Everything in Moderation?: An Analysis of Foreign Policy Moderation in Left-wing Political Parties

Abstract

Moderation, the shift in parties’ positions towards consensus, has an impact on the range of democratic choices facing voters. For foreign policy, traditionally not a feature of domestic politics, moderation raises certain theoretical and empirical questions. What structural or institutional factors encourage moderation in this area, even for ideological parties? Looking at fifteen left-wing parties across the Global North, we examine whether international factors and/or domestic factors impact the moderation of their foreign policy positions. Methodologically, our study takes the form of a qualitative comparative analysis. Using insights from the cartel party thesis and Marxist IR, we examine how party strength, intra party democracy, public subsidies to parties, a transnational economy and security integration may combine to influence the decision to moderate. We find that there is no definite pattern explaining moderation in foreign policy across all examined cases but find several patterns suggesting the need for further research.