Big tent

Examples

Armenia

Following the 2018 Armenian parliamentary election, the My Step Alliance rose to power on an anti-corruption and pro-democracy platform. The alliance has been described as maintaining a big tent ideology, as the alliance did not support any one particular political position. Instead, it focused on strengthening Armenia's civil society and economic development.

Australia

The Liberal Party of Australia and its predecessors originated as an alliance of liberals and conservatives in opposition to the Australian Labor Party, beginning with the Commonwealth Liberal Party in 1909. This ideological distinction has endured to the present day, with the modern Liberal Party frequently described as a "broad church", a term popularised by former leader and Prime Minister John Howard. In this context, "broad church" is largely synonymous with "big tent". In the 21st century, the party is often characterised as having a "small-l liberal" wing and a conservative wing, which frequently come into conflict with each other. The party has historically found strong support primarily from the middle-class, though it has in recent decades appealed to socially conservative working-class voters.

Argentina

From its foundation the Justicialist Party has been a Peronist catch-all party, which focuses on the figure of Juan Perón and his wife Eva. Since Nestor Kirchner took the presidency in 2003, the party is considered as part of center-left coalition. It has divided into left-wing and right-wing factions, with left-wing populist Kirchnerists now dominating the party. Despite this, the right-wing faction still exists.

Juntos por el Cambio is an Argentine big tent political coalition. It was created in 2015 as Cambiemos. It is composed of Republican Proposal (centre-right), Civic Coalition ARI (centre) and Radical Civic Union (centre), with common goals to oppose Peronist parties. It is considered as part of center-right coalition.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh Awami League's Grand Alliance (Bangladesh) and BNP's 20 Party Alliance forms coalition with a wide range of parties, thus being catch all parties.

Brazil

In Brazil, the Centrão () is a term for a large bloc of political parties that do not have a specific or consistent ideological orientation, and focus on negotiating support for the government in exchange for positions, resources, and political influence. These parties tend to form the parliamentary base of different administrations, shifting positions as needed, and play a decisive role in forming majorities in the National Congress. The Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) is one of the oldest and most notable "Centrão" and Big Tent parties in Brazil; despite being Brazil's largest party, both in number of members and number of officials elected, it has never elected a President, but has used its position as the largest party as a "bargaining chip" for privileges and advantages. MDB was founded in 1965 at the start of the Brazilian military dictatorship as part of an enforced two-party system by the dictatorship, in which the only allowed parties were National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA), a catch-all party representing the interests of the dictatorship, and MDB, formed to represent a wide-range moderate and less radical opposition to the dictatorship, without a clear program except the democratization of the country.

Brazil also has a number of minor parties known as "" (), or "dwarf parties" (), that generally have a "catch-all" alignment, with no electoral base of their own, existing primarily to negotiate political support, access to resources, or advertising time.

Other Big Tent centrão parties include the Progressists (PP), Brazilian Labour Party (PTB), We Can (PODE), Brazil Union (UB), Social Democratic Party (PSD), Social Christian Party (PSC), Act (AGIR), Patriot (PATRI), Forward (AVANTE), Solidarity (SD).

Canada

At the federal level, Canada has been dominated by two big tent parties practicing "brokerage politics." Both the Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada (and its predecessors) have attracted support from a broad spectrum of voters. Although parties such as the Quebec nationalist Bloc Québécois have elected members to the House of Commons, far-right and far-left parties have never gained a prominent force in Canadian society and have never formed a government in the Canadian Parliament.

Colombia

In Colombia, the presumed League of Anti-Corruption Governors, led by the former presidential candidate, sometimes referred to as "the Colombian Trump", has been described as a "catch-all party", although analysts agree that it belongs to a more or less authoritarian right-wing. That is to say to a type of extreme right.

Finland

The centre-right National Coalition Party has been described as catch-all party supporting the interests of the urban middle classes.

France

The Renaissance party (formerly La République En Marche!) founded by President Emmanuel Macron has been described as a centrist party with a catch-all nature.

Germany

Both the Christian Democratic Union of Germany/Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CDU/CSU) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are considered big tent or catch-all parties, known in German as Volksparteien ("people's parties").

India

The Indian National Congress attracted support from Indians of all classes, castes and religions supportive of the Indian independence movement. The Janata Party which came into power in India in 1977, was a catch-all party that consisted of people with different ideologies opposed to The Emergency.

Ireland

Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are considered catch-all parties and are supported by people from different social classes and political ideologies. The two parties are usually described as being very similar in their current and recent policies, both being positioned on the centre-right with a liberal-conservative ideology. The reasons for their remaining separate are mainly historical, with those who supported the Anglo-Irish Treaty in the 1920s eventually becoming Fine Gael and those who opposed the treaty having joined Fianna Fáil to seek an independent Ireland.

Italy

In Italy, the Five Star Movement, founded and formerly led by the comedian and actor Beppe Grillo, has been described as a catch-all protest party and "post-ideological big tent" because its supporters do not share similar policy preferences, are split on major economic and social issues and are united largely based on "anti-establishment" sentiments. The Five Star Movement's "successful campaign formula combined anti-establishment sentiments with an economic and political protest which extends beyond the boundaries of traditional political orientations", but its "'catch-all' formula" has limited its ability to become "a mature, functional, effective and coherent contender for government".

Japan

The New Frontier Party, which existed from 1994 to 1997, was considered a big political party because it was created to oppose the LDP by people of various ideologies, including social democrats, liberals, neoliberals, Buddhist democrats, and conservatives.

The former main centre-left opposition, the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), was Japan's version of third way politics and served since the mid-1990s as a ‘big tent party’ for a plethora of heterogeneous groups ranging from two socialist parties to liberal and conservative groups.

Mexico

The Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held power in Mexico for 71 uninterrupted years, from 1929 to 2000. It was founded after the Mexican Revolution by Mexican president Plutarco Elías Calles. Then known as the National Revolutionary Party, it was founded with the intent of providing a political space to allow all surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution to participate and to resolve the grave political crisis that had been caused by the assassination of President-elect Álvaro Obregón in 1928. Throughout its nine-decade existence, the PRI has adopted a vast array of ideologies, which have often been determined by the president of the republic in office at the time. The party nationalized the petroleum industry in 1938 and the banking industry in 1982. In the 1980s, the party went through reforms that shaped its current incarnation, with policies characterized as centre-right, such as the privatization of state-run companies, closer relations with the Catholic Church, and embracing free-market capitalism and neoliberal policies.

The National Regeneration Movement, founded by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has often been described as a big-tent party because of the various constituents who joined its ranks during the 2018 Mexican general elections. Juntos Hacemos Historia is a big-tent alliance led by the National Regeneration Movement that contested the 2021 Mexican legislative election. The successor alliance, Sigamos Haciendo Historia, has been described by some political scientists as catch-all.

The Ecologist Green Party of Mexico has often been described in terms of catch all politics. AP News describes it as a "strange political group" that almost always joins the governing party's coalition to maintain influence. According to Muñoz Patraca, a professor of political science at UNAM, the PVEM is not a political party like other movements in favor of democratization, or economic or social struggles. Rather, the party serves, in name only, to concerns about the environment - escaping the traditional left-right ideological axis. Miguel Angel Toro, the Director of the Bachelor's Degree in Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey, describes the party as a "party that has no ideology... It’s been with parties who are on the right, center, and the left.” Critically, Toro says, “the big parties overestimate the votes the Partido Verde can bring in, so the party always ends up with more seats than they would have gotten. That gives the Green Party more life than it should have.”

Portugal

The centre-left Socialist Party (PS) and centre-right Social Democratic Party (PSD) have been described as catch-all parties.

Romania

Romania's Social Democratic Party has been referred to as a catch-all party. Political analyst Radu Magdin described it in December 2016 as having conservative values, while being economically liberal, and espousing left-leaning rhetoric on public policies.

Spain

Citizens (Spanish: Ciudadanos) has been considered as an example of astroturfing in the Spanish media since 2015. Originally founded as a social-democratic regional party opposed to Catalan nationalism, the party switched to a catch-all message to attract votes from the right to the moderate left in the party's appearance in the national political landscape. Its stance includes a mix of liberalism and pro-Europeanism, but the party has also embraced populist views on the legitimacy of its political opponents; conservative views on topics such as the criminal system and personal property and Spanish nationalist positions. It has become one of the most recognisable catch-all parties in the history of the country. In the mid-2010s, however, the party's main ideology is perceived to have drifted towards the right, with Albert Rivera admitting that it would not agree to form a coalition with the two main centre-left and left parties after the April 2019 Spanish general election, regardless of the results. Furthermore, some commentators argue that Ciudadanos was attempting to supplant the People's Party, which suffered massive losses as the hegemonic party of the right and thus contributed to the shift in Ciudadanos to the right. Similarly, Ciudadanos has allied with both the conservative People's Party and the far-right Vox to achieve coalitions in regional parliaments. That has given rise to the expression "the three rights" or colloquially "El Trifachito" to describe the grouping, which defines its opposition as "the left".

South Africa

The African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of South Africa since the country's first democratic election, in 1994, and it has been described by the media as a "big tent" party. An important aspect of its electoral success has been its ability to include a diverse range of political groups most notably in the form of the Tripartite Alliance between the ANC; the South African Communist Party; and the country's largest trade union, COSATU. Additional interest groups in the party are members of the business community and traditional leaders.

United Kingdom

When Gordon Brown became the prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2007, he invited several members from outside the Labour Party into his government. They included former CBI Director-General Digby Jones who became a Minister of State and former Liberal Democrats leader Paddy Ashdown who was offered the position of Northern Ireland Secretary (Ashdown turned down the offer). The media often referred to Brown's ministry as "a government of all the talents" or simply "Brown's big tent".

All for Unity was a big tent anti-SNP electoral alliance that contested the 2021 Scottish Parliament election but failed to win any seats.

United States

The Democratic Party was a "big-tent" party during the New Deal coalition, which was formed to support President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal policies from the 1930s to the 1960s. The coalition brought together labor unions, working-class voters, lower-middle class voters, farm organizations, secular liberals, Southern Democrats, African Americans, urban voters, and immigrants.

After the 1974 Dallas Accord, the Libertarian Party embraced the big-tent idea to the extent it ensured that the anarcho-capitalist views would not be excluded from the majority minarchist party.

The Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the Democratic Socialists of America identifies DSA as a "big tent" organization amongst the American left, as individual members are aligned with a wide range of socialist ideologies, including social democracy, democratic socialism, the democratic road to socialism, Trotskyism, Marxism–Leninism, and anarchism.

Other examples

• ANO 2011, Czech Republic
• Austrian People's Party
• Awami League, Bangladesh
• Brazilian Democratic Movement, Brazil
• Christian Democracy, Italy (1943–1994)
• Christian Democratic Union of Germany
• Civic Platform, Poland
• Democratic Party (United States) United States
• Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro
• Fianna Fáil, Republic of Ireland
• Five Star Movement, Italy
• Georgian Dream
• Indian National Congress
• Institutional Revolutionary Party, Mexico
• Islamic Iran Participation Front
• Joint List, Israel
• Labour Party (United Kingdom) United Kingdom
• Labour Party, Lithuania
• La République En Marche!, France
• Liberal party of Canada Canada
• Liberal Democratic Party, Japan
• National Coalition Party, Finland
• National Liberation Front, Algeria
• National Regeneration Movement, Mexico
• Nuevas Ideas, El Salvador
• People's Front for Democracy and Justice, Eritrea
• Progressive Conservative Party of Canada
• Republican Party of Armenia, Armenia
• Scottish National Party, Scotland
• Serbian Progressive Party
• Social Democratic Party, Portugal
• Social Democratic Party of Germany
• Socialist Party, Portugal
• South Tyrolean People's Party
• Together for Yes, Ireland
• Together for Yes, Spain
• Chama Cha Mapinduzi, Tanzania
• United Russia, Russia
• Barisan Nasional, Malaysia
• Pakatan Harapan, Malaysia
• Perikatan Nasional, Malaysia
• Pakatan Rakyat, Malaysia
• United Borneo Alliance, State of Sabah and State of Sarawak, Malaysia
• United Sabah Alliance, State of Sabah, Malaysia
• The United Alliance of State, Malaysia
• Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, State of Sabah, Malaysia
• Gabungan Parti Sarawak, State of Sarawak, Malaysia
• Gerakan Tanah Air (GTA), Malaysia
• Parti Impian Sabah, State of Sabah, Malaysia
• White Movement, Russian State (1917–1923)

Notes

References

References

1. "Definition of "big tent" in English". [[Oxford English Dictionary]].
2. (December 4, 2018). "Armenian snap elections seen as the final chapter of the Velvet Revolution".
3. (22 March 2005). "Divergent views vital to Howard's broad church". Sydney Morning Herald.
4. (10 April 2018). "Can the Liberal Party hold its 'broad church' of liberals and conservatives together?". The Conversation.
5. (2021-04-08). "OP-ED: How the house of cards came crashing down".
6. (2018-07-29). "Centrão vive quarta encarnação, agora restrito ao fisiologismo". O Globo.
7. Benites, Talita Bedinelli, Afonso. (2017-12-19). "PMDB volta a se chamar MDB: retorno ao passado para aplacar crise de imagem".
8. Deak, Andre. (2014-11-12). "Partidos políticos".
9. "Fim da coligação e partido de aluguel {{!}} Gazeta Digital".
10. "O que é o poderoso centrão, que pode definir o sucessor de Cunha". BBC News Brasil.
11. (2012). "Political Marketing in Canada". UBC Press.
12. (2010). "The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Politics". OUP USA.
13. Brooks, Stephen. (2004). "Canadian Democracy: An Introduction". Oxford University Press.
14. Johnson, David. (2016). "Thinking Government: Public Administration and Politics in Canada, Fourth Edition". University of Toronto Press.
15. (2015). "Parties, Polarization and Democracy in the United States". Taylor & Francis.
16. Smith, Miriam. (2014). "Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada: Second Edition". University of Toronto Press.
17. Elections Canada. (2018). "Plurality-Majority Electoral Systems: A Review".
18. Andrea Olive. (2015). "The Canadian Environment in Political Context". University of Toronto Press.
19. (2015). "Canadian Multiculturalism and the Absence of the Far Right". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics.
20. (2017). "Canada's Secret to Resisting the West's Populist Wave". The New York Times.
21. (2022-05-31). "Elecciones presidenciales en Colombia: la hora de la esperanza".
22. (2022-06-15). "La Justicia obliga a Rodolfo Hernández a debatir con Gustavo Petro ante el balotaje en Colombia". Tiempo Argentino.
23. Schneider, Aaron. "Colombia's Hernandez is offering a passive revolution from above".
24. Karvonen, Lauri. (2014). "Parties, Governments and Voters in Finland: Politics Under Fundamental Societal Transformation". ECPR Press.
25. Sophie Di Francesco-Mayot. (2017). "Why the Left Loses: The Decline of the Centre-Left in Comparative Perspective". Policy Press.
26. (2014). "Europeanisation and Party Politics: How the EU affects Domestic Actors, Patterns and Systems". ECPR Press.
27. (2012). "Pax Ethnica: Where and How Diversity Succeeds". PublicAffairs.
28. "Political Parties - NCERT". [[National Council of Educational Research and Training]].
29. Weeks, Liam. (2018). "Politics in the Republic of Ireland: Sixth Edition". Taylor & Francis.
30. Valentina Romei, [https://www.ft.com/content/553bcf9a-d326-11e6-b06b-680c49b4b4c0 Five Star Movement: the protest party explained in charts: Direct democracy and rejection of binary politics brings success but stunts maturity], ''Financial Times'' (January 10, 2017).
31. (2014). "Party Politics in Japan: Political Chaos and Stalemate in the 21st Century". [[Routledge]].
32. Spremberg, Felix. (25 November 2020). "How Japan's Left is repeating its unfortunate history". International Politics & Society Journal.
33. (January 11, 2018). "Meade, the King of the Mexican Sandwich". [[El Universal (Mexico City).
34. Russell, James W.. (2009). "Class and Race Formation in North America". University of Toronto Press.
35. (July 21, 2014). "Comparative Politics: Interests, Identities, and Institutions in a Changing Global Order". Cambridge University Press.
36. Schettino, Macario. (6 June 2018). "Mexico 2018: How AMLO Took a Page from the PRI Playbook". Americas Quarterly.
37. Graham, Dave. (20 March 2018). "Mexican leftist's 'big tent' pitch puts presidency in sight". Reuters.
38. (December 24, 2020). "Morena, PT y PVEM presentan alianza 'Juntos hacemos historia' para elecciones de 2021".
39. Almaraz, Karina. (2024-05-28). "Ideología de Morena y coalición Sigamos Haciendo Historia: cuál es".
40. (2024-06-14). "Mexico's small, oft-questioned Green Party to become the second-largest force in Congress".
41. Espejel Espinoza, Alberto. (2022). "Tendencias Organizacionales y Democracia Interna en Los Partidos Políticos en México: Los Casos Del PAN, PRI, PRD, PT, PVEM, MC y MORENA". Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Instituto de Investigaciones sobre la Universidad y la Educacion.
42. Rios, Lorena. (2021-06-30). "Green Like AstroTurf—or Dollars". Slate.
43. (2014). "The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study". Routledge.
44. Păun, Carmen. (13 December 2016). "Pragmatism is a winner for Romanian Left". Politico.
45. (2015-05-15). "¿Ciudadanos es de izquierdas o de derechas?".
46. (2019-03-03). "Albert Rivera: "No vamos a pactar con el PSOE ni con Sánchez, les echaremos y punto"".
47. Orriols, Lluís. "¿Se va Ciudadanos a la derecha? Sí, pero quizás no tanto".
48. Grootes, Stephen. (May 5, 2019). "2019 Elections - ANALYSIS: Curiouser and Curiouser – the strange case of the 2019 elections".
49. Campbell, John. (July 18, 2017). "A Political Opening in South Africa". Council on Foreign Relations.
50. Shoki, William. (April 2019). "South Africa's Third Way revival".
51. Herskovitz, Jon. (September 15, 2010). "ANC stability shakes SA's economic future".
52. (June 29, 2007). "In full: Brown's government". [[BBC News]].
53. (June 21, 2007). "The fallout from Brown's job offer". [[BBC News]].
54. (October 5, 2007). "First 100 days: Gordon Brown". [[BBC News]].
55. "Galloway's bid to form united front to save Union shunned". [[The Times]].
56. King, David C.. (1997). "Why People Don't Trust Government". Harvard University Press.
57. Young, Lisa. (2000). "Feminists and Party Politics". University of Michigan Press.
58. Allen, Holly M.. (2007). "New Deal Coalition". ABC-CLIO.
59. Gottfried, Paul. (1993). "The conservative movement: Social movements past and present". Twayne.
60. (2025-01-31). "A Guide to DSA Politics".
61. Sarah Elise Wiliarty. (16 August 2010). "The CDU and the Politics of Gender in Germany: Bringing Women to the Party". Cambridge University Press.
62. (March 29, 2016). "Dilma Rousseff and Brazil face up to decisive month". BBC News.
63. Newell, James L.. (28 January 2010). "The Politics of Italy: Governance in a Normal Country". Cambridge University Press.
64. (2014). "Europeanisation and Party Politics: How the EU affects Domestic Actors, Patterns and Systems". ECPR Press.
65. Jane L. Curry. (2011). "Central and East European Politics: From Communism to Democracy". Rowman & Littlefield.
66. Maguire, Maria. (1986). "Growth to Limits: Germany, United Kingdom, Ireland, Italy". Walter de Gruyter.
67. (July 2013). "The Georgian succession". [[European Union Institute for Security Studies]].
68. Barrington, Lowell. (2009). "Comparative Politics: Structures and Choices". Cengage Learning.
69. Mohammadighalehtaki, Ariabarzan. (2012). "Organisational Change in Political Parties in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. With Special Reference to the Islamic Republic Party (IRP) and the Islamic Iran Participation Front Party (Mosharekat)". [[Durham University]].
70. Sophie Di Francesco-Mayot. (2017). "Why the Left Loses: The Decline of the Centre-Left in Comparative Perspective". Policy Press.
71. (June 9, 2017). "Législatives : "Le parti d'Emmanuel Macron a un caractère attrape-tout"".
72. (2001). "Japan's International Relations: Politics, Economics and Security". Routledge.
73. Karvonen, Lauri. (2014). "Parties, Governments and Voters in Finland: Politics Under Fundamental Societal Transformation". ECPR Press.
74. (2018-01-21). "Morena no está institucionalizado; "cacha" de todos lados: politólogo Ibero".
75. (22 September 2021). "El Salvador: "The President's Aim is to Concentrate Power"". [[Civicus]].
76. (2011). "Biopolitics, Militarism, and Development: Eritrea in the Twenty-First Century". Berghahn Books.
77. Cross, William. (2015). "Party Members and Activists". Routledge.
78. (23 May 2012). "Armenian Elections: Technology vs. Ideology". [[ETH Zurich]].
79. David Torrance, "Scotland's Progressive Dilemma," The Political Quarterly, 88 (2017): 52–59. doi:10.1111/1467-923X.12319.
80. Carrell, Severin. (25 April 2011). "Alex Salmond's big tent bulges as Tommy Sheridan lends voteless support". The Guardian.
81. "Serbian Compliance Patterns towards EU Integration under the Progressive Party: An Exercise in Statecraft".
82. Stojić, Marko. (2017). "Party Responses to the EU in the Western Balkans: Transformation, Opposition or Defiance?". Springer.
83. (2014). "The Selection of Political Party Leaders in Contemporary Parliamentary Democracies: A Comparative Study". Routledge.
84. (1989). "Southern European Socialism: Parties, Elections, and the Challenge of Government". Manchester University Press.
85. Pallaver, Günther. (2008). "Tolerance Through Law: Self Governance and Group Rights In South Tyrol". Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
86. Lublin, David. (2014). "Minority Rules: Electoral Systems, Decentralization, and Ethnoregional Party Success". Oxford University Press.
87. (2015-07-21). "Junts pel Sí (Together for Yes): "We are all in, we've reached the end of the line"". Ara.
88. (2013). "Russia's Changing Economic and Political Regimes: The Putin Years and Afterwards". Routledge.
89. (20 November 2014). "Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Southeast Asia". Routledge.
90. Harits Asyraf Hasnan. (22 September 2015). "New Pakatan Harapan coalition formed". Astro Awani.
91. Shannon Teoh. (23 September 2015). "Malaysia's opposition forms Pakatan Harapan alliance". The Straits Times.
92. PN Official, Leadership. (2020-03-23). "Persatuan Perikatan Parti Malaysia (PPPM) telah menjadi Gabungan rasmi politik yang dikenali sebagai Parti Perikatan Nasional (PN)".
93. (8 October 2009). "ROS: Pakatan can register as a single party". [[Malaysiakini]].
94. (16 December 2010). "Jeffrey Kitingan forms United Borneo Front to get more for Sabah, Sarawak". [[The Star (Malaysia).
95. (10 March 2015). "Opposition parties form United Sabah Alliance". Daily Express.
96. Kristy Inus. (12 May 2018). "Sabah BN coalition to be disbanded to pave way for Gabungan Bersatu". New Straits Times.
97. Bernama. (11 March 2022). "RoS approves registration of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah, says Hajiji". malaymail.
98. Express, Daily. (18 December 2022). "'GRS stronger now as a fully local party'". Daily Express.
99. (12 June 2018). "Sarawak BN parties pull out of coalition to form independent state-based pact". The Star.
100. (August 4, 2022). "Dr M announces new coalition of four parties, Gerakan Tanah Air".
101. [https://www.sinarharian.com.my/article/695922/berita/politik/video-prn-sabah-parti-impian-sabah-boleh-jadi-parti-dominan Sabah Dream Party can be recognized as dominant party in Sabah]
102. (2002). "The White Russian Army in Exile 1920-1941". Oxford University Press.
103. "In the Wake of Empire".