So I've done a search, but I'm still wondering about politics in Europe. This is purely personal curiosity, I'm not wanting to start debates.

It's hard to answer for the whole of Europe. It already matters a lot if you're in an ex-Soviet country or not as that still has a big effect on the political landscape of those countries. Then there is France and the UK for example, they have their own electoral system with few parties and quite a special past. The best I can do is try to answer for the rest of us with some sort of Proportional Representation. I think it holds for BeNeLux, Scandinavia, Germany, maybe also Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland, although I'm not quite sure. There are still parallels to draw with (fully) ex-Soviet countries but it gets blurry and I'm not risking myself on that terrain.

Economically, Third Way politics has become the norm in Western Europe, although in different ways for each country. We're welfare states and people wanting to go near or complete free-market/state-controlled economy are regarded as the economic extremes. In the moderate left/right axis it's more or less about wanting more or less gov involvement just like the US. Differences are that the welfare states are mostly the result of collective bargaining (agreements between employer organizations and employee organizations/unions) rather than gov-led (New Deal) and has settled with more gov involvement than the US. Economic hard left (communists) is also more popular than hard right (what you'd call libertarianism), while in the US I think it's the other way around.

Recurring parties are:

  • Socialist and Social-Democrat parties: the generic economic left, the latter generally being a bit more centric than the former, both sometimes call themselves "Labour" parties. Generally also socially progressive although that is not always true.

  • Green parties: most often economic left, they fight for a durable economic system and a fight against pollution and other environmental concerns.

  • Christian Democrats/Humanists: former christian parties which have a bit loosened their ties to the Vatican/churches, but that varies from country to country. Often playing economic center, sometimes leaning center-right, or even center-left. Very often conservative on social issues.

  • Conservative Liberal, Liberal and Social-liberal parties: the first combines less gov involvement with social conservatism, while the second type is the same but socially progressive. Those two form the generic economic right. Social liberal parties are less common, they are often quite economically centric and socially progressive. You could count the Pirate Parties which strive for digital freedom and privacy among other things in that last group.

  • The Far-Right Parties: The name is confusing, as they sometimes lie on the economic left. Those are often nationalist parties which are very conservative and often outspoken against immigration, globalisation and the EU.

  • Regionalism: A trait that is often combined with other types of parties mentioned above, they strive towards independence or more autonomy for a region within the country.

  • EU: Parties often state whether they want to delegate more tasks from the national govs to the EU, keep it the same or taking power back to national governments, Far-Right parties are often heavily against the EU, other socially conservative parties are often somewhat centric on the issue. Socially progressive parties tend to be more pro-EU, but there are quite a few exceptions.

Feel free to correct me anywhere, I'm far from being an expert on the subject.

/r/europe Thread