Centre-right
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The centre-right (or center-right), also known as right of centre, is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties, or organizations (such as think tanks) whose views stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. Centre-right can also describe a coalition of centrist and right-of-centre parties. Many political parties of the centre-right are known to have various factions and members who advocate right-of-centre policies, while others advocate more centrist political agendas. In recent years, for example, several centre-right parties have taken up environmentalism as part of their government platform (Bharatiya Janata Party India), while within others it remains a contentious debate (see the Republican Party and Conservative Party).
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[edit] Ideological definition of the centre-right
A definition of the term "centre-right" is necessarily broad and approximate because political terms have varying meanings in different countries. Parties of the centre-right generally support democratic capitalism, the market economy, limited forms of government regulation, private property rights, and opposition to socialism and communism. Such definitions generally include political parties that base their ideology and policies upon conservatism and economic liberalism.
Parties that subscribe to social liberalism are often associated with the centre-left whereas those on the right of the liberal movement are often defined as conservative liberals or liberal conservatives. Centre-right parties often ground themselves in social conservative and traditionalist values and civic or liberal nationalism; as such, most predominantly Christian states possess a competitive centre-right Christian democratic party, while centre-right parties in predominantly Islamic countries may claim to uphold traditional Islamic values (as with the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) and Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and so on.
[edit] Centre-right social liberalism
However, it is not always the case that centre-right political parties are social conservatives. In the case of Britain's Michael Portillo and current New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and his New Zealand National Party, there tends to be some pragmatic acceptance of what might be called 'centre-right social liberalism', an acceptance of feminism and LGBT rights politics to ensure that the party attracts feminist women or lesbians and gay men who accept centre-right philosophies of limited government and fiscal responsibility in public sector expenditure.[citation needed] From this perspective, social conservatives are viewed as a constituency that is fixated on culture war polarising issues.
Fiscal Centrists and Social Conservatives of the Centre-Right
Moreover, some proponents of centre-right policies ascribe to a socially conservative and more fiscally centrist style of governance, in the tradition of Benjamin Disraeli. Some modern manifestations of this approach include One Nation Conservatism (UK), Reagan Republicans (US), and Red Tories (Canada). These ideological factions within their respective parties advocate for the organic change of society and harmony between social classes in the tradition of Edmund Burke. They are thus opposed to both what they see as militant communism and also reactionary free-market Thatcherism, occupying a middle ground between those two ideologies in economic policy.
[edit] Populism and the centre-right
The use of centre-right is sometimes expanded to include populist right-of-centre parties such as the Law and Justice in Poland, the Freedom Party of Austria or the Danish People's Party. While the Freedom Party and the Danish People's Party would generally be classified as right-wing, parties like Law and Justice are both populist and conservative, and so are sometimes classified centre-right.[1][2]
In New Zealand, however, Finance Minister Ruth Richardson's welfare cutbacks and sharply reduced government expenditure led to polarisation and fission within the New Zealand National Party of the early nineties. One particular dissident populist National MP, Winston Peters, broke away and successfully secured re-election to his Tauranga seat, appealing to elderly social conservative opponents of New Right market-based economic and social policies. His New Zealand First political party entered coalition with the National Party, only to abandon it. From 2005, it entered a confidence and supply agreement with the third-term New Zealand Labour Party administration of then-Prime Minister Helen Clark. In the United Kingdom, there are similar tensions between libertarian/centre-right social liberal party members and social conservative party members.[3]
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