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Centre-left is a political term that describes individuals, political parties or organisations such as think tanks whose ideology lies between the centre and the left on the left-right spectrum. It excludes far left stances. The common meaning of "to the left" refers to greater support for economic interventionism, or state control of the economy, but other ideological positions are sometimes associated with a "leftish" position. The term may refer to a position to the left of a centrist position in a given country, or it may refer to a position to the left in some hypothetical global political spectrum.^[1]

Contents 1 Ideologies associated with centre-left 2 Relative definition 3 Absolute definition 4 See also 5 External links 6 References

[edit] Ideologies associated with centre-left

The term "centre-left" is generally taken to mean a position that is more inclined to economic interventionism than the "centre-right", but not radically so.^[2] For example, the Democratic Party of Japan advocates greater state intervention in the economy than the opposition Liberal Democratic Party.^[3] In Germany, the Social Democrats advocate greater state intervention than the Christian Democratic Union or the Free Democrats.^[4]

The term may be used to imply positions on the environment, religion, public morality and so on, but these are usually not the defining characteristics, since centre-right parties may take similar positions on these issues.^[5] A centre-left party may or may not be more concerned with reducing industrial emissions regardless of the impact on factory-belt employment than a centre-right party.^[6][7][8] Support for religious fundamentalism may be associated with the left in some Moslem countries and with the right in the United States.^[9][10]

[edit] Relative definition

When used in a relative sense, the term refers to an ideological position to the left of the "centrist" position in a given country, but relatively close to the centrist position. In Canada, the Liberal Party is often considered centre left in this sense, since the party supports rather more dirigism than the incumbent Conservatives, although both have ideologically similar neo-conservative positions.^[11][12] Similarly, the Democrats in the United States would be considered centre left, although they share many ideological views with the centre-right Republicans.^[13]

In most European countries with mixed economies, the center-left would include social liberals, social democrats, progressives and also some democratic socialists and greens (in particular the eco-socialists).^[14][15] In the Ukraine in 2006, the centre-left BYuT formed an alliance with the Communist party.^[16] Such an alliance between center-left and communist would be unlikely in the USA, where the Communist Party USA has long been marginalized as an far-left party.^[17]

[edit] Absolute definition

An "absolute" definition of centre-left refers to a position on some hypothetical global political spectrum. Thus the African National Congress of South Africa terms itself "left", although as the dominant party it is by definition centrist in the South African political spectrum.^[18][19] Similarly, the Communist Party of China is centrist in the sense of being the dominant (the only) political party in China, but also characterizes itself as "left".^[20]

The policies of a party that is centrist or centre-left in one country could be considered right-wing or left-wing in another country. In Hong Kong the "centre" position is far to the right of the "centre" position in the mainland People's Republic of China.^[21] The dominant People's Action Party in Singapore would now be considered "right" in an absolute sense compared to other governments in the region, although the party has in the past characterized itself as socialist, or "left".^[22] European Social Democrat policies would be considered right-wing in Cuba and left-wing in the United States.^[23][24]

[edit] See also

• Centrism
• Left-wing politics
• List of political parties by country
• Left-wing political parties
• Far-left
• Ultra-left
• Left-Right politics
• Centre-right
• Ideology

[edit] External links

• "Leftist parties of the world". Nico Biver. http://www.broadleft.org/index.htm. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 

[edit] References