What countries do you consider part of "The West"? (transplants, move to)

[saibot]

Originally Posted by Greysholic

Reasonable criteria: culture + economy + values.

Culture eliminates East Asia.

Economy eliminates Latin America and Eastern Europe.

Values eliminate all authoritarian governments.

This seems reasonable to me. And it also seems reasonable that the classification of a given country/region can change with time and circumstances.

[g500]

Basically the West includes the Anglosphere nations UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, maybe??? South Africa. Plus Europe, excluding the former USSR states (not sure about the Baltic states). I'd include Eastern Europe too, but it's not a monolith. I'd include Latin America as a Western offshoot.

[ABQConvict]

The broadest consensus on defining the "West" in terms of cultures is those countries whose basic cultural features and social mores are developed from a common basis in Judeo-Christian ethics, secularism, Classical (Greek and Roman) philosophy and its antecedents, Enlightenment and post-Enlightenment philosophies, liberal economics, and Indo-European language. This correlates essentially with western Europe and its settler colonies like the US, Australia, Canada, and NZ as the core of the phenomenon.

Secondarily are Russia and other countries in eastern Europe that fell under the Eastern Orthodox, and later, the Soviet sphere of influence. I personally consider this group to be part of the core by virtue of all the cultural factors, but geopolitically, they are often excluded or considered as a parallel expression of Western culture, maybe analogized like the Western Roman Empire vs. the Eastern, a schism that itself is part of the historical underpinning of the division between Eastern Europe and Western Europe.

I do think that the separation of Russia from Western Europe, predicated on the division between Western Christianity and Eastern Orthodox is outdated and mainly of historical significance. Since that division is the chief argument in support of separating Russia, et al. from the West, and it is largely obsolete in my opinion, I generaly regard the whole of Europe as "the West" for the purposes of cultural discussions of a broad scope.

Tertiarily, Latin America. I would certainly consider many societies within Latin American countries to be Western. There is no doubt that vast populations in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and all over the Americas are people with Western heritage and worldview, but most of Latin America being multicultural countries with tremendous non-Western influences puts them in a sub-category.

An American political scientist named Samuel Huntington wrote an interesting book on the subject of the world's "parent cultures" (my term, not his), The Clash of Civilizations that describes the major global cultural divisions of which "the West" is one. Here is a map that delineates the divisions:

The primary (dark blue) and secondary/tertiary (light blue) constituents of the Western world.

[Michiko_shanyang]

Originally Posted by manitopiaaa

I'd love to hear folks' thoughts on the nebulous term "The West" or "Western World"? Who do you consider to be part of it? Is it a proxy for White? for Christian? For democracies?

Below are different regional groupings that could qualify under various broad definitions. Please vote for those you think ARE Western. If there is a particular country/region missing, please comment on it.

• Anglo America: Canada and USA
• Australia and New Zealand
• Europe – Eastern Europe and the Balkans (excl. former USSR)
• Europe – Northern Europe, incl. Germany and the United Kingdom
• Europe – Southern Europe, incl. France, Greece, Italy, and Space
• Europe – Former Soviet Union, incl. Russia and Ukraine
• Israel
• Japan
• Latin America - Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay
• Latin America – Brazil
• Latin America – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela
• Latin America – Mexico, Central America, and Spanish Caribbean
• Philippines
• South Africa
• Turkey
• Others not listed here (specify in comments)

i choose box 1 from first to 6
Philippines in list ? don't forget to include Eastern Indonesia such like Flores, Maluku, Manado because also have a fairly high European influence compared to Philipines
and Majority Eastern Indonesians is Christian Protestan and Katolic

[Travel4Food]

Originally Posted by Greysholic

The West = Anglophone + Western Europe + Israel

Israel only in terms of politics, it has a non-western Religion and Culture.

[Travel4Food]

When I think int the West I think in the Anglosphere, The US, UK, Australia, Canada, NZ and Ireland..

They are the countries obsessed with "The West", naming other countries "Third World" concept such as "whiteness", "The White man", "minorities", "race traitor", "White Europeans". Concepts that even for the Western Part of Continental Europe and Scandinavia sound completely Alien.


I Consider the Anglosphere an own thing in its own right, a cultural bubble that is extremely culturally and mentally removed from the rest of the World population, regardless thinking that they are the center of the World because they Speak English as first language, yes so Advanced that most people in the Anglosphere only speak 1 language, while Europeans and even Africans /Middle easterns are able to speak multiple languages..

[easthome]

Originally Posted by petrus.vanholst

I do agree that if you make the Anglosphere a thing, they are definitely alien to Western Europe.

The Anglosphere as separate shares nothing with the Greco/Roman tradition of continental Europe for sure.

Now if we are going by the old definition (Roman/Greece) then places like the USA would not be western by any measure.

Apart from Democracy, the decimal system, science, politics, plumbing and sanitation, the calendar, education, irrigation, roads, architecture, Christianity etc etc.

[easthome]

Originally Posted by petrus.vanholst

By Anglosphere I meant to say the USA. (I am aware the UK is part of that concept) but I perhaps used the wrong term, should have used "USA" or the new world. However the new world also encompasses Latin America, which is in many ways the western world as well.

My point is the US is perhaps out of all the countries that exist due to Western European colonialism, the one that distances itself the most from such origin and tries to create its own version of the world and its own destiny.

Well OK then, what has the US got to do with Greece/Rome - apart from Democracy, science, politics, plumbing and sanitation, the calendar, education, irrigation, roads, architecture, Christianity, Government etc etc.

[Dry Heat]

Originally Posted by easthome

Apart from Democracy, the decimal system, science, politics, plumbing and sanitation, the calendar, education, irrigation, roads, architecture, Christianity etc etc.

Lol
Life of Brian?

[mooguy]

For me, I would say Can/US/Aus/NZ/*** & Western Europe but no former Eastern Bloc countries except Czech and possibly Estonia. For West-light, I would include Israel, Slovenia, Slovakia, Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile and maybe, South Africa.