Bringing the Centre ‘Centre-Stage’: Defining the Centre in Ideological, Organisation and Policy Terms
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE POLITICS
What is the ‘centre’? Drawing across different political science literature (including political theory, electoral and party-related and public administration), the article examines the different dimensions associated with it, including ideological (i.e. as moderate, liberal and reformist), organisational (i.e. as based on the median voter and catch-all party models) and policy related (i.e. balancing the values and principles of Christian Democracy and social democracy). Against these features, the article presents the main challenges against the centre in these dimensions (i.e. relative differences between ideologies, binary accounts of social and political organisation through social cleavages and political party development, the time-specific attributes of Christian Democracy/social democracy and the rise of neoliberalism). The article concludes with an appeal for additional and more detailed analyses of the ‘centre’ in order to gain greater insight into the concept.
