what countries are part of the west?

[MAXlMUS]

this, according to wiki, is the western world.

is it just me, or is this the stupidest thing i've seen so far on wiki? how do you decide which countries belong to the west?
religion? then why include israel? or greece even though it's orthodox, but then you exclude every other orthodox country, slavic or not?
history? russian contribution to european culture (visit the state hermitage) is greater then that most european countries
language? then why is romania excluded?
race? consider that most of south africa is not white but zulu xhosa and others. or that most of the people in mexico and peru are either native or 'mulattos'. how western is the 'day of the dead' celebrations in mexico?
also why is croatia included, but serbia is excluded?
and israel... not christian, a semitic language, with it a seperate culture... and most jews of european origin in israel come from poland or russia...
and can't you say that a city like istanbul is western?

there is a thing called european "world"... but i think this whole western world concept is total

[Treize]

-
Blue, exclude Turkey and include the (fully) grey countries.
-the Americas
-New-Zealand
-Japan
-South-Africa(?)

[Dr. Croccer]

Latin America isn't really part of the West politically speaking.

The only thing Western about South Africa is that lots of white people live there.

Israel hasn't proven itself to be a civilised country and should be counted amongst the Asian despotisms.

Add Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

[Orko]

Israel hasn't proven itself to be a civilised country and should be counted amongst the Asian despotisms.

errr... what?

[athanaric]

Israel hasn't proven itself to be a civilised country and should be counted amongst the Asian despotisms.

That's an insane statement. You're sure you weren't being sarcastic?

Add Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The "Western" layer in these countries is much thinner than in Israel, Russia or South America. They're still based on the Chinese civilization as well as their own respective cultures.

[Exarch]

Add Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

i'm sorry, what??!!

neither of those countries arent western for the simple fact that their cultural values aren't judeo-christian as europea and north america are.

In fact, given that i'm taiwanese as well i can definitively say that taiwan is most definitely NOT western

[CiviC]

i'm sorry, what??!!

neither of those countries arent western for the simple fact that their cultural values aren't judeo-christian as europea and north america are.

In fact, given that i'm taiwanese as well i can definitively say that taiwan is most definitely NOT western

The biggest mistake when dividing the world into civilisations is using the religion criteria, like Huntington. "Judeo-Christian", what does this mean, maybe some roots, but what defines today Western civilisation is SECULARISM. Many think there is a conflict between the Christian West and the Islam, but in fact the conflict is between religious Islam and secular West.

Taiwan is very Western, because today West has nothing to do with religious values, but with the secular values the West promoted, making these values universal no matter the cultural-religious background.

[Exarch]

The biggest mistake when dividing the world into civilisations is using the religion criteria, like Huntington. "Judeo-Christian", what does this mean, maybe some roots, but what defines today Western civilisation is SECULARISM. Many think there is a conflict between the Christian West and the Islam, but in fact the conflict is between religious Islam and secular West.

Taiwan is very Western, because today West has nothing to do with religious values, but with the secular values the West promoted, making these values universal no matter the cultural-religious background.

key word of my post was cultural values, not religion
dividing the world into 'western' 'eastern' 'marioland' is defunct anyhow-a hallmark of the cold war and postcolonialism;

technology has nothing to do with whether or not a country is 'western or not' either;
if so, you could argue that Shanghai is more western than Budapest or Detroit.

taiwan society is nothing like british society, nor american society, nor australian society, those 3 being the quintessential 'western societies', taiwanese ppl share confucian cultural values exactly the same as their counterparts across the Taiwan strait, as opposed to western cultural values.

tell me, exactly what 'secular values' do 'western countries' promote cuz secularity has nothing to do with whether or not a country is 'western'. American society and politics is more religious than australian society or politics.

[Caliph]

Here's a crass definition.

Democracies, aligned with with major western (here we go again) powers, ultimately the US, with a sizebale proportion of white people.

[LordKainES]

Latin America isn't really part of the West politically speaking.

The only thing Western about South Africa is that lots of white people live there.

Israel hasn't proven itself to be a civilised country and should be counted amongst the Asian despotisms.

Add Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

Maybe some governments there are against west... but they´re part of western civilization!

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

Israel hasn't proven itself to be a civilised country and should be counted amongst the Asian despotisms.

Now that's just a cheap shot at a people you don't like. We're a parliamentary democracy, our culture is extremely Western, members of the OECD, a thriving television and film industry, Western-revolved education and a fattening generation of children that may soon compare to Western-European levels!
War-crimes don't simply cancel our culture.

...with Israel getting a "associate" status.

Why?

How many UN soldiers does Turkey have to send to the Korean War, before it is considered politically alligned with the west?

You don't need to be Western to be an ally of the West, look at Saudi Arabia or South Korea!

[Stavroforos]

Remove Latin America and Israel from that map and it seems like a good definition of the West.

[Armenum]

West in a political sense:
-NATO
-Countries which wish to join NATO

and I wouldn't include neutral countries such as Austria or Switzerland in this category.

West in a cultural sense:
-Most of Europe
-US, Canada
-Australia, New Zealand

However after the fall of the Soviet Union, the line between West and non-west as become more hazy.

[Zadig]

West in a political sense:
-NATO
-Countries which wish to join NATO

and I wouldn't include neutral countries such as Austria or Switzerland in this category.

West in a cultural sense:
-Most of Europe
-US, Canada
-Australia, New Zealand

However after the fall of the Soviet Union, the line between West and non-west as become more hazy.

It has more to do with culture and wealth nowadays than the military aspect.

[Vizsla]

It’s confused.
It’s always been confused.
It meant (ancient) Greek, then Roman, then Christian, then catholic, then european, then caucasian, then capitalist. Now it means whatever you want it to mean.

[LSJ]

The West is the successor to the concept of First, Second, and Third World Nations. It often exludes the Americas apart from the US, Canada, and Mexico, and it often includes Japan, Israel, and even South Korea. It's really a concept that means whatever you want it to mean, but the general theme is that 'The West' consists only of developed nations with a democratic capitalist system that are friendly to the USA. It's political above all else.

[RO Citizen]

What West? There are many, and there isn't any exact border.

Culturally speaking, I'd say the West includes:
-America north of Rio Grande (US&Canada)
-Australia&NZ
-Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Croatia, Hungary, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and everything west of them in Europe (except Slovakia)
-Israel 50%

[Farnan]

There are a lot of definitions, but the best I can come up with is:

Nations whose political and cultural philosophies originate from the European Enlightenment.

[Dr. Croccer]

There are a lot of definitions, but the best I can come up with is:

Nations whose political and cultural philosophies originate from the European Enlightenment.

There goes Spain then.

[Farnan]

There goes Spain then.

The Spanish political system has its origins in European Enlightenment thought and its culture draws from the Enlightenment (though it didn't come till the Bourbons ruled).