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.

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).
• Pink is usually associated with "pinkos". A "pinko" is not a communist nor a socialist, but supports the rights of communists and socialists to their respective beliefs. The term originated as a derogatory term, but is now worn with pride by some libertarian-minded capitalists.
  • It can also be linked to the feminist group, Code Pink .
• 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 anarchism.
  • 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.
  • Recently, some persons associate it with fascism instead, despite the fact that it would be difficult to find any ideology more opposed to anarchism, and vice versa, than these two. An explanation given is that the Italian Fascists dressed in the famous 'black shirts' (as did the Nazi SS) while the Nazi Swastika was a black emblem on a white background. 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 fascism, because Hitler's bully-boys in political street fights, 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.
• 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 more emphatically associated with Judaism. In the nineteenth century in Europe, anti-semites sometimes referred to Jews collectively as the Yellow International.
• 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. The Australian Greens use green, while a green-and-gold combination is used both by the National Party of Australia and the Australian Democrats.

• In Austria, the Social Democrats are traditionally branded red while the conservative Austrian People's Partyis 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 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] 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]

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

• Bloc Québécois: light blue
• Canadian Action Party: blue, red
• Christian Heritage Party: purple
• Communist Party: red
• Conservative Party: blue
• Green Party: Green
• Liberal Party: red
• Libertarian Party: green, white
• Marijuana Party: brown, green
• Marxist-Leninist Party: violet
• New Democratic Party: orange
• Progressive Canadian Party: blue, red

Finland

• Vasemmistoliitto: Red
• Sosiaalidemokraattinen puolue: Red/Pink
• Keskustapuolue: Green
• Kansallinen kokoomus: Blue
• Vihreä liitto: Green

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

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

Republic of Ireland

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

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
• 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

See also

Political symbolism | Political_party#Colors_and_emblems_for_parties