Centrism

This article deals with Centrism as it relates to NationStates. For more general information, see the Wikipedia article on this subject.

In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of Left-Right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between left-wing politics and right-wing politics. However, there is arguably more than one dimension to politics, so even the center has its own radicals as exemplified by radical centrist politics.

Political Positions

Centrist nations usually fall between liberal and conservative beliefs on most issues. They vary from nation to nation, and even from person to person, on stances and issues, thus making organization of centrist political parties difficult (although, in NationStates, they do exist).

Centrism and the Economy

Centrists have varying views on the economy. Centrist nations generally take the middle route between conservative and liberal beliefs in respect to economic issues. However, there are no economic requirements to be a centrist nation; such economies range from being very loosely to very heavilly regulated. Centrist economies can be very poor or very powerful.

Centrism in NationStates

Within the context of NationStates, freedoms are presented along three axes: personal freedoms, economic freedoms, and political freedoms (see also: UN Categories). The level of freedoms presented along each axis can be "authoritarian," "centrist," or "libertarian" in nature. Allowing moderate levels of freedom along an axis is characterized as being "centrist."

Centrists in NationStates generally are moderate in poltical freedoms and are usually democracies, but specific instances of centrist policy vary greatly. Few, if any, centrist nations are identical in their policy, perhaps unlike nations representing other political beliefs.

NationStates UN Category Classifications

The following UN Category classifications present centrist levels of freedoms along at least one of the personal, economic, or political freedoms axes (Entries listed from most libertarian to most authoritarian, or alphabetically where overall freedoms are similar; "Inoffensive Centrist Democracy" represents the most centrist listing, even if it does not appear in the exact center of the table):

See also the article on UN Categories for an image of each category placed within a 3D map.

Centrist Entities in NationStates

Centrist Alliances

The advancement of centrism not a stated goal of an any particular alliance, however, there are alliances which have mostly centrist members, or which have centrist goals in their charter.

Nations That Consider Themselves Centrist

These nations, listed in alphabetic order, consider themselves some sort of centrist. As "centrist" is a general term, this list includes very different nations, representing many political views. Many centrist nations are categorized, by the UN, as being an Inoffensive Centrist Democracy.

• Nanakaland
• Unkerlantum

Centrist Political Parties

• Nanakaland Centrist Party
• The Centre Party (Nova Norway)