Does multiparty politics follow this "template"?

[freefair]

I have a theory that in the last 6 decades, in most developed nations in which there exists a system of proportional representation for general elections, the 6 (or more) most major political parties will fall into thse broad categories...

-Mainstream pragmatic Conservative parties that place a balanced emphasis on the major political issues regarding foreign, domestic social and economic policy of the day and appeal to the average middle classes, rural areas and mildly religious people. usually strong on defence issues and pro-American.
-Mainstream Progressive, who act similarly to the above, appeal to the working and liberal middle classes and labor unions
-Elitist Right parties, usually Neoliberals, who are usually popular with the secular wealthy types and profesionals and emphasise free markets over socio-cultural questions
-Liberal Left parties that emphasise ecological, and socio-cultural issues over economic ones, and are usually popular with bohemian-bourgoise types and urbanites. Alternatively they can be seen as mild liberal-centrists
-Communitarian Right parties that emphasise socially conservative and/or nationalistic issues. Often appeal to those who are very religious or feel left behind by cultural change and globalisation
-Radical Left, which can be either full on New-Left movement pacifists or socially authoritarian protectionists, but who prioritise economic inequality and productivity issues over lifestyle and civil liberties questions

Examples of each party can be found in almost every European nation, and ones such as Israel and New Zealand. Even France, it can be argued, has similar parties.

The most perfect example is Germany, where the CDU/CSU,SPD,FDP, Greens, AfD, & Left respectively embody these stereotypes.
Chart
MR-ML-ER-EL-PR-PL
Iceland- IP, SDA, BF, Prt, PP, LGA
Norway- Con, Lab, V, EpG+Sp, FrP+KF, SL
Sweden- Mod, S, Lb+Sp, MdG+FI, KD+SD, Lft
Denmark- V+KF, SD, LA, RV+Alt, DPP+NB+KD, SFP+RGA
Finland- KESK, SD, KOK+SFP, GL, Finns+KD, LA
Netherlands- CDA+CU, PvdA, VVD, D66+GL+PvdD , PVV+SGP, SP & 50+
France- LRep, PS, UDI+MoDem, EELV+PRG, FN+Arise, FG
Luxembourg- CSVP, LSAP, DP, dG, ARD, dLnk
Belgium- CSV/CdH+NVA, SP/SPa, OLVD/MR, Ecolo/Grn+ FDF, VB+PP+LDD, PVDA/PVT
Switzerland- CSVP+EVP+BDP, SdP+CSP, FDL.Lib, GrnLib, SVP+FDU+TL, Grn+AltLeft
Austria- OVP+BZO, SPO, NEOS, Grn, FPO+TS, KPO
Italy (pre-94)- DC, PSI+PSDI, PLI, PRI+Radicals, MSI+LN, PCI
Italy (now)- NCR/UDC, PD, FI, SC+5SM, LN+FdI, IL
Czechia- KDU-CSL+ODS, CSSD, TOP09, ANO,Dawn, KSCM
Slovenia- NsI, SD, SDS, PCM+LDS offshoots,NsI+DeSus+smaller parties, ZL
Greece- ND, PASOK+DL,Union of Centrists,To Potami, IG+XA, SYRIZA+KKE
New Zealand- Nats+UF (not really a liberal party IMO), Lab, Act, some Greens+Maori, NZFirst+Cons,other Greens+Alliance
If anyone wants me to do another country, please comment!

[DavidB.]

Let's try this with some European countries:

Finland: KESK, SDP, KOK, Greens (+SPP, but "left" is a stretch), Finns Party, VAS
Netherlands: CDA, PvdA, VVD, D66 (though "left" is a stretch)/GroenLinks, PVV, SP.
Denmark: Venstre, Social Democrats, Conservatives (+Liberal Alliance), Radikale (though "left" is a stretch) and Alternative, DPP, Red-Greens. SPP is somewhere between Populist Left and Mainstream Progressive.
Norway: Conservatives, Labour, none (partly Progress on the economy, partly Conservatives, partly Liberals on socio-cultural issues), Greens (but weak), Progress, Socialist Left
Belgium: Christian Democrats (nowadays N-VA?), Socialists, Liberals, none, VB, PTB/PVDA+

The most obvious omission in your model is the social liberal one, which fall between "elitist left" and "elitist right".

Edit: Oh, you had already edited the OP. I wouldn't put Christians in the "populist right" category; they're often very anti-populist.

[DavidB.]

Israel:
Likud (though "responsible" is arguably a bit of a stretch...) though could very much be considered to be part of "populist right" too, Labour, Yesh Atid, Meretz, Yisrael Beiteinu, certain factions in Labour

Come to think of it, another flaw of your model is that it's bad at dealing with religious parties.

[freefair]

I had

Likud+YB ( I think they're pretty maainstream, in that they're not trying to appeal either to the poor or the religious), Labor & whats left of Kadima, Yesh Atid, Kulanu+Hanutah+some meretz, Jewish Home+Shas+UTJ+ Arab right, some Labor+most Meretz+Hadash

[freefair]

Israel:
Likud (though "responsible" is arguably a bit of a stretch...) though could very much be considered to be part of "populist right" too, Labour, Yesh Atid, Meretz, Yisrael Beiteinu, certain factions in Labour

Come to think of it, another flaw of your model is that it's bad at dealing with religious parties.

They're heavily socially conservative, so they'd be on the right (and I've changed the model to "communitarian" rather than just populist to include them)

[Mike88]

For my country, Portugal:

CDS-People's Party; Socialist Party; Social Democrats; the Left Bloc and the Communists-Green alliance can fall in either the Radical Left or Elitist Left (both have wings that advocate both categories), also the Peoples-Animals-Nature can fall in the Elitist Left; National Renovator Party (nationalist, anti-imigration).

[parochial boy]

I'm tempted to quibble with a few of the Swiss definitions you used

Greens - I would put into the "liberal left" rather then "radical left" category (they are very hard to differentiate from the PS, policy wise)

GreenLiberals - aren't left wing, they are quite hard to categorise as they are economically right-wing, but very much focus on ecology" issues. If anything, I suspect they would fall into the "elitist right" catgory.

PEV - are also hard to categorise, they are right leaning on most social issues, but actually lean left on most economic ones.

I would also add the MCG (Mouvement Citoyen Genevois) into the populist right.

[parochial boy]

Also, to add to that, it might be wort adding a category of "Regionalist" parties; this would especially apply to Spain. I guess you could link most regionalist parties to another of the 6 categories. But some of the Spanish parties, I think are hard to link either way; is it really that accurate to call Artur Mas a populist rightwinger? or a mainstream rightwinger?

Broadly though, Spain:

Mainstream right - PP
Mainstream left - PSOE
Elitist right - Ciudadanos, UPyD
Radical Left - Podemos, UI

then all the regional parties.

[palandio]

To me this seems like a template that is valid mainly for Western Europe and comparable countries. Indeed Germany is the most perfect example, but also the political groups in the European Parliament come close:
Mainstream right: EPP and in a certain sense the Tories (ECR). Also parts of ALDE.
Mainstream progressives: S&D.
Elitist right: Most parts of ALDE.
Liberal left: Greens, parts of ALDE.
Communitarian right: ENF, parts of ECR, EFDD (with the exception of M5S, who will leave anyway).
Difficult to find a place: M5S and some Eastern Europeans.

As I see it the template is not good at describing the multiparty systems of countries like Argentina, Turkey, South Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, etc.

And also Italy, in my opinion:

Mainstream right: Just going by its (former) size Forza Italia is a mainstream right party. It is part of the EPP. And despite Berlusconi's talk about "liberal revolution bla bla" in the 90s it's not only an option for small entrepreneurs, but also for practicing Catholics (oh the irony!), housewives, etc.
NCD and UDC on the other hand are small niche parties that combine clientilism, political pragmatism and Christian values, not mainstream parties that a (Nothern/Central Italian) center-right voter would vote for by default.

Mainstream left: PD, no question.

Elitist right: As long as it was still relevant, to some degree SC.

Liberal left: No relevant party that caters to the liberal left as described by you, but of course there are liberal lefties in the PD, SI, M5S, etc. But no way are M5S and SC in the same category.

Communitarian Right: LN, FdI. I would also say, M5S has certain elements of this.

Radical left: Most of SI. And again M5S has certain elements of this.

Nowhere and everywhere: M5S.

[DavidB.]

Yeah the elephant in the room is of course that this model assumes party systems are based on ideology; in many if not most (semi-) democratic countries this is not the case. But it works relatively well for Western Europe.