While Turkish immigrants in the Marxloh neighborhood of Duisburg had until now mostly voted for the Social Democratic party (SPD, center-left), they have gradually been drawn to the anti-immigration and conservative rhetoric of the far right.
Left, right and center depend on the country. In the German context the SPD is center left. Not because they would have been so in the past. The party certainly moved to the right, but because they support more left leaning policies then the CDU.
Eh. I’d say it’s center right, the c*u is right, there’s the fascists/far right and then you have the social democratic parties left of center like the greens and the linke.
Things don’t have to be relative in this context either. They’re also relative, but you can use more absolute criteria as well. Stuff like “wants no one to be coerced into employment” vs “wants some people coerced mildly” vs “wants to coerce everyone to be employed”. Or the converse with regards to social security. Or criteria relating to individual rights. Or regulation in favor of hierarchical power structures vs regulations in favor of non-hierarchical power structures. These would all be meaningful left-right aligned analytical lenses.
I do agree though that relative statements can for certain contexts be more immediately practical. But also, the case of the spd is one where thinking about the space of possible party landscapes is relevant: What if the spd were center-left, in the sense of reformist left-wing/labor movement/syndicalist-ish policies, instead of a seeheimer circle oriented mildly right-wing party? That would present a very different type of discourse in society, i feel.
Left, right and center depend on the country. In the German context the SPD is center left. Not because they would have been so in the past. The party certainly moved to the right, but because they support more left leaning policies then the CDU.
Eh. I’d say it’s center right, the c*u is right, there’s the fascists/far right and then you have the social democratic parties left of center like the greens and the linke.
Things don’t have to be relative in this context either. They’re also relative, but you can use more absolute criteria as well. Stuff like “wants no one to be coerced into employment” vs “wants some people coerced mildly” vs “wants to coerce everyone to be employed”. Or the converse with regards to social security. Or criteria relating to individual rights. Or regulation in favor of hierarchical power structures vs regulations in favor of non-hierarchical power structures. These would all be meaningful left-right aligned analytical lenses.
I do agree though that relative statements can for certain contexts be more immediately practical. But also, the case of the spd is one where thinking about the space of possible party landscapes is relevant: What if the spd were center-left, in the sense of reformist left-wing/labor movement/syndicalist-ish policies, instead of a seeheimer circle oriented mildly right-wing party? That would present a very different type of discourse in society, i feel.