Armenia Following the
2018 Armenian parliamentary election, the
My Step Alliance rose to power on an anti-corruption and pro-democracy platform. The alliance has been described as maintaining a big tent ideology, as the alliance did not support any one particular political position. Instead, it focused on strengthening
Armenia's civil society and economic development.
Australia The
Liberal Party of Australia and its predecessors originated as an alliance of liberals and conservatives in opposition to the
Australian Labor Party, beginning with the
Commonwealth Liberal Party in 1909. This ideological distinction has endured to the present day, with the modern Liberal Party frequently described as a "
broad church", a term popularised by former leader and Prime Minister
John Howard. In this context, "broad church" is largely synonymous with "big tent". In the 21st century, the party is often characterised as having a "small-l liberal" wing and a conservative wing, which frequently come into conflict with each other. The party has historically found strong support primarily from the middle-class, though it has in recent decades appealed to socially conservative working-class voters.
Argentina From its foundation the
Justicialist Party has been a
Peronist catch-all party, which focuses on the figure of
Juan Perón and his wife
Eva. Since
Nestor Kirchner took the presidency in 2003, the party is considered as part of center-left coalition. It has divided into left-wing and right-wing factions, with
left-wing populist Kirchnerists now dominating the party. Despite this, the
right-wing faction still exists.
Juntos por el Cambio is an Argentine big tent political coalition. It was created in 2015 as Cambiemos. It is composed of
Republican Proposal (
centre-right),
Civic Coalition ARI (
centre) and
Radical Civic Union (
centre), with common goals to oppose Peronist parties. It is considered as part of center-right coalition.
Bangladesh In Bangladesh
Awami League's Grand Alliance (Bangladesh) and
BNP's 20 Party Alliance forms coalition with a wide range of parties, thus being catch all parties.
Brazil In Brazil, the
Centrão () is a term for a large bloc of political parties that do not have a specific or consistent ideological orientation, and focus on negotiating support for the government in exchange for positions, resources, and political influence. These parties tend to form the parliamentary base of different administrations, shifting positions as needed, and play a decisive role in forming majorities in the
National Congress. The
Brazilian Democratic Movement (MDB) is one of the oldest and most notable "Centrão" and Big Tent parties in Brazil; despite being Brazil's largest party, both in number of members and number of officials elected, it has never elected a
President, but has used its position as the largest party as a "bargaining chip" for privileges and advantages. MDB was founded in 1965 at the start of the
Brazilian military dictatorship as part of an enforced
two-party system by the dictatorship, in which the only allowed parties were
National Renewal Alliance Party (ARENA), a catch-all party representing the interests of the dictatorship, and MDB, formed to represent a wide-range moderate and less radical opposition to the dictatorship, without a clear program except the democratization of the country. Brazil also has a number of minor parties known as "" (), or "dwarf parties" (), that generally have a "catch-all" alignment, with no electoral base of their own, existing primarily to negotiate political support, access to resources, or advertising time. Other Big Tent
centrão parties include the
Progressists (PP),
Brazilian Labour Party (PTB),
We Can (PODE),
Brazil Union (UB),
Social Democratic Party (PSD),
Social Christian Party (PSC),
Act (AGIR),
Patriot (PATRI),
Forward (AVANTE),
Solidarity (SD).
China The
Kuomintang (KMT), the ruling party of the
Republic of China (1912–1949), operated as a catch-all party encompassing a wide ideological spectrum, from the "diehard Right" to the "pink Left." However, following its defeat in the
Chinese Civil War and the
Great Retreat in 1949, the KMT in Taiwan gradually transitioned into a more consolidated conservative right-wing party.
Canada At the federal level, Canada has been dominated by two big tent parties practicing "brokerage politics." Both the
Liberal Party of Canada and the
Conservative Party of Canada (and its
predecessors) have attracted support from a broad spectrum of voters. Although parties such as the Quebec nationalist
Bloc Québécois have elected members to the
House of Commons,
far-right and
far-left parties have never gained a prominent force in Canadian society and have never formed a government in the
Canadian Parliament.
Colombia In Colombia, the presumed
League of Anti-Corruption Governors, led by the former presidential candidate, sometimes referred to as "the Colombian Trump", has been described as a "catch-all party", although analysts agree that it belongs to a more or less
authoritarian right-wing. That is to say to a type of
extreme right.
Finland The centre-right
National Coalition Party has been described as catch-all party supporting the interests of the urban middle classes.
France The
Renaissance party (formerly La République En Marche!) founded by President
Emmanuel Macron has been described as a centrist party with a catch-all nature.
Germany Both the
Christian Democratic Union of Germany/
Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CDU/CSU) and the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) are considered big tent or catch-all parties, known in German as
Volksparteien ("people's parties").
India The
Indian National Congress attracted support from Indians of all classes, castes and religions supportive of the
Indian independence movement. The
Janata Party which came into power in India in 1977, was a catch-all party that consisted of people with different ideologies opposed to
The Emergency.. Since 2024 The Indian National Congress has Led the
INDIA Alliance against the Right Wing Government of
Narendra Modi . The Alliance has been described as being " Big Tent " due to its inclusion of all Anti-BJP Parties from the
Far-left to the
Centre-Right.
Ireland Fine Gael and
Fianna Fáil are considered catch-all parties and are supported by people from different social classes and political ideologies. The two parties are usually described as being very similar in their current and recent policies, both being positioned on the
centre-right with a
liberal-conservative ideology. The reasons for their remaining separate are mainly historical, with those who supported the
Anglo-Irish Treaty in the 1920s eventually becoming Fine Gael and those who opposed the treaty having joined Fianna Fáil to seek an independent Ireland.
Italy In Italy, the
Five Star Movement, founded and formerly led by the comedian and actor
Beppe Grillo, has been described as a catch-all
protest party and "post-ideological big tent" because its supporters do not share similar policy preferences, are split on major economic and social issues and are united largely based on "anti-establishment" sentiments. The Five Star Movement's "successful campaign formula combined anti-establishment sentiments with an economic and political protest which extends beyond the boundaries of traditional political orientations", but its "'catch-all' formula" has limited its ability to become "a mature, functional, effective and coherent contender for government". The former main
centre-left opposition, the
Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), was Japan's version of third way politics and served since the mid-1990s as a ‘big tent party’ for a plethora of heterogeneous groups ranging from two
socialist parties to
liberal and
conservative groups.
Mexico The
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) held power in Mexico for 71 uninterrupted years, from 1929 to 2000. It was founded after the
Mexican Revolution by Mexican president
Plutarco Elías Calles. Then known as the National Revolutionary Party, it was founded with the intent of providing a political space to allow all surviving leaders and combatants of the Mexican Revolution to participate and to resolve the grave political crisis that had been caused by the assassination of President-elect
Álvaro Obregón in 1928. Throughout its nine-decade existence, the PRI has adopted a vast array of ideologies, which have often been determined by the
president of the republic in office at the time. The party nationalized the petroleum industry in 1938 and the banking industry in 1982. In the 1980s, the party went through reforms that shaped its current incarnation, with policies characterized as centre-right, such as the
privatization of state-run companies, closer relations with the
Catholic Church, and embracing
free-market capitalism and neoliberal policies. The
National Regeneration Movement, founded by
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, has often been described as a big-tent party because of the various constituents who joined its ranks during the 2018 Mexican general elections.
Juntos Hacemos Historia is a big-tent alliance led by the National Regeneration Movement that contested the
2021 Mexican legislative election. The successor alliance,
Sigamos Haciendo Historia, has been described by some political scientists as catch-all. The
Ecologist Green Party of Mexico has often been described in terms of catch all politics. AP News describes it as a "strange political group" that almost always joins the governing party's coalition to maintain influence. According to Muñoz Patraca, a professor of political science at
UNAM, the PVEM is not a political party like other movements in favor of democratization, or economic or social struggles. Rather, the party serves, in name only, to concerns about the environment - escaping the traditional left-right ideological axis. Miguel Angel Toro, the Director of the Bachelor's Degree in Government and Public Transformation at Tecnológico de Monterrey, describes the party as a "party that has no ideology... It’s been with parties who are on the right, center, and the left.” Critically, Toro says, “the big parties overestimate the votes the Partido Verde can bring in, so the party always ends up with more seats than they would have gotten. That gives the Green Party more life than it should have.”
Portugal The centre-left
Socialist Party (PS) and centre-right
Social Democratic Party (PSD) have been described as catch-all parties.
Romania Romania's
Social Democratic Party has been referred to as a catch-all party. Political analyst Radu Magdin described it in December 2016 as having conservative values, while being
economically liberal, and espousing left-leaning rhetoric on public policies.
Spain Citizens (Spanish:
Ciudadanos) has been considered as an example of
astroturfing in the
Spanish media since 2015. Originally founded as a
social-democratic regional party opposed to
Catalan nationalism, the party switched to a catch-all message to attract votes from the right to the moderate left in the party's appearance in the national political landscape. Its stance includes a mix of
liberalism and
pro-Europeanism, but the party has also embraced
populist views on the legitimacy of its political opponents;
conservative views on topics such as the criminal system and personal property and
Spanish nationalist positions. It has become one of the most recognisable catch-all parties in the history of the country. In the mid-2010s, however, the party's main ideology is perceived to have drifted towards the right, with
Albert Rivera admitting that it would not agree to form a coalition with the two main centre-left and left parties after the
April 2019 Spanish general election, regardless of the results. Furthermore, some commentators argue that Ciudadanos was attempting to supplant the
People's Party, which suffered massive losses as the hegemonic party of the right and thus contributed to the shift in Ciudadanos to the right. Similarly, Ciudadanos has allied with both the conservative People's Party and the far-right
Vox to achieve coalitions in regional parliaments. That has given rise to the expression "the three rights" or colloquially "
El Trifachito" to describe the grouping, which defines its opposition as "the left".
South Africa The
African National Congress (ANC) has been the governing party of
South Africa since the country's
first democratic election, in 1994, and it has been described by the media as a "big tent" party. An important aspect of its electoral success has been its ability to include a diverse range of political groups most notably in the form of the
Tripartite Alliance between the ANC; the
South African Communist Party; and the country's largest trade union,
COSATU. The media often referred to Brown's ministry as "a
government of all the talents" or simply "Brown's big tent".
All for Unity was a big tent anti-SNP electoral alliance that contested the
2021 Scottish Parliament election but failed to win any seats.
United States The
Democratic Party was a "big-tent" party during the
New Deal coalition, which was formed to support President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's
New Deal policies from the 1930s to the 1960s. The coalition brought together
labor unions, working-class voters, lower-middle class voters, farm organizations, secular liberals,
Southern Democrats,
African Americans, urban voters, and immigrants. After the 1974
Dallas Accord, the
Libertarian Party embraced the big-tent idea to the extent it ensured that the
anarcho-capitalist views would not be excluded from the majority
minarchist party. The Libertarian Socialist Caucus of the
Democratic Socialists of America identifies DSA as a "big tent" organization amongst the
American left, as individual members are aligned with a wide range of socialist ideologies, including
social democracy,
democratic socialism, the
democratic road to socialism,
Trotskyism,
Marxism–Leninism, and
anarchism. ==Other examples==