The Centre Party in British Politics

The Centre

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Before 1918 there had never been a centre party in British politics. The new Labour Party had grown up as a small ally of the Liberals, to their left. Between the wars, after a disastrous division of the Liberals, the Labour Party, by then independent, took its place as the main alternative to the Conservatives, and the decline of the Liberals as a centre party seemed complete after they split (for a second time) in 1931.

In the 1950s there were about six Liberal MPs, elected in remote regions of Great Britain , but in many areas the party ceased to have any effective existence. In the 1960s growing dislike of both major parties helped Liberals to win some by-elections, and these local successes inspired a vigorous revival. At the elections of 1974 Liberals received a fifth of the votes cast, though only a dozen MPs were elected. In 1977-78, when the Labour government lost its overall majority in the Commons, the Liberals gave support to the government, which consulted them in forming its policies. In the period of this 'Lib-Lab pact' support for the Liberals, as shown by opinion polls, declined to 5 per cent, but then rose again to between 10 and 15 per cent until 1981.

In 1981 a second centre party was created, the Social Democratic Party. It was inspired by Roy Jenkins, a former Labour moderate who earlier had held all the highest offices in Labour cabinets except that of Prime Minister. He had then left Parliament and served for four years as President of the European Commission. On his return to British politics he was joined by three other former Labour cabinet ministers and twenty other Labour MPs in forming the new party, which claimed that, free from the influence of the trade unions and of the left wing, it was the true successor of the Labour Party under its former leadership of Attlee and Gaitskell. The new party was soon joined by many people, including academics, who had not previously been active in party politics.

The Social Democrats and Liberals quickly formed an alliance of the centre, and at the end of 1981 had much more public support, according to opinion polls, than either the Conservative Government or the Labour Opposition. The two parties prepared an agreed statement of their policy, and each constituency had one Alliance candidate for Parliament, either a Liberal or a Social Democrat. But there were many disagreements, between the two parties and among the Liberals. The nature of the alliance was not clear. Its apparent success in receiving almost as many votes as Labour at the 1983 election was frustrated by the electoral system. All but three of the original Social Democratic MPs were defeated, mainly by Labour candidates. The Liberals then had more seats in Parliament and more members in the country, while the Social Democrats had the only political leaders with experience of office.

After the 1983 election Jenkins was replaced as leader of the Social Democrats by the younger David Owen, another former Labour Foreign Secretary, who quickly dominated his own party but appeared to be uneasy with the Liberals. In the next four years the Alliance had many successes in elections to local councils and in by-elections for Parliament, but failed to make a sustained advance. After the general election of 1987, in which the Alliance did a little less well than in 1983, most members of both parties agreed that they should merge to form a single party, and the merger was accomplished. But David Owen, with a nucleus of personal supporters, stayed outside. Soon there were two centre parties, engaged in bitter rivalry, though by 1990 Dr Owen's faction had collapsed and the united party, now called SLDP (Social and Liberal Democrats), or Liberal Democrats, stayed as the only serious party of the centre.

It had many successes in elections to local councils, and even gained a seat in Parliament from the Conservatives at a by-election; but in 1990 it failed to increase its support above 10 per cent in nationwide opinion polls. There was a new wave of gains in 1991.

Center Party

German political party formed to support Roman Catholic interests. It was active in the Second Reich from the 1870s, when it came into conflict with Otto von Bismarck in the Kulturkampf, to 1933, when it was dissolved by the Nazi-dominated government. It was the first party of imperial Germany to cut across class and state lines, but because it represented the Roman Catholics, who were concentrated in southern Germany, it never won a parliamentary majority.

Warning! The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Center Party

(Keskustapuolue), one of the largest bourgeois parties in Finland. Founded in 1906, the party was called the Union of the Rural Population of Finland from 1906 to 1908 and the Agrarian Party from 1908 to 1965.

The Center Party is primarily a party of the rural population. Its members include both small and large owners of farm and forest lands. Its program and ideological orientation (1968) are characterized by defense of private property and free enterprise, government support for agriculturalists, attempts to follow a “middle road” between capitalism and socialism, and an idealization of the peasant culture. The program documents of the Center Party were drawn up by S. Alkio, K. Kallio, and U. Kekkonen.

The Center Party is highly influential in Finnish politics; its members have been the presidents of the Finnish Republic for six out of 13 terms. After World War II (1939–45) it began playing a substantial role in the favorable development of Finnish-Soviet relations. The party’s leaders (1975) are J. Virolainen (party chairman), A. Karjalainen, M. Miettunen, and M. Im-monen. Its press organ is Suomenmaa.

Center Party

a bourgeois party in Germany from 1870 to 1933, founded by Catholic political figures on the eve of the unification of the country under Prussian hegemony.

In the early years of its existence, the Center Party expressed the particularist sentiments that were widespread in southern Germany. In the 1870’s the government, which wanted to put an end to the separatist movement, subjected the Catholic Church and its political arm, the Center Party, to severe persecution (seeKULTURKAMPF). In the late 1870’s, however, a rapprochement took place between the ruling circles and the Center Party, largely because the big landowners, who played the leading role in the party, had a vested interest in the protectionist import duties introduced by the government.

The rapid industrialization of the country strengthened the position of the big industrialists in the leadership of the Center Party. Thus, the party came to support the political course of German imperialism at the turn of the 20th century. After the November Revolution of 1918, the party’s leadership consisted solely of members of the industrial bourgeoisie. At the same time, the Center Party retained its mass base and adapted to new conditions; its left wing found support among, for example, the Christian and Catholic labor unions.

From 1919 to 1932 members of the Center Party served in the German government. Centrist chancellors included K. Fehrenbach (1920–21), J. Wirth (1921–22), W. Marx (1923–24, 1926–28), and H. Brüning (1930–32). During this period the Center Party reflected the attitudes of the wing of monopoly capital that wanted to retain the bourgeois parliamentary system. Along with the whole ruling camp, however, the Center Party evolved toward open reaction.

When the fascists attacked the republic in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, the Center Party’s leaders—including Brüning, F. von Papen, and the party’s chairman L. Kaas—supported the abolition of bourgeois democracy and thereby contributed to fascism’s rise to power. In March 1933, the votes of Center Party members of the Reichstag enabled Hitler to obtain emergency powers. The final result of this course of action was the self-dissolution of the party on July 5, 1933.

REFERENCES

Thälmann, E. “Tsentr—vedushchaia partiia germanskoi burzhuazii.” In the collection Krizis kapitalizma i tserkov’. Moscow, 1932.
Morsey, R. Die Deutsche Zentrumspartei. Düsseldorf, 1966.
Junker, D. Die Deutsche Zentrumspartei und Hitler 1932–1933. Stuttgart, 1969.

Exploring Centre Parties

Thursday, July 4, 2013