The Global Perspective

Politics in Europe: Is the Traditional Left-Right Divide Crumbling? For decades, European politics has been defined by a familiar tug-of-war: the left versus the right. Socialist and progressive parties squared off against conservative and centrist forces, with the occasional liberal party (in the European sense) spicing things up. This comfortable dichotomy, a bedrock of the political landscape, is now facing an unprecedented challenge: the rise of insurrectionist, populist parties that are shaking the foundations of European democracy. The Old Model: A Tale of Two Sides (and Some Variations) Think back to the classic political battles across the continent. In many European nations, a dominant socialist or progressive party would typically face off against a major conservative party. Sometimes, this played out with multiple left-leaning parties against a constellation of centrist and conservative forces, but the basic framework remained. You had your progressives, your conservatives, ...