Reuven Y. Hazan, "Does Center Equal Middle?: Towards a Conceptual Delineation, with Application to West European Party Systems," Party Politics , 2 (April, 1996), 209-228.

First Paragraph:
Reformist parties in historical France and Britain, former agrarian parties in the post-war Scandinavian countries, and new parties in the re-emergent democracies of both Southern and Eastern Europe have all adopted the propitious center label. But are these center parties in name indeed center parties? And if so, what type of center parties are they?

Figures and Tables:
Table 1: Two approaches to party poles in Italy.
Table 2: Center and middle parties in the Italian party system.
Figure 1: Center and middle parties in the Italian party system, 1946-93.
Table 3: Party poles in the Netherlands.
Figure 2: Center and middle parties in the Dutch party system, 1946-93.
Figure 3: Center and middle parties in the West German party system, 1949-87.
Figure 4: Middle parties in comparative perspective.

Last Paragraph:
This article has introduced a clear delineation of what a center party is, what a center party is not and a middle party is, what the relevance of the term median party is, what the descriptive attribute of the term pivot party can provide, and how far the center label can mislead us, and has.