Would the US Democrats be a conservative party in the EU?
European Politics 101 for Americans
I have to admit, I smile every time I hear an American trying to insult Nordic countries by calling them “a dystopic socialist cesspool!”
Luckily, not everyone across the pond is completely unfamiliar with the European political climate.
To be fair, calling Europe’s ideals social holds some truth. On the other hand, throwing in terms like Communism and Marxism is absurd. But okay, let’s just assume these words suffer from anti-woke inflation.
In this article, I will lay out the political landscape of European countries. In a series of upcoming articles, I will compare EU and US party programs. This can help us understand how the US Democrats, but also the Republicans, would fit into the European spectrum.
Continental European Politics 101
Most EU countries don’t have a bipartisan system, even less so after Brexit. Ireland, Malta, and Cyprus are the exceptions, not coincidentally all part of the former British empire.
Most countries have a coalition culture in some sort of shade. Single parties rarely have a majority in the parliament. They thus need to form a coalition with other parties to get a majority.
Let’s take the Netherlands as an example.
The current Dutch parliament (the lower house), consisted of 16 parties after the elections. Afterwards, 5 politicians decided to leave their party in the last years and became independent representatives.
This means that the Dutch House of Representatives of 150 seats contains 21 distinct parties. 76 seats are needed for a majority in the house, so usually, around 4 parties collaborate to form a coalition.
Having 16 (or 21) parties obviously means there’s a ton of idealistic overlap. The ballot usually contains even a few more parties.
Let’s go over the basic political flavours we have in most EU countries.
🔴 The Socialists — Costa, Portugal
Socialist parties have their roots in social, or even communistic movements. The parties had rebellious characters but have become more moderate and diplomatic in recent decades.
Socialists typically advocate for economic equality, workers’ rights, and social welfare programs. They want to achieve this through wealth redistribution. Public ownership of industries like public transport, healthcare, and education is also part of their vision.
Many socialist parties are EU-sceptic and believe that their own country and its people should be served first.
Socialist voters come from a variety of backgrounds. A big part of them are industrial workers living in big cities. Socialist parties can be seen by others as acting admirable but economically naive.
🔴 Labour — Scholz, Germany / Sánchez, Spain / Frederiksen, Denmark
Labour parties were founded to represent the interests of industrial and working-class populations. They can be considered the political brothers of labour unions.
Although these social democrats have similarities with socialist parties, they are more moderate on social issues and more tolerant of a mixed-market economy.
Labour rights, social welfare, and a progressive tax system (the higher your income, the more you pay) are essential to their ideology.
In most EU countries, labour parties have been part of their governments in the past. They have much more solidarity with the European Union than socialist parties.
Labour parties have struggled to keep their voters in the last decade. This is a result of their moderate tone. Many blue-collar workers have moved to other parties who also defend their interests, but do this with more aggressive rhetoric.
🟢 The Greens — No EU country has a prime minister representing a Green party
The European Green movement emerged in the 70s and 80s as a response to growing concerns about the environment, nuclear energy, and social injustice.
Like their peers on the left side of the political spectrum, Green parties also favour a strong social welfare system.
Protecting the environment is the foundation of the Green parties’ vision. Any potential law is assessed against environmental damage. Green parties thus prioritise public transport, cycling, and walking over cars. They also have strong progressive secular ideals like gender equality and protecting marginalised communities.
The greens’ electorate is relatively young and highly educated. People on the right can get frustrated about the green parties because they — in their eyes — “unnecessarily delay economic growth”.
🟠 Liberal Democrats — Macron, France
LibDems are usually considered centrist parties. They combine social welfare with a relatively free economic market.
On the economic side, this means promoting entrepreneurship and competition. LibDems want to reduce regulations and taxes to stimulate business activity.
Socially, Liberal Democrats champion civil liberty like LGBTQ+ rights, drug decriminalisation, abortion, and euthanasia. They are also in favour of increased EU collaboration.
LibDem voters usually have a tertiary degree and live in the big cities, but can be perceived as arrogant and elitist.
🔵 Liberals (sometimes called Conservatives) — Rutte, the Netherlands / De Croo, Belgium
This might be confusing for Americans, but in Europe, liberal usually means economically liberal. Liberal parties protect liberty for companies.
These centre-right parties are in favour of (fairly) free-market capitalism, deregulation, and lower taxes.
Depending on the country, they can take socially conservative positions on family values, traditional marriage, and law and order.
They take a pro-European stance but can be critical of EU integration in certain areas, for instance regarding immigration.
The liberal parties are popular amongst business people and those with family wealth. Left-oriented people can judge liberals for their lack of empathy.
🟢 Christian Democrats — Orpo, Finland / Nehammer, Austria / Šimonytė, Lithuania
Christian Democratic parties are rooted in Christian ethics.
These conservative parties base many decisions on how they might influence traditional family values and the family’s role in society.
They want to balance economic freedom with a commitment to social welfare and solidarity.
Their Christian principles lead them to promote social policies related to healthcare, education, and a financial safety net for those in need.
Christian Democrats support market-oriented economics and entrepreneurship. They hold conservative positions on abortion, marriage, and family values.
They tend to be sympathetic to a strong EU and emphasise humanitarian aid and support of third-world countries, reflecting their Christian principles of charity.
Christian Democrats are often middle-class family people who live in rural areas. Single millennials can think these parties prioritise traditional families over their less conventional lifestyle.
🟤 Eurosceptic populists — Orban, Hungary / Meloni, Italy
The last two decades have seen a rise of populist parties.
They use a rhetoric aimed at challenging established political elites. Populist parties usually hold the current government accountable for the (in their eyes) deterioration of the country.
These parties have strong nationalist and anti-EU sentiments. National sovereignty and the protection of cultural identity are the core of their philosophy. Refugees and asylum seekers are portrayed as a threat, and closed borders are considered the solution.
Eurosceptic parties often promote the idea of their country leaving the EU and euro (the currency), although some (Le Pen in France, for instance) come to realise this is turning off voters. Similar to socialist parties, some populist parties have moderated their tone to be more appealing to a bigger audience.
Emotional statements can persuade populist voters. They vote out of a sincere fear that they lose their nice living environment. The anti-immigration sentiment is strongest in the countryside, where few immigrants live.
Putting the types of parties in a model
So, how can we visualise how these parties relate to each other?
I am aware Anglo-Saxons like a model that uses Authoritarian vs. Libertarian as one of the axes. However, I don’t think they represent the European spectrum clearly. I will, therefore, use the conventional continental model of progressive vs. conservative.
↔️ Left vs. Right
The concept of “Left” and “right” originated from the French Revolution in the 18th century when members of the National Assembly would be seated in the hall based on their ideas.
In today’s climate, you would thus sit on the left when you believe that society as a whole should address economic inequality. This would be done through progressive taxation, wealth redistribution, and social welfare programmes. Workers should be protected from corporations through labour conditions.
A politician should pick a seat on the right if your ideologies favour a degree of free-market capitalism, deregulation, and lower taxes to stimulate economic growth.
↕️ Progressive vs. Conservative
Conservative parties like to conserve traditional values. They often use ideals derived from the bible to guide society. Conservatives usually value national identity, sovereignty, and the importance of border security and immigration restrictions. They may hold conservative positions on issues such as abortion, marriage, and gender roles.
Progressive people prefer to reimagine social conventions. They promote inclusivity, multiculturalism, and diversity. This is expressed through their stances on gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and welcoming attitudes towards migrants. Progressives are tolerant of medical treatments like gender transition measures, euthanasia, or abortion.
Progressive people tend to have a personality that is open to new experiences, whilst conservatives prefer to rely on things that have proven to work for them throughout history.
Assessing the Democrats and Republicans
We can also put the American parties in this spectrum. The Republicans usually combine a religion-based conservative view with free market ideals. Therefore, we could assume they belong somewhere between the Christian Democrats and Liberals.
The Democrats claim to have more social ideals. Let’s put them in the economically centre-left with progressive tendencies.
Since European countries are often accused of being socialist, I would like to compare the Democrats’ programme with that of some big conservative/right European parties. This gives us the opportunity to examine the American and EU spectra.
Setting the stage
This article is simply an introduction to a series of stories in which I will explore how American and European legislation and political programmes compare.
I will investigate topics like healthcare, social welfare, education, the economy, human rights, and other topics.
I will mainly compare the views of the Democratic Party to those of the Conservative and Christian European parties. I will also include views of progressive EU parties or Republican candidates when I think this would add to illustrate the differences.
I believe this is the best method to assess how the USA and EU differ.
I’m sorry I haven’t answered the question I asked in the title. We will discover this in the upcoming articles that will be added once they are published.
Exploratory articles
Available when published
- Healthcare in the US vs EU
- Social Welfare in the US vs EU
- Education in the US vs EU
- The economy in the US vs EU
- Human rights in the US vs EU
- Etc.
See the ”about me” page to understand why I have the audacity to write this :)