What Is a Centrist? Beliefs, Types and Criticisms

What a centrist is

Britannica describes the political center as a position that avoids the extremes of both left and right.

A centrist, then, is someone whose views land between the two main camps. On the classic left vs right line, that means near the middle. On a two-axis map like the one in our political compass explainer, it means near the center of both the economic axis and the authority axis.

The key point is that centrism is usually a position rather than a full ideology. Socialism and libertarianism start from a core principle and build outward. Centrists more often start from the existing debate and look for the workable middle. That makes centrists a diverse group: two people can both call themselves centrist and disagree on nearly every specific policy.

Types of centrists

Moderates

The most common type. Moderates hold mainstream views without much intensity and prefer careful, incremental change. Many lean slightly toward one party but feel uncomfortable with its louder wing.

Radical centrists

Radical centrism borrows ideas from both left and right but argues the system needs bold reform, not small adjustments. Its supporters see the center as a source of new ideas rather than a place to split the difference. See centrism vs radical centrism.

The Third Way

The Third Way tried to chart a path between traditional social democracy and free-market conservatism. Britannica notes that sociologist Anthony Giddens popularized the term, and that it was most closely associated with Britain's New Labour government from 1997 to 2007, with looser links to center-left governments in the United States and Germany. It aimed to combine social justice with market principles. Compare it in centrism vs Third Way.

Technocrats

Technocracy holds that policy should be driven by experts and evidence rather than ideology or party loyalty. Many technocrats see themselves as centrist because they judge each problem on its merits. See centrism vs technocracy.

Cross-pressured voters

Some people land in the center because they hold strong views that point in opposite directions, such as conservative views on immigration and progressive views on healthcare. Averaged together, they look moderate. More on this below.

Christian democrats

In much of Europe, Christian democracy is hard to place on a simple left-right line and is often treated as a centrist tradition. According to Britannica, it rejects the individualism behind both liberalism and laissez-faire economics, accepts state intervention to support communities, and defends private property against socialism. In West Germany, Konrad Adenauer led the Christian Democratic Union, and his economics minister Ludwig Erhard put the "social market economy" into practice.

What centrists believe

Centrists disagree on details, but a few themes show up again and again. In their own best terms:

• Pragmatism over purity. Policies should be judged by results, not by whether they fit an ideology.
• Compromise as a strength. In a divided country, durable laws need support from both sides.
• Incrementalism. Gradual reform lets societies test ideas, fix mistakes and avoid the costs of sudden upheaval.
• A mixed economy. Markets drive growth and innovation; government provides a safety net, public goods and sensible regulation.
• Institutions and norms. Courts, elections and checks and balances deserve protection, even when your side is losing.

Centrist vs moderate

The two words overlap, and many people treat them as the same thing. There is a useful distinction, though.

• Moderate usually describes temperament: how intensely you hold your views and how fast you want change.
• Centrist usually describes location: where your views sit between left and right.

So the labels can come apart. A radical centrist is centrist in location but not moderate in temperament. A mild-mannered progressive or conservative may be moderate in tone while clearly on one side in substance. Note that terms also travel poorly: what counts as the center in Europe can look left of center in the United States.

A short history

The idea is old. Aristotle described virtue as a mean between two extremes, and many centrists see their politics in a similar spirit.

In modern American politics, Dwight D. Eisenhower is a frequently cited example. According to the Miller Center at the University of Virginia, he favored a "more moderate course" than his party's old guard, called it Modern Republicanism, and aimed to lead the country "down the middle of the road between the unfettered power of concentrated wealth" on one side and statism or partisan interests on the other. He also signed legislation that broadened Social Security and raised the minimum wage.

In postwar Europe, Christian democrats and social democrats built mixed economies that many centrists still see as a model. In the 1990s, the Third Way brought centrist ideas back to the center-left in several English-speaking and European countries.

Centrists in the data

How many Americans are in the middle depends on how you ask.

• Self-described moderates. In Gallup's 2024 annual averages, 34% of Americans called themselves moderate, compared with 37% conservative and 25% liberal. The moderate share has declined from an average of 43% in 1992.
• Independents. In a 2024 Pew Research Center analysis, 35% of registered voters said they were independents or something else. But most of them lean toward a party: 15% of voters lean Republican and 16% lean Democratic.

Identifying as moderate or independent is not the same as holding centrist views on every issue, which brings us to the criticisms.

Criticisms of centrism

From the left

Critics on the left argue that centrism too often defends the status quo. When injustice is built into existing systems, they say, splitting the difference means accepting part of the injustice. Some also argue that Third Way economics drifted toward market solutions. Britannica's entry on the Third Way describes its economic policy as largely neoliberal, a core complaint from the left.

From the right

Some conservatives argue that centrists lack firm principles and drift with fashion. In this view, the center moves left over time, and centrists move with it, ratifying changes rather than questioning them.

From political scientists

• The median voter debate. The median voter theorem, associated with economists Duncan Black and Anthony Downs, predicts that parties in a two-party system compete for the voter in the middle. Some centrists cite it as proof that moderation wins elections. Skeptics reply that the model is a simplification and that turnout, primaries and party loyalty complicate it.
• Inconsistent, not moderate. Research presented by political scientist David Broockman of UC Berkeley found that "few voters who prior work characterizes as moderate have centrist views across most issues." Instead, they are largely cross-pressured, agreeing with each party on different issues and sometimes taking more extreme positions than either.
• False balance. Critics warn against assuming the truth always sits halfway between two positions. Defenders of centrism respond that their method is case by case, not a reflexive midpoint.
• The horseshoe debate. Some centrists argue that the far left and far right resemble each other more than either resembles the center. Critics say this "horseshoe" picture overstates the similarities and ignores deep differences in goals.

Find where you fit

You may be a centrist if you find good points on both sides, distrust sweeping solutions and judge policies issue by issue. The best way to check is to answer the questions yourself.

Take the Political Compass Test, which labels results within 15 points of center on both axes as centrist. For a quick check, try the Political Spectrum Quiz, which takes under 2 minutes. If you suspect you are cross-pressured rather than moderate, the Political Values Test shows your economic, civil, society and diplomatic scores separately.