Political colour

This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality.
See How to Edit and Style and How-to for help, or this article's talk page.

Political colours are colours used to represent a political stance, a political ideology, or — in a telling use of terminology — a position on the political spectrum. While previously competing factions wore colours based on coats of arms or even, in Ancient Rome, racing colours, many colours have now become associated with ideology rather than personality.

Contents

1 Main colour links

2 Exceptions

3 List of colours associated with different parties in various countries

3.1 Australia
3.2 Canada
3.3 Finland
3.4 France
3.5 Germany
3.6 Hungary
3.7 Netherlands
3.8 Norway
3.9 New Zealand
3.10 Portugal
3.11 Republic of Ireland
3.12 Spain
3.13 United Kingdom
3.14 United States

4 Right wing shirts

5 See also

Main colour links

Red is historically associated with socialism or communism. In the nineteenth century, they constituted the "Red International".
- The Bolsheviks took this color and nickname in memory of its appearance in the French Revolution of 1848, and in opposition to the Whites (q.v.).
- In France, a "red republican" was socially more radical than a "blue" (q.v.).
- The adoption of this color by American journalists to denote the conservative Republican Party of the US is an anomaly (see red state).
Green is linked to two different groups:
- Environmentalist and Green Party groups, because of the association of green with the environment.
- Islamic parties, for green's symbolism for Islam.
Blue is often associated with Conservative parties, originating from its use by that party of the UK.
- However, for much of the nineteenth century, the 'blues' in both France and Italy were moderate reforming conservatives, while the absolutist monarchists were whites.
- Another anomaly is that blue is associated with the somewhat left-wing Democratic Party of the United States.
Black is primarily associated with Fascism, especially black shirts.
- In the countries with a history of anti-clericalism in Europe and elsewhere in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the officials of the Catholic Church, because their vestments are often black, were called the Black International. In Germany, it is the colour of christian democrats.
- Recently, some persons associate it with anarchism. One could postulate 'flat black' as the tincture of Fascism, and 'gloss black' as that of Anarchism (from the Latin "âter" and "niger," respectively).
Brown has been associated with working class Nazism, because the Sturmabteilung (commonly known as the SA) were called "brownshirts". In Europe and elsewhere in the twentieth century, fascists were sometimes called the Brown International.
White has been linked to pacifism (as in the surrender flag) and to independent politicians like Martin Bell.
- Historically, it was associated with support for absolutist monarchists, first for supporters of the Bourbon dynasty of France, because it was the dynasty's color. Later it was used by the Czarist Whites in the Russian Revolution, because their purpose was similar. In the civil war following the independence of Finland in 1917, white was used by the conservative and democratic forces which stood against the socialist red forces.
Yellow has been used for liberalism, starting with its use by the Liberal Party of the UK.
- Yellow is also associated with Hinduism, such as Hindu nationalist parties in India.
- Yellow is also associated with Judaism. In the nineteenth century in Europe, anti-semites sometimes referred to Jews collectively as the Yellow International. This derives from the name of a German book, The Golden International.
Gray was chosen by the German political writer Paul de Lagarde as the symbol of liberals in the nineteenth-century sense (or current European one), which he called the Gray International.
Sea green was used as a symbol by members of the Levellers in 17th century Britain; for this reason, it is occasionally used to represent radical liberalism or libertarianism.
Light blue is used for the field of the flag of the United Nations. It was chosen to represent peace because such a flag cannot be seen against a blue sky.

Exceptions

Political parties vary the shades of their colours depending on the situations. Most U.S. politicians use red, white and blue together. In the UK, the Labour Party has recently used bold red with yellow lettering in areas of majority Labour support but also more purple tones in marginal Conservative areas.

Other notable exceptions and variations to the above colour schemes are:

In Australia, the Australian Labor Party will typically use red, and the Liberal Party of Australia typically blue, however this does conform to the above colour scheme as the "liberal" party is in reality conservative and the ALP identifies itself as a socialist party. The Australian Greens use green, while a green-and-gold combination is used both by the National Party of Australia and the Australian Democrats. The colours for the latter, however, are not ideological in nature, but are derrived from the fact that Australia's national colours are green and gold.

In Austria, the Social Democrats are traditionally branded red while the conservative Austrian People's Party is associated with black. The Liberal party is blue and the Green's color is green.

In Belgium, the Liberal Democrats (VLD and MR) are blue and the Christian Democrats (CD&V and CDH) are orange. The color of the Flemish nationalists (N-VA) is yellow

In Canada, the official colour for the New Democratic Party is orange, while the Liberal Party of Canada uses red, the Conservative Party of Canada uses blue, and the Bloc Québécois uses light blue.

In Germany, the Social Democrats are traditionally branded red while the conservative Christian Democrats are black. The Liberal party is yellow, and the Greens are unsurprisingly green. In East Germany, the youth association of the communist party used a blue flag.

In Mexico, the leftist PRD uses yellow.

In the Netherlands, conservative Liberals (VVD) are blue, Liberal Democrats (D66) use green as well as the Christian Democrats. Green Left uses both green and red to represent its blend of ecologism and leftism.

In Northern Ireland, the Protestant parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly are called the "orange block" and the Catholic parties are the "green block".

In Taiwan, the leading groups of parties are the more Chinese nationalist Pan-Blue Coalition and the more Taiwanese independence Pan-Green Coalition. The New Party uses yellow as its party colour even though its policies are conservative; the Democratic Progressive Party uses green even though its international alignment is with the Liberal International and not the Green parties.

In Portugal, the liberals (Social-Democrat Party, whose name may cause confusion, since it is not a traditional social-democrat party, but much more right-leaning) are orange and the socialists are pink.

In the UK (excluding Northern Ireland), where electoral rosettes are commonly worn for campaigns, the Conservatives use dark blue; Labour, red; and the Liberal Democrats, yellow. With many other smaller parties choosing their own colour schemes, Independents unsurprisingly use white. Notably the single issue UK Independence Party has chosen to use the non-aligned colour purple with yellow.

In the United States there is no official association between political parties and specific colours. The two major political parties use the national colours — red, white, and blue — to show their patriotism. The only common situation in which it has been necessary to assign a single colour to a party has been in the production of political maps in graphical displays of election results. In such cases, there has historically been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colours. In the weeks following the 2000 election, however, there arose the terminology of blue states and red states, in which the right-wing Republican Party was associated with red and the left-wing Democratic Party with blue. Political observers subsequently latched on to this association, which resulted from the use of red for Republican victories and blue for Democratic victories on the display map of a television network. This association has certainly not been consistently applied in the past: during previous presidential elections, about half of the television networks used the opposite association. In 2004, the association was mostly kept.

(There is some historical use of blue for Democrats and red for Republicans — in the late 19th century and early 20th century, Texas county election boards used colour coding to help Spanish speakers and illiterates identify the parties.[1] (http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/RR/pqrsu.html) However, this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level.)

Maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government use the opposite system, with red for Democrats and blue for Republicans — for example, see U.S. presidential election, 1992.

Nevertheless, since the 2000 election the news media have tended to use red for Republicans and blue for Democrats, especially as it relates to the electoral majority in each state, informally calling them the Red states and Blue states. The colour green is often used for the Green Party, and the colour yellow is often used for the Libertarian Party.

A February 2004 article in the New York Times examined this issue.[2] (http://www.uselectionatlas.org/INFORMATION/ARTICLES/redblue.php)

List of colours associated with different parties in various countries

Australia

Australian Democrats: gold, green
Australian Greens: green
Country Liberal Party: orange, white, black
Labor Party: red
Liberal Party: blue
National Party: green, gold
One Nation Party: blue, yellow
Progressive Alliance: orange, blue

Canada

Finland

France

Front National: blue
Les Verts: green
Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire: red, black
Lutte Ouvrière: red
Mouvement National Républicain: red, white, blue
Parti Communiste Fançais: red
Parti des Travailleurs: red, black
Parti Radical du Gauche: blue
Parti Socialiste: red, black
Union pour la Démocratie Française: blue
Union pour un Mouvement Populaire: blue, red

Germany

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen: green
Christlich Demokratische Union: black
Freie Demokratische Partei: yellow
Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus: red
Sozialdemokratische Partei: red

Hungary

Fidesz: orange
MSZP: red
SZDSZ: blue, blue-white
MDF: green, green-white

Netherlands

Christen-Democratisch Appèl: green
ChristenUnie: blue
Democraten 66: green
GroenLinks: green, red
Lijst Pim Fortuyn: blue, yellow
Partij van de Arbeid: red
Socialistische Partij: red
Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij: orange, blue
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie: blue

Norway

New Zealand

ACT: light blue
Alliance: green and red
Green Party: green
Maori Party: red and black
Labour Party: red
National Party: blue
New Zealand First: black
United Future: purple

Portugal

Republic of Ireland

Fianna Fáil: green, orange
Fine Gael: blue, green
Green Party/Comhaontas Glas: gold, light green
Labour Party: red
Progressive Democrats: blue
Sinn Féin: green
Socialist Party: red, black

Spain

United Kingdom

Conservative Party: blue
Co-operative Party: blue (but does not campaign separately from Labour)
Green Party of England and Wales: green
Labour Party: red
Liberal Democrats: yellow
Plaid Cymru: green
Respect Party: green and red
Scottish Independence Party purple
Scottish National Party: gold and black
UK Independence Party: mauve and gold

United States

Democratic Party: No single official colour, but increasingly associated with blue (see discussion above)
Republican Party: No single official colour, but increasingly associated with red (see discussion above)
Green Party: green
Libertarian Party: No single official colour, but often associated with blue
Black Panther Party: black
Communist Party: Red

Right wing shirts

In the first half of the twentieth century, various right wing groups adopted uniforms and were often nicknamed according to the colour of their shirts:

Blackshirts: Italian camicia nera, British Union of Fascists, German Schutzstaffel
Brownshirts: German Sturmabteilung
Blueshirts: Spanish Falange, Irish Army Comrades Association
Greenshirts: Brazilian Integralists
Silvershirts: Silver Legion of America