With Left-right politics or the left-right political spectrum is a common way of classifying political positions, political ideologies, or political parties along a one-dimensional political spectrum. The perspective of Left vs. Right is a broad, dialectical interpretation of complex questions. Left-wing politics and right-wing politics are often presented as polar opposites, though a particular individual or party may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another. The terms left and right are often used to describe two globally opposed political families with the Left described as "the party of movement" and the Right described as "the party of order". Traditionally, the Left includes: social liberals, social democrats, socialists, communists and anarchists while the Right includes: conservatives, fascists, reactionaries, monarchists and nationalists. The classification of capitalism as right-wing or left-wing varies from country to country. The terms left and right are often used to spin a particular point of view, rather than as simple descriptors. In modern political rhetoric, those on the Left typically emphasize their support of working people and accuse the Right of supporting the interests of the upper class, whereas those on the Right usually emphasize their support of individualism and accuse the Left of supporting collectivism. Thus, arguments about the way the words should be used often displace arguments about policy by raising emotional prejudice against a preconceived notion of what left and right mean. Definitions An alternate definition is to assume that the two poles in question (e.g., Left/Right) are well-defined, and then (i) define as 'centrist' any position which the Left considers too far Right and the Right considers too far Left, and (ii) define as a 'Centrist' any person who self-identifies more with those positions than either the Left or the Right. The weakness in this argument is that it is difficult to unambiguously and objectively define both poles at once, but that difficulty affects all political definitions, not just centrists. In practice, the two poles can only be well-defined in a specific place at a specific time, since they differ from place to place and change over time. Thus, "centrism" itself means different things in different places (depending on the local political spectrum) and changes over time. For example, ideas that were considered extremist 200 years ago (such as democracy and universal suffrage) are considered centrist today - while other ideas that were considered centrist 200 years ago (such as slavery and racism) are considered extremist today. The term "Centrism" also denotes positions held by some of the Bolsheviks during the 1920s. In this context, "Centrism" refers to a position between the Right Opposition (which supported the New Economic Policy and friendly relations with capitalist countries) and the Left Opposition (which supported a planned economy and world revolution). By the end of the 1920s, the two opposing factions had been defeated by Joseph Stalin who eventually gained enough support from members of the factions through the application of various ideas formed by the factions' various leaders. (i.e. Trotsky, Bukharin, etc.) See: Two Articles on Centrism by Leon Trotsky Nordic countries See also: Centrism in Iceland and Centrism in Finland In most of the Nordic countries there are centrist parties. These share in addition to the centrist position on the socio-economic left-right scale a clear, separate ideology. This position is centered around decentralisation, a commitment to small business and environmental protection. Centrists have aligned themselves with the Liberal International and European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. Historically, all of these parties were farmers' parties committed to maintaining rural life. In the 1960s these parties broadened their scope to include non-farmer related issues and renamed themselves Centre Party. The Centre Democrats and the New Alliance in Denmark are not rooted in agrarianism. Republic of Ireland In Ireland the two main political parties, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, are both centrist (and also relatively populist) parties. They share broadly similar policies, with their primary division perceived as being steeped in Civil War politics. Fine Gael describes itself as aligned to Christian democratic groups in Europe, while Fianna Fáil is described as a liberal conservative party. Each party is made up of centre-left and centre-right members, and neither group will accept the ideological tags "left-" or "right-wing". The largest non-centrist party is the Labour Party, which describes itself as democratic socialist (left-wing) and has links with numerous trade unions throughout Ireland.