  The phenomenon of colossal magnetoresistance in manganites is generally
agreed to be a result of competition between crystal phases with different
electronic, magnetic, and structural order; a competition which can be strong
enough to cause phase separation between metallic ferromagnet and insulating
charge modulated states. Nevertheless, closer inspection of phase diagrams in
many manganites reveals complex phases where the two order parameters of
magnetism and charge modulation unexpectedly coexist. Here we show that such
experiments can be naturally explained within a phenomenological
Ginzburg-Landau theory. In contrast to models where phase separation originates
from disorder or as a strain induced kinetic phenomenon, we argue that magnetic
and charge modulation coexist in new thermodynamic phases. This leads to a rich
diagram of equilibrium phases, qualitatively similar to those seen in
experiment. The success of this model argues for a fundamental reinterpretation
of the nature of charge modulation in these materials from a localised to a
more extended "charge density wave" picture. The same symmetry considerations
that favour textured coexistance of charge and magnetic order may apply to many
electronic systems with competing phases. The resulting "Electronically soft"
phases of matter with incommensurate, inhomogeneous and mixed order may be
general phenomena in correlated systems.
