Political colours are colours used to represent a political ideology, movement or party, either officially or unofficially.[1] They represent the intersection of colour symbolism and political symbolism. Politicians making public appearances will often identify themselves by wearing rosettes, flowers, ties or ribbons in the colour of their political party.
Parties in different countries with similar ideologies sometimes use similar colours. As an example the colour red symbolises left-wing ideologies in many countries (leading to such terms as "Red Army" and "Red Scare"), while the colour blue is often used for conservatism, the colour yellow is most commonly associated with liberalism and right-libertarianism, and Green politics is named after the ideology's political colour.[2][3]
The political associations of a given colour vary from country to country, and there are exceptions to the general trends.[2][3] For example, red has historically been associated with monarchy or the Church, but over time gained association with leftist politics, while the United States differs from other countries in that conservatism is associated with red and liberalism with blue.[2][3]
During the golden age of piracy, the black flags of pirates such as Blackbeard and Calico Jack became popular symbols of piracy. The flags represented death and no quarter to those who did not surrender. The black flag of the jolly roger, used by Calico Jack, turned into a popular and recognizable symbol of pirates, particularly of pirates of the Americas.[6][7] The skull and bones also became a hazardous symbol to display poisons such as cyanide, Zyklon B and other toxic substances. The black flag of piracy would later influence the symbols of anarchism, such as the symbols of the Makhnovshchina and the Kronstadt rebellion. The rise of internet piracy led to the symbols of the golden age of piracy becoming widely adopted, becoming the symbols of pirate sites such as the Pirate bay. Black becoming a colour to represent pirate parties.
Anti-clerical parties in the late 19th and early 20th centuries sometimes used the colour black in reference to the officials of the Roman Catholic Church because the cassock is usually black.[8]
In Italy, black is the colour of fascism because it was the official colour of the National Fascist Party. As a result, modern Italian parties would not use black as their political colour; however, it has been customary to use black to identify the neo-fascistItalian Social Movement.[9]
In Russia, black was used for monarchism and nationalist movements, such as the Black Hundreds before their defeat.[11]
In India, black represents protest. In Tamil Nadu (a state in India), black represents atheistic human rights rebels who follow Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.[12]
In Brazil, the right-wing populist and formerly social democratic Brazilian Labour Party uses black. Black is also the colour of the far-left Popular Unity
In Austria blue is heavily associated with the right-wing populistFreedom Party and with pan-Germanism. It is the Freedom Party's official colour, and its members are generally referred to as "blues" in the media and colloquial speech.[15] The blue cornflower was a national symbol of Germany in the 19th century, often associated with Prussia. It later became a symbol for Pan-German nationalists in Austria, such as Georg Ritter von Schönerer'sAlldeutsche Vereinigung. In 1930s Austria the cornflower was also worn by members of the then illegal NSDAP, as a secret symbol and identifier.[16] After 1945, MPs of the Freedom Party wore cornflowers on their lapels at the openings of the Austrian parliament, until they switched to the more "Austrian" Edelweiß in 2017.[17]
In the Republic of Ireland, blue is associated with the centre-right Fine Gael party, going back to the Blueshirts, a quasi-fascist uniformed group that merged into the party in 1932. "Blueshirt" is a common derogatory term for Fine Gael, and they often use blue in party materials.[19][20][21]
In South Africa, blue is usually associated with liberal political parties, the most popular being the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party. The colour blue was also used by the United Party, from which the Progressive Party (the most senior ancestor of the Democratic Alliance) split in 1959.[22]
In South Korea, traditionally blue was used by conservative parties. Since 2013, blue has adopted by the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (previously used green and yellow), while conservative party change its colour from blue to red.
In Spain, blue is the colour of the mainstream conservative People's party, but regionally:
In the United States, the colour blue has been associated with the liberalDemocratic Party since around the 2000 presidential election, when most of the major television networks used the same colour scheme for the parties.[23][24] This makes the United States an exception to the general rule that blue represents conservative parties; the major conservative party in the United States, the Republican Party, uses red. In 2010, the Democratic party unveiled a blue official logo[25] (see red states and blue states).
In Venezuela blue represents the Democratic Unity Roundtable, the large multi-ideological coalition of parties in opposition, probably as a counterpart to PSUV's red.
In most of Latin America, blue is used as a colour of anti-feminism and, more specifically, anti-abortion. This colour was used as a response to the feminist/pro-abortion green. This originated in Argentina.[26]
Brown
The Sturmabteilung of the Nazi Party, wearing their brown uniforms.
Brown has been associated with Nazism, and in particular the Nazi Party in Germany, because of the Sturmabteilung (SA), whose members were called "brownshirts". They were modeled on Benito Mussolini's blackshirts, and the colour of their shirts was chosen because many brown uniforms intended for the colonial troops in Germany's African colonies were cheaply available after the end of World War I. In Europe and elsewhere, the colour brown is sometimes used to refer to fascists in general.[27]
Brown is sometimes used to describe the opposite of green parties, that is to describe parties that care little about pollution.[28]
Buff
Buff was the colour of the Whig faction in British politics from the early 18th century until the middle of the 19th century. As such, it is sometimes used to represent the current political left (in opposition to blue, which represented the Tories and then the Conservatives and political right).[29]
Grey
Grey is sometimes used by parties that represent the interests of pensioners and senior citizens, such as "The Greys" in Germany.[30]
The Esperanto movement makes wide use of green in its symbolism, including the language's flag which is known as the Verda Flago (literally Green Flag)
Fern green is occasionally used by political organizations and groups who advocate the legalization of medicinal use of marijuana.[34]
Green has sometimes also been linked to agrarian movements, such as the Populist Party, in the U.S. in the 1890s and the current-day Nordic Agrarian parties, as well as the National Party of Australia, a conservative party traditionally representing regional and agricultural interests.[36] The International Agrarian Bureau, though often known as the "Green International", did not formally endorse the colour, although a successor group, called the International Peasant Union, was represented by a clover.[37]
In Iran, green has been used by the Iranian Green Movement, a political movement that arose after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office.
In Japan, the dominant Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) uses green as one of its official colours. Although the party has used the color red more prominently in recent years. Other examples of right wing parties adopting the colour green in its branding include the Japan Innovation Party and the now defunct Party of Hope.
Magenta is a colour that tends to replace yellow for liberal and centrist parties and organisations in Europe.[44] It is not to be confused with the socialist or social democratic use of the colour pink.
In Germany although the official colour of the left-wing party Die Linke is red, mass media uses magenta as the party colour to prevent confusion with the centre-left Social Democratic Party whose party colour is red.
Orange
Orange is the traditional colour of the Christian democratic political ideology and most Christian democratic political parties, which are based on Catholic social teaching and/or neo-Calvinist theology. Christian democratic political parties came to prominence in Europe and the Americas after World War II.[45][46] Orange less frequently represents various kinds of populist parties. Such is the case in Austria, Germany, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Turkey.[47]
Orange since 2004 has represented Post-Communist Democratic Revolutions in Eastern Europe such as the "Orange Revolution" in Ukraine.[48] This gave the colour orange a certain association with radical anti-authoritarian politics in some countries and it has been used as such by groups and organizations in the Middle East, for example in Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Bahrain and Israel.
In Israel, the colour orange has become the dominant colour of the right-wing, with an emphasis on the religious-right. This is when, from 2004, the colour became the leader of a protest against the disengagement plan, and became identified with the right-wing camp.
Orange is often used to represent the mutualist current in anarchist politics, as a middle ground between pro-market currents such as anarcho-capitalism (associated with the colour yellow of liberalism) and anti-capitalist currents such as anarcho-syndicalism and anarcho-communism (associated with the colour red of communism and socialism).[49]
Humanism frequently uses orange for representation. It is the colour of the Humanist International, as well as the humanist parties in Argentina, Costa Rica and Chile, and other humanist organizations.[50]
In Canada, Orange is the official colour of the social-democratic New Democratic Party. During Jack Layton's leadership green was used as their accent colour; The logo was a green maple leaf with orange "NDP" lettering. Currently light blue is used as their accent colour although it seldom appears and is not included in the logo (the current logo is an orange maple leaf with orange "NDP" lettering).[51]
In Mexico, orange is not linked to Christian democratic movements (the Christian democratic party Partido Acción Nacional uses blue). Instead, it is linked to the center-left secular party Movimiento Ciudadano.
In New Zealand, the Electoral Commission rejected a proposed orange logo[52] for being likely to confuse or mislead voters by being too similar to the colour used by the country's electoral agencies.[53]
In Spain, orange is used by Citizens, a liberal party that opposes Catalan separatism. This is in contrast to the yellow used by Catalan separatism (see below).
Pink
Pink is sometimes used by social democratic parties, such as in France and Portugal. The more traditional colour of social democracy is red (because social democracy is descended from the democratic socialist movement), but some countries have large social democratic parties alongside large socialist or communist parties, so that it would be confusing for them all to use red.[54] In such cases, social democrats are usually the ones who give up red in favor of a different colour. Pink is often chosen because it is seen as a softer, less aggressive version of red, in the same way that social democracy is more centrist and capitalistic than socialism.
In some European nations and the United States, pink is associated with homosexuality and the pink flag is used as a symbol in support of civil rights for LGBT people;[55] it is commonly used to represent queer anarchism. This use originates in Nazi German policy of appending pink triangles to the clothing of homosexual prisoners.
Although purple has some older associations with monarchism, it is the most prominent colour that is not traditionally connected to any major contemporary ideology. As such, it is sometimes used to represent a mix of different ideologies, or new protest movements that are critical of all previously existing large parties and minor parties.
In Brazil, purple is the colour associated with some progressive liberal movements such as Cidadania and Livres. This colour is chosen because those movements consider themselves to be mixing the best ideas of the left (associated with red) and the right (associated with blue)
In the Dominican Republic, the Dominican Liberation Party logo is a yellow five-pointed star on a purple background. It was originally a leftist party but today the party is seen gravitating towards a more centrist platform.
In Europe, purple tends to be used for movements, parties and governments that are neither clearly right nor left.[57] The colour is also used by the European federalist party Volt.
It has been used to represent the Purple governments of Belgium and the Netherlands, formed by an alliance of red social-democratic and blue liberal parties.
In Italy, purple has been adopted by anti-Silvio Berlusconi protesters (see Purple People) as an alternative from other colours and political parties.
In Peru, the Purple Party is a liberal party which chose purple as its colour to represent centrism, between the blue of the right and red of the left.
In the United Kingdom, purple is most commonly associated with UKIP, a formerly prominent eurosceptic party which has since become extremely minor. Purple is also the official colour of two other British Eurosceptic parties, Veritas and the Christian Peoples Alliance. From these associations, among others, the colour purple has been linked with far-right politics in the UK. However, it is also the colour of the centre-left, pro-EuropeanCo-operative Party, a little-known party with an electoral pact with the Labour Party.
Purple is also unofficially used in the United States to denote a "swing state", swing district, or county. (i.e. one contested frequently between the Republican Party, whose unofficial colour is red; and the Democratic Party, whose unofficial colour is blue). Purple is also used by centrists to represent a combination of beliefs belonging to the Republicans and the Democrats. It has also been used to reference Purple America, noting that electoral differences nationwide are observed more on discrepancies instead of unity (see red states and blue states).
Russian communists commemorating Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, 2009
Red is often associated with the left, especially socialism and communism.[2] The oldest symbol of socialism (and by extension communism) is the Red Flag, which dates back to the French Revolution in the 18th century and the revolutions of 1848. Before this nascence, the colour red was generally associated with monarchy or the Church due to the symbolism and association of Christ's blood. The colour red was chosen to represent the blood of the workers who died in the struggle against capitalism. All major socialist and communist alliances and organisations—including the First, Second, Third and Fourth Internationals—used red as their official colour. The association between the colour red and communism is particularly strong. Communists use red much more often and more extensively than other ideologies use their respective traditional colours.
In Europe and Latin America, red is also associated with parties of social democracy and often their allies within the labour movement, a symbol of common solidarity among leftists.
Red is also the traditional colour of liberal parties in Latin America and was the colour used, for example, in Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Uruguay for liberal parties.
In Brazil, red is used by the Workers' Party, supporters of Lula and communist parties. The association of red with Lulism and communism has become so prevalent in recent years that other parties that had red as a primary or secondary color switched colors so as not to be associated with or confused with Lula, PT and the communist parties. Formerly, Red, together with white and black, was associated with brazilian nationalism and the three brazilian races: Indigenous (Red), White brazilians and Afro-Brazilians (Black)
In the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland, red is also the colour of the labour movement and the Labour (spelled Labor in Australia) parties in those countries. The use of red as a symbol is referenced in the British Labour Party's anthem, The Red Flag.[63]
In the heyday of the British Empire before 1960, maps, globes, and atlases typically used red or pink to designate the British Empire or its Commonwealth.[64] This derived from the Redcoats traditionally worn by the British Army. As soon as a colony became independent, it needed its own distinctive colour and the practice died out.
A key exception to the convention of red to mean the left-wing of politics is the United States. Since about the year 2000, the mass media have associated red with the Republican Party, even though the Republican Party is a conservative party (see red states and blue states).[23] This use is possibly entrenched, as many political organisations (for example, the website RedState) now use the term.
Saffron is traditionally associated with Hinduism, Hindutva and the Hindu nationalist movement.[65] Saffron was chosen because in Hinduism, the deep saffron colour is associated with sacrifice, religious abstinence, quest for light and salvation. Saffron or "Bhagwa" is the most sacred colour for the Hindus and is often worn by Sanyasis who have left their home in search of the ultimate truth.
In Spain, because the colour green is connected to monarchism, environmental parties use teal In order to avoid clash of colours. They include the parties; Más Madrid, Más País and Equo.
In the United Kingdom, teal is used by right-wing populist Reform UK, because it is seen as a version of the conservative blue.
In Canada, teal is used by the French-Canadian nationalist Bloc Québécois.
Historically, it was associated with support for absolute monarchy, starting with the supporters of the Bourbon dynasty of France because it was the dynasty's colour. Partly due to this association, white also came to be associated with Jacobitism, itself allied with the Bourbons. White cockades, white ladies' gloves, and Rosa pimpinellifolia (the 'burnet' or 'Stuart' rose) symbolised support for the exiled House of Stuart. Later it was used by the Whites who fought against the communist "Reds" in the Russian Civil War, because some of the Russian "Whites" had similar goals to the French "Whites" of a century earlier (although, it is worth noting that the Whites included many different people with many ideologies, such as monarchists, liberals, anticommunist social democrats and others).
Because of its use by anti-communist forces in Russia, the colour white came to be associated in the 20th century with many different anti-communist and counter-revolutionary groups,[70] even those that did not support absolute monarchy (for example, the Finnish "Whites" who fought against the socialist "Reds" in the civil war following the independence of Finland). In some revolutions, red is used to represent the revolutionaries and white is used to represent the supporters of the old order, regardless of the ideologies or goals of the two sides.[citation needed]
In Italy a red cross on a white shield (scudo crociato) is the emblem of Catholic parties from the historical Christian Democracy party.[71]
In the politics of the United Kingdom, white represents independent politicians such as Martin Bell.
In Latin America, it is not unusual for left-wing social democratic parties to use yellow, as red was the traditional colour of liberals, especially in countries with prominent red-using liberal parties like Uruguay, Honduras, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica.
Yellow is also associated with Judaism and the Jewish people, although this may be seen negatively (see also Yellow badge) and since 1945 the blue Star of David is preferred.
In Canada, yellow is does not have any dominant political connotation, and so is commonly used by Elections Canada as a politically neutral colour and as a high-visibility colour to mark polling stations.
Yellow is the colour used by supporters of the Catalan independence movement. Since 2017, separatists adopted the yellow ribbon as one of their symbols along with the estelada (pro-independence flag).
In the United States, the colour yellow was the official colour of the suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.[76] In the 21st century, the Libertarian Party's official branding colours are gold-yellow, grey, and black.[77] The gold-yellow colour is prominent because of the historical association with classical liberalism and in reference to a gold-backed currency and free markets.
By country
In this map of the 2012 United States presidential election results, the states are colour-coded by the political colour of the party whose candidate won their electoral college votes, but the political meanings of red and blue in the United States are the opposite of their meanings in the rest of the world.
Notable national political colour schemes include:
Some of the established political parties use or have used different colour variations in certain localities. This was common in British politics up to the 1970s. The traditional colour of the Penrith and the Border Conservatives was yellow, rather than dark blue, even in the 2010 election Conservative candidates in Penrith and the neighbouring constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale wore blue and yellow rosettes. In North East England, the Conservatives traditionally used red, Labour green and the Liberals blue and orange. In parts of East Anglia, the Conservatives used pink and blue, whilst in Norwich their colours were orange and purple. The Liberals and Conservatives used blue and red respectively in West Wales, while in parts of Cheshire the Liberals were red and Labour yellow. During the 18th and 19th centuries, the Tories used orange in Birmingham, pink in Whitby and red in East Worcestershire, whilst the Whigs were blue in Kendal, purple in Marlborough and orange in Wakefield.[79] The traditional colour of the Warwickshire Liberals was green, rather than orange.
In the United States the two major political parties use the national colours, i.e. red, white and blue. Historically, 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 had been no consistent association of particular parties with particular colours. Between the early 1970s and 1992, most television networks used blue to denote states carried by the Democratic Party and red to denote states carried by the Republican Party in presidential elections. A unified colour scheme (blue for Democrats, red for Republicans) began to be implemented with the 1996 presidential election; in the weeks following the 2000 election, there arose the terminology of red states and blue states. Political observers 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. As of November 2012, maps for presidential elections produced by the U.S. government also use blue for Democrats and red for Republicans.[80] In September 2010, the Democratic Party officially adopted an all-blue logo.[25] Around the same time, the official Republican website began using a red logo.
This association has potential to confuse foreign observers in that, as described above, red is traditionally a left-wing colour (as used with the Democratic Socialists of America), while blue is typically associated with right-wing politics.[1] This is further complicated by the diversity of factions in the Democratic Party ranging from conservatives to right-libertarians to democratic socialists alongside the dominant centrist and social liberal elements of the party that outside the United States often each use different political colours.
The conservative Blue Dog Coalition within the Democratic Party adopted the colour blue at its founding, before the 2000 election solidified the red-blue convention.
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,[81] but this system was not applied consistently in Texas and was not picked up on a national level. For instance in 1888, Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison used maps that coded blue for the Republicans, the colour Harrison perceived to represent the Union and "Lincoln's Party" and red for the Democrats.[82][better source needed]
^Reuchamps, Min (17 December 2014). Minority Nations in Multinational Federations: A Comparative Study of Quebec and Wallonia. Routledge. p. 140. ISBN9781317634720.
^Kumar, Rohit Vishal; Joshi, Radhika (October–December 2006). "Colour, Colour Everywhere: In Marketing Too". SCMS Journal of Indian Management. 3 (4): 40–46. ISSN0973-3167. SSRN969272.
^Cassel-Picot, Muriel (2013). "The Liberal Democrats and the Green Cause: From Yellow to Green". In Leydier, Gilles; Martin, Alexia (eds.). Environmental Issues in Political Discourse in Britain and Ireland. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 105. ISBN9781443852838.
^Kathleen L. Endres and Therese L. Lueck, eds., Women's Periodicals in the United States: Social and Political Issues (Westport, CT.: Greenwood Press, 1996): 458, note 13.
