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> Right and left are arbitrary constructs necessitated by a first past the post voting system. Most European countries have proportional voting systems, yet ca

• Apocryphon 7y ago
  But not as tightly coupled as in FPTP systems. There's a greater variety of platforms under proportional representation. European countries have Christian democratic parties, which are mildly socially conservative coupled with mildly economically liberal. They have Liberal parties that actually win seats, which would be roughly equivalent to being mildly libertarian in an American sense. They have far right nativist populist parties that are xenophobic yet are pro-social safety net. They have more single issue groups like animal rights parties, and stronger green parties. They also have populist movements that attempt to appeal to the politically apathetic by being post-partisan, such as the 5 Star Movement in Italy. Overall their adherence to the left-right dichotomy is less rigid than in the U.S.