=OBS= EstebanRey wrote:
Democrat, Liberal, Labour, Conservative etc have all become much of a muchness nowadays (in the UK anyway)....
Anyway, very brifley
Right Wing - Racist, zenophobic, totalatarian, warmongerering Nazis
Left Wing, Namby pamby, lilly livered, tree hugging, pot smoking hippies.
Generally speaking the Conservatives (UK) and the Republicans (US) are right wing and the Democrats (US) and Liberal Democrats (UK) are left wing. Labour (UK) try to be the middleground but they are becoming ever more right wing by the day.
In the States the two main parties are center right (Democrats) and further right (Republicans), regardless of what people think they're voting for and what the media tries to portray them as. Nader's Independant party and the Green party are the only parties falling left of center in US politics that have any degree of organization. The Libertarian party is an odd lot, falling far right on economics but far left on personal liberties. In Europe (not speaking for UK), the parties seem more evenly distributed across the spectrum, from the far-right ultranationalists to the far left Communist party, and all things in between. Israel, by contrast, has no less than 20 political parties at any given time able to muster 2 to 5% of the vote each, ranging from single-minded "pro-hemp" parties to the more comprehensive Social democrats, to the pro-Zionist pro-hawk Likud party. Confused yet? Well, some countries allow you to vote for your top 3 (or more) favorite parties, not just the one you like most. So, for example, you were an ultra-nationalist pot-smoker and a proud Christian, you would fill your ballot like this:
1 - Nationalist Party
2 - Pro-hemp Party
3 - Christian Democratic Party
Basically, the main issue with American politics is the winner-take-all system, whereby a simple majority determines the winner and who gets to power. There is no 2nd place, #2 packs his bags and goes and writes a book or something. The parliamentary system in other western democracies though basically takes the percentage of the votes for each party and then divides the seats in their parliament accordingly (its a little more complicated, but that's the basic idea). The parties then need to form coalitions until one coalition can claim majority and appoint a prime minister (Speaker of the House equivalent). If the parties can't form a viable coalition, then it is said they "didn't form the new government" and they hold another vote (a "run-off") where only the top X parties appear on the ballot, or it could be a completely fresh start (depends on rules). Most all governmental functions, such as budgeting, are handled by apolitical career bureaucrats following strict rules, so "lacking a government" generally isn't a big deal, life goes on as always.
Basically, in Europe you don't vote for a man to lead or represent you, you vote for the party first and foremost. You will generally have a good idea of the men/women that will eventually take leadership if that party wins if you're paying attention, but their party keeps them in line with their party's goals and will replace them if they don't toe the party line. Why does Tony still have a job, Brits?
They may also still have a presidential election, but depending on the individual country's rules, the president may have power almost equal to the US president, or he may just be a figurehead, or the position might not exist at all.
The end result is that most European countries tend to be more centrist overall and reflect better the people that vote. The American system tends to elect candidates and reps that are a few steps to the right of the citizenry. There's been some arguement that the center line should be moved to reflect American politics, so that the Democratic liberals would be to the left, but most political scientists think that's a bad idea, and would simply reflect the artificial framing the American media has put on the subject (Want some real laughs? Listen to Fox News pundits talk about the "Ultra-left" Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton).
As far as your other questions regarding the meaning of left-right, wiki has an excellent starting point for this, but keep in mind American and European bias.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_Spectrum
