SMOKERS’ CORNER: POLITICS OF THE BIG TENT

In Europe and the United States, the post-1945 era marked a shift from ‘mass parties’ to broad ‘big-tent’ parties. Mass parties had operated on strict class lines. Democratic socialist outfits appealed to industrial workers, while conservative parties represented business elites and religious traditionalists. Big-tent politics had already taken root in North America due to its vast geography, rapid industrialisation, and diverse immigrant and Black populations. To build winning national majorities, the Democratic and Republican parties developed broad platforms, accommodating competing internal factions under a shared umbrella and a loose ideological core. This was the beginning of big-tent…