Centre-left politics

The main ideologies of the centre-left are social democracy (moderate forms), social liberalism (sometimes, when paired with other ideologies; can also be considered centrist), progressivism and green politics (also can take place under a red–green alliance when cooperating with other parties on the left).

Throughout the world, centre-left groups generally support:

• A mixed economy consisting of both publicly owned or subsidized programmes of education, universal health care, child care and related social services for all citizens.
• A system of social security, with the stated goal of counteracting the effects of poverty and insuring the general public against loss of income following illness, unemployment or retirement (national insurance contributions).
• Government bodies that regulate private enterprise in the interests of workers and consumers by ensuring labor rights (e.g. supporting worker access to trade unions, workers participation, consumer protections and fair market competition).
• A system of progressive taxation that includes tax breaks and subsidies for those under poverty extended from government.
• A value-added tax (or occasionally a wealth tax) to fund government expenditures.
• Government investments and spending, for example in public works and Keynesian economics.

The term may be used to imply positions on the environment, religion, public morality, etc., but these are usually not the defining characteristics, since centre-right parties may sometimes take similar positions on these issues.[6] A centre-left party may or may not be more concerned with reducing industrial emissions than a centre-right party[7][8] if not explicitly adhering to a green ideology.

Academia is also divided on when the term "centre-left" came out. Scholars believe that it mainly appeared between the Bourbon Restoration (1814–1830) and the July Monarchy (1830–1848), a political-historical phase during the Kingdom of France reigned under an almost parliamentary system. During this period, the centre-left mainly showed Liberal Party and Movement Party. The Republicans was classified as left to far-left. the Third Party and the conservative-liberal Doctrinaires is centrist. Resistance Party was classified as centre-right and Ultra-royalists as right to far-right.

During this time, the centre-left was led by Adolphe Thiers (head of the liberal-nationalist Movement Party) and Odilon Barrot, who headed the populist "Dynastic Opposition".[9] The centre-left was Orléanist, but supported a liberal interpretation of the Charter of 1830, more power to the Parliament, manhood suffrage and support to rising European nationalisms. Adolphe Thiers served as Prime Minister for King Louis Philippe I twice (in 1836 and 1840), but he then lost the King's favour, and the centre-left rapidly fell.[10]

In France, during the Second Republic and the Second Empire the centre-left was not strong or organized, but became commonly associated with the moderate republicans' group in Parliament. Finally, in 1871 the Second Empire fell as consequence of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and Adolphe Thiers re-established the centre-left after the foundation of the Third Republic. This time the centre-left was constituted of moderate republicans, then called "Opportunists", anti-royalist liberals and radicals from the Republican Union. During the Third Republic, the centre-left was led by political and intellectual figures like Jules Dufaure, Édouard René de Laboulaye, Charles de Rémusat, Léon Say, William Waddington, Jean Casimir-Perier, Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer and Georges Picot.[11]

The SPD is a social-democratic party in the centre-left political position in German politics.

Elsewhere in Europe, centre-left movements appeared from the 1860s, mainly in Spain and Italy. In Italy, the centre-left was born as coalition between the liberal Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and the progressive Urbano Rattazzi, the heads respectively of the Right and Left groupings in Parliament. This alliance was called "connubio" ("marriage") for its opportunist characteristics.[12] In the 1900s, centre-left positions were expressed by people and parties who believed in social democracy and democratic socialism, but also some liberals or Christian-democrats were associated with the centre-left. Currently, the centre-left parties in Europe are united in the social democratic Party of European Socialists and ecologist European Green Party.

The prevalence of the position occurred mainly due to the rise of socialism caused Liberals to move away from laissez-faire policies to more interventionist policies, which created the New Liberal movement. New liberalism (or social liberalism), along with moderate socialism, is regarded as a representative modern centre-left ideology.

Current major centre-left parties within the anglosphere include the following:

• Centre-right politics
• Blairism
• Eco-capitalism
• Economic interventionism
• Georgism
• Green liberalism
• Green libertarianism
• List of left-wing political parties
• Neoclassical liberalism
• Social democracy
• Social liberalism
• Social market economy
• Soft left
• Third Way
• Welfare capitalism
• Welfare state

• "Leftist parties of the world". Nico Biver. Archived from the original on 9 February 2010. Retrieved 14 November 2009.