European countries compared to Canada and US in ideology

[mileslunn]

If you had to rank European countries compared to Canada and the US in terms of which are more right wing and more left wing, list as many as you can think of that fall under the following:

1.  More right wing than the US
2.  More right wing than Canada but more left wing than the US
3.  More left wing than both countries.

For the first one, I would probably chose a number of Eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary, and maybe Romania.  While this may sound controversial, I would actually put most European countries in number 2, but UK, Ireland, and Switzerland are obviously the ones that jump out the most.  For three, there were a lot in the past, but Canadian public opinion has taken a sharp turn to the left recently largely due to millennials growing in numbers who are a lot more left wing thus pulling the country leftward whereas asides from Britain it seems millennials aren't as left wing in most of Europe.  Nonetheless Germany, France, and Sweden are possible contenders but not so sure.

[Dr. MB]

Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria are in #1.

[America Needs R'hllor]

Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria are in #1.

Also Romania, Czechia, Ukraine, Moldova, Serbia... basically almost any Eastern Bloc country.
As for 2, I'd add France to the OP. They generally elect more right-wing governments than Canada, I think. Germany is also a possibility, it's hard to measure if Canada is to the right or left of it.

[TDAS04]

The Nordic countries, Netherlands, and maybe Spain (at least not long ago) for #3.  

[parochial boy]

Well, I mean, this is always quite tricky because you have two factors at play - not just the fact that certain countries may be politically to the left or right on certain issues, but not others - but also the factor of political salience coming into play.

So for instance, while the UK or Switzerland or France are significantly more liberal on abortion than the USA, it is tricky to argue that that necessarily makes them more liberal politically, as abortion rights are not at all a mainstream issue in most of Western Europe in the way that they are in the US. Likewise, you have a similar situation with regards to gun ownership; and until recently, you probably would have had the reverse when comparing attitudes towards immigration/integration between the US and the UK.

Similarly, it would be easy to look at Switzerland as having very low university tuition fees, generous state pension and welfare, nationalised trains/utilities etc and, because these are not even contested by the right wing parties, conclude it was well to the left of the USA. But, at the same time, it has lowed government spending as a proportion of GDP and banking secrecy and a dodgy tax regime which somewhat undermines that.

So in sum, I think that, while saying Sweden is clearly more left wing than the US - in most countries, you would have to find someway of identifying the hot button political topics, and then find some way to control for that to judge whether a country is more or less right wing.

[Lechasseur]

I'd probably put almost all the Eastern Bloc in category #1, the Western Bloc would probably be in #2 with the exceptions of Scandinavia, the Low Countries and maybe Portugal who would be in #3, BUUTTT...

Well, I mean, this is always quite tricky because you have two factors at play - not just the fact that certain countries may be politically to the left or right on certain issues, but not others - but also the factor of political salience coming into play.

So for instance, while the UK or Switzerland or France are significantly more liberal on abortion than the USA, it is tricky to argue that that necessarily makes them more liberal politically, as abortion rights are not at all a mainstream issue in most of Western Europe in the way that they are in the US. Likewise, you have a similar situation with regards to gun ownership; and until recently, you probably would have had the reverse when comparing attitudes towards immigration/integration between the US and the UK.

Similarly, it would be easy to look at Switzerland as having very low university tuition fees, generous state pension and welfare, nationalised trains/utilities etc and, because these are not even contested by the right wing parties, conclude it was well to the left of the USA. But, at the same time, it has lowed government spending as a proportion of GDP and banking secrecy and a dodgy tax regime which somewhat undermines that.

So in sum, I think that, while saying Sweden is clearly more left wing than the US - in most countries, you would have to find someway of identifying the hot button political topics, and then find some way to control for that to judge whether a country is more or less right wing.

This is definitely true

[EPG]

So in sum, I think that, while saying Sweden is clearly more left wing than the US - in most countries, you would have to find someway of identifying the hot button political topics, and then find some way to control for that to judge whether a country is more or less right wing.

Thank you. The only thing to add is it's hard to compare a federal country (Canada, USA) to unitary ones (most of Europe, even the UK).

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Poland is not more right-wing than USA, and what is more Internet American culture is making Poland more right-wing rather than the other way.

[IceAgeComing]

This is a nonsense thing to do though: there are many issues that aren't left-right in any meaningful sense; or which the left-right spectrum is backwards between countries.  A key example of that is Federalism and supporting the devolution of power; in Europe that tends to be something that left wing parties call for while in America its most often used by the Republican Party.  There are also issues where clearly the spectrum is totally different: every nation is Europe is clearly to the right of the US on immigration; and that's even factoring in the fact that Trump is President.  There's also the fact that ideology isn't based on core policies or anything like that but on values and that makes things harder to place politically - for example many of the countries listed above as "more right wing than the US" don't have anything like the common rhetoric on individualism and similar things which is omnipresent in America - indeed, that's something that tends to be more common in Western Europe which is seen as more left wing.

Basically this is an exercise that's entirely meaningless, and there are no real answers.

[GMantis]

In what way are Eastern European countries more right-wing than the US? I can tell you immediately than with some exceptions they are definitely more left-wing than the US on most social issues and at least regarding popular support, on many economic issues.

[Lechasseur]

This is a nonsense thing to do though: there are many issues that aren't left-right in any meaningful sense; or which the left-right spectrum is backwards between countries.  A key example of that is Federalism and supporting the devolution of power; in Europe that tends to be something that left wing parties call for while in America its most often used by the Republican Party.  There are also issues where clearly the spectrum is totally different: every nation is Europe is clearly to the right of the US on immigration; and that's even factoring in the fact that Trump is President.  There's also the fact that ideology isn't based on core policies or anything like that but on values and that makes things harder to place politically - for example many of the countries listed above as "more right wing than the US" don't have anything like the common rhetoric on individualism and similar things which is omnipresent in America - indeed, that's something that tends to be more common in Western Europe which is seen as more left wing.

Basically this is an exercise that's entirely meaningless, and there are no real answers.

Agreed