was distinctly right-wing conservative in that it was not neutral on religious issues (such as secular education), being markedly against more liberal and modernist positions.
The main successor of ''Zentrum'' after the return of democracy to West Germany in 1945, the
Christian Democratic Union, has, throughout its history, alternated between describing itself as right-wing or centrist and sitting on the right-wing (with the
Free Democratic Party in its social liberal moments sitting at its left, in the centre and themselves sitting at the centre, with the FDP in its
classical liberal
Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, econom ...
moments sitting at its right, in the right-wing). The representatives of the
Social Democratic Party of Germany, although they have referred to themselves as "the new middle" many times since the 1990s (under the influence of the
Third way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
of the time), however, they feel less at ease in describing their party as centrist due to their history and socialist identity.
Alliance 90/The Greens was founded in 1993 as a merger of the East German
Alliance 90 (a group of centrist/
transversalist civil rights activists) and the (West) German Greens. The latter was a coalition of various unorthodox-left politicians and more liberal "realists". This
Bundestag
The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...
party also hesitates in using the term centre, although it distances itself from the left, which identifies it for the moment as a transversalist party. The transversalist moderation of the party and its position in the Bundestag between the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats (while the FDP has its seats at the right of the Christian Democrats) also points somewhat to The Greens being a more or less centrist party.
In the state parliaments of specific German states, other specifically regional parties could be identified as centrist. The
South Schleswig Voter Federation of the Danish and Frisian minorities in the state of
Schleswig-Holstein
Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sc ...
currently has a centrist political position, although, in the past, the party usually leaned to the left. In the German presidential elections of
2009,
2010 and
2012
File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...
, it supported the candidates of the Social Democrats and the Greens. In Bavaria, the
Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
party at the state parliament may also be seen as a centrist party.
Greece
In modern Greek politics, the roots of centrism can be traced to centrist politician and founder of the
Agricultural and Labour Party
The Agricultural and Labour Party ( el, Αγροτικόν Εργατικόν Κόμμα) was a Greek political party. It was founded in 1926 by Alexandros Papanastasiou, a former member of the Liberal Party.
In the 1928 Greek legislative electi ...
,
Alexandros Papanastasiou
Alexandros Papanastasiou ( el, Αλέξανδρος Παπαναστασίου; 8 July 1876 – 17 November 1936) was a Greek lawyer, sociologist and politician who served twice as the Prime Minister of Greece in the interwar period, being a pione ...
. In 1961,
Georgios Papandreou
Georgios Papandreou ( ''Geórgios Papandréou''; 13 February 1888 – 1 November 1968) was a Greek politician, the founder of the Papandreou political dynasty. He served three terms as prime minister of Greece (1944–1945, 1963, 1964–196 ...
created, along with other political leaders, the coalition party of the
Centre Union
The Centre Union ( el, Ἕνωσις Κέντρου ''Énōsis Kéntrou'', abbreviated ΕΚ) was a major centrist political party in Greece, created in 1961 by Georgios Papandreou.Clogg, 1987, pp. 39–40
History
The Centre Union was a politica ...
. Five parties were merged: Liberal Party, Progressive Agricultural Democratic Union, National Progressive Center Union, and Popular Social Party into one, with strong centrist agenda, opposed equally to the right-wing party of the National Radical Union and the left-wing party of the United Democratic Left. The Centre Union Party was the last Venizelist party to hold power in Greece. The party nominally continued to exist until 1977 (after the Junta, known as the
Center Union – New Forces), when its successor Union of the Democratic Centre (EDIK) party was created.
Union of Centrists
The Union of Centrists ( el, Ένωση Κεντρώων, Énosi Kentróon, ) is a centrist, liberal political party in Greece. The leader and founder of the party is the veteran anti-corruption activist Vassilis Leventis. It strongly supports G ...
was created by
Vassilis Leventis in 1992 under the title "Union of Centrists and Ecologists", though the name was changed shortly after. The Union of Centrists claims to be the ideological continuation of the old party Center Union. The party strives to become "the political continuance of the centrist expression in Greece". Leventis aimed to become part of the Venizelist legacy of some great politicians of the past, such as Eleftherios Venizelos and George Papandreou Sr. However, the party's total influence had been marginal until 2015, with 1.8% of the total votes (in the
January 2015 Greek legislative election
Legislative elections were held in Greece on Sunday 25 January 2015 to elect all 300 members to the Hellenic Parliament in accordance with the constitution. The election was held earlier than scheduled due to the failure of the Greek parliament t ...
) being its highest achievement before finally making its way to the
Greek Parliament
The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule of the Hellenes, label=none), also known as the Parliament of the He ...
in September 2015 with 3.4% of the total votes and nine members elected.
India
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...
,
Aam Aadmi Party and
Nationalist Congress Party
The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...
are the centrist national parties.
Two state parties,
Bharat Rashtra Samithi, and
Telugu Desam Party
The Telugu Desam Party (; TDP) is an Indian regional political party operating in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana at the state and central level. Since its founding by N. T. Rama Rao (often referred to as NTR) on 29 March 1982, the party has fo ...
are also described as centrist along with
Actor turned politician
Kamal Haasan's party named
Makkal Needhi Maiam, meaning People's Centre for Justice.
Ireland
In the
Republic of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...
, both main political parties (
Fianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...
and
Fine Gael
Fine Gael (, ; English: "Family (or Tribe) of the Irish") is a liberal-conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Ireland. Fine Gael is currently the third-largest party in the Republic of Ireland in terms of members of Dáil ...
) claim the political centre ground but lean to the centre-right.
[Iran Daily – Dot Coms – 05-31-07, Bertie's Challenge](_blank)
, 5th paragraph The two parties have broadly similar policies, with their primary division being in
Irish Civil War politics. Fine Gael is aligned with
Christian democratic parties in Europe via its membership in the
European People's Party.
Israel
In
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, centrism is represented by the
Yesh Atid
Yesh Atid ( he, יֵשׁ עָתִיד, , There Is a Future) is a liberal political party in Israel. Founded by Yair Lapid in 2012, it seeks to represent what it considers the centre of Israeli society: the secular middle class. It focuses pr ...
Party led by
Yair Lapid
Yair Lapid ( he, יָאִיר לַפִּיד, transliterated: , ; born 5 November 1963) is an Israeli politician and former journalist who has been serving as the 14th prime minister of Israel since 1 July 2022. He previously served as the alt ...
, the current
prime minister of Israel
The prime minister of Israel ( he, רֹאשׁ הַמֶּמְשָׁלָה, Rosh HaMemshala, Head of the Government, Hebrew acronym: he2, רה״מ; ar, رئيس الحكومة, ''Ra'īs al-Ḥukūma'') is the head of government and chief exec ...
. The party was founded in 2013 and has remained a major player on the political scene. It served in government between 2013 and 2015, with Lapid serving as Israel's Finance Minister and a member of the Security Cabinet. In 2020, after a year of political turmoil in Israel, Yair Lapid became the
Leader of the Opposition to the fifth government of
Benjamin Netanyahu
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu (; ; born 21 October 1949) is an Israeli politician who served as the ninth prime minister of Israel from 1996 to 1999 and again from 2009 to 2021. He is currently serving as Leader of the Opposition and Chairman of ...
, and in 2021 he was sworn in as
Minister of Foreign Affairs
A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between co ...
in the government of
Naftali Bennett
Naftali Bennett ( he, נַפְתָּלִי בֶּנֶט, Transliterated: , ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minist ...
. After that, he became the prime minister of Israel in June 2022.
Yair Lapid published a long political essay entitled ''Only the center can hold: Democracy and the battle of ideas'' in which he laid out his vision of political centrism in Israel. The essay was originally published in Hebrew in Haaretz under the title "Not, just not Bibi. In this battle of ideas the center has solutions"
Japan
After World War II, the right-wing
Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) became the ruling force in Japan from 1955 and was opposed to the left-wing
Japan Socialist Party
The was a socialist and progressive political party in Japan that existed from 1945 to 1996. The party was founded as the Social Democratic Party of Japan by members of several proletarian parties that existed before World War II, including ...
(JSP). This is called the
1955 System. However, since the 1960s, centrist parties have emerged,
old Komeito,
the
Democratic Socialist Party,
and the
Socialist Democratic Federation.
In 1992, reformers left the right-wing LDP and founded the centre to centre-right liberal
Japan New Party
The was a Japanese political party that existed briefly from 1992 to 1994.
The party, considered liberal, was founded by Morihiro Hosokawa, a former Diet member and Kumamoto Prefecture governor, who left the Liberal Democratic Party to protest ...
, but it was disbanded after two years.
The
New Frontier Party (NFP) was founded by politicians with various ideologies, including
Buddhist democrats,
social democrat
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soc ...
s,
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
s, and
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
s. The NFP was a political coalition to oppose the LDP, and is therefore generally regarded as a centrist party, although it had no coherent ideology.
Founded in 1998 by moderates of the conservative LDP and the socialist JSP, the
Democratic Party of Japan
The was a centristThe Democratic Party of Japan was widely described as centrist:
*
*
*
*
*
*
* to centre-left liberal or social-liberal political party in Japan from 1998 to 2016.
The party's origins lie in the previous Democratic ...
(DPJ) advocated
liberalism
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality and equality before the law."political rationalism, hostility to autocracy, cultural distaste for c ...
and "Democratic Centrism" (
民主中道) as its main ideology. The
Democratic Party for the People
The , abbreviated to DPP or DPFP, is a centre to centre-right political party in Japan. The party was formed on 7 May 2018 from the merger of the Democratic Party and Kibō no Tō (''Party of Hope'').
In September 2020 a majority of the par ...
(DPP), which continues the current DPJ trend, is advocating "
reformist
Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement.
Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...
centrism" (改革中道). The
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan
The (CDP or CDPJ) is a social-liberal political party in Japan.
It was founded in October 2017 as a split from the Democratic Party ahead of the 2017 general election. In late 2020, the party was re-founded following a merger with majori ...
(CDP) is more
progressive in inheriting DPJ liberalism, but at the same time advocates for traditional Japanese virtues.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, four moderate centrist to centre-right parties have sent members into the
Third Rutte cabinet
The third Rutte cabinet was the cabinet of the Netherlands from 26 October 2017 until 10 January 2022 (since 15 January 2021 demissionary). It was formed by a coalition government of the political parties People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ...
since 2017. From them, the
Christian Democratic Appeal
The Christian Democratic Appeal ( nl, Christen-Democratisch Appèl, ; CDA) is a Christian-democratic political party in the Netherlands. It was originally formed in 1977 from a confederation of the Catholic People's Party, the Anti-Revolution ...
(CDA) and the
People's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy ( nl, Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie ; VVD) is a conservative-liberal Andeweg, R. and G. Irwin ''Politics and Governance in the Netherlands'', Basingstoke (Palgrave) p.49 political party in ...
(VVD) tend to be
centre-right
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and ...
, whilst the social liberal
Democrats 66 (D66) are more centrist. The
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...
Christian Union is a small
Christian Democratic party with transversalist positions less typical in European centrist parties. Whilst it is left-leaning on immigration, welfare and the environment, it is more conservative on social issues, such as
drugs and
euthanasia. They have participated in several coalitions due to their moderate centrist politics.
Another centrist party is the
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
Pensioners' interests party
50PLUS
50PLUS (; abbreviated 50+) is a political party in the Netherlands that advocates pensioners' interests. The party was founded in 2009 by Maurice Koopman, Alexander Münninghoff, and Jan Nagel. Henk Krol served as the party's leader from 2016 to ...
which combines
social democratic,
social liberal
Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
and
social conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social instituti ...
positions.
Livable Netherlands
Livable Netherlands ( nl, Leefbaar Nederland, LN) was a Dutch political party. Pim Fortuyn began his political career in the party.
History
Historically there have always been parties in States Provincial (provincial legislatures) and municipa ...
was originally a centrist political movement of local grass-root parties with an anti-establishment touch similar to early D66. However, the party entered in 2002 national parliament with a
right-wing populist
Right-wing populism, also called national populism and right-wing nationalism, is a political ideology that combines right-wing politics and populist rhetoric and themes. Its rhetoric employs anti- elitist sentiments, opposition to the Establ ...
programme based
on security and immigration as the major issues.
In the 1980s and 1990s, two self-described "centre" parties, the
Centre Party and the
Centre Democrats, were represented in the
Dutch parliament
The States General of the Netherlands ( nl, Staten-Generaal ) is the supreme bicameral legislature of the Netherlands consisting of the Senate () and the House of Representatives (). Both chambers meet at the Binnenhof in The Hague.
The States ...
at some point. However, these parties were considered
far right (in the case of the Centre Democrats) or even
extreme right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
(in the case of the Centre Party) in their opinion about foreign immigration. Both parties denied being racist or extremist. The party slogan of the Center Party was ''"niet rechts, niet links"'' ("Neither rightist nor leftist"), and in some respect could be seen as a centrist (or more correctly,
Third Position
The Third Position is a set of neo-fascist political ideologies that were first described in Western Europe following the Second World War. Developed in the context of the Cold War, it developed its name through the claim that it represented a ...
) party since it borrowed ideas from the political (far) right (a tough stand on immigration combined with typical racial prejudice) and the political left (
mixed economy
A mixed economy is variously defined as an economic system blending elements of a market economy with elements of a planned economy, markets with state interventionism, or private enterprise with public enterprise. Common to all mixed economie ...
, green politics). However, both parties did not have a coherent ideology; they were one-issue parties focused on what they perceived as mass immigration from non-European countries.
New Zealand
Centrism in New Zealand has only been mainstream since
New Zealand First was founded in 1993. The party platforms itself on a broad centrist position mainly on economic issues, populism and while being generally
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
on social issues, favoring
binding referenda instead of MPs making major social decisions.
New Zealand First could be described as
Syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
politically, or adopting key elements from the traditional left-right political spectrum. The party has often found themselves the
kingmakers under the
MMP electoral system, meaning that they choose who will form the next government. This has happened on two occasions, in 1996, and in 2017.
Small centrist parties such as
The Opportunities Party (TOP) have been formed in the past, but they have not gained major support and have never passed the 5% threshold to enter parliament. The role of centrism in New Zealand has been mainly to work with parties to form coalition governments and to provide alternatives to governments, and their ability to do so is mainly due to the
Mixed-Member Proportional Representation electoral system which provides more ground for minor parties in Parliament. In the
2020 New Zealand general election
The 2020 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 to determine the composition of the 53rd parliament. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, 72 from single-member electorates and 48 from closed ...
where
Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Kate Laurell Ardern ( ; born 26 July 1980) is a New Zealand politician who has been serving as the 40th prime minister of New Zealand and leader of the Labour Party since 2017. A member of the Labour Party, she has been the member of ...
and the
New Zealand Labour Party achieved a majority in the
New Zealand House of Representatives,
New Zealand First was not re-elected to Parliament due to the party's inability to reach the 5% threshold to enter parliament. As a result, the current
53rd New Zealand Parliament
The 53rd New Zealand Parliament is the current session of Parliament in New Zealand. It opened on 25 November 2020 following the 17 October 2020 general election, and will expire on or before 20 November 2023 to trigger the next election. It ...
has no political parties defined as "centrist".
Nordic countries
In most of the
Nordic countries, there are
Nordic agrarian parties The Nordic agrarian parties, also referred to as Nordic Centre parties, Scandinavian agrarian parties or Agrarian Liberal parties are agrarian political parties that belong to a political tradition particular to the Nordic countries. Positioning th ...
. In addition to the centrist position on the socio-economic left-right scale, these share a clear, separate ideology.
This position is centred on
decentralisation, a commitment to
small business and
environmental protection
Environmental protection is the practice of protecting the natural environment by individuals, organizations and governments. Its objectives are to conserve natural resources and the existing natural environment and, where possible, to repair dam ...
. Centrists have aligned themselves with the
Liberal International
Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...
and
European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party
European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to:
In general
* ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe
** Ethnic groups in Europe
** Demographics of Europe
** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe a ...
. Historically, 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
Centre Party.
Neither the
Centre Democrats (a now-defunct centrist political party) nor the
Liberal Alliance (a political party founded as a centrist social liberal party, but that now is a classical liberal party), both of Denmark, are rooted in centrist agrarianism.
Pakistan
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), founded by
Imran Khan
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...
, claims to be a centrist political party. Following the
general election of 2013, PTI emerged as the second-largest political party in Pakistan by number of votes. In July 2018, it won the general elections of Pakistan and
Imran Khan
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi ( ur}; born 5 October 1952) is a Pakistani politician and former Cricket captain who served as the 22nd Prime Minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to until April 2022, when he was ousted through a no-confidenc ...
, its chairman, became Prime Minister.
Palestine
The
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
is a small centrist Palestinian political party active in Palestinian politics. Founded on 16 December 2005, the party is led by
Salam Fayyad
Salam Fayyad ( ar, سلام فياض, ; born 1951 or 12 April 1952) is a Jordanian-Palestinian politician and former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority and Finance Minister.
He was Finance Minister from June 2002 to November 2005 and ...
and
Hanan Ashrawi
Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi ( ar, حنان داوود مخايل عشراوي ; born 8 October 1946) is a Palestinian politician, legislator, activist, and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson ...
.
In the January 2006 PLC elections, it received 2.4% of the popular vote and won two of the
Council's 132 seats. The party presents itself as an alternative to the two-party system of
Hamas
Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam ...
and
Fatah.
Poland
Civic Platform
Civic Platform ( pl, Platforma Obywatelska, PO)The party is officially the Civic Platform of the Republic of Poland (''Platforma Obywatelska Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''). is a political party in Poland. It is currently led by Donald Tusk.
It ...
(PO), ruling from 2007–2015, began in 2001 as a
liberal conservative
Liberal conservatism is a political ideology combining conservative policies with liberal stances, especially on economic issues but also on social and ethical matters, representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by li ...
party but later, under the leadership of
Donald Tusk
Donald Franciszek Tusk ( , ; born 22 April 1957) is a Polish politician who was President of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He served as the 14th Prime Minister of Poland from 2007 to 2014 and was a co-founder and leader of the Civic ...
, became typically centrist to attract left-leaning liberal voters. Depending on the context, it is described as either
Christian democratic (it is a member of the
European People's Party), conservative, liberal, or social. Its pragmatism, technocracy and lack of ideology have nevertheless been criticized. Under
Grzegorz Schetyna
Grzegorz Juliusz Schetyna () (born 18 February 1963) is a Polish politician who has been Leader of Civic Platform and Leader of the Opposition from 26 January 2016 to 25 January 2020. He has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland fro ...
, it announced that it shifted to the right. Under its current leader
Borys Budka, as a part of the
Civic Coalition, it turned to progressivism again, as seen by policies proposed by their candidate,
Rafał Trzaskowski
Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski (; born 17 January 1972) is a Polish politician and the current city mayor of Warsaw. He is also a political scientist specializing in European studies.
He served as a Member of the European Parliament (2009–2013) ...
, in the
2020 presidential election. Other political groups, such as
Polish People's Party
The Polish People's Party ( pl, Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe, PSL) is an agrarian political party in Poland. It is currently led by Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz.
Its history traces back to 1895, when it held the name People's Party, although i ...
(PSL), may be described as centrist too. In contrast, the national-moral right-wing
Law and Justice is
socially conservative
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institution ...
while usually at the same time being economically left-wing and favourable to
protectionist
Protectionism, sometimes referred to as trade protectionism, is the economic policy of restricting imports from other countries through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, import quotas, and a variety of other government regulations. ...
policies). The most recent political party in the
Polish parliament
The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the ''Sejm'' complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does not ...
,
Poland 2050
Szymon Hołownia's Poland 2050 ( pl, Polska 2050 Szymona Hołowni, PL2050) is a centrist political party in Poland.
It was founded as a social movement in 2020, shortly after the presidential election. It was officially registered as a politic ...
, led by
Szymon Hołownia, has been described as ideologically centrist with strong
pragmatic
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement.
Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to:
*Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy
*Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics
*''Pragmatics'', an academic journal in ...
influences.
Spain
The only national party that defends itself as a centrist party is
Citizens, whose platform is increasingly perceived as right-wing by Spanish citizens, as the
Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas
The Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas ("Centre for Sociological Research") or CIS is a Spanish public research institute. It was founded in 1963 as the Instituto de la Opinión Pública, and in 1977, after the Spanish general election in ...
surveys show. In April 2018, Ciudadanos obtained a 6.77 when ranging political parties from 1 to 10, where one was farthest left and ten its equivalent on the right. It first entered the
Cortes Generales
The Cortes Generales (; en, Spanish Parliament, lit=General Courts) are the bicameral legislative chambers of Spain, consisting of the Congress of Deputies (the lower house), and the Senate (the upper house).
The Congress of Deputies meet ...
in 2015.
In Catalonia, where the party was born, many people even consider it an extreme right-wing party, considering its fierce "opposition to nationalism". Not even the media agree on its place, and several newspapers from different ideologies manifest that Citizens is either left or right, depending on their political line. Regardless of subjective opinions, the truth is that Ciudadanos has always tried to reach agreements with
Union, Progress and Democracy
Union, Progress and Democracy ( es, link=no, Unión, Progreso y Democracia , UPyD ) was a Spanish political party founded in September 2007 and dissolved in December 2020. It was a social-liberal party that rejected any form of nationalism, espe ...
(UPyD), which Spanish voters most traditionally consider to be the closest to the centre according to several opinion polls. This popular perception was pointed out by UPyD, which positions itself simultaneously on the political centre and cross-sectionalism, thus embracing ideas across the political spectrum.
UPyD has lost many of its voters to Ciudadanos, the latter counting with ten representatives in the Spanish Congress in the last election. Electors also consider as centrists the
Convergence and Union
Convergence and Union ( ca, Convergència i Unió, CiU; ) was a Catalan nationalist electoral alliance in Catalonia, Spain. It was a federation of two constituent parties, the larger Democratic Convergence of Catalonia (CDC) and its smaller coun ...
coalition from
Catalonia
Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy.
Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
and the
Basque Nationalist Party from the
Spanish Basque Country
The Basque Country (; eu, Euskadi ; es, País Vasco ), also called Basque Autonomous Community ( eu, Euskal Autonomia Erkidegoa, links=no, EAE; es, Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco, links=no, CAPV), is an autonomous community of Spain. It ...
, although these two usually consider themselves as right-centrist parties.
Switzerland
In
Switzerland, the political centre (in
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
: ''die Mitte''; in
French: ''le Centre'';
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
: ''il Centro'') is traditionally occupied by the so-called "bourgeois" parties:
FDP.The Liberals
french: PLR.Les Libéraux-Radicaux it, PLR.I Liberali Radicali rm, PLD.Ils Liberals
, logo =
, caption = Logo of the party in French, German, and Italian
, leader1_title = President
, leader1_name = Thierry Burkart ...
(centre-right), the
Christian Democratic People's Party (centre to centre-right) and the much smaller
Evangelical People's Party (centre to centre-left).
Recently, some new parties were founded that claimed to be part of the political centre: the
Conservative Democratic Party (centre to centre-right), a split from the right-wing populist
Swiss People's Party and a self-styled centre party and the
Green Liberal Party (centre), a split from the leftist
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
.
The
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
is considered to be more to the left than to the centre.
In Switzerland, the centrist parties tend to cooperate closely in Canton parliaments and municipal councils.
United Kingdom
In 1981,
Roy Jenkins,
David Owen,
Shirley Williams
Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, (' Catlin; 27 July 1930 – 12 April 2021) was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from ...
and
Bill Rodgers, known collectively as the "Gang of Four", launched the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
Fo ...
, outlining their policies in what became known as the
Limehouse Declaration
The Limehouse Declaration was a statement issued on 25 January 1981 by four senior British Labour politicians, all MPs or former MPs and Cabinet Ministers: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams. It became known as the Lim ...
. The "Gang of Four" were centrists who defected from the
Labour Party because of what they perceived to be the influence of
Militant and the "
hard left
In the United Kingdom, the hard left are the left-wing political movements and ideas outside the mainstream centre-left.*
*
Term
The term was first used in the context of debates within both the Labour Party and the broader left in the 1980 ...
" within it.
The SDP merged with the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
in 1988 to create the centrist
Liberal Democrats.
In the mid to late 1990s, Labour, under the leadership of
Tony Blair
Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...
, began to move towards a centrist
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
policy platform, adopting the campaign name
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
. The New Labour era ended when Blair's successor
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...
lost the
2010 United Kingdom general election to the Conservatives. Brown's successor as leader,
Ed Miliband
Edward Samuel "Ed" Miliband (born 24 December 1969) is a British politician serving as Shadow Secretary of State for Climate Change and Net Zero since 2021. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Doncaster North since 2005. Miliban ...
, moved the party to the left of New Labour. The
Blue Labour movement, launched in 2009, attempted to cultivate a new path for Labour centrism that would appeal to socially conservative working-class voters. The party later moved decisively to the left when the socialist
Jeremy Corbyn
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...
became the leader in 2015 due to the introduction of a
one member one vote
In the parliamentary politics of the United Kingdom and Canada, one member, one vote (OMOV) is a method of selecting party leaders, and determining party policy, by a direct vote of the members of a political party. Traditionally, these objectives ...
system under Miliband.
In 2011,
Nick Clegg
Sir Nicholas William Peter Clegg (born 7 January 1967) is a British media executive and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom who has been president for global affairs at Meta Platforms since 2022, having previously been vicep ...
, then leader of the
Liberal Democrats and
Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, stated that he believed that his party belonged to the radical centre, mentioning
John Maynard Keynes
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...
,
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge, (5 March 1879 – 16 March 1963) was a British economist and Liberal politician who was a progressive and social reformer who played a central role in designing the British welfare state. His 19 ...
,
Jo Grimond
Joseph Grimond, Baron Grimond, (; 29 July 1913 – 24 October 1993), known as Jo Grimond, was a British politician, leader of the Liberal Party for eleven years from 1956 to 1967 and again briefly on an interim basis in 1976.
Grimond was a lo ...
,
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...
and
John Stuart Mill as examples that preceded the Liberal Democrats' establishment in 1988. He pointed to liberalism as an ideology of people and described the political spectrum and his party's position as follows: "For the left, an obsession with the state. For the right, a worship of the market. But as liberals, we place our faith in people. People with power and opportunity in their hands. Our opponents try to divide us with their outdated labels of left and right. But we are not on the left and we are not on the right. We have our own label: Liberal. We are liberals and we own the freehold to the centre ground of British politics. Our politics is the politics of the radical centre."
In the mid to late 2000s,
David Cameron also moved the Conservative Party towards the centre and, after the 2010 general election, formed a
coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In the
2015 United Kingdom general election, the Conservatives gained a majority, and the Liberal Democrats lost most of their seats. They regained a small number of seats in the
2017 United Kingdom general election. On her appointment as Prime Minister, Cameron's successor,
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...
, stated her wish to tackle social inequality and adopted some of Ed Miliband's policies, such as regulating energy companies. However, the party's 2017 manifesto was seen as a sharp break from the centre ground, appealing to traditionally Tory heartland issues in the aftermath of the UK's
Brexit referendum.
Following the
Brexit referendum, politics in the UK was seen as having reverted to traditionally polarised "left and right" politics. For the 2017 election, the group
More United was set up in the vein of the US
Super PAC model to support candidates from multiple parties who meet its values; it supported primarily Labour and Lib Dem MP and one Conservative. In 2018, a group set up by Simon Franks amassed £50 million to start a new centrist political party in the UK to field candidates at the next general election. It was reportedly named
United for Change.
In early 2019, difficulties and party clashes regarding Brexit caused many Labour and Conservative MPs to leave their parties, forming a
pro-European
Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Politi ...
group named
The Independent Group for Change. They later announced their intention to register as a formal party named
Change UK
The Independent Group for Change, also known as Change UK, was a British centrist, pro-European Union political party, founded in February 2019 and dissolved ten months later, shortly after all its MPs lost their seats in the 2019 general e ...
. Most sources identified the party as centrist, with Change UK MP
Chris Leslie
Christopher Michael Leslie (born 28 June 1972) is a British politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley from 1997 to 2005 and Nottingham East from 2010 to 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he defected to form ...
describing the party as "offering a home to those on the
centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
". Former Change UK MP
Chuka Umunna
Chuka Harrison Umunna (; born 17 October 1978) is a British retired politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Streatham from 2010 until 2019. A former member of the Labour Party, he was part of the Shadow Cabinet from 2011 to ...
joined the
Liberal Democrats shortly after the party's formation after disappointing results in the
2019 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results were announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countri ...
. After losing all its MPs in the
2019 United Kingdom general election, the party was disbanded.
United States
After
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, centrism was a dominant political philosophy in the United States but lacked its party in the traditionally two-party country. For example, historian
Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
Arthur Meier Schlesinger Jr. (; born Arthur Bancroft Schlesinger; October 15, 1917 – February 28, 2007) was an American historian, social critic, and public intellectual. The son of the influential historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Sr. and a spe ...
characterized political moderation as a vigorous “Third Force” in his 1949 book, ''
The Vital Center''. The book defended
liberal democracy
Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
and a
state-regulated market economy against the
totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regu ...
of
communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...
and
fascism
Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
.
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
, who served as U.S. president from 1945 until 1953, is regarded as a centrist
Democrat
Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to:
Politics
*A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people.
*A member of a Democratic Party:
**Democratic Party (United States) (D)
**Democratic ...
, while
Dwight Eisenhower, president from 1953 to 1961, is regarded as a centrist
Republican
Republican can refer to:
Political ideology
* An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law.
** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
.
The early 1990s were perhaps the high water mark of post-war centrist politics in America. Journalist and political commentator
E. J. Dionne wrote in his book ''Why Americans Hate Politics'', published on the eve of the
1992 presidential election, that he believes American voters are looking for a "New Political Center" that intermixes "liberal instincts" and "conservative values". He labelled people in this centre position as "tolerant traditionalists". He described them as believers in conventional social morals that ensure family stability, as tolerant within reason to those who challenge those morals and as pragmatically supportive of government intervention in spheres such as education, child care and
health care, as long as budgets are balanced. Independent candidate
H. Ross Perot, who focused on pragmatic issues like a balanced budget and was viewed as a
populist
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasize the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against " the elite". It is frequently associated with anti-establishment and anti-political sentiment. The term develop ...
centrist, garnered nearly 19% of the popular vote in the
1992 presidential election, even though he ran against
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...
, a centre-left Democrat, and
George H. W. Bush, a centre-right Republican. Perot went on to form the
Reform Party and run a second time in the
1996 presidential election, but with less success.
A late-2011 Gallup poll of Americans' attitudes towards government reported that 17% expressed conservative views, 22% expressed libertarian views, 20% expressed communitarian views, 17% expressed centrist views, and 24% expressed liberal views.
Americans Elect, a coalition of American centrists funded by wealthy donors such as business magnate
Michael Bloomberg, former
junk-bond trader
Peter Ackerman and
hedge fund
A hedge fund is a pooled investment fund that trades in relatively liquid assets and is able to make extensive use of more complex trading, portfolio-construction, and risk management techniques in an attempt to improve performance, such as s ...
manager John H. Burbank III, launched an effort in mid-2011 to create a national "virtual primary" that would challenge the current two-party system. The group aimed to nominate a presidential ticket of centrists with names that would be on ballots in all 50 states. The group banked on broad cultural dissatisfaction with the partisan gridlock in Washington, D.C. ''
The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'' has stated that "the political climate couldn't be riper for a serious third-party alternative" such as their effort, but the "hurdles Americans Elect faces are daunting" to get on ballots.
Washington political journalist Linda Killian wrote in her 2012 book ''The Swing Vote'' that Americans are frustrated with Congress and its dysfunction and inability to do its job. Many Americans are unsatisfied with the political process because of many factors, such as the influx of money into politics and the influence of special interests and lobbyists. The book classifies four types of independent voters, including "
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
Republicans", "
America First Democrats", "The
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...
Generation", and "
Starbucks Moms and Dads", who were big determinates of swing votes in the 2012 presidential election. Journalist and author
John Avlon wrote in his 2005 book ''Independent Nation'' that centrism is not a matter of compromise or reading polls; rather, it is an antidote to the politics of divisiveness, providing principled opposition to political extremes.
Centrists in the two major U.S. political parties are often found in the
New Democrat Coalition
The New Democrat Coalition is a caucus in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress made up of Democrats, primarily centrists, who take a pro-business stance and a moderate-to-conservative approach to fiscal matters.
As of ...
, the
Blue Dog Coalition
The Blue Dog Coalition (commonly known as the Blue Dogs or Blue Dog Democrats) is a caucus in the United States House of Representatives comprising centrist members from the Democratic Party. The caucus was founded as a group of conservative De ...
of the Democratic Party, the
Republican Main Street Partnership
The Republican Main Street Partnership is a 501(c)(4) organization that was allied with the congressional Republican Main Street Caucus. The Partnership continues to exist, while the Caucus was dissolved by its members in February 2019.
Hist ...
of the Republican Party, and the bipartisan
Problem Solvers Caucus.
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...
has been widely identified as a centrist Democrat president, as has
Joe Biden. Outside the two major parties, some centrists inhabit the
Libertarian Party
Active parties by country
Defunct parties by country
Organizations associated with Libertarian parties
See also
* Liberal parties by country
* List of libertarian organizations
* Lists of political parties
Lists of political part ...
, independent candidacy movements, such as
Unite America, co-founded by
Charles Wheelan, and the
Forward Party, established by
Andrew Yang
Andrew Yang (born January 13, 1975) is an American businessman, attorney, lobbyist, and politician. Yang was a candidate in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries and the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary. He is the co-c ...
in 2021.
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
*
Ali, Tariq (2015). ''
The Extreme Centre: A Warning''. Verso Books.
* Brown, David S. (2016). ''Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today''. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Liberalism
Communitarianism
Political ideologies
Political spectrum
Political theories