Which countries are most politically similar to the United States?

[CumbrianLefty]

Hot take: France

Out of curiosity, why France?

Their political spectrum actually seems significantly different from the US, with their right wing being less freedom focused and more nationalism focused, with their multiparty system as opposed to the two party system in the US, with the centre having a stronger presence (Macron would be a moderate Democrat in the US but is a centrist in France) and the left being much further left economically and having a history of favouring openly socialist policies.

One other difference about economic policy is that the centre in France (as in, Macron types) is the most economically right wing - both the left and the right tend to be more economically left-leaning than the centre.

Trump's realignment of the parties has arguably culminated into an ideological tripolar realignment; I assume the US is further along in this process than the other Anglosphere liberal democracies. (Canada actually has 3 major parties but I'm not knowledgeable enough about Canadian party politics to assess how well the parties represent a distinct 'left', 'center', and 'right').

Maybe; I would argue that America's party system is slowly or rapidly becoming more like the current French tripolar system, but keeping on to the 2 party labels of D and R.

Currently France has a well defined Left, Center, and Right.

America has a very small Left (Squad/Progressives), fairly large Center (dominated by Democrats and a few Republicans like Murkowski, Meijer, Cheney, and Collins), and a robust, but alienating Right.

Our primary system has become very clearly a system defined by these three poles with Democrats fighting between Leftists and Centrists, and Republicans fighting between Centrists and Rightists (more like Establishment vs Trumpists). Primaries were not this ideological even 10 years ago (2008 or 2012 for both parties lacked this ideological divide).

It will be interesting to see how the Republican party handles power - I think the divide between the Center and Right will become more prominent when they take power again especially because it looks like the Right has been co-opted by the Trump celebrity machine.

Its a generalisation admittedly, but Tories are mainly right, Liberals centre and NDP left. This is pretty common knowledge and doesn't really require any specialist expertise.

[SInNYC]

You could say the US has 3 parties too. Democrats, Republicans, and southern Democrats --> religious Republicans. But these 3 dont line up with the 3 Canadian (or British) parties.

[mileslunn]

I would say Canada, but Canada is a lot more left wing than US and right only wins here sometimes due to splits on left.  Still left in Canada very much uses GOP as foil why one should not vote Conservative while Conservatives struggle between appealing to base who want Canada to be more like US and swing voters who do not.  Never mind many cultural wars here on the left originate in US.  Trudeau's first promise was to tax the top 1% more and that came straight out of Occupy Wall Street which is in US, not something organic in Canada.  Even on gun bans, much of that was to avoid mass shootings US frequently has while on abortion and health care, Liberals love to point to GOP even though Conservatives here don't plan to ban abortion like GOP and favor universal health care unlike GOP.

In other countries policies debated more on their merit and little reference is made to US.

[Pres Mike]

Brazil, by a lot

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Strong disagree with France.

Even on mainland Europe, it's actually not even the best candidate.

[Kamala's side hoe]

Strong disagree with France.

Even on mainland Europe, it's actually not even the best candidate.

What do you think would be the best Continental European candidate then?

Trump's realignment of the parties has arguably culminated into an ideological tripolar realignment; I assume the US is further along in this process than the other Anglosphere liberal democracies. (Canada actually has 3 major parties but I'm not knowledgeable enough about Canadian party politics to assess how well the parties represent a distinct 'left', 'center', and 'right').

Maybe; I would argue that America's party system is slowly or rapidly becoming more like the current French tripolar system, but keeping on to the 2 party labels of D and R.

Currently France has a well defined Left, Center, and Right.

America has a very small Left (Squad/Progressives), fairly large Center (dominated by Democrats and a few Republicans like Murkowski, Meijer, Cheney, and Collins), and a robust, but alienating Right.

Our primary system has become very clearly a system defined by these three poles with Democrats fighting between Leftists and Centrists, and Republicans fighting between Centrists and Rightists (more like Establishment vs Trumpists). Primaries were not this ideological even 10 years ago (2008 or 2012 for both parties lacked this ideological divide).

It will be interesting to see how the Republican party handles power - I think the divide between the Center and Right will become more prominent when they take power again especially because it looks like the Right has been co-opted by the Trump celebrity machine.

Its a generalisation admittedly, but Tories are mainly right, Liberals centre and NDP left. This is pretty common knowledge and doesn't really require any specialist expertise.

I understand that, but how big are the ideological differences between the Liberals and the NDP really? My lay impression is that the Liberals are considerably closer to the NDP than to the Tories.

Cody/Aurelius and ottermax's arguments against Canada make more sense when you consider that Canada has a parliamentary system and the impact Quebec regionalism has had on the Canada's political coalitions and electoral calculus.

[Pres Mike]

Brazil, by a lot

Dilma Rousseff=Hillary Clinton
Jair Bolsonaro=Donald Trump
Lula 2.0=Biden

[CumbrianLefty]

So who is their Obama and GWB?

[Pres Mike]

So who is their Obama and GWB?

Lula 1.0 was a combination of FDR and Obama

But the parallels in recent years was stark. Dilma was impeached in August 2016 after conservative backlash. Watch this documentary on Netflix. The rightwing movement to impeach her took a lot of inspiration from the American conservative movement.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6016744/

[SnowLabrador]

I'll nominate Israel. Both nations are settler-colonial states that allow indicted genocidal leaders to return to power.

[Red Velvet]

So who is their Obama and GWB?

Lula 1.0 was a combination of FDR and Obama

But the parallels in recent years was stark. Dilma was impeached in August 2016 after conservative backlash. Watch this documentary on Netflix. The rightwing movement to impeach her took a lot of inspiration from the American conservative movement.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6016744/

“Edge of Democracy” is a great Academy Award nominated movie about Brazilian politics between 2013-2018 specifically.

It captures what it was like following Brazil politics between the June 2013 protests (eruption of anti-politics and anti-establishment sentiment) and Bolsonaro’s election, which was the culmination of that revolt.

A movie about other periods would feel very different as they each had their own vibe. 2013-2018 is very specific in depicting the beginning of polarization and its peak in 2018 with Bolsonarism winning.

As good as the documentary is, it doesn’t fully capture all the details that broadly characterize Brazilian politics.

[Reactionary Libertarian]

Increasingly Brazil but this is much more true for the right than the left.

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Strong disagree with France.

Even on mainland Europe, it's actually not even the best candidate.

What do you think would be the best Continental European candidate then?

Poland.

To a lesser extent maybe Germany.

For Poland

Last election basically was two party system (two blocs). Left bloc was kinda like Democrats. Right bloc has a lot in common with Republican Party.
Media is highly influenced by who is in charge, and generally all media has a tendency to have a bias, one way or the other. And there was a FOX News equivalent there too
It's very religious & conservative (relative to Europe), so is USA.
Sizeable agrarian communities, sometimes called the grain factory of Europe (alongside Ukraine).

Poland is a bit like what if Texas was a country (but without the oil).

France doesn't make sense because of the strong labor unions and workers tradition etc. And that the left is different, but also that the far right has less in common with the Republicans there, being economically left-wing. Like it's in many ways different.

Maybe 100 to 200 years ago, it was a better answer but i'm not taking history too much into account.

Polish right wing also unlike for instance Hungarian right is more Republican-like in which sides it supports. And being more institutionally right wing. But it also has a decent left wing that still showed it's competing, but no real decently sized far-left like in many other European countries.

And it has its progressive cities like Gdansk etc.

[LabourJersey]

No European country can truly be the "most similar" to the US because none of them have the legacy of being a frontier and a settled nation in the way that the Americas and Australia were.

To previous posters' point, Brazil is a much better answer here than any of the European countries mentioned.

[Red Velvet]

No European country can truly be the "most similar" to the US because none of them have the legacy of being a frontier and a settled nation in the way that the Americas and Australia were.

To previous posters' point, Brazil is a much better answer here than any of the European countries mentioned.

USA history of segregation puts it closer to Europe than to LatAm culturally on maaaany respects though.

Best way to interpret USA is somewhere in-between Northern Europe and LatAm, with mixed characteristics of both. Not fully like any of the two.

Of the options in LatAm, Brazil maybe is more common comparison because of size and also because of the influence of slavery from Africa in the make-up of the country, in most Hispanic countries a lot of the exploitation happened more strongly with local Indigenous.

But the way USA and Brazil culturally interacted with and developed under these similar influences could honestly not be more different from one another. USA will be culturally much closer to places like UK and Canada before Brazil and that has a direct effect onto politics.

I felt culturally closer to home much more in Portugal; Argentina or even Spain than I did while in USA, for instance.

Always better to think of USA as a buffer zone between LatAm (Americas in general tbh) and Northern Europe. It’s their own thing with significant combined elements of both these regions.

Kinda like Southern Europe is also somewhere located somewhere in-between Northern Europe and Latin America, but regarding different elements.

Answer to the main question is obviously Canada and Australia and even those have their own particularities.

This map isn’t about politics/culture only, it includes other elements such as geography and wealth (infrastructure) that will naturally push it closer to other rich countries, but it provides some decent notion to the top 5 main countries that are comparable to US since they have to be somewhat score high on all categories:



Whereas Brazil is obviously most similar to every Latin American country AND also Southern Europe before being close to the USA:

[Red Velvet]

According to the same website, these are the closest comparisons to Brazil on each separate category:

Most Similar Demographics: Dominican Republic (Latin America)
Most Similar Culture: Portugal (Europe)
Most Similar Government: Argentina (Latin America)
Most Similar Infrastructure: Colombia (Latin America)
Most Similar Geography: Venezuela (Latin America)

And these are the closest comparisons to USA on the same categories:

Most Similar Demographics: Canada (Anglo America)
Most Similar Culture: Australia (Oceania, also a former Anglo Colony)
Most Similar Government: Canada (Anglo America)
Most Similar Infrastructure: Canada (Anglo America)
Most Similar Geography: Mexico (Latin America)

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Most Similar Demographics: Luxembourg
Most Similar Culture: Luxembourg
Most Similar Government: Spain
Most Similar Infrastructure: France
Most Similar Geography: Netherlands

I feel like for the most part it is just the further located a country is the less similarity it'll have basically, so it's kinda pointless, especially since overall a lot of factors here basically are related to distance (culture, language, etc).

[Sol]

Obviously complicated but IMO:

-Canada: the extreme cultural similarity between Anglo Canada and the U.S. is obvious, and of course the Liberals are very Democrat-esque. Also two of the countries with the strongest climate denier movements.
-Brazil: For the reasons everyone is articulating ofc. History of racial polarization, the right is hostile to democracy, etc. etc.
-France: This is a less informed take, but both have kind of weird legacies of early revolutions and a tendency towards culture war politics.
-South Africa: Long legacy of residential segregation and rigidly drawn racial boundaries. A fairly recent transition to democracy (this is moreso a point of comparison to the Southern U.S.).

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Obviously complicated but IMO:

-France: This is a less informed take, but both have kind of weird legacies of early revolutions and a tendency towards culture war politics.

It's a less informed take because it makes no sense

Maybe for the 19th century, it makes sense, but we live in the 21st century. When answering this question, i look to how the states are established in the 21st century, nobody really evaluates Germany too based on that it used to be the Holy Roman Empire...

France basically is the western country closest to a form of democratic socialism with well established and strong labor unions and labor laws.

USA is basically the opposite of that and the furthest away of that.

In fact one could argue, France is the least political similar to USA within the western world.

[ηєω ƒяσηтιєя]

Australia first.

Canada second. Though, Canada overall leans slightly to the left of the US, the politics of the both countries are extremely similar. Anglo-Canadian politicians also campaign is pretty much identical ways to US politicians. Quebec and the South are where the 2 countries diverge but everything else is like 95% the same.

[Flyersfan232]

I'll nominate Israel. Both nations are settler-colonial states that allow indicted genocidal leaders to return to power.

move to europe then

[Red Velvet]

Most Similar Demographics: Luxembourg
Most Similar Culture: Luxembourg
Most Similar Government: Spain
Most Similar Infrastructure: France
Most Similar Geography: Netherlands

I feel like for the most part it is just the further located a country is the less similarity it'll have basically, so it's kinda pointless, especially since overall a lot of factors here basically are related to distance (culture, language, etc).

Yeah, but like, it’s normal for neighbors to tend to be more similar to each other than to places that are very distant.

There are exceptions because of colonization - ex: Anglos influence in both USA/Canada and Australia/New Zealand, making those be quite similar to each other because British went to live in both. But it’s generally normal for you to be more similar to places that are closer to you or that you have some historical influence/relation with.

The Belgium comparisons seem about right to me, though I am not familiar with its politics to understand why the government closest association is with Spain.

Personally, I agree with almost all Brazilian comparisons. Ideologically in politics, I do feel like Argentinians are the closest to Brazilians as we’ve gone through somewhat similar things most of the time, so the Government comparison is spot on.

In infrastructure, Brazil is very regionally diversified tbh, the Southern region can be closer to Uruguay and Argentina but the Northern part lacks a lot because of Amazon and drier climate, more on par with poorer segments of LatAm, so I do believe Colombia is the perfect middle-ground standard LatAm country to be compared with.

The Dominican Republic in demographics isn’t too exact but it’s really the closest comparison as they received significant African influence as well, mixed with the Indigenous and European.  Other possible adequate comparisons besides DR imo would be Cuba and low-key Colombia too.

Geography there isn’t any other country to compare but we’re not an Andean country and Uruguay and Paraguay are too one-note on that regard, so Venezuela probably is the neighbor with closest geography, also being part of the Amazon.

Culturally is where I get hesitant, as I personally feel we are more culturally closer to Hispanic LatAm neighbors than we are to Portugal in behavioral terms, however, I understand that culture isn’t related to just that and also includes things like architecture, food, history that I can see why they would put Portugal as closest comparison as we don’t have any Luso neighbor in LatAm itself.

This is how the website describes different countries and I find it quite interesting:

USA: Canada, if it was more like Mexico
Canada: USA, if it was more like Sweden
Brazil: Colombia, if it was more like Portugal
Mexico: Colombia, if it was more like USA
Argentina: Uruguay, if it was more like Mexico
Uruguay: Argentina, if it was more like The Netherlands
Chile: Argentina, if it was more like Colombia
Venezuela: Colombia, if it was more like Cuba
Colombia: Ecuador, if it was more like Venezuela
Cuba: DR, if it was more like Belarus
DR: Panama, if it was more like Haiti
Haiti: DR, if it was more like Burundi

Notice how every country on the Americas tends to be defined as a mix of two different American countries. Exceptions are only Brazil (because we’re the only Luso-American country in the continent) and Canada + Uruguay (Highly developed countries that are both more liberal than their neighbors and have a very specific geography that distinguishes them too). Oh and it happens with Cuba and Haiti too for obvious but different reasons.

I think you CAN argue that USA is the most Latin American Anglo country, but it’s still very much an Anglo country yeah. A Mexicanized Canada is kind of perfect description actually, because it feels like this buffer mixed zone in some elements yeah.

Same thing happens within European countries, their closest comparisons are amongst two of themselves, exception being only Spain and Portugal due to their cultural similarities towards LatAm former colonies. And Switzerland and Russia, which are compared to Canada on so e level that I don’t understand.

UK: Ireland, if it was more like Denmark
Germany: Austria, if it was more like The Netherlands
Austria: Germany, if it was more like Slovakia
Netherlands: Belgium, if it was more like the UK
Belgium: Netherlands, if it was more like France
France: Belgium, if it was more like Portugal
Switzerland: Austria, if it was more like Canada
Sweden: Norway, if it was more like Finland
Italy: Spain, if it was more like Croatia
Spain: Portugal, if it was more like Chile
Portugal: Spain, if it was more like Brazil
Poland: Czechia, if it was more like Romania
Ukraine: Belarus, if it were more like Bulgaria
Russia: Belarus, if it was more like Canada
Belarus: Ukraine, if it was more like Russia (lol)

Even for places that are between different regions, the comparison they make feels apt, being a mix of those two regions:

Turkey: Azerbaijan, if it was more like Italy

And just for the sake of curiosity…

Israel: Tunisia, if it was more like Germany
Australia: New Zealand, if it was more like South Africa
South Africa: Botswana, if it was more like The Netherlands
Angola: Mozambique, if it was more like Congo
Nigeria: Ghana, if it was more like Niger
Japan: Taiwan, if it was more like the UK
South Korea: Japan, if it was more like North Korea
China: Taiwan, if it was more like North Korea
Taiwan: China, if it was more like Japan
India: Nepal, if it was more like Sri Lanka
Iran: Iraq, if it was more like Tajikistan
Morocco: Algeria, if was more like Turkey

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Brazil, Russia, Australia.

[CumbrianLefty]

Brazil, Russia, Australia.

I know that Trump would *like* to make the US more like Russia, but....