Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Oh I dunno, Europe doesn't seem to be doing badly.

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Will ya Europe is mostly Socilist(sp?) goverment which is basicly in the middle, That works fine but any more left you are going into Communism, Something i do not agree with

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Either way, don't blame me.... I voted for Theodore Roosevelt....=/

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Yeah, but communism is left taken to the extreme. A moderate leftie in power might be a good thing for the US.

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Socialism is to the left (and on the left of the left end scale, though not as far as communism which is too the extreme left), a bit more to the centre is social democracy and social liberals (or for the Americans "libertarians").

Though ofcourse you can't simply capture a goverment or party's political stance or position on the left to right scale that easily. One party that calls itself "social democrat" might be more to the left or right then it's competitor.

And no, I would not discribe Europe as "socialist" , in recent years it seemsto have become rather centrist overall or even a bit more conservative. The Dutch went from a Social-liberal ("libertarian") goverment to social-christian (or christian social as the christian party's have the biggest slice of the pie and thus brought back some conservetism). Then again, Europe is quite large, so is the EU so putting a tag on them is a crude generalisation to begin with.

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

Thanks that was really helpful, I will admit i have very little knowledge on modern day goverments in Europe

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

I decided to check the famous politcalcompass site which seemed reasonably reliable/accurate with it's conclusions on past elections and data.

I noticed they have a quike / basic overview of the politcal position of EU goverments in 2008. I'd have to look more into it but at first glance it doesn't look that bad. Though I expected more dots towards the centre. I do know the UK is around the centre or right of it. And so is our pityfull Dutch goverment (thank you christians and your conservatism).

On second thought it is putting a whole load of countries more right then I'd have thought. I don't consider my country that far to th right (I mean, our current goverment has a piss poor coalition and the opposition is either on the more left and right wing such as the "party of animals" and "socialist party" on one end and the "Party of Freedom" and "Liberal" party on the other end but still... The Auth. to Liberal scale seems to be about right though).

http://www.politicalcompass.org/images/eu2008.gif
"While most of the old Eastern Bloc countries appear to have taken to the free market with the zeal of the recent convert, the simulaneous development of social freedoms has, in some instances been rather slower. The previous Polish Prime Minister, for example, alone among EU leaders and in conflict with EU policy, wanted his country to re-adopt capital punishment. In the western member states, however, the progressive abolition of economic restrictions seems generally to correspond to the extent of curbs on certain certain civil liberties. The most obvious example is the UK. But in other states, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, extremely liberal traditions in certain social policies have somewhat eroded as neoliberal economics have expanded."
http://www.politicalcompass.org/euchart

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

http://www.politicalcompass.org/face...4.62&soc=-2.51

There's mine ;)

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

http://www.politicalcompass.org/prin...8.25&soc=-6.72http://www.politicalcompass.org/prin...8.25&soc=-6.72http://i566.photobucket.com/albums/s...raphpngphp.png

Oh lawdy.

Re: Change We Can Believe In...Right?
 

http://www.politicalcompass.org/face...0.12&soc=-3.03
Predictable. I haven’t moved much one way or the other. However, in six months I moved further up by 3 grids from Libertarian and about two hairs to the left.:beer: