Left of Centre politics or center-left politics (American English), also referred to as moderate-left politics, is an adherence to views leaning to the left-wing but closer to the centre on the left-right political spectrum than other left-wing variants. Centre-leftists believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The centre-left promotes a degree of social equality that it believes is achievable through promoting equal opportunity. The centre-left has promoted luck egalitarianism, which emphasises the achievement of equality requires personal responsibility in areas in control by the individual person through their abilities and talents, and social responsibility in areas outside control by the individual person in their abilities or talents.
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The centre-left opposes a wide gap between the rich and the poor and supports moderate measures to reduce the economic gap, such as a progressive income tax, laws prohibiting child labour, minimum wage laws, laws regulating working conditions, limits on working hours, and laws to ensure the workers' right to organise. The centre-left, unlike the far-left, typically claims that complete equality of outcome is not possible, but instead that equal opportunity improves a degree of equality of outcome in society.
In Europe, the centre-left includes social democrats, social liberals, greens, progressives and also some democratic socialists. Some social liberals are described as centre-left, but also many social liberals are in the centre of the political spectrum.
Origins and role in France
The term "centre-left" appeared during the French "July Monarchy" in 1830s, a politcal-historical phase during the Kingdom of France when the House of Orléans reigned under an almost parliamentary system. The centre-left was distant from the left, composed by republicans, as much as the centre-right, composed by the Third Party and the liberal-conservative Doctrinaires. During this time, the centre-left was led by Adolphe Thiers, chief of the liberal-nationalist Movement Party, and Odilon Barrot, who headed the populist "Dynastic Opposition". The centre-left was certainly Orléanist, but supported a strongest application of the Chart of 1830, more power to the Parliament, expansion of the manhood suffrage and support to rising European nationalisms. Adolphe Thiers served as Prime Minister for King Louis Philippe I two times, in 1836 and 1840, but the he lost the King's favour, and the centre-left rapidly fell.
In France, during the Second Republic and the Second Empire the cente-left wasn't strong or organized, but became commonly associated to the moderate republicans' group in the Parliament. Finally, in 1871 the Second Empire fell as consequence of the French defeat of the Franco-Prussian War, and Adolphe Thiers re-established the centre-left after the foundation of the Third Republic. This time, the centre-left was constituted by moderate republicans, then called "Opportunists", anti-royalist liberals and radicals from the Republican Union. During the Third Republic the centre-left was led by political and intellectual figures like Jules Dufaure, Édouard René de Laboulaye, Charles de Rémusat, Léon Say, William Waddington, Jean Casimir-Perier, Edmond Henri Adolphe Schérer and Georges Picot.
In Europe, the centre-lefts appeared since the 1860s, mainly in Spain and Italy. In Italy, the centre-left born as coalition between the liberal Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour and the progressive Urbano Rattazzi, head respectively of the Right and Left group in Parliament. This alliance was called "connubio" ("marriage"), for his opportunist characteristics. In 1900s, the centre-left positions were expressed by people and parties who believed in social democracy and democratic socialism, but also some liberals or Christian-democrats were associated with the centre-lefts. Currently, the centre-left parties in Europe are reunited under the social democratic Party of European Socialists and ecologist European Green Party.
However, the the anglo-saxon politics (especially United States and United Kingdom), the centre-left appeared more late, around early 1900s, when the crisis of the liberal parties and the rising of the socialism caused a strongest separation between the right parties (conservatives) and the left parties (progressives and socialists), left the centre-right and centre-left only term to determine a moderate politician or group. Currently, the anglo-saxon centre-left parties are the Canadian Liberal Party, the British Labour Party and his Australian namesake. In the United States, the Democratic Party alternate liberal, centrist and conservative positions, so only the modern liberal Democrats are considerable "of centre-left".
Positions associated with centre-left
The main ideologies of the centre-left are social democracy, social liberalism, democratic socialism, and green politics (also known as the Red-green alliance).
Throughout the world, centre-left groups generally support:
The term may be used to imply positions on the environment, religion, public morality, et cetera, but these are usually not the defining characteristics, since centre-right parties may take similar positions on these issues. A centre-left party may or may not be more concerned with reducing industrial emissions than a centre-right party.