horseshoe theory

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horseshoe theory

Wikipedia

Referring to the curved shape of a horseshoe, whose two ends come close to meeting.

(political science) The theory that the far left and the far right, rather than being at opposite ends of a political continuum, in fact closely resemble one another.
- 2000, Peter Thompson, “The PDS: Marx's Baby or Stalin's Bathwater?”, in Peter Barker, editor, The GDR and its History: Rückblick und Revision (German Monitor; 49), Rodopi, →ISBN, page 103:
  There is some evidence, contradictory as it is, that if the PDS [Party of Democratic Socialism] did not exist, then the consequence would be a strengthening of the DVU [German People's Union], the NPD [National Democratic Party of Germany] and the Republikaner […] This does not mean, however, that I subscribe to the ever-present but increasingly orthodox horseshoe theory of political analysis […]
- 2022 December 14, Kathleen Belew, “The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline”, in The Atlantic‎:
  Some political scientists have suggested a “horseshoe theory,” with the center as the rounded top of a horseshoe and the two fringes on either end, but inclined toward one another. This image, while evocative, isn’t quite right. In the archive, it looks more like a circle.

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