Talk:Centrism

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How close the centrism actually is liberalism? compared e.g with conservatism or socialism. I would say that centrism is in middle of all those. So, please relate cebtrism also with other ideologies, not only liberalism.

Please understand that liberalism itself has no overwhelming reliance on majority power. Liberalism recognizes the danger of majorities, and argues for limited government, & desires to restrict the majority by constitution, where fundamental rights and equality of also minorities are guaranteed.

Liberal democrat is a concept for democracy-centered liberals.

And, actually, the article should say "democrats" when talking about reliance on majority power. 213.243.157.114 19:57, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Centrism and liberalism

The word liberalism was used here not in the American sense of the word. One can see that most liberal parties push centrist policy. I will try to formulate something about that Gangulf 21:57, 19 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Also I am not using liberalism in the American sense here. (In the American sense, it would include social-democrats, but not in my view.)

It is relatively true that many liberal parties from time to time push centrist policies. For example in cases where liberalism (which is form of anti-statism) has no clear answers to the political question. However, MOST liberal parties push rather consistently policies based on liberalism. Thus, is it really relevant here to emphasize those situations where some liberal parties resort to centrist compromises? 213.243.157.114 11:15, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Centrism and other isms than liberalism

Dear Wilfried Derksen,

I would think that centrism is very close to and sharing many ideas with the moderated version of socialism, social-democrats. This should also be mentioned, if connections with Liberal Parties are mentioned in this article.

I would think that centrism is very close to ans sharing many ideas with the moderated versions of conservatism, such as social-reformism, and many other moderate conservatives. This should also be mentioned, if connections with Liberal Parties are mentioned in this article. 213.243.157.114 11:07, 20 Jul 2004 (UTC)

For social-reformism, check e.g the National Coalition Party (Finland).

Hi all, this is always tricky, since different countries are using the same emotionally-charged political word in different ways. I've tried to normalize things a bit, as well as add some structure. Hope this helps,Drernie 17:15, 21 Jul 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Is it really an ideology?

while other ideas that were considered centrist 200 years ago (such as slavery and racism) are considered extremist today. After readding the above sentence I felt "centrism" is just an averaged view of dominant society norms at any point of time. It sounds like the ideology of the so-called 'silent majority' accepting conservative views. Probably, the definition of centrist should be the 'silent majority', silently and subtely endorsing conservative positions of social norms but prefering to feign ignorance of any such views lest they give a bad name. --Manjunatha (17 Oct 2005)

Centrism is definitely not an ideology. It differs between countries and periods of history. It's also very hard to define. In the US voting rates are very low. If there was proportional representation would there be a new 'centre' in the USA? There would probably be Green Party and Socialist Party representation on the left, so in all likelihood The Democrats would become the 'centre' party. It is the electoral system which has denied the US a political left and skewed the system to the right. Also in Israel the conflict has encouraged nationalism and militarism in all parties. Thus 'centrism' in Israel is fairly right-wing compared to most other countries i.e. the supposed 'centre' supports expanding the national boundaries beyond internationally recognisd limits, national service, and the seperation barrier and air strikes which frequently kill civilians. (Winston1984)

So radical middle is not an ideology too? Psychomel@di(s)cussion 13:17, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for an American (US) context

This page is referenced on the main page for Democratic Leadership Council, a PAC in US politics. When the term "centrism" is used in modern US political discourse it refers to something that would not have been termed a center-of-the-road ideology 20 years ago. It is, in fact, the right wing fringe of the Democratic Party that calls itself "centrist". These people profit from "Globaloney", the policies that are destroying the US economy for the sake of corporate greed while claiming high ideals.

The name "centrism" is traceable to the same political liars who coined the terms "compassionate conservative", "healthy forests initiative", "no child left behind", etc. Centrists are nothing but right wing Republicans masquerading as Democrats. Their mission is to be certain that the Democratic Party never fields a presidential candidate who represents middle class Americans.

Centrist economists in the US claim that people who oppose globalization as practiced by the US simply do not understand David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage. This is an amazing claim by Ph.D.s who know very well that what is being practiced has nothing to do with David Ricardo's theory. (See my expose at http://demspeak.com/?q=2005/jul/06/u-s-trade-policy-was-david-ricardo-wrong) It's about making corporations freebooters on the world stage with nations and their labor pools as victims.

So I would ask that a distinction be made between definitions of centrism used in the US and those used elsewhere.

Jerry Lobdill 11-06-05

      Um, no. Centrist was first used by your boy Billy Jeff Clinton.  Strodgers--65.24.61.74 03:37, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Problematic interwiki

The interwiki link in this article points to the Swedish wikipedia article "Centrism". This is partly correct, as the swedish word "centrism" is the same as the marxist expression centrism. The centrism of liberal parties however, is "centerpolitik", or sometimes, "mittenpolitik" in Swedish. Because of this, it would be good if this could be made into a fork, so that the correct centrism can be linked to its corresponding swedish article. Muneyama 13:01, 7 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] No self-admitted centrists?

I'd guess a lot of european politicians describe themselves as centrist, for example, members of the Labour Party (UK). Robertbyrne 15:11, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] not a REAL centrist

Im a centrist and I dont like the the radical centrist movement they do not represent a common sense policy of an centrist,centrist do not apply to extreme politics of any kind. David Denver.

[edit] Dubious paragraph

I have removed the following paragraph due to an excessive number of dubious claims. I personally do not believe it has any value (being little more than a personal rant), but perhaps someone may be able to salvage something from it. -- Nikodemos 21:02, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

It could certainly be argued that centrist politics do not infact exist, as there is no distinct definition of what it actually stands for. Traditionally, politics was based on ideology - whereby a democratic government is formed between two or more conflicting ideologies - eg. Communism, socialism, fascism or capitalism. Once these ideologies come together, they automatically created a "centre ground" - the basic principle of democracy. In recent years however there has been a distinctive shift away from ideologies, embracing "capitalism" over all else[dubious – discuss]. This is viewed as a mature step forward by so-called centrists[who?] who would argue that bitter squabbles over economic systems and tax structures have diverted politics away from far more important issues. Others would argue that economics and tax structures are absolutely key with regard to social stability. The main argument against centrism though, is the effect it has on the electorate - since the British Labour Party reinvented itself in 1994 as "New Labour", abandoning its key socialist beliefs and embracing the centre ground, it has won 3 successive general elections - but voter turnout has dropped from 71.29% to just 61.36% in 2005.

[edit] Definitions

Does this article need the section headed "Definitions"? It seems a bit redundant to me. Surely reference to political spectrum is enough? BobFromBrockley 11:15, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centrism and Religion

I don't see the point of this portion of the article. For one, it only regards Islam and second it seems likely that this is just one person's view or opinion and does not belong here. I would suggest that this portion be removed or modified with more objectiveness in mind. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abe468 (talk • contribs) 07:20, 30 March 2008 (UTC)