"horseshoe theory" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the curved shape of a horseshoe, whose two ends come close to meeting.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "horseshoe theory",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Political science",
          "orig": "en:Political science",
          "parents": [
            "Politics",
            "Social sciences",
            "Society",
            "Sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "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, page 103",
          "text": "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 […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 December 14, Kathleen Belew, “The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "id": "en-horseshoe_theory-en-name-aIOiVB6x",
      "links": [
        [
          "political science",
          "political science"
        ],
        [
          "far left",
          "far left"
        ],
        [
          "far right",
          "far right"
        ],
        [
          "political",
          "political"
        ],
        [
          "continuum",
          "continuum"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(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."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "alt-left"
        }
      ],
      "topics": [
        "political-science",
        "social-sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "horseshoe theory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "horseshoe theory"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Referring to the curved shape of a horseshoe, whose two ends come close to meeting.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "horseshoe theory",
      "name": "en-proper noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "name",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "alt-left"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proper nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "en:Political science"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "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, page 103",
          "text": "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 […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 December 14, Kathleen Belew, “The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "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.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "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."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "political science",
          "political science"
        ],
        [
          "far left",
          "far left"
        ],
        [
          "far right",
          "far right"
        ],
        [
          "political",
          "political"
        ],
        [
          "continuum",
          "continuum"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(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."
      ],
      "topics": [
        "political-science",
        "social-sciences"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "horseshoe theory"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "horseshoe theory"
}