Wikipedia:Problem with political positions
 | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article or a Wikipedia policy, as it has not been reviewed by the community. |
 | This page in a nutshell: X to Y is original research (in 99% of cases). X or Y is not original research. |
Nationalist Party | |
|---|---|
| Political position | (Often) Original research: Right-wing to far-right Not original research: Right-wing or far-right |
Since the 2000s, there has been a huge problem on Wikipedia regarding the political position parameter in infoboxes of political parties that, according to my research, no one has attempted to address. An example is given in the infobox on the right of this essay.[a]
I'll ellaborate this example, for those who are not familiar. In this case, there will be either sources describing the party as right-wing or far-right, not right-wing to far-right (in 99% of cases, at least). Still, infoboxes would say "right-wing to far-right" despite no sources backing this claim up. What is "right-wing to far-right" even supposed to mean?! Right-wing is a broad term that can also encompass moderate (centre-right) and more conservative stances, while far-right is explicitly related to hardline conservative politics. Therefore, this description does not make sense at all. A far-right party is always right-wing, but a right-wing party is not always far-right.
Although in 99% of cases this falls under original research,[b] there are also cases where this is applicable. A good example, and the only one I know of, is New Popular Front where this source says the following "The uneasy coalition of parties from the far-left to the center-left is campaigning together against the prospect that the two-round June 30 and July 7 election could produce France's first far-right government since the Nazi occupation". Therefore, it would be applicable to put the position as either "Centre-left to far-left" or "Far-left to centre-left". For example, this makes sense. Centre-left parties are on the mainstream left (e.g. social democracy) while far-left parties are those who advocate revolutionary anti-capitalist actions (e.g. communism). This means that this coalition includes both reformist and revolutionary parts of socialism. Left-wing, again, is a broad term that encompasses both the mainstream and revolutionary left. So, what would centre-left to left-wing or left-wing to far-left mean? Like what? Nothing.
Now, where this appears to be original research, there are three solutions to fix this issue. All of them are located in the infobox on this essay. Who introduced this in the 2000s and where? We don't know. There is also a fourth solution, which, is less used. Most of these labels are essencially jargons. WP:MTAU says that Wikipedia articles should be written for the widest possible general audience. Therefore, articles should explain why the party is considered right-wing or far-right. What makes the party far-right? Why do experts/journalists describe it only as right-wing? Etc. Little amount of articles do this.
If you agree with this essay, be bold and correct these articles and optionally cite this essay so that others can read it too.
See also
edit- Wikipedia:List of citogenesis incidents
- Relevant discussion Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Politics/Archive 49#h-Political positions-20250819192800 that produced nothing out of it
Notes
edit- ↑ This is just an example, but it is also a common occurance on articles about centrist parties and left-wing ones.
- ↑ A perfect summary for this case is: The definition of original research includes any analysis or synthesis of published material that reaches or implies a conclusion not stated by the sources., which editors enforcing this seem to not know about.