British Social Democratic Party

…Originally meaning the center of the road or a moderate and fair way, in political terms it generally refers to a political position that is halfway between the left and right political forces. A party that advocates such a position is called a 'center party', and typical examples of this type of party include the Free Democratic Party (FDP), which stood between the West German Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) and participated in a 'small coalition' with the CDU/CSU from 1949 to 1966 and with the SPD since 1969, the British Liberal Party, which advocates social reform without socialism and is halfway between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party on the political spectrum, and the British Social Democratic Party, which was formed in March 1981 by defectors from the Labour Party and advocated a more moderate position than the Labour Party but less conservative than the Conservative Party. In Japan, discussions of centrist forces have become lively since the latter half of the 1970s, when the 1955 system collapsed. In the dichotomous political power distribution between conservatives and reformists under the '55 system,' the parties that emerged as a third force in the middle have been called centrist forces. Sometimes the term 'centrist three parties' refers to Komeito, Minsha, and the Social Democratic Union, while other times it refers to these parties as well, adding the New Liberal Club to make the 'centrist four parties' (the New Liberal Club was dissolved in 1986).

*Some of the terminology used to refer to the "British Social Democratic Party" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…もともとは道の中央あるいは中庸公正な道の意であるが，政治用語としては，一般的に左右の政治勢力の中間に位置する政治的立場を指す。このような立場を標榜する政党が〈中道政党〉であり，この種の政党の典型としてあげられるのが，西ドイツのキリスト教民主･社会同盟(CDU/CSU)とドイツ社会民主党(SPD)の中間に立ち，1949‐66年にはCDU/CSUとの，69年以降はSPDとの〈小連立〉に参加してきた自由民主党(FDP)や，社会主義なしの社会改革を主張し，政治的スペクトル上で保守党と労働党の中間点を占めるイギリス自由党，さらに労働党よりは穏健で保守党ほど保守的でない立場を唱えて労働党からの離脱者を中心に81年3月に結成されたイギリス社会民主党などである。日本で中道勢力をめぐる論議が盛んになってきたのは，1970年代後半以来の1955年体制崩壊期においてで，〈55年体制〉下の保守･革新の二分法的政治勢力配置状況のなかで，その中間に立つ第三勢力として台頭してきた諸政党が中道勢力と呼ばれてきたが，とくに公明，民社，社会民主連合のみを指して〈中道3党〉という場合と，これに新自由クラブを加えて〈中道4党〉という場合がある(新自由クラブは1986年解党)。…

※「イギリス社会民主党」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報