New OTL Maps project: Political parties

[False Dmitri]

I agree with the others Thande, it makes more sense to use a general scale instead of "in context", because the latter really skews up perspective.

EDIT: Don't get me wrong, this is a great idea, but there's a slight problem in the implementation. It really doesn't make sense to show France and Canada as more right-wing than the United States when we all know that they're not.

Also, historical versions of this map might get a bit sticky considering that you couldn't show colonial posessions easily...

I disagree completely. Political spectrums (spectra?) only make sense in context. Saying an American party is "to the right" of an Asian one makes little sense when the two parties are situated in different political cultures, move within different constitutional frameworks, tackle different issues, appeal to different electorates, etc. etc.

Deciding whether a party is more to the left or right within its own political culture is a fairly objective task. Deciding how leftist or rightist the parties are compared with one another, or with an arbitrary global scheme? That's speculation.

 

[Thande]

Screw that idea, then. How about a system still based on two axes: one axis based on the powers its citizens hold over the state, and another based on its social views (given economic-related criteria would not work if we look into the past)?

Good range of colours. Decent definition as well - focus on liberty vs tyranny as the other axis.

I second this scheme. This one seems to make more sense than the one Thande posted. No offense.

None taken, I did say it was a crude first attempt and the idea was to provoke discussions on how it could be improved - just as we did with the UCS OTL maps many moons ago.

 

[Thande]

I disagree completely. Political spectrums (spectra?) only make sense in context. Saying an American party is "to the right" of an Asian one makes little sense when the two parties are situated in different political cultures, move within different constitutional frameworks, tackle different issues, appeal to different electorates, etc. etc.

Deciding whether a party is more to the left or right within its own political culture is a fairly objective task. Deciding how leftist or rightist the parties are compared with one another, or with an arbitrary global scheme? That's speculation.

Just so, and thankee.

BTW, although not related to this thread, maybe we should also revive the Diffin/Straha system of classification for political systems (absolute monarchy/one-party state/multiparty democratic republic/multiparty constitutional monarchy etc.) and improve that.

 

[Miserism]

Why even bother having a continuum system? Find the broad ideologies of governing parties (classic liberal/libertarian, radical, conservative, reactionary, militarist [incl. Bonapartist], social-democratic, communist, fascist, green, centrist, Christian democrat, etc.). Assign each a color. There, you're done.

That would be too easy!

(Cramming every single political ideology there is, never mind their system of governance would take an incredible amount of shades. If you classify a society as either a democracy or autocracy, what happens to the one-party-dominant democracies, the constitutional monarchies and the gray area between those? It's probably been done before too, and doesn't fit the idea of this topic, being developing a system that can easily compare successive governments of a state.)

 

[Thande]

That would be too easy!

(Cramming every single political ideology there is, never mind their system of governance would take an incredible amount of shades. If you classify a society as either a democracy or autocracy, what happens to the one-party-dominant democracies, the constitutional monarchies and the gray area between those? It's probably been done before too, and doesn't fit the idea of this topic, being developing a system that can easily compare successive governments of a state.)

As I said above, that's a different topic, and a system already exists for it, although it could be refined more. We're talking about shifts in party rule here, not system of government.

 

[mowque]

Good idea but doomed to failure because people will argue about 'left-right' forever...

 

[Masri]

This is awesome, but, not to be too critical or anything, why did you decide to make Egypt on the political left and Iran a democracy?

 

[Analytical Engine]

This is awesome, but, not to be too critical or anything, why did you decide to make Egypt on the political left and Iran a democracy?

Well, the last time I checked, Iran holds elections for its parliament and its president...

 

[Theodoric]

Why even bother having a continuum system? Find the broad ideologies of governing parties (classic liberal/libertarian, radical, conservative, reactionary, militarist [incl. Bonapartist], social-democratic, communist, fascist, green, centrist, Christian democrat, etc.). Assign each a color. There, you're done.

While I do like the idea, it doesn't really fit in multi-party coalitions with different ideologies, unless a UCS-style solution like stripes or outlining is implemented. (I concede that parties do have a tendency to form a more unified ideology to avoid conflicts)

 

[Knepah]

Why even bother having a continuum system? Find the broad ideologies of governing parties (classic liberal/libertarian, radical, conservative, reactionary, militarist [incl. Bonapartist], social-democratic, communist, fascist, green, centrist, Christian democrat, etc.). Assign each a color. There, you're done. Ignore the system of government (democratic monarchy, democratic republic, autocratic monarchy, autocratic republic, etc.), or, if you feel you must include it, have variations based on a simple binary differentiation between democracy and autocracy.

I prefer this system. Most ideologies have a colour associated with them anyway. Communism - Dark red. Socialism - light red. Fascism - black. Green - Green. Centrist - purple. Militarist - khaki coloured?

For coalition gvmts have stripes. For constitutional monarchies have borders.

Sorted.

 

[Feo]

We're talking about shifts in party rule here, not system of government.

here are some ideas of mine, for the colors to use for the parties.
I really don't like purple for this kind of map, I think that using more light blue and more light orange/yellow looks better.

 

[Paul Spring]

Here's a very quick revision I made trying to show what it might look like if political ideology was based on a "world" scale of left to right rather than relative to each country. I figured that the USA and Canada would both be pretty centrist, France and Italy only moderately right, Saudi Arabia definitely to the right, and Vietnam more in the center because they're becoming more like China - Communist in name only. Problem is, I don't know anything about the politics in a lot of countries.

 

[Thande]

here are some ideas of mine, for the colors to use for the parties.
I really don't like purple for this kind of map, I think that using more light blue and more light orange/yellow looks better.

Okay, fair enough, yellow = centrist liberalism after all...the problem is showing a steady progression from red to blue if it goes through yellow rather than purple.

You can use rainbow colours, but in my experience it doesn't look that good as the progression isn't so obvious to the eye.

 

[Marius]

South Africa and Namibia are both too left I think, they should be the lighter red in my opinion.

Both countries are probably more centre-left than anything else.

 

[Feo]

You can use rainbow colours, but in my experience it doesn't look that good as the progression isn't so obvious to the eye.

white or shades of gray? a lot of centrist parties use white as their color

 

[Miserism]

Ver. 2, now with 700% slicker text!

(Colours are evidently not my forte)

 

[Atom]

That seems good.

 

[RCAF Brat]

Here's a very quick revision I made trying to show what it might look like if political ideology was based on a "world" scale of left to right rather than relative to each country. I figured that the USA and Canada would both be pretty centrist, France and Italy only moderately right, Saudi Arabia definitely to the right, and Vietnam more in the center because they're becoming more like China - Communist in name only. Problem is, I don't know anything about the politics in a lot of countries.

In Canada, the current government leans more to the right than the last one did. We do have a right-of-centre government. The last one was centre-right too, but more towards the centre than the current one. Move the colour one slot to the right.

 

[iori]

From what I can tell Australia should be more the same color as the US since, while the Labour party is in power it seems to be more akin to the American Democratic party rather than say the New Zealand Labour party.

 

[xt828]

I think both of Australia's major parties would be roughly centrist. The ALP are definitely more to the left than the Liberals, but their left-wingers aren't pulling the strings at the moment and the country is used to the Liberal way of doing things.

RE: Thailand, iirc Thaksin is either a convicted criminal or facing criminal charges when he next returns, and his party is viewed by the current ruling bloc as being a way for him to remain in power from abroad. The military coup took place with the support of the Head of State, too. I'd put them down as being an unstable democracy - which could also apply to Nepal, Iraq, and so on.