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Not the middle: why synthesis is not splitting the difference

The radical centre is often mistaken for compromise. Here is the difference between averaging two positions and building a better one.

By radical centre · · 2 min read

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In short

Splitting the difference averages two positions and usually keeps the weaknesses of both. Synthesis identifies the legitimate concern behind each position and designs a policy that meets both at once. That is the core of radical centrism, and it is why the radical centre can be more ambitious, not less, than either side.

Key points

  • Compromise trades away parts of each position; synthesis keeps the valid concern of each.
  • The midpoint is often the worst option: too weak for one side's goal, too costly for the other's.
  • Synthesis usually needs a new mechanism, not a new number.
  • A good synthesis says openly which value wins when the two concerns truly collide.

The trap of the midpoint

Imagine one camp wants a carbon price of 100 and another wants none. The obvious "centrist" answer is 50. It is also, very often, the worst available answer: too low to change investment decisions, and still high enough to be blamed for every rise in household bills. Both camps end up unhappy, and for good reasons.

The midpoint treats a political disagreement as a negotiation over a quantity. But most serious disagreements are not really about the quantity. They are about different legitimate concerns that each side is protecting.

Finding the concern behind the position

Synthesis starts by asking what each side is right about.

  • Those who want a high carbon price are right that emissions have to fall fast and that prices change millions of decisions without a minister picking winners.
  • Those who oppose it are right that a flat price lands hardest on rural drivers, cold-climate renters and energy-intensive towns, who did not choose those circumstances.

Stated this way, the two concerns are not opposites. You can design for both: a high price whose revenue is returned visibly to households, plus targeted support where the transition costs actually land. That is not a point between the two original positions. It is a different policy that is more ambitious on emissions and fairer on costs.

Synthesis usually needs a new mechanism, not a new number.

Four tests of a real synthesis

  1. Both sides can recognise their concern in it. Not their slogan, their concern.
  2. It does something the midpoint cannot. If the result is just a smaller version of one side's plan, it is a compromise.
  3. It names the residual conflict. Where the two goals still collide, it says which value wins and why.
  4. It can be tested. It states what evidence would show it is not working.

When there is no synthesis

Sometimes there is no design that satisfies both concerns. Values collide: liberty against security, speed against consultation. Radical centrism does not pretend otherwise. It makes the choice explicit, shows who bears the cost and offers a way to revisit it. Honesty about loss is part of the method, not a failure of it.

Questions and answers

Is synthesis just a nicer word for compromise?

No. A compromise gives each side part of what it asked for. A synthesis asks why each side wanted it and looks for a design that satisfies those reasons, which often means something neither side originally proposed.

Does synthesis always exist?

No. Sometimes values genuinely collide and someone has to lose. Radical centrism then names the choice and its losers openly instead of hiding it in technical language.