Moderate - Wikipedia Moderate Look up moderate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. A political moderate is a person in the center category of the left -- right political spectrum. Contents 1 History 2 Political position 3 Religious position 4 See also 5 References History Aristotle favoured conciliatory politics dominated by the centre rather than the extremes of great wealth and poverty or the special interests of oligarchs and tyrants. Political position Further information : Centrism Part of the Politics series Party politics Political spectrum Left - wing Far - left Centre - left Centre Centre - left Radical centre Centre - right Right - wing Centre - right Far - right Party platform Extremist Radical Progressive Reformist Liberal Moderate Syncretic Third Position Conservative Reactionary Traditionalist Party system Non-partisan One - party Dominant - party Two - party Multi-party Coalition Hung parliament Confidence and supply Minority government Rainbow coalition Grand coalition Full coalition National unity government Majority government Lists Ruling parties by country Political parties by UN geoscheme Political ideologies Politics portal In recent years, the term `` political moderates '' has gained traction as a buzzword. The existence of the ideal moderate is disputed because of a lack of a moderate political ideology. Voters who describe themselves as centrist often mean that they are moderate in their political views, advocating neither extreme left - wing politics nor right - wing politics. Gallup polling has shown American voters identifying themselves as moderate between 35 -- 38 % of the time over the last 20 years. Voters may identify with moderation for a number of reasons : pragmatic, ideological or otherwise. It has even been suggested that individuals vote for centrist parties for purely statistical reasons. Religious position In religion, the moderate position is centered and opposed to liberalism or conservatism. For example in Christianity, moderates in evangelicalism would oppose the ideas of Christian right and Christian fundamentalism, as well as liberal Christians oppose the idea of Christian left. For Islam, moderates oppose the extreme views of Islamic extremism and Islamic fundamentalism. See also Centrism Disadvantages of the Electoral College for third parties in the United States Independent ( politician ) Independent ( voter ) Moderate Party ( disambiguation ) References Jump up ^ Aristotle, Sir Ernest Barker, R.F. Stalley ( 1998 ), Politics, Oxford University Press, p. xxv, ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 283393 - 8 CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list ( link ) Jump up ^ Saad, Lydia ( January 12, 2012 ). `` Conservatives Remain the Largest Ideological Group in U.S. '' Gallup. Retrieved 20 November 2012. Jump up ^ Enelow and Hinich ( 1984 ). `` Probabilistic Voting and the Importance of Centrist Ideologies in Democratic elections ''. The Journal of Politics. Southern Political Science Association. Retrieved 20 November 2012. Jump up ^ Peter Clarke, The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion, Oxford University Press, UK, 2011, p. 512 Calhoon, Robert McCluer ( 2008 ), Ideology and social psychology : extremism, moderation, and contradiction, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 521 - 73416 - 5 This article about a political term is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Moderates are a political party that are neither left or right. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Moderate&oldid=864637608 '' Categories : Political terminology Political term stubs Hidden categories : CS1 maint : Multiple names : authors list All stub articles Talk Contents About Wikipedia বাংলা فارسی Français Hrvatski Igbo Norsk nynorsk Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Svenska Edit links This page was last edited on 18 October 2018, at 14 : 24 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where do moderates fall on the political spectrum
Answer: center