Centrism is a
political 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 s ...
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). A ...
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 me ...
politics involve a general association with centrism that is combined with leaning somewhat to their respective sides of the
left–right political spectrum. Various political ideologies, such as
Christian democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern Democracy, d ...
,
Pancasila, and certain forms of
liberalism like
social 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 ...
, 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 ...
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 labour ...
parties. Centrism is represented by the
moderates 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 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 Australian House o ...
(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 House of Represe ...
in 2018.
Belgium
The traditional centrist party of
Flanders was the
People's Union which embraced
social liberalism and aimed to represent Dutch-speaking Belgians who felt culturally suppressed by Francophones. The
New Flemish Alliance 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 ...
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 wa ...
.
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 pa ...
and the French-speaking minority party
DéFI.
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
The Brazilian Social Democracy Party ( pt, Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira, PSDB), also known as the Brazilian Social Democratic Party or the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy,. is a political party in Brazil. As the third largest par ...
(PSDB) is another example of a centrist party in Brazilian politics.
Other centrist parties include the
Social Democratic Party (Brazil, 2011) (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 (PROS)
Due the high number of center parties on Brazil, They exert a major position on local politics, and due that, parties that are not part of major parties of Right-Wing or Left-Wing are
pejoratively called
Centrão (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-i ...
s at the federal level have governed from a
moderate, centrist political position, practising "brokerage politics".
Both the
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada (french: Parti libéral du Canada, region=CA) is a federal political party in Canada. The party espouses the principles of liberalism,McCall, Christina; Stephen Clarkson"Liberal Party". ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' ...
and the
Conservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada (french: Parti conservateur du Canada), colloquially known as the Tories, is a federal political party in Canada. It was formed in 2003 by the merger of the two main right-leaning parties, the Progressive Co ...
(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 me ...
Conservative.
In the late 1970s, Prime Minister
Pierre Elliott Trudeau claimed that his Liberal Party of Canada adhered to the "
radical center".
[Graham, Ron, ed. (1998). ''The Essential Trudeau''. McClelland & Stewart, p. 71. .] Far-left
Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars conside ...
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 Croat ...
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 th ...
became moderate and centrist during its last years, having been centre-right in the past.
Czech Republic
The
Czech Republic has many prominent centrist parties, including the
syncretic populist 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.
H ...
, 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 nor ...
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 campaignin ...
, 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 party
Mayors and Independents.
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 language, 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 liberalis ...
and
Radical-Socialism
The Republican, Radical and Radical-Socialist Party (french: Parti républicain, radical et radical-socialiste) is a liberal and formerly social-liberal political party in France. It is also often referred to simply as the Radical Party (fren ...
.
Currently, the most notable centrist party is
Renaissance, founded by
Emmanuel Macron, elected
President of France in May 2017. Another party is the
Democratic Movement
A democracy is a political system, or a system of decision-making within an institution or organization or a country, in which all members have an equal share of power. Modern democracies are characterized by two capabilities that differentiate ...
of
François Bayrou, founded in 2007, which was the successor of the
Christian democratic
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern 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
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 German Democratic Party 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 al ...
(1918–1933).
During the Weimar Republic (and again after the Nazi period), there existed a ''
Zentrum'', a party of German
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
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, economic ...
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 a ...
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
Alliance 90 () was a political alliance of three non-communist political groups in East Germany. It was formed in February 1990 by the New Forum, Democracy Now and the Initiative for Peace and Human Rights. It received 2.9% of the vote in the 1 ...
(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 Commons ...
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 currently has a centrist political position, although, in the past, the party usually leaned to the left. In the German presidential elections of
2009
File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...
,
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull, Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A ...
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 gath ...
, 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,
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 created, along with other political leaders, the coalition party of the
Centre Union. 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 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) being its highest achievement before finally making its way to the
Greek Parliament 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 ...
,
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 i ...
are the centrist national parties.
Two state parties,
Bharat Rashtra Samithi
Bharat Rashtra Samithi ( ; BRS), formerly known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi ( TRS), is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in the state of Telangana. It was founded on 27 April 2001 as by K. Chandrashekar Rao, with a singl ...
, 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 foc ...
are also described as centrist along with
Actor turned politician
Kamal Haasan
Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali ...
's party named
Makkal Needhi Maiam, meaning People's Centre for Justice.
Ireland
In the
Republic of Ireland, 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 Christian ...
and
Fine Gael) 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
The Irish Civil War ( ga, Cogadh Cathartha na hÉireann; 28 June 1922 – 24 May 1923) was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United ...
politics. Fine Gael is aligned with
Christian democratic
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
parties in Europe via its membership in the
European People's Party.
Israel
In
Israel, 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 pri ...
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 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
The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
to the fifth government of
Benjamin Netanyahu, and in 2021 he was sworn in as
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the government of
Naftali Bennett. 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
The , also known as the one-and-a-half party system, is the dominant-party system in Japan that has existed since 1955, in which the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has successively held a majority government with major opposition par ...
. 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, 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 ...
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 ...
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 (DPJ) advocated
liberalism and "Democratic Centrism" (
民主中道) as its main ideology. The
Democratic Party for the People (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 eve ...
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 majoriti ...
(CDP) is more
progressive
Progressive may refer to:
Politics
* Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform
** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context
* Progressive realism, an American foreign policy pa ...
in inheriting DPJ liberalism, but at the same time advocates for traditional Japanese virtues.
Netherlands
In the
Netherlands, 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-Revolutionary ...
(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 i ...
(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 me ...
, whilst the social liberal
Democrats 66 (D66) are more centrist. The
Protestant Christian Union is a small
Christian Democratic
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern 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 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 and
social conservative positions.
Livable Netherlands 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 Establi ...
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 Sta ...
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 bein ...
(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, 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 ...
on social issues, favoring
binding referenda instead of MPs making major social decisions.
New Zealand First could be described as
Syncretic 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 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 t ...
. 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
Decentralization or decentralisation is the process by which the activities of an organization, particularly those regarding planning and decision making, are distributed or delegated away from a central, authoritative location or group.
Conce ...
, a commitment to
small business and
environmental protection. Centrists have aligned themselves with the
Liberal International 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 Europ ...
. 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-confiden ...
, 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-confiden ...
, 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 a ...
is a small centrist Palestinian political party active in Palestinian politics. Founded on 16 December 2005, the party is led by
Salam Fayyad 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
A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county/shire level, but most legislative bodies at the state/provincial or nat ...
'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 Br ...
and
Fatah
Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and s ...
.
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 w ...
(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 libe ...
party but later, under the leadership of
Donald Tusk, became typically centrist to attract left-leaning liberal voters. Depending on the context, it is described as either
Christian democratic
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern 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 from ...
, 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 (2009–201 ...
, in the
2020 presidential election
This national electoral calendar for 2020 lists the national/ federal elections held in 2020 in all sovereign states and their dependent territories. By-elections are excluded, though national referendums are included.
January
*5 January:
** ...
. Other political groups, such as
Polish People's Party (PSL), may be described as centrist too. In contrast, the national-moral right-wing
Law and Justice
Law and Justice ( pl, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość , PiS) is a right-wing populist and national-conservative political party in Poland. Its chairman is Jarosław Kaczyński.
It was founded in 2001 by Jarosław and Lech Kaczyński as a direct su ...
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 policies). The most recent political party in the
Polish parliament,
Poland 2050, led by
Szymon Hołownia
Szymon Franciszek Hołownia (born 3 September 1976) is a Polish journalist, politician, television personality, writer, political commentator and humanitarian activist. From 2008 to 2019 he co-hosted ''Mam talent!'', the Polish version of ''Got T ...
, 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 i ...
influences.
Spain
The only national party that defends itself as a centrist party is
Citizens
Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection".
Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
, 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 m ...
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, espec ...
(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 and the
Basque Nationalist Party
The Basque Nationalist Party (, EAJ ; es, Partido Nacionalista Vasco, PNV; french: Parti Nationaliste Basque, PNB; EAJ-PNV), officially Basque National Party in English,) was rejected by party members in November 2011. Nonetheless, the party did ...
from the
Spanish Basque Country, 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 It ...
: ''il Centro'') is traditionally occupied by the so-called "bourgeois" parties:
FDP.The Liberals (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
The Green Liberal Party of Switzerland (german: Grünliberale Partei der Schweiz, glp; french: Parti vert'libéral, pvl), abbreviated to glp, is a centrist green-liberal political party in Switzerland. Founded in 2007, the party holds sixteen s ...
(centre), a split from the leftist
Green Party.
The
Social Democratic Party 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
David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen, (born 2 July 1938) is a British politician and physician who served as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs as a Labour Party MP under James Callaghan from 1977 to 1979, and later ...
,
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, outlining their policies in what became known as the
Limehouse Declaration. The "Gang of Four" were centrists who defected from the
Labour Party because of what they perceived to be the influence of
Militant
The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Latin ...
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 a ...
policy platform, adopting the campaign name
New Labour. 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
The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom unde ...
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. Miliband ...
, moved the party to the left of New Labour. The
Blue Labour
Blue Labour is a British campaign group and political faction that seeks to promote blue-collar and culturally conservative values within the British Labour Party — particularly on immigration, crime, community spirit, and the European Un ...
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, 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 1942 ...
,
Jo Grimond,
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 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Local ...
, 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
The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing C ...
. 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 cab ...
, 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
The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
.
Following the
Brexit referendum
The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country shoul ...
, politics in the UK was seen as having reverted to traditionally polarised "left and right" politics. For the 2017 election, the group
More United
More United is a cross-party political movement in the United Kingdom. It describes itself as a "tech-driven political startup" that supports candidates regardless of party affiliation. The movement advocates public service investment, democrati ...
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 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 20 ...
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 countrie ...
. After losing all its MPs in the
2019 United Kingdom general election
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party receiving a landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 48 seats and won 43.6% of the popular vote � ...
, the party was disbanded.
United States
After
World War II, 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 s ...
characterized political moderation as a vigorous “Third Force” in his 1949 book, ''
The Vital Center''. The book defended
liberal democracy 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 regul ...
of
communism and
fascism.
Harry Truman, who served as U.S. president from 1945 until 1953, is regarded as a centrist
Democrat, while
Dwight Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
, president from 1953 to 1961, is regarded as a centrist
Republican.
The early 1990s were perhaps the high water mark of post-war centrist politics in America. Journalist and political commentator
E. J. Dionne
Eugene Joseph Dionne Jr. (; born April 23, 1952) is an American journalist, political commentator, and long-time op-ed columnist for ''The Washington Post''. He is also a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, a profes ...
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 centrist, garnered nearly 19% of the popular vote in the
1992 presidential election, even though he ran against
Bill Clinton, 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
Americans Elect was a political organization in the United States known primarily for its efforts to stage a national online primary for the 2012 US Presidential Election. Although it was successful in obtaining signatures to get on the ballot in ...
, a coalition of American centrists funded by wealthy donors such as business magnate
Michael Bloomberg, former
junk-bond
In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit events, ...
trader
Peter Ackerman
Peter Ackerman (November 6, 1946 – April 26, 2022) was an American businessman, the founder and former chairman of Americans Elect, and the founding chair of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Ackerman was the managing director ...
and
hedge fund 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'' 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 n ...
Republicans", "
America First Democrats", "The
Facebook Generation", and "
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 cou ...
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
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 ...
of the Democratic Party, the
Republican Main Street Partnership of the Republican Party, and the bipartisan
Problem Solvers Caucus
The Problem Solvers Caucus is a bipartisan group in the United States House of Representatives that includes members equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, who seek to foster bipartisan cooperation on key policy issues. The group was c ...
.
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 U ...
has been widely identified as a centrist Democrat president, as has
Joe Biden. Outside the two major parties, some centrists inhabit the
Libertarian Party, independent candidacy movements, such as
Unite America, co-founded by
Charles Wheelan
Charles J. Wheelan (born 1966) is an American professor, journalist, speaker, and is the founder and co-chairman of Unite America. Wheelan is the author of ''Naked Statistics'', ''Naked Economics'', and ''Naked Money''. He was an unsuccessful ...
, 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-ch ...
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