Centrism
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In politics, centrism usually refers to the political ideal of promoting moderate policies which land in the middle ground between different political extremes. Most commonly, this is visualized as part of the one-dimensional political spectrum of Left-Right politics, with centrism landing in the middle between left-wing politics and right-wing politics. However, there is arguably more than one dimension to politics, so even the centre has its own radicals as exemplified by radical centrist politics.
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Definitions
No prominent people call themselves "centrists." The term is not widely used in the United States.
An alternate definition is to assume that the two poles in question (e.g., Left/Right) are well-defined, and then (i) define as 'centrist' any position which the Left considers too far Right and the Right considers too far Left, and (ii) define as a 'Centrist' any person who self-identifies more with those positions than either the Left or the Right. The weakness in this argument is that it is difficult to unambiguously and objectively define both poles at once, but that difficulty affects all political defintions, not just centrists.
In practice, the two poles can only be well-defined in a specific place at a specific time, since they differ from place to place and change over time. Thus, "centrism" itself means different things in different places (depending on the local political spectrum) and changes over time. For example, ideas that were considered extremist 200 years ago (such as democracy and universal suffrage) are considered centrist today - while other ideas that were considered centrist 200 years ago (such as slavery and racism) are considered extremist today.
Significance
Centrism is important because it applies to very large swaths of the populace. In many countries, most members of the public tend to identify themselves as independent rather than as left-wing or right-wing. Politicians of many parties try to appeal to this so-called Vital Center in order to reach beyond their traditional constituencies.
Many pundits find fault in this approach. For example, candidates using centrist politics to gain wider appeal risk losing support from the more idealistic members of their political parties. Another consideration is that the Centrist position is defined by triangulating left-wing and right-wing stances. This makes centre-seeking politicians more vulnerable to criticisms that they lack convictions, often being accused of demagogy and pandering. Also, centrist candidates may find themselves strongly agreeing with opponents in debates, potentially confusing voters as to their views. This may have contributed to the controversial outcome of the 2000 U.S. presidential election in the United States (admittedly aggravated by political polarization among voters, a fairly different phenomenon).
It could certainly be argued that centrist politics do not infact exist, as there is no distinct definition of what it actually stands for. Traditionally, politics was based on ideology - whereby a democratic government is formed between two or more conflicting ideologies - eg. Communism, Socialism, Fascism or Capitalism. Once these ideologies come together, they automatically created a "centre ground" - the basic principle of democracy. In recent years however there has been a distinctive shift away from ideologies, embracing free market capitalism over all else. This is viewed as a mature step forward by so-called centrists who would argue that bitter squabbles over economic systems and tax structures have diverted politics away from far more important issues. Others would argue that economics and tax structures are absolutely key with regard to social stability. The main argument against centrism though, is the effect it has on the electorate - since the British Labour Party reinvented itself in 1997 as "New Labour", abandoning its key Socialist beliefs and embracing the centre ground, it has won 3 successive general elections - but voter turnout has dropped from 71.29% to just 61.36% in 2005. Perhaps the UK electorate feels powerless as all the main parties rush to the "centre ground".
Centrism in the Marxist movement
"Centrism" has a specific meaning within the Marxist political movement. It usually reflects an ideologically held position between a revolutionary and reformist position. For instance, the Independent Labour Party was seen as revolutionarily centrist because they were a radical formation moving towards a revolutionary position and had the potential to become a full fledged revolutionary party or at least have a large number of their members move towards an openly revolutionary position. Marxist Centrism is often opportunistic, since it argues for a revolution at some point in the future but urges reformist practices in the mean time.
On a related note, the term "Centrism" also denotes positions held by some of the Bolsheviks during the 1920s. In this context, "Centrism" refers to a position between the Right Opposition (which supported the New Economic Policy and friendly relations with capitalist countries) and the Left Opposition (which supported a planned economy and world revolution). By the end of the 1920s, all three factions had been outmaneuvered by Joseph Stalin who, while casually aligning with each of them in turn, built his own power bloc and had the leaders of the three factions removed from their positions, imprisoned and eventually executed during the Great Purge. At the same time, he implemented policies that drew some ideas from each of the factions, combined with his own characteristic ruthlessness.
See: Two Articles on Centrism by Leon Trotsky