Left–right political spectrum: Difference between revisions
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{{Party politics}} |
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'''Left–right politics''' or the '''left–right political spectrum''' is a common way of classifying political positions, [[ideology|political ideologies]], or [[political party|political parties]] along a one-dimensional [[political spectrum]]. The perspective of Left ''vs.'' Right is a broad, [[dialectic]]al interpretation of complex questions. [[Left-wing politics]] and [[right-wing politics]] are often presented as polar opposites, and although a particular individual or party may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another, the terms ''left'' and ''right'' are commonly used as if they described two globally opposed political families. In France, where the terms originated, the Left is called "the party of movement" and the Right "the party of order".<ref name="Knapp"/> |
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{{party politics}} |
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The '''left–right political spectrum''' is a system of classifying political positions, [[ideologies]] and [[political parties|parties]], with emphasis placed upon issues of [[social equality]] and [[social hierarchy]]. In addition to positions on the left and on the right, there are centrist and moderate positions, which are not strongly aligned with either end of the spectrum. It originated during the [[French Revolution]] based on the seating in the French |
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Traditionally, the Left includes: [[progressivism|progressives]], [[Social liberalism|social liberals]], [[Social democracy|social democrats]], [[Socialism|socialists]], [[Communism|communists]] and [[Anarchism|anarchists]]<ref>JoAnne C. Reuss, ''American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics'', The Scarecrow Press, 2000, ISBN 9780810836846</ref><ref>Van Gosse, ''The Movements of the New Left, 1950 – 1975: A Brief History with Documents'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 9781403968043</ref><ref>Berman, Sheri. "Understanding Social Democracy". http://www8.georgetown.edu/centers/cdacs//bermanpaper.pdf. Retrieved on 2007-08-11.</ref><ref> Brooks, Frank H. (1994). The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908). Transaction Publishers. p. xi. "Usually considered to be an extreme left-wing ideology, anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism...</ref> while the Right includes: [[Conservatism|conservatives]], [[Fascism|fascists]], [[Reactionary|reactionaries]], [[Monarchism|monarchists]] and [[nationalism|nationalists]].<ref>The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0231056788 "'''Fascism''', philosophy of government that glorifies nationalism at the expense of the individual. ... The term was first used by the party started by MUSSOLINI, ... and has also been applied to other right-wing movements such as NATIONAL SOCIALISM, in Germany, and the FRANCO regime, in Spain."</ref> |
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[[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]]. |
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On this type of [[political spectrum]], [[left-wing politics]] and [[right-wing politics]] are often presented as opposed, although a particular individual or group may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another; and some stances may overlap and be considered either left-wing or right-wing depending on the ideology.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Milner |first=Helen |year=2004 |title=Partisanship, Trade Policy, and Globalization: Is There a Left–Right Divide on Trade Policy |url=https://www.princeton.edu/~hmilner/forthcoming%20papers/ISQ_milner_judkins2004.PDF |journal=International Studies Quarterly |volume=48 |pages=95–120 |doi=10.1111/j.0020-8833.2004.00293.x}}</ref> In France, where the terms originated, the left has been called "the party of movement" or ''liberal'', and the right "the party of order" or ''conservative''.{{sfn|Knapp|Wright|2001|p=10}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Garfinkle |title=Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement |year=1997 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=303}}</ref><ref>{{cite dictionary |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/left |title=Left (adjective) |dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]] |year=2011}} and {{cite dictionary |url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/left?show=1&t=1325146819 |title=Left (noun) |dictionary=[[Merriam-Webster Dictionary]] |year=2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Roger |last=Broad |title=Labour's European Dilemmas: From Bevin to Blair |year=2001 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |page=xxvi}}</ref> |
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The terms ''left'' and ''right'' are often used to spin a particular point of view, rather than as simple descriptors. In modern political rhetoric, those on the Left typically emphasize their support of working people and accuse the Right of supporting the interests of the upper class, whereas those on the Right usually emphasize their support of individualism and accuse the Left of supporting collectivism. Thus, arguments about the way the words should be used often displace arguments about policy by raising emotional prejudice against a preconceived notion of what left and right mean.<ref> David Boaz, ''The Politics of Freedom: Taking on The Left, the Right, and the Threats to our Liberties'', Cato Institute, 2008, ISBN 9781933995144</ref> |
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==History |
== History == |
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=== Origins in the French Revolution === |
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{{Refimprovesect|date=May 2008}} |
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[[File:Estatesgeneral.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|5 May 1789 opening of the [[Estates General of 1789]] in Versailles]] |
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{{POV|section|date=March 2009}} |
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The terms "left" and "right" first appeared during the [[French Revolution]] of 1789 when members of the [[National Assembly (French Revolution)|National Assembly]] divided into supporters of the [[Ancien Régime]] to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left.{{sfn|Bobbio|1996|pp=x, 33}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=McPhee |first=Peter |url=http://archive.org/details/frenchrevolution00mcph_0 |title=The French Revolution, 1789–1799 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |others=[[Internet Archive]] |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-19-924414-0 |pages=85–6 |postscript=. The quotation is an extract from a longer quotation translated on p. 110 of Voices of the French Revolution edited by Richard Cobb and Colin Jones accessible via the next citation. |author-link=Peter McPhee (academic) |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/voicesoffrenchre0000unse/page/110/mode/2up |title=Voices of the French Revolution |publisher=Salem House Publishers |year=1988 |isbn=0-88162-338-5 |editor-last=Cobb |editor-first=Richard |editor-link=Richard Cobb |location=Topsfield, Mass. |pages=110 |editor-last2=Jones |editor-first2=Colin |editor-link2=Colin Jones (historian) |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: "We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp".<ref name="Hodgson2018">{{cite book |first=Geoffrey M. |last=Hodgson |title=Wrong Turnings: How the Left Got Lost |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Lc-DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 |year=2018 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=978-0-226-50591-6 |page=32 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=De Gauville |first=Louis-Henry-Charles |url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k46771p |title=Journal du Baron de Gauville, député de l'ordre de la noblesse, aux Etats-généraux depuis le 4 mars 1789 jusqu'au 1er juillet 1790 |date=1864 |pages=20 |language=EN}}</ref> |
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{{Unencyclopedic|date=March 2009}} |
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The terms ''Left'' and ''Right'' have been used to refer to political affiliation since the early part of the [[French Revolution]]ary era. They originally referred to the seating arrangements in the [[Glossary of the French Revolution#Governmental structures|various legislative bodies]] of [[France]], specifically in the French [[The Legislative Assembly and the fall of the French monarchy|Legislative Assembly of 1791]], when the king was still the formal head of state, and the moderate royalist [[Feuillant]]s sat on the right side of the chamber, while the radical [[The Mountain|Montagnards]] sat on the left.<ref>The Architecture of Parliaments: Legislative Houses and Political Culture |
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Charles T. Goodsell Says Fuck You |
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British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Jul., 1988), pp. 287–302 |
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</ref> This traditional seating arrangement continues to be observed by the [[French Senate|Senate]] and [[National Assembly of France|National Assembly]] of the [[French Fifth Republic]]. |
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When the National Assembly was replaced in 1791 by a [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]] composed of entirely new members, the divisions continued. "Innovators" sat on the left, "moderates" gathered in the centre, while the "conscientious defenders of the constitution" found themselves sitting on the right, where the defenders of the Ancien Régime had previously gathered.{{clarify|date=August 2017|reason=is "conscientious defenders of the constitution" Gauchet's phrase or does it come from a contemporary source?}} When the succeeding [[National Convention]] met in 1792, the seating arrangement continued, but following the [[Insurrection of 31 May – 2 June 1793|coup d'état of 2 June 1793]] and the arrest of the [[Girondins]], the right side of the assembly was deserted and any remaining members who had sat there moved to the centre. Following the [[Thermidorian Reaction]] of 1794, the members of the far left were excluded and the method of seating was abolished. The new constitution included rules for the assembly that would "break up the party groups".{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|pp=245–247}} Following the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Restoration]] in 1814–1815, political clubs were again formed. The majority [[ultra-royalist]]s chose to sit on the right. The "constitutionals" sat in the centre while independents sat on the left. The terms extreme right and extreme left, as well as centre-right and centre-left, came to be used to describe the nuances of ideology of different sections of the assembly.{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|pp=247–249}} |
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Originally, the defining point on the ideological spectrum were the attitudes towards the ''[[ancien régime]]'' ("old order"). "The Right" thus implied support for [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic]], [[royal]] and [[clerical]] interests, while "The Left" implied support for [[republicanism]], [[secularism]] and [[civil liberty|civil liberties]].<ref name="Knapp">{{cite book|author=Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright|title=The Government and Politics of France|year=2006|publisher=Routledge}}</ref> At that time, support for [[socialism]] and [[liberalism]] were regarded as being on the left. The earlier "left-wing" politicians were advocates of [[laissez faire]] [[capitalism]]{{Citation needed|date=August 2007}} and the "right-wing" politicians opposed it, until the early nineteenth century when [[anti-capitalism]] gained favour among the leftists due to the rise of [[socialism]]. |
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The terms "left" and "right" were not used to refer to [[political ideology]] per se, but, strictly speaking, to seating in the legislature. After 1848, the main opposing camps were the "[[The Mountain (1849)|democratic socialists]]" and the "[[reactionaries]]" who used red and white flags to identify their party affiliation.{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|p=253}} With the establishment of the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] in 1871, the terms were adopted by political parties: the Republican Left, the Centre Right and the Centre Left (1871), the Extreme Left (1876) and the Radical Left (1881). The beliefs of the group called the Radical Left were actually closer to the Centre Left than the beliefs of those called the Extreme Left.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Marc |last=Crapez |title=De quand date le clivage gauche/droite en France? |language=fr |trans-title=How old is the left/right divide in France? |journal=Revue française de science politique |volume=48 |number=1 |date=February 1998 |pages=70–72|doi=10.3406/rfsp.1998.395251 |s2cid=191471833 }}</ref> |
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However, among the left-wing were not only liberals but also [[Robespierre]], who was a proto[[socialist]], a disciple of Rousseau. When his section of the Jacobin party got the power, left-controlled French [[National Convention]] moved to decree numerous economic interventions during the Revolution, including price controls (enforced under penalty of death),<ref>The Principal Speeches of the Statesmen and Orators of the French Revolution, Vol. II, Henry Morse Stephens, Clarendon Press (1892), p. 51</ref> forced loans on those with incomes exceeding 1000 livres, and the abolishment of the Paris Stock Exchange and all joint-stock companies.<ref>Taxes and Forced Loans in the French Revolution, G. Bourgin, The Living Age, Volume CCCXVIV (Jul. 1922), pp. 452–453</ref> |
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Beginning in the early twentieth century, the terms "left" and "right" came to be associated with specific political ideologies and were used to describe citizens' political beliefs, gradually replacing the terms "[[Red flag (politics)|reds]]" and "the reaction". The words Left and Right were at first used by their opponents as slurs. Those on the Left often called themselves "[[Republicanism|republicans]]", which at the time meant favoring a republic over a monarchy, while those on the Right often called themselves "[[Conservatism|conservatives]]"{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|p=253}} By 1914, the Left half of the legislature in France was composed of Unified Socialists, Republican Socialists and Socialist Radicals, while the parties that were called "Right" now sat on the right side. The use of the words Left and Right spread from France to other countries and came to be applied to a large number of political parties worldwide, which often differed in their political beliefs.{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|pp=255–259}} There was asymmetry in the use of the terms Left and Right by the opposing sides. The Right mostly denied that the left–right spectrum was meaningful because they saw it as artificial and damaging to unity. However, the Left, seeking to change society, promoted the distinction. As [[Émile Chartier|Alain]] observed in 1931: "When people ask me if the division between parties of the Right and parties of the Left, men of the Right and men of the Left, still makes sense, the first thing that comes to mind is that the person asking the question is certainly not a man of the Left."{{sfn|Gauchet|1997|p=266}} In British politics, the terms "right" and "left" came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s in debates over the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Mowat |first=Charles Loch |author-link=Charles Loch Mowat |title=Britain Between the Wars: 1918–1940 |date=1955 |page=577}}</ref> The Scottish sociologist [[Robert M. MacIver]] noted in ''The Web of Government'' (1947): |
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During the French Revolution, the definition of who was on the left and who on the right shifted greatly within only a few years. Initially, leaders of the Constituent Assembly like [[Antoine Barnave]] and [[Alexandre de Lameth]], who supported a very limited monarchy and a [[unicameral legislature]], were seen as being on the left, in opposition to more conservative leaders who hoped for a more British-style constitutional monarchy (the British monarch was a very powerful figure in 18th century British politics, unlike today), and to those who opposed the revolution outright. By the time of the convening of the [[Legislative Assembly (France)|Legislative Assembly]] in 1791, their party, now called the [[Feuillant (political group)|Feuillants]], had come to be seen as on the right due to its support for any form of monarchy, and for the limited franchise of the 1791 Constitution. By the time of the National Convention only a year later, the semi-liberal [[Girondins]], who had been on the left in the Legislative Assembly due to their support for external war to spread the revolution, and strong dislike for the king, had themselves come to be seen as being on the right due to their ambivalence about the overthrow of the monarchy, their opposition to Louis's execution, and their dislike for the city of Paris, which had come to see itself as the heart of the Revolution. |
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<blockquote>The right is always the party sector associated with the interests of the upper or dominant classes, the left the sector expressive of the lower economic or social classes, and the centre that of the middle classes. Historically this criterion seems acceptable. The conservative right has defended entrenched prerogatives, privileges and powers; the left has attacked them. The right has been more favorable to the aristocratic position, to the hierarchy of birth or of wealth; the left has fought for the equalization of advantage or of opportunity, for the claims of the less advantaged. Defence and attack have met, under democratic conditions, not in the name of class but in the name of principle; but the opposing principles have broadly corresponded to the interests of the different classes.{{sfn|Lipset|1960|p=222}}</blockquote> |
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It should be emphasized that in these years there was little in their views of economic policy to distinguish the various factions of the French Revolution from one another. Both [[The Mountain|Montagnards]] on the (1792–1793) left and ''Monarchiens'' on the (1789) right were essentially [[classical liberalism|orthodox]] liberals on economic matters, although the Montagnards proved more willing than other groups to court popular favor in Paris by agreeing to (temporary) economic controls in 1793, and there were indeed economic radicals to the left of the Montagnards who insisted on genuine economic redistribution to achieve the ''Egalité'' promised by the revolutionary slogan. |
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=== Ideological groupings === |
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Instead, the focus of ideological differences during the revolution had much more to do with attitudes towards the Revolution itself – whether it was a horror against God and Nature to be turned back and destroyed, a necessary rupture with the past that must (at some point) be brought to a close so order and good government could be restored, or a necessary and permanent feature of French political life. For the most part, nearly all of the political figures of the Revolution itself held the middle position, and disagreed largely on at what point it was time to call the Revolution fulfilled. |
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Generally, the left wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as [[freedom]], [[Egalitarianism|equality]], [[Fraternity (philosophy)|fraternity]], rights, [[Social progress|progress]], reform and [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalism]]" while the right wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as [[authority]], [[hierarchy]], [[Law and order (politics)|order]], [[duty]], tradition, [[Reactionary|reaction]] and [[nationalism]]".<ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew |last=Heywood |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VfNGEAAAQBAJ&q=notions%20such%20as%20authority,%20hierarchy,%20order,%20duty,%20tradition,%20reaction%20and%20nationalism |title=Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations |edition=2nd |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |date=2015 |page=119 |isbn=9781350314856 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Ostrowski |first=Marius S. |date=2023-01-02 |title=The ideological morphology of left–centre–right |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569317.2022.2163770 |journal=Journal of Political Ideologies |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1080/13569317.2022.2163770 |issn=1356-9317}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ostrowski |first=Marius S. J. |author-link=Marius Ostrowski |url=https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=ideology--9781509540723 |title=Ideology |date=2022 |publisher=Polity |isbn=978-1-5095-4072-3 |series=Key concepts series |location=Cambridge |pages=95–99}}</ref> |
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Political scientists and other analysts usually regard the left as including anarchists,<ref name=Brooks>{{cite book |last=Brooks |first=Frank H. |date=1994 |title=The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908) |publisher=[[Transaction Publishers]] |page=xi |quote=Usually considered to be an extreme left-wing ideology, anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism ...}}</ref>{{efn|Among whom there are many strains, such as [[anarcho-syndicalism]], [[anarcho-communism]], [[eco-anarchism]], [[anarcho-primitivism]], and [[individualist anarchism]].<ref name=Brooks/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/nyregion/16anarchists.html|author=Colin Moynihan |year=2007 |title=Book Fair Unites Anarchists. In Spirit, Anyway|journal=The New York Times |issue=16 April 2007}}</ref>}} [[communists]],<ref>{{cite journal |last=March |first=Luke |year=2009 |title=Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe: From Marxism to the Mainstream? |url=https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/ipg/ipg-2009-1/10_a_march_us.pdf |journal=IPG |volume=1 |pages=126–143 |via=[[Friedrich Ebert Foundation]]}}</ref> [[socialists]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=15 April 2009 |title=Left |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/left |access-date=22 May 2022 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref> [[democratic socialists]], [[social democrats]],<ref>See |
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After the revolution settled down in 1794 following the fall of [[Maximilien Robespierre|Robespierre]] on [[Thermidorian Reaction|9 Thermidor]], a more clear-cut political spectrum began to emerge. On the left were Jacobins, former supporters of Robespierre and the Terror, who longed to see the restoration of the democratic [[French Constitution of 1793|Constitution of 1793]]. The most prominent of these was [[Babeuf]], now considered a proto-communist. On the right were the monarchists, who hoped to restore a monarchy, whether constitutional or absolute. In the center were the Thermidorians, who wrote the [[French Constitution of 1795|Constitution of 1795]] and hoped that the limited republic of the [[French Directory|Directory]] would stand in the middle position between these two extremes. The failure of the Directory did little to change these basic political alignments – Jacobins and Monarchists remained, and most of those who had initially supported the Directory came to support the dictatorship, and eventually the rule, as emperor, of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]. |
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*Euclid Tsakalotis, "European Employment Policies: A New Social Democratic Model for Europe" in ''The Economics of the Third Way: Experiences from Around the World'' (eds. Philip Arestis & Malcolm C. Sawyer: Edward Elgar Publishing 2001), p. 26: "most left-wing approaches (social democratic, democratic socialist, and so on) to how the market economy works..."). |
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*"Introduction" in ''The Nordic Model of Social Democracy ''(eds. Nik Brandal, Øivind Bratberg & Dag Einar Thorsen: [[Palgrave Macmillan]], 2013): "In Scandinavia, as in the rest of the world, 'social democracy' and 'democratic socialism' have often been used interchangeably to define the part of the left pursuing gradual reform through democratic means."</ref> [[left-libertarians]], [[Progressivism|progressives]], and [[social liberals]].<ref>JoAnne C. Reuss, ''American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics'', [[Scarecrow Press]], 2000, {{ISBN|978-0-8108-3684-6}}</ref><ref>Van Gosse, ''The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975: A Brief History with Documents'', [[Palgrave Macmillan]], 2005, {{ISBN|978-1-4039-6804-3}}</ref> Movements for [[racial equality]],<ref>Michael J. Klarman, "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality", "... many of the white Americans who were most sympathetic to racial equality belonged to left-wing organizations...", p. 375, [[Oxford University Press]], 2006, {{ISBN|978-0195310184}}</ref> as well as [[trade unionism]], have also been associated with the left.<ref>See |
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*Heikki Paloheimo, "Between Liberalism and Corporatism: The Effect of Trade Unions and Governments on Economic Performance in Eighteen OECD Countries" in ''Labour Relations and Economic Performance: Proceedings of a Conference Held By the International Economic Association in Venice, Italy'' (eds. Renator Brunetta & Carlo Dell'Aringa: [[International Economic Association]]/Palgrave Macmillan, 1990), p. 119: "It is easier for trade unions to have a mutual understanding with left-wing governments than with right-wing governments. In the same way, it is easier for left-wing governments to have mutual understanding with trade unions." |
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*Thomas Poguntke, "Living in Separate Worlds? Left-wing Parties and Trade Unions in European Democracies" in Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis (eds. Thomas Poguntke et al.: Routledge: 2015), p. 173 ("So far we have argued that parties of the left are the natural allies of the trade union movement ... it goes almost without saying that this a simplification."), p. 181: "When it comes to overlapping memberships, left-wing parties have always been, by and large, strongly connected to the trade union movement.").</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Ostrowski |first=Marius S. J. |author-link=Marius Ostrowski |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1263663019 |title=Ideology |date=2022 |publisher=Polity |isbn=978-1-5095-4072-3 |series=Key concepts series |location=Cambridge, UK |pages=102–8 |oclc=on1263663019}}</ref> |
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Political scientists and other analysts usually regard the right as including [[conservatives]] (among whom there are many strains, including [[traditionalist conservatism]], [[libertarian conservatism]],<ref>Arthur Aughey, Greta Jones & W.T.M. Riches, ''The Conservative Political Tradition in Britain and the United States'' ([[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]]: 1992), pp. 150–53.</ref> [[neoconservatism]],<ref>[[Justin Vaïsse]], ''Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement'' (Belknap Press: 2010), pp. 111–12: "In 1995, however, a new age of neoconservatism was born, ... one that persists to this day ... Neoconservatism became a full-fledged element of the Republican party, now unambiguously on the right. The newcomers, such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan (the editors of the Weekly Standard), David Brooks, Gary Schmitt, Max Boot, and David Frum ... were men of the right, even if their stance on domestic policy was somewhat different from that of other conservatives."</ref><ref>George H. Nash, ''The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945'' (Regnery Gateway: 2023), p. 368.</ref> and [[ultraconservatism]]<ref>John S. Huntington, ''Far-Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021).</ref>); [[right-libertarians]],<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Feser |first=Edward C. |author-link=Edward Feser |editor-first=Ronald |editor-last=Hamowy |editor-link=Ronald Hamowy |encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism |chapter=Conservative Critique of Libertarianism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yxNgXs3TkJYC |year=2008 |publisher=[[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]]; [[Cato Institute]] |location=Thousand Oaks, CA |doi=10.4135/9781412965811.n62 |isbn= 978-1412965804 |oclc=750831024 |lccn=2008009151 |pages=95–97 |quote=Libertarianism and conservatism are frequently classified together as right-wing political philosophies, which is understandable given the content and history of these views. |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> [[anarcho-capitalists]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Meltzer |first=Albert |url=https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe |title=Anarchism: Arguments for and Against |publisher=[[AK Press]] |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-873176-57-3 |location=London |page=[https://archive.org/details/anarchism00albe/page/50 50] |quote=The philosophy of 'anarcho-capitalism' dreamed up by the 'libertarian' New Right, has nothing to do with Anarchism as known by the Anarchist movement proper. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Vincent |first=Andrew |title=Modern Political Ideologies |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |year=2009 |isbn=978-1-4443-1105-1 |edition=3rd |location=Hoboken |page=66 |quote=Whom to include under the rubric of the New Right remains puzzling. It is usually seen as an amalgam of traditional liberal conservatism, Austrian liberal economic theory Ludwing von Mises and Hayek), extreme libertarianism (anarcho-capitalism), and crude populism.}}</ref> [[monarchists]],<ref>See |
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It was during this period of retrenchment in France itself that the idea of the left-right political spectrum began to be exported to the rest of Europe. As the French conquered and annexed lands beyond the French border, it was again the issue of attitudes towards the French Revolution, which largely determined political alignment. With the rise of Napoleon, though, matters became more complicated, as those outside France who had supported the Revolution were forced to decide whether this also meant supporting Napoleon's dictatorship. At the same time, the traditional rulers of the other states of Europe – whether Napoleon's enemies in [[Austria]] and [[Prussia]], or dependent rulers in German states like [[Bavaria]], often came to a nuanced position on Napoleon and the Revolution's legacy, hoping to import many of the centralizing reforms which had brought the old regime to an end and allowed, it seemed, Napoleon's great victories, without opening the way for the chaos and violence of the Terror. |
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*''Politics in Europe'', 6th ed. (eds. M. Donald Hancock et al.: [[SAGE Publishing|SAGE]]/[[CQ Press]], 2015), p. 139: "Historically, the political right was characterized by its identification with the status quo. It favored monarchism and deplored the [[French Revolution|Revolutions of 1789]] and [[Revolutions of 1848|1848]]." |
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*Thomas M. Magstadt, ''Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues'', 12th ed. ([[Cengage Learning]], 2015), p. 28: "Ideologies of the right: Monarchism is at the opposite end of the political spectrum .... After World War I, fascism supplanted monarchism as the principle ideology of the extreme Right."</ref> [[fascism|fascists]],<ref>See |
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*[[Robert O. Paxton]], ''[[The Anatomy of Fascism]]'', passim, e.g. "The Communist International was certain that the German swing to the Right under Hitler would produce a counterswing to the Left ...", p. 128, [[Vintage Books]], 2005, {{ISBN|978-1400033911}}; |
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*[[Hans-Georg Betz]], ''Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe'' (Macmillan, 1994), p. 23: "One of the central arguments in the literature on fascism was that fascism, and by extension all radical right-wing movements..." |
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*''The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia'', [[Columbia University Press]], {{ISBN|0-231-05678-8}} "Fascism, philosophy of government that glorifies nationalism at the expense of the individual. ... The term was first used by the party started by MUSSOLINI, ... and has also been applied to other right-wing movements such as NATIONAL SOCIALISM, in Germany, and the FRANCO regime, in Spain."</ref> and [[reactionaries]].<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought |edition=Third |date=1999 |page=729}}</ref><ref name=":3" /> |
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Various political ideologies, such as [[Christian democracy]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Boswell |first=Jonathan |title=Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation |publisher=Routledge |year=2013 |isbn=978-1136159015 |page=160}}</ref> progressivism, some forms of liberalism, and [[radical centrism]], can be classified as [[centrism|centrist]].{{sfn|Bobbio|1996|p=}}<ref name=":3" /> |
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===19th century and later=== |
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The statesmen of Europe came together after Napoleon's defeat in 1814 to reconstitute Europe at the [[Congress of Vienna]]. Rather than restoring the old regime wholesale, the conservative statesmen at Vienna (men like [[Klemens von Metternich|Prince Metternich]] and [[Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh|Lord Castlereagh]]) hoped to arrive at the best system to maintain order, if necessary through judicious use of the reforms of the French Revolution. In France itself a similar spirit prevailed in the person of the restored Bourbon [[Louis XVIII of France|Louis XVIII]], who realized that a full restoration of the Old Regime was impossible. |
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A number of significant political movements do not fit precisely into the left–right spectrum, including [[Christian democracy]],<ref>André Munro, [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christian-democracy Christian democracy], ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (2013), "Christian democracy does not fit squarely in the ideological categories of left and right. It rejects the individualist worldview that underlies both political liberalism and laissez-faire economics, and it recognizes the need for the state to intervene in the economy to support communities and defend human dignity. Yet Christian democracy, in opposition to socialism, defends private property and resists excessive intervention of the state in social life and education."</ref> [[feminism]],<ref name="Stuurman">Siep Stuurman, "Citizenship and Cultural Difference in France and the Netherlands" in ''Lineages of European Citizenship: Rights, Belonging and Participation in Eleven Nation-States'' (eds. Richard Bellamy, Dario Castiglione & Emilio Santoro: [[Palgrave Macmillan]], 2004), p. 178: "Regionalism and feminism, to take two major examples, were significantly different, but both cut across the old left-right cleavages, presenting a challenge to the traditional political cultures."</ref><ref name=Hayward>Jack Hayward, "Governing the New Europe" in ''Governing the New Europe'' (eds. Jack Ernest, Shalom Hayward & Edward Page: Duke University Press, 1995): "...the rebirth of a repressed civil society has led to a proliferation of social movements which cannot be subsumed under a left-right dichotomy. ... The emergency of a variety of new social movements, particularly green and feminist movements, as well as revived regionalist movements, has prompted the major parties to compete with one another in seeking to incorporate their demand."</ref> and [[regionalism (politics)|regionalism]].<ref name="Stuurman"/><ref name=Hayward/><ref name=Gould>Andrew C. Gould, "Conclusions: Regional, National, and Religious Challenges to European Identity" in ''Europe's Contending Identities: Supranationalism, Ethnoregionalism, Religion, and New Nationalism'' (eds. Andrew C. Gould & Anthony M. Messina: Cambridge University Press, 2014): "Regionalist parties in the center of the left-right spectrum generally favored integration. Regionalist parties on the extremes of left and right generally opposed integration, albeit for different reasons..."</ref> Though nationalism is often regarded as a right-wing doctrine, many nationalists favor egalitarian distributions of resources. There are also [[civic nationalists]],<ref>See |
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Europe in the early 19th century found itself with a variety of political outlooks that were easily fitted into a left-right model. As described by historians like [[Michael Broers]], we see on the far right the forces of [[Reactionary|Reaction]], who hoped for a wholesale restoration of the ''ancien régime'', including traditional privileges and limits on central authority. Although governments – in order to retain support – frequently used these elements, in only a few cases (most notably the [[Kingdom of Sardinia]]) were reactionary policies actually put into effect. |
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* David Miller, "Strangers in Our Midst", HUP, Harvard, Cambridge: MA, 2016 |
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* Ithiel de Sola Pool, ''Technologies Without Boundaries: on Telecommunications in a Global Age'' (ed. Eli M. Noam: Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 124: "Nationalism is not a monopoly of either the right or the left. Rather, nationalism is the doctrine of the right-wing that most easily co-opts the left. Historically, liberals and radicals have been internationalists ... Liberal intellectuals have fought for the freedom of movement, freedom from censorship, and world cultural exchange, and have condemned ethnocentrism and prejudice. Right-wing nationalists, on the other hand, have glorified the unique heritage of their own ethnic group. The right has fought foreign influences that would undermine their historic religion, language, customs, or politics. But the description of the left as open and internationalist and the right as closed and nationalist is misleadingly simple. Nationalism has always been the most popularly appealing element in right-wing doctrine. As such it has been seduced and been adopted by the left." * |
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* Anne Sa'adah, ''Contemporary France: A Democratic Education'' (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003): "The importance of nationalism as an opposition ideology is particularly clear in the record of the nineteenth century. For most of that century, nationalism was associated with the revolutionary rhetoric of popular sovereignty and used most effectively by the left, which was out of power. In the 1880s, however, after the creation of the Third Republic, nationalism became the preferred weapon the new regime's right-wing critics."</ref> as well as [[Left-wing nationalism|left-wing nationalists]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Chazel |first1=Laura |last2=Dain |first2=Vincent |year=2021 |title=Left-Wing Populism and Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of the Patriotic Narratives of Podemos and France insoumise |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48642382 |journal=Journal for the Study of Radicalism |volume=15 |issue=2 |pages=73–94 |jstor=48642382 |issn=1930-1189}}</ref> [[Populism]] is regarded as having both left-wing and right-wing manifestations in the form of [[left-wing populism]] and [[right-wing populism]], respectively.<ref>See |
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* Javier Corrales & Michael Penfold, ''Dragon in the Tropics: Venezuela and the Legacy of Hugo Chávez'' (2d ed.: Brookings Institution Press, 2015), p. 150 (discussing difference and similarities between left- and right-wing populism). |
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* Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, ''The End of the World as We Know it: Social Science for the Twenty-first Century'' (University of Minnesota Press, 1999), p. 95 (same). |
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</ref> [[Green politics]] is often regarded as a movement of the left, although there are also [[Green conservatism|green conservatives]]. Andrew Dobson suggests that green politics contains an inherent conservatism as it is "adverse to anything but the most timid engineering of the social and natural world by human beings". As such, the green movement is perhaps difficult to definitively categorize as left or right.<ref>See |
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* Andrew Dobson, ''Green Political Thought'' (3d ed.: Routledge, 1995: 2000 printing), pp. 27–28; "If ... we take equality and hierarchy as characteristics held to be praiseworthy within left-wing and right-wing thought respectively, then ecologism is clearly left-wing, arguing as it does for forms of equality among human beings and between human beings and other species. However, to argue that ecologism is unequivocal left-wing is not so easy. For instance, green politics is in principle adverse to anything but the most timid engineering of the social and natural world by human beings." |
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* [[Robyn Eckersley]], ''Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach'' ([[SUNY Press]], 1992), p. 120: "The growing influence of [[ecosocialist]] ideas within the Green movement (most notably in Europe and Australia rather than in North America) has rendered the popular Green slogan "neither left nor right" somewhat problematic. While this slogan originally served to publicize the Green movement's efforts to find a distinct, third alternative to the growth consensus of capitalism and communism, it has since served to generate a lively and sometimes acrimonious debate within the Green movement concerning the proper political characterization of Green politics .... In particular, ecosocialists have mounted a challenge to the presumed left-right ideology neutrality of Green politics by pointing out the various egalitarian and redistribution (and hence 'leftist') measures that are needed to ensure an equitable transition toward a conserver society."</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=10 November 2020 |title=The Return to "Green" Conservatism |url=https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/green-conservatism/ |access-date=22 May 2022 |website=Intercollegiate Studies Institute}}</ref> |
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The following are contemporary mainstream political ideologies according to their left–right position. |
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To the left of the reactionaries came more moderate [[conservatism|conservatives]] who were willing to accept some of the outcomes of the French Revolution, in particular those elements which led to greater state power, and favored autocratic central control – whether at the expense of traditional estates or liberal parliaments. To their left appear the liberals, who hoped for representative governments and respect for civil liberties. |
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{{Col-begin|width=100%}} |
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{{Col-1-of-3}} |
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In practice, though, the distinction between liberals and conservatives could be vague – notably, in states with parliaments, conservatives were willing to work with representative government when necessary. To the left of the liberals came various stripes of radicals and republicans, who favored the overthrow of monarchies and the establishment of universal suffrage either on the model of the [[Spanish Constitution of 1812]] or the French one of [[French Constitution of 1793|1793]]. |
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'''Left''' |
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* [[Democratic socialism]] |
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* [[Social democracy]] |
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* [[Progressivism]] |
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{{Col-2-of-3}} |
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The original left, and their radical or republican descendants, had stood for a certain abstract equality of rights, but the emerging [[socialism|socialist]] left stood for a more radical notion of equality: in its more radical forms, for an absolute leveling of wealth and a willingness to use the power of the state to achieve that equality. |
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'''Centrist''' |
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* [[Christian democracy]] |
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* Classical Liberalism |
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* [[Social Liberalism]] |
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{{Col-3-of-3}} |
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As late as 1848, even with the participation of [[socialism|socialists]] in the [[Revolutions of 1848|European revolutions of that year]], many liberals, with essentially the same politics as the [[Girondist]]s of 1791, and certainly the radicals and republicans, remained considered unequivocally part of the Left. However, the increasing importance of socialist, anarchist, and especially [[Marxism|Marxist]] [[Communism|Communist]] politics over the next century would steadily move the scale farther to the left, so that by the time of the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], many would confine the use of the term ''Left'' to socialists{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}}. Increasingly, the economic [[laissez-faire]] views that once belonged to the left part of the spectrum came to be characterized as a rightist position. The right wing of absolutist [[monarchism]] or [[theocracy]] became increasingly rare, and is practically non-existent in the west today. However, even as this original right was weakened in the course of the 20th century, various new brands of ideologies placing a heavy emphasis on [[authoritarianism|authority]] and, to a varying extent, [[tradition]], coupled with radical [[nationalism]], arose; these were generally labeled as being extremely right-wing, or "[[far right]]", exemplified prototypically by [[fascism]] and [[Nazism]]. |
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'''Right''' |
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* Conservatism |
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* [[Conservative liberalism]] |
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* Nationalism |
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{{Col-end}} |
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The main theoretical foundation of [[Eurocommunism]] was [[Antonio Gramsci]]'s writing about Marxist theory which questioned the sectarianism of the Left and encouraged communist parties to develop social alliances to win [[Cultural hegemony|''hegemonic'']] support for social reforms. Early inspirations can also be found in the [[Austromarxism]] and its seeking of a "Third" democratic way to socialism. Eurocommunist parties expressed their fidelity to [[democracy|democratic]] institutions more clearly than before and attempted to widen their appeal by embracing [[public sector]] [[middle-class]] workers, [[new social movements]] such as [[feminism]] and [[gay liberation]] and more publicly questioning the [[Soviet Union]]. |
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=== Political parties === |
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====Contemporary usage==== |
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[[File:European Parliament - Strasbourg Chart - July 2024.svg|thumb|Seating in the 2024 [[European Parliament]]<br> |
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In the European elections of 2009, right-wing candidates won in many elections, often on an anti-immigration, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic platform.<ref> {{cite web|url=http://www.politicalcompass.org/euchart |title=EU Political Compass 2008 |accessdate=20 November 2008 |work= |publisher= |date=}}</ref><ref>http://www.turkishweekly.net/news/80013/european-elections-2009-victory-for-right-wing.html</ref><ref>[http://www.csce.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=ContentRecords.ViewDetail&ContentRecord_id=763&ContentRecordType=P&ContentType=P&CFID=13103173&CFTOKEN=55811274, "The elections yielded gains for far-right and extremist parties in Austria, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania and the United Kingdom. Many of these parties openly ran on xenophobic, racist, anti-Muslim, and anti-Semitic platforms,” said Chairman Cardin. “At a time when we are already seeing increased incidents of violence and discrimination towards minorities in Europe, I am greatly concerned that the growth of these parties will only make the situation worse. This is a worrying trend.”]</ref> |
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{{color box|{{party color|The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL}}|border=darkgray}} [[The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL]] (46)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats}}|border=darkgray}} [[Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats]] (136)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Greens–European Free Alliance}}|border=darkgray}} [[Greens–European Free Alliance]] (53)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Renew Europe}}|border=darkgray}} [[Renew Europe]] (77)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|European People's Party Group}}|border=darkgray}} [[European People's Party Group]] (188)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|European Conservatives and Reformists}}|border=darkgray}} [[European Conservatives and Reformists Group]] (78)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Identity and Democracy}}|border=darkgray}} [[Patriots for Europe]] (84)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Europe of Sovereign Nations}}|border=darkgray}} [[Europe of Sovereign Nations Group|Europe of Sovereign Nations]] (25)<br> |
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{{color box|{{party color|Non-Inscrits}}|border=darkgray}} [[Non-Inscrits]] (32)]] |
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Political scientists have made models in which the ideologies of political parties are mapped along a single left–right axis.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=18–20}} [[Klaus von Beyme]] categorized European parties into nine families, which described most parties. Beyme was able to arrange seven of them from left to right: [[Communism|communist]], [[Socialism|socialist]], [[Green politics|green]], liberal, [[Christian democracy|Christian democratic]], conservative and [[far-right politics|right-wing extremist]]. The position of agrarian and regional/ethnic parties varied.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=22}} A study conducted in the late 1980s on two bases, positions on ownership of the means of production and positions on social issues, confirmed this arrangement.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=27–29}} |
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There has been a tendency for party ideologies to persist and values and views that were present at a party's founding have survived. However, they have also adapted for [[Pragmatism|pragmatic]] reasons, making them appear more similar.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=47}} [[Seymour Martin Lipset]] and [[Stein Rokkan]] observed that modern party systems are the product of social conflicts played out in the last few centuries.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=186}} They said that lines of cleavage had become "frozen".{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=202}} |
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[[Maoism]] is a major branch of leftism. [[Chinese New Left|New Leftism]] ({{zh|c=新左派}}) in the [[People's Republic of China]] is an ideological tendency in opposition to [[capitalism]], the [[socialist market economy]] and the [[Economic reform in the People's Republic of China|Chinese economic reforms]] and in favour of the restoration of Maoist-style socialism. |
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The first modern political parties were liberals, organized by the middle class in the 19th century to protect them against the [[aristocracy]]. They were major political parties in that century, but declined in the twentieth century as first the working class came to support socialist parties and economic and [[social change]] eroded their middle class base.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=29–31}} Conservative parties arose in opposition to liberals to defend aristocratic privilege, but to attract voters they became less doctrinaire than liberals. However, they were unsuccessful in most countries and generally have been able to achieve power only through cooperation with other parties.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=31–33}} |
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Today, Maoist organizations, grouped in [[Revolutionary_Internationalist_Movement|RIM]], have their greatest influence in [[South Asia]]. They have been involved in violent struggles in [[Bangladesh]] and, until recently, [[Nepal]]. The Nepalese Maoist militant struggles have ended and the Maoists have peacefully negotiated to become the majority party in the newly formed republic. There are also minor groups active in [[Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan|Afghanistan]], [[Peru]]<ref>[http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA255144 The Shining Path: The Successful Blending of Mao and Mariategui in Peru<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> and [[Turkey]].<ref>[http://www.rwor.org/a/v24/1181-1190/1187/mkp.htm RW ONLINE: First Congress of the Maoist Communist Party of Turkey<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref><ref>[http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/2.18/960904-kurd.html [09-04-96] FRANZ SCHURMANN, MORE DESTABILIZING THAN SADDAM HUSSEIN – TURKEY'S KURDISH LEADER SPREADS MAOIST INSURGENCY<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> |
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Socialist parties were organized to achieve [[Labor rights|political rights for workers]] and were originally allied with liberals. However, they broke with the liberals when they sought [[Workers' control|worker control]] of the [[means of production]].{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=33–35}} Christian democratic parties were organized by Catholics who saw liberalism as a threat to traditional values. Although established in the 19th century, they became a major political force following the [[Second World War]].{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=36–37}} Communist parties emerged following a division within socialism first on support of the [[First World War]] and then support of the [[October Revolution|Bolshevik Revolution]].{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=34}} Right-wing extremist parties are harder to define other than being more right-wing than other parties, but include [[fascism|fascists]] and some extreme conservative and nationalist parties.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=41–42}} Green parties were the most recent of the major party groups to develop. They have mostly rejected socialism and are very liberal on social issues.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=43}} |
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In the [[Philippines]], the [[Communist Party of the Philippines]], which is not part of the RIM, leads an armed struggle through its military wing, the [[New People's Army]]. |
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These categories can be applied to many parties outside of Europe.{{sfn|Ware|1996|pp=44–47}} Ware (1996) asserted that in the United States both major parties were [[Economic liberalism|liberal]], even though there are left–right policy differences between them.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=60}} |
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In [[Peru]], several columns of the [[Shining Path|Communist Party of Peru/SL]] are fighting a sporadic war. Since the capture of their leadership, [[Chairman Gonzalo]] and other members of their central committee in 1992, the PCP/SL no longer has initiative in the fight. Several different political positions are supported by the leadership of the PCP/SL. |
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== Contemporary terminology == |
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In [[India]], the [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)]] have been fighting a protracted war.<ref>[http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/IN_MAO.htm?v=in_detail Reuters AlertNet – Indian Maoist violence<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> Formed by the merger of the People's War Group and the Maoist Communist Center ("notorious for its macabre killings") originating from the 25 May 1967 peasant uprising.<ref>[http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/mcc.htm Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) Maoist Coordination Committee (MCC)<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref>, they have expanded their range of operations to over half of India and have been listed by the Prime Minister as the "greatest internal security threat" to the Indian republic since it was founded.<ref>Jo Johnson, ''Leftist Insurgents Kill 50 Indian Policemen.'' Financial Times, March 15, 2007.</ref><ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20339 Impasse in India – The New York Review of Books<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref><ref>[http://us.rediff.com/election/2004/apr/02espec.htm The biggest threat to Indian elections<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> |
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=== Worldwide === |
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The “[[Bolivarian Revolution]]” is a left-wing movement in Venezuela. Its most prominent leader is [[Hugo Chávez]], the founder of the [[Fifth Republic Movement]] and the current [[President of Venezuela]]. The "Bolivarian Revolution" seeks the implementation of [[Bolivarianism]] in Venezuela. Proponents of Bolivarianism trace its roots to an avowedly [[socialism|socialist]] interpretation of some ideals of [[Simón Bolívar]], an early 19th century Venezuelan and [[Latin America]]n revolutionary leader, prominent in the [[South American Wars of Independence]]. Critics inside Venezuela as well as foreigners say Chávez has used the Bolivarian Revolution to consolidate his power, nationalize industries, and use the government to change vast aspects of everyday life for Venezuelans.<ref name="FAInSearch">Shifter, Michael. [http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20060501faessay85303/michael-shifter/in-search-of-hugo-ch-vez.html "In Search of Hugo Chávez"]. ''Foreign Affairs'', May/June 2006. '''85''':3</ref><ref name="StateDem1">U.S. Department of State (December 1, 2005). [http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/57714.pdf "The State of Democracy in Venezuela".]. Retrieved 18 June 2006.</ref> |
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The left-right political spectrum can change over time in a process that affects the views on politicians from more than one country. In most countries, [[classical liberalism]] is thought of as a right-wing ideology, but when classical liberal ideas made their debut, they were thought of as leftist.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/deskencyclopedia0000unse_m8d8/mode/2up |title=The Desk Encyclopedia of World History |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-7394-7809-7 |editor-last=Wright |editor-first=Edmund |location=New York |pages=541, 370 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> |
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=== Western Europe === |
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=====Contemporary usage in the United States===== |
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In the 2001 book ''The Government and Politics of France'', Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright say that the main factor dividing the left and right wings in Western Europe is class. The left seeks [[social justice]] through [[Redistribution of wealth|redistributive social and economic policies]], while the right defends [[private property]] and [[capitalism]]. The nature of the conflict depends on existing social and political cleavages and on the level of economic development.{{sfn|Knapp|Wright|2001|p=7}} |
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The terms ''left-wing'' and ''right-wing'' are widely used in United States but, as on the global level, there is no firm consensus about their meaning. The only aspect which is generally agreed upon is that they are the defining opposites of the United States [[political spectrum]]. ''Left'' and ''right'' in the U.S. are generally associated with ''[[Modern American liberalism|liberal]]'' and ''[[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]]'' respectively, although the meanings of the two sets of terms do not entirely coincide. Depending on the political affiliation of the individual using them, these terms can be spoken with varying implications. A 2005 poll of 2,209 American adults showed that "respondents generally viewed the paired concepts liberals and left-wingers and conservatives and right-wingers as possessing, respectively, generally similar political beliefs", but also showed that around ten percent fewer respondents understood the terms ''left'' and ''right'' than understood the terms ''liberal'' and ''conservative''.<ref>[http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/21354/ Right Wing, Left Wing, Chicken Wing | MediaCulture | AlterNet<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> |
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Left-wing values include the belief in the power of [[human reason]] to achieve [[Social progress|progress]] for the benefit of the human race, [[secularism]], [[sovereignty]] exercised through the legislature and social justice for all people. To the right, this is regularly seen as [[anti-clericalism]], unrealistic [[Reform movement|social reform]], doctrinaire [[socialism]], [[class hatred]] and a way to authoritarianism through the gradual lessening of individual rights in favour for the collective. |
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The contemporary Left in the United States is usually understood as a category including [[Modern American liberalism|New Deal liberals]], [[John Rawls|Rawlsian liberals]], [[Social democracy|social democrats]] and [[Civil libertarianism|civil libertarians]], and is generally identified with the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. Due to the extensive pejorative use of the term ''liberal'', some parts of the American Left decided in the 1980s to begin using the term ''progressive'' instead. In general, ''left'' implies a commitment to [[egalitarianism]], support for social policies that favor the [[working class]], and [[multiculturalism]]. The contemporary Left usually defines itself as promoting government regulation of business, commerce and industry; protection of fundamental rights such as freedom of speech and separation of church and state; and government intervention on behalf of racial, ethnic, and sexual [[minorities]] and the working class. |
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The right wing believes in the established church both in itself and as an instrument of social cohesion, and they believe in the need for strong political leadership to minimize social and political divisions. To the left, this is seen as a selfish and reactionary opposition to social justice, a wish to impose doctrinaire religion on the population and a tendency to authoritarianism and [[Oppression|repression]].{{sfn|Knapp|Wright|2001|p=9}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=Giddens |author-link=Anthony Giddens |title=Beyond Left and Right, the Future of Radical Politics |pages=22–24 |quote=In many continental European countries, for example, 'conservatism' suggests the political influence of Catholicism. (p. 22) [...] American conservatism, in some of its major forms at least, has almost from its beginnings been aggressively pro-capitalist in ways that its European counterparts have not. [...] (However) the basic dilemmas now faced by conservative and socialist thought are everywhere similar. (p. 23) [...] Conservatism, it is often said, opposes rationalism. (p. 24) |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |date=1994 |isbn=978-0-8047-2451-7}}</ref> |
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The contemporary Right in the United States is usually understood as a category including [[Social conservatism|social conservatives]], [[Christian Right|Christian conservatives]] and [[free market]] liberals, and is generally identified with the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. In general, ''right-wing'' implies a commitment to [[Conservative Christianity|conservative Christian]] values, support for social policies that favor the [[upper class]], and belief in a single traditional culture for national unity. The contemporary Right usually defines itself as promoting [[deregulation]] of business, commerce and industry. |
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The differences between left and right have altered over time. The initial cleavage at the time of the [[French Revolution]] was between supporters of [[absolute monarchy]] (the right) and those who wished to limit the king's authority (the left). During the 19th century, the cleavage was between [[Monarchism|monarchists]] and [[Republicanism|republicans]]. Following the establishment of the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] in 1871, the cleavage was between supporters of a strong executive on the right and supporters of the primacy of the legislature on the Left.{{sfn|Knapp|Wright|2001|pp=2–5}} |
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==Doubt about the contemporary relevance of the terms== |
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{{Main|Political spectrum}} |
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Some contemporary political positions have been argued as difficult to characterize in left-right terms. For example, those espousing the position known in the US as [[libertarianism]] will often reject being labeled as either "right" or "left". They emphasize that they are opposed both to the leftist advocacy of government regulation of the market and to the protectionism which may be associated with some on the Right, as with [[Paleoconservatism|paleoconservatives]]. Instead, they liken the libertarian positions to those of the [[classical liberalism]] of the old Left of 1789; according to an [[Institute for Humane Studies]] paper, "the libertarian, or 'classical liberal,' perspective is that individual well-being, prosperity, and social harmony are fostered by 'as much liberty as possible' and 'as little government as necessary.'"<ref>[http://www.theihs.org/about/id.1084/default.asp What Is Libertarian?], Institute for Humane Studies</ref> |
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=== United States === |
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Many{{Who|date=September 2009}} modern thinkers question whether the left-right distinction is even relevant in the 21st century. They argue that in most countries left-right appears more a matter of historical contingency and local politics than any coherent statement of principle. After [[World War II]], in order to remain politically relevant, the Western European Right embraced most aspects of [[Keynesian economics#Postwar Keynesianism|economic intervention by government]] (see also [[Post-war consensus]] and [[Butskelism]]).{{Citation needed|date=September 2009}} Similarly, many{{Who|date=September 2009}} on the Left went along with the [[privatization]] and [[anti-communism]] of the [[Ronald Reagan|Reagan]]-[[Margaret Thatcher|Thatcher]] era. |
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A 2005 [[Harris Insights & Analytics|Harris Poll]] of American adults showed that the terms ''left wing'' and ''right wing'' were less familiar to Americans than the terms ''[[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]]'' or ''[[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=542 |title=Political Labels: Majorities of U.S. Adults Have a Sense of What Conservative, Liberal, Right Wing or Left Wing Means, But Many Do Not |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100209185224/http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=542 |archive-date=9 February 2010 |website=The Harris Poll No. 12 |date=9 February 2005}}</ref> [[Peter Berkowitz]] writes that in the U.S., the term ''liberal'' "commonly denotes the left wing of the Democratic Party" and has become synonymous with the word ''progressive,''<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Berkowitz |chapter=The Liberal Spirit in America and Its Paradoxes |title=Liberalism for a New Century |editor1-first=Neil |editor1-last=Jumonville |editor2-first=Kevin |editor2-last=Mattson |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |date=2007 |page=14}}</ref> a fact that is usefully contextualized for non-Americans by Ware's observation that at the turn of the 21st century, both mainstream political parties in the United States, generally speaking, were liberal in the classical sense of the word.{{sfn|Ware|1996|p=60}} |
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[[Michael Kazin]] writes that the left is traditionally defined as the social movement or movements "that are dedicated to a radically [[egalitarian]] transformation of society" and suggests that many in the [[American Left|left in the United States]] who met that definition called themselves by various other terms.{{sfn|Kazin|2011|p=xiv}} Kazin writes that American leftists "married the ideal of social equality to the principle of personal freedom" and that contributed to the development of important features of modern American society, including "the advocacy of [[equal opportunity]] and equal treatment for women, ethnic and racial minorities, and homosexuals; the celebration of sexual pleasure unconnected to reproduction; a media and educational system sensitive to racial and gender oppression and which celebrates what we now call [[multiculturalism]]; and the popularity of novels and films with a strongly altruistic and [[anti-authoritarian]] point of view."{{sfn|Kazin|2011|pp=xiii–xiv}} A variety of distinct left-wing movements existed in American history, including [[Labor history of the United States|labor movements]], the [[Farmer-Labor]] movement, various [[democratic socialist]] and [[History of the socialist movement in the United States|socialist movements]], pacifist movements, and the [[New Left]].{{sfn|Kazin|2011|p=xix}} |
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==Typical positions== |
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== Criticism == |
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While there are many differences within both the Left and the Right, typical positions include the following. |
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[[Political science|Political scientists]] have frequently argued that a single left–right axis is too simplistic and insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs and include other axes to compensate for this problem.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Heywood |first=Andrew |title=Political Ideologies: An Introduction |publisher=Macmillan International Higher Education |year=2017 |isbn=9781137606044 |edition=6th |location=Basingstoke |pages=14–17 |oclc=988218349}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last1=Fenna |first1=Alan |title=Government Politics in Australia |last2=Robbins |first2=Jane |last3=Summers |first3=John |publisher=Pearson Higher Education AU |others=Robbins, Jane., Summers, John. |year=2013 |isbn=9781486001385 |edition=10th |location=Melbourne |pages=126 f |oclc=1021804010}}</ref> |
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American [[Libertarianism in the United States|libertarian]] writer [[David Boaz]] argued that the political terms ''left'' and ''right'' are used to spin a particular point of view rather than as simple descriptors, with those on the left typically emphasizing their support for working people and accusing the right of supporting the interests of the upper class; and those on the right usually emphasizing their support for [[individualism]] and accusing the left of supporting [[Collectivism and individualism|collectivism]]. Boaz asserts that arguments about the way these terms should be used often displace arguments about policy by raising emotional prejudice against a preconceived notion of what the terms mean.<ref>{{cite book |first=David |last=Boaz |title=The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, the Right, and Threats to Our Liberties |publisher=[[Cato Institute]] |date=2008 |isbn=978-1-933995-14-4}}</ref> |
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The Left tends to favour laws against monopoly and price fixing, and laws requiring a minimum wage. The Right tends to oppose government regulation of business.<ref name="marg">Davies, Stephen, [http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/onprin/v1n2/davies.html Margaret Thatcher and the Rebirth of Conservatism], Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, July 1993</ref><ref name="aus">Worthington, Glen,[http://web.archive.org/web/20060913184447/http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/rn/2001-02/02RN29.htm Conservatism in Australian National Politics], Parliament of Australia Parliamentary Library, 19 February 2002</ref><ref>Katwala, Sunder, [http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sunder_katwala/2007/02/my_left.html My left], ''The Guardian'', 2 February 2007</ref> |
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In 2006, British Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] described the main cleavage in politics as not left versus right, but [[Open–closed politics|open versus closed]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/11/tony-blair-s-unfinished-business |title=Tony Blair's unfinished business |first=Jason |last=Cowley |newspaper=[[New Statesman]] |date=24 November 2016 |access-date=8 May 2017}}</ref> According to Blair, attitudes towards social issues and [[globalisation]] are more important than the conventional economic left–right issues. In this model, "open" voters tend to be [[Cultural liberalism|culturally liberal]], multicultural and in favour of globalisation while "closed" voters are [[Cultural conservatism|culturally conservative]], [[Opposition to immigration|opposed to immigration]] and in favour of [[protectionism]]. The open–closed political spectrum has seen increased support following the rise of [[Populism|populist]] and [[Centrism|centrist]] parties in the 2010s.<ref name="Drawbridges">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21702748-new-divide-rich-countries-not-between-left-and-right-between-open-and |title=Drawbridges up |newspaper=[[The Economist]] |date=30 July 2016 |access-date=8 May 2017}}</ref><ref name="ID">{{cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/news/europe/21718921-identity-does-not-have-be-exclusive-preserve-far-right-dutch-election-suggests |title=The Dutch election suggests a new kind of identity politics |date=18 March 2017 |access-date=8 May 2017 |newspaper=[[The Economist]]}}</ref> |
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The Left tends to favour change, the Right to support the existing social order.<ref>[[Seymour Martin Lipset]], cited in Fuchs, D., and Klingemann, H. 1990. The left-right schema. Pp.203–34 in Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies, ed.M.Jennings et al. Berlin:de Gruyter</ref><ref>Lukes, Steven. 'Epilogue: The Grand Dichotomy of the Twentieth Century': concluding chapter to T. Ball and R. Bellamy (eds.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought.P.610-612</ref> |
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[[Norberto Bobbio]] saw the polarization of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the 1990s as evidence that the linear left–right axis remained valid. Bobbio thought that the argument that the spectrum had disappeared occurred when either the left or right were weak. The dominant side would claim that its ideology was the only possible one, while the weaker side would minimize its differences. He saw the left and right not in absolute terms, but as relative concepts that would vary over time. In his view, the left–right axis could be applied to any time period.<ref>{{cite book |title=[[Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction]] |date=1996 |first1=Norberto |last1=Bobbio |author1-link=Norberto Bobbio |first2=Allan |last2=Cameron |pages=vi–xiv}}</ref> |
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The Left tends to support the working class, and labour unions, the Right tends to support management.<ref>[http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/leftwing.htm Left-Wing Lingo, Ideologies and History<!--Bot-generated title-->]</ref> |
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A survey of Canadian legislative caucuses conducted between 1983 and 1994 by [[Bob Altemeyer]] showed an 82% correlation between party affiliation and score on a scale for [[right-wing authoritarianism]] when comparing right-wing and [[Social democracy|social democratic]] caucuses. There was a wide gap between the scores of the two groups, which was filled by liberal caucuses. His survey of American legislative caucuses showed scores by American Republicans and Democrats were similar to the Canadian right and liberals, with a 44% correlation between party affiliation and score.<ref>{{cite book |title=The authoritarian specter |first=Bob |last=Altemeyer |author-link=Bob Altemeyer |date=1996 |pages=258–298}}</ref> |
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The Left tends to be secular, the Right to support religion.<ref>http://www.sutherlandinstitute.org/uploads/conservatismreligion.pdf, Conservatism and Religion, "Religion is a key pillar in social order and the right ordering of the state requires government to recognize its proper role in regards to religious belief."</ref><ref>Jan Herman Brinks and David Binder, ''Children of a New Fatherland'', "German political Lutheranism as a 'state religion' has always carried the values and 'virtues' in its banner, which seemed to play into the hands of nationalism, intolerance, and violence. Germany's authoritarian, nationalist, and conservative politicians always felt attracted to the Reformer. It is accordingly probably not a coincidence that right-wing radical spokesmen in Germany appeal to the 'political Luther'.", I. B. Tauris, 1999, ISBN: 9781860644580.</ref> |
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While in many Western European democracies, traditionally the left is associated with socially liberal and economically left values, while the right is traditionally associated with socially conservative and economically right values, Eastern European, post-communist parties are frequently juxtaposed, with economically left parties holding nationalist positions more frequently and economically right parties being liberal and internationalist.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Rohrschneider |first1=Robert |last2=Whitefield |first2=Stephen |date=10 October 2008 |title=Understanding Cleavages in Party Systems |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010414008325285 |journal=Comparative Political Studies |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=280–313 |doi=10.1177/0010414008325285 |s2cid=154318189 |issn=0010-4140}}</ref> |
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The Left tends to accept scientific research, even when it conflicts with traditional beliefs or business interests. The Right tends to be skeptical of science when such conflicts emerge.<ref>Levin, Yuval. Imagining the Future: Science and American Democracy. Encounter Books, October 2008.</ref><ref>Diana DeGette, Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason, The Lyons Press, 2008, ISBN 978-1599214313</ref><ref>https://www.irr.org.uk/cgi-bin/news/open.pl?id=4447, "Christian school teaches right-wing creationist theories, by Liz Fekete, 1 August 2002, 'The government policy of funding for faith schools has been criticised after it was revealed that the Emmanuel City Technology College in Gateshead is teaching creationism – that human origins are (relatively) recent and divine – as opposed to scientific evolution, to explain our origins.'</ref><ref>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15857761/,''Muslim creationism makes inroads in Turkey'', by Tom Heneghan, Reuters, Nov. 22, 2006, "Creationism is so widely accepted here that Turkey placed last in a recent survey of public acceptance of evolution in 34 countries — just behind the United States." "Darwinism did become an issue during the left-vs.-right political turmoil before a 1980 military coup because Communist bookshops touted Darwin’s works as a complement to Karl Marx. 'It looked like Marx and Darwin were together, two long-bearded guys spreading ideas that make people lose their faith,' said Istanbul journalist Mustafa Akyol.</ref><ref>Chris Mooney, ''The Republican War on Science: Revised and Updated'', ASIN: B001OQOIPM</ref> |
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==See also== |
== See also == |
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{{Portal|Politics}} |
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* [[Big tent]] |
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* [[Nolan chart]] |
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* [[NOMINATE (scaling method)|NOMINATE]], a quantitative method for displaying the ideological orientation of legislators (such as members of the US Congress) on a two-dimensional map based on their roll-call voting, with one of the two dimensions corresponding to the left-right spectrum |
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* [[Political spectrum]] |
* [[Political spectrum]] |
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* [[Nolan Chart]] |
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* [[Sinistrisme]] |
* [[Sinistrisme]] |
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* [[Horseshoe theory]] |
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== |
== Notes == |
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{{notelist}} |
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{{reflist|colwidth=30em}} |
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[This article contains inflammatory language] |
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[Some of these reference links may be broken] |
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== |
== References == |
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{{Reflist}} |
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* [http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/blattbec/pdf/essays/1_Political_Philosophies.pdf Political Philosophies and Political Ideologies] ([[PDF]]); by Charles Blattberg, originally published in ''Public Affairs Quarterly'' 15, No. 3 (July 2001) 193–217. |
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* [http://www.governingdynamo.com/blog/2009/8/1/left-wing-and-right-wing-politics-where-are-you.html Brief article on left wing and right wing politics & links to political orientation tests] |
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== Bibliography == |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Left-Right Politics}} |
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{{Refbegin}} |
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[[Category:Political terms]] |
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* {{cite book |last=Bobbio |first=Norberto |author-link=Norberto Bobbio |title=Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction |publisher=University of Chicago Press |others=Trans. and introduced by [[Allan Cameron (author)|Allan Cameron]] |year=1996 |isbn=0-226-06245-7 |translator-last= |translator= |url=https://archive.org/details/leftrightsignifi0000bobb/mode/2up?view=theater |via=[[Internet Archive]]}} |
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[[Category:Political spectrum]] |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Evans |first1=Geoffrey |last2=Whitefield |first2=Stephen |title=The Evolution of Left and Right in Post-Soviet Russia |journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]] |volume=50 |number=6 |year=1998 |pages=1023–1042 |doi=10.1080/09668139808412579 |jstor=154054}} |
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[[Category:Dichotomies]] |
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* {{cite book |last=Gauchet |first=Marcel |chapter=Right and Left |editor1-first=Pierre |editor1-last=Nora |editor2-first=Lawrence D. |editor2-last=Kritzman |title=Realms of memory: conflicts and divisions |location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=1997 |isbn=0-231-10634-3}} |
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* {{cite journal |last=Jou |first=Willy |title=The heuristic value of the left–right schema in East Asia |journal=International Political Science Review |volume=31 |number=3 |year=2010 |pages=366–394 |doi=10.1177/0192512110370721 |s2cid=145568847}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Lipset |first=Seymour Martin |author-link=Seymour Martin Lipset |url=https://archive.org/details/politicalmansoci00inlips |title=Political man: the social bases of politics |location=Garden City, NY |publisher=Doubleday |date=1960}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Kazin |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Kazin |title=American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation |date=2011 |edition=First Vintage Books |publisher=[[Vintage Books]]}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Knapp |first1=Andrew |last2=Wright |first2=Vincent |title=The government and politics of France |location=New York |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2001 |isbn=0-415-21526-9}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=March |first1=Luke |title=Radical left parties in Europe |publisher=[[Routledge]] |date=2012}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Pech |first1=Stanley Z. |title=Right, Left, and Centre in Eastern Europe 1860–1940: A Cross-National Profile |journal=[[Canadian Journal of History]] |volume=16 |number=2 |year=1981 |pages=237–262 |doi=10.3138/cjh.16.2.237}} |
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* {{cite book |last1=Ruypers |first1=John |title=Canadian and world politics |publisher=Emond Montgomery Publications Limited |date=2005 |isbn=1-55239-097-7}} |
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* {{cite book |last=Ware |first=Alan |title=Political Parties and Party Systems |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=1996 |isbn=0-19-878076-1}} |
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* {{cite journal |last1=Zechmeister |first1=Elizabeth |title=What's left and who's right? A Q-method study of individual and contextual influences on the meaning of ideological labels |journal=[[Political Behavior]] |volume=28 |number=2 |year=2006 |pages=151–173 |doi=10.1007/s11109-006-9006-5 |s2cid=144588319}} |
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*{{Cite book |last=Ostrowski |first=Marius S. |author-link=Marius Ostrowski |url=https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=ideology--9781509540723 |title=Ideology |publisher=[[Polity]] |year=2022 |isbn=9781509540723}} |
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* {{Cite journal |last=Ostrowski |first=Marius S. |author-link=Marius Ostrowski |date=2023 |title=The ideological morphology of left–centre–right |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13569317.2022.2163770 |journal=[[Journal of Political Ideologies]] |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=1–15|doi=10.1080/13569317.2022.2163770 }}{{Refend}} |
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{{Political spectrum}} |
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[[de:Links und rechts]] |
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{{Authority control}} |
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[[fr:Gauche et droite en politique]] |
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[[he:שמאל וימין בפוליטיקה]] |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Left-right political spectrum}} |
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[[ms:Politik kiri kanan]] |
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[[ja:右翼思想・左翼思想]] |
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[[Category:Political terminology]] |
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[[nn:Høgresida]] |
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[[pl:Prawica]] |
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[[pt:Direita política]] |
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[[fi:Vasemmisto–oikeisto-vastakkainasettelu]] |
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[[th:ฝ่ายซ้าย-ฝ่ายขวา]] |
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[[zh:左派和右派]] |
Latest revision as of 15:16, 19 December 2024
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The left–right political spectrum is a system of classifying political positions, ideologies and parties, with emphasis placed upon issues of social equality and social hierarchy. In addition to positions on the left and on the right, there are centrist and moderate positions, which are not strongly aligned with either end of the spectrum. It originated during the French Revolution based on the seating in the French National Assembly.
On this type of political spectrum, left-wing politics and right-wing politics are often presented as opposed, although a particular individual or group may take a left-wing stance on one matter and a right-wing stance on another; and some stances may overlap and be considered either left-wing or right-wing depending on the ideology.[1] In France, where the terms originated, the left has been called "the party of movement" or liberal, and the right "the party of order" or conservative.[2][3][4][5]
History
[edit]Origins in the French Revolution
[edit]The terms "left" and "right" first appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the Ancien Régime to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left.[6][7][8] One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: "We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp".[9][10]
When the National Assembly was replaced in 1791 by a Legislative Assembly composed of entirely new members, the divisions continued. "Innovators" sat on the left, "moderates" gathered in the centre, while the "conscientious defenders of the constitution" found themselves sitting on the right, where the defenders of the Ancien Régime had previously gathered.[clarification needed] When the succeeding National Convention met in 1792, the seating arrangement continued, but following the coup d'état of 2 June 1793 and the arrest of the Girondins, the right side of the assembly was deserted and any remaining members who had sat there moved to the centre. Following the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794, the members of the far left were excluded and the method of seating was abolished. The new constitution included rules for the assembly that would "break up the party groups".[11] Following the Restoration in 1814–1815, political clubs were again formed. The majority ultra-royalists chose to sit on the right. The "constitutionals" sat in the centre while independents sat on the left. The terms extreme right and extreme left, as well as centre-right and centre-left, came to be used to describe the nuances of ideology of different sections of the assembly.[12]
The terms "left" and "right" were not used to refer to political ideology per se, but, strictly speaking, to seating in the legislature. After 1848, the main opposing camps were the "democratic socialists" and the "reactionaries" who used red and white flags to identify their party affiliation.[13] With the establishment of the Third Republic in 1871, the terms were adopted by political parties: the Republican Left, the Centre Right and the Centre Left (1871), the Extreme Left (1876) and the Radical Left (1881). The beliefs of the group called the Radical Left were actually closer to the Centre Left than the beliefs of those called the Extreme Left.[14]
Beginning in the early twentieth century, the terms "left" and "right" came to be associated with specific political ideologies and were used to describe citizens' political beliefs, gradually replacing the terms "reds" and "the reaction". The words Left and Right were at first used by their opponents as slurs. Those on the Left often called themselves "republicans", which at the time meant favoring a republic over a monarchy, while those on the Right often called themselves "conservatives"[13] By 1914, the Left half of the legislature in France was composed of Unified Socialists, Republican Socialists and Socialist Radicals, while the parties that were called "Right" now sat on the right side. The use of the words Left and Right spread from France to other countries and came to be applied to a large number of political parties worldwide, which often differed in their political beliefs.[15] There was asymmetry in the use of the terms Left and Right by the opposing sides. The Right mostly denied that the left–right spectrum was meaningful because they saw it as artificial and damaging to unity. However, the Left, seeking to change society, promoted the distinction. As Alain observed in 1931: "When people ask me if the division between parties of the Right and parties of the Left, men of the Right and men of the Left, still makes sense, the first thing that comes to mind is that the person asking the question is certainly not a man of the Left."[16] In British politics, the terms "right" and "left" came into common use for the first time in the late 1930s in debates over the Spanish Civil War.[17] The Scottish sociologist Robert M. MacIver noted in The Web of Government (1947):
The right is always the party sector associated with the interests of the upper or dominant classes, the left the sector expressive of the lower economic or social classes, and the centre that of the middle classes. Historically this criterion seems acceptable. The conservative right has defended entrenched prerogatives, privileges and powers; the left has attacked them. The right has been more favorable to the aristocratic position, to the hierarchy of birth or of wealth; the left has fought for the equalization of advantage or of opportunity, for the claims of the less advantaged. Defence and attack have met, under democratic conditions, not in the name of class but in the name of principle; but the opposing principles have broadly corresponded to the interests of the different classes.[18]
Ideological groupings
[edit]Generally, the left wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism" while the right wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism".[19][20][21]
Political scientists and other analysts usually regard the left as including anarchists,[22][a] communists,[24] socialists,[25] democratic socialists, social democrats,[26] left-libertarians, progressives, and social liberals.[27][28] Movements for racial equality,[29] as well as trade unionism, have also been associated with the left.[30][31]
Political scientists and other analysts usually regard the right as including conservatives (among whom there are many strains, including traditionalist conservatism, libertarian conservatism,[32] neoconservatism,[33][34] and ultraconservatism[35]); right-libertarians,[36] anarcho-capitalists,[37][38] monarchists,[39] fascists,[40] and reactionaries.[41][31]
Various political ideologies, such as Christian democracy,[42] progressivism, some forms of liberalism, and radical centrism, can be classified as centrist.[43][31]
A number of significant political movements do not fit precisely into the left–right spectrum, including Christian democracy,[44] feminism,[45][46] and regionalism.[45][46][47] Though nationalism is often regarded as a right-wing doctrine, many nationalists favor egalitarian distributions of resources. There are also civic nationalists,[48] as well as left-wing nationalists.[49] Populism is regarded as having both left-wing and right-wing manifestations in the form of left-wing populism and right-wing populism, respectively.[50] Green politics is often regarded as a movement of the left, although there are also green conservatives. Andrew Dobson suggests that green politics contains an inherent conservatism as it is "adverse to anything but the most timid engineering of the social and natural world by human beings". As such, the green movement is perhaps difficult to definitively categorize as left or right.[51][52]
The following are contemporary mainstream political ideologies according to their left–right position.
Left
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Centrist
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Right
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Political parties
[edit]Political scientists have made models in which the ideologies of political parties are mapped along a single left–right axis.[53] Klaus von Beyme categorized European parties into nine families, which described most parties. Beyme was able to arrange seven of them from left to right: communist, socialist, green, liberal, Christian democratic, conservative and right-wing extremist. The position of agrarian and regional/ethnic parties varied.[54] A study conducted in the late 1980s on two bases, positions on ownership of the means of production and positions on social issues, confirmed this arrangement.[55]
There has been a tendency for party ideologies to persist and values and views that were present at a party's founding have survived. However, they have also adapted for pragmatic reasons, making them appear more similar.[56] Seymour Martin Lipset and Stein Rokkan observed that modern party systems are the product of social conflicts played out in the last few centuries.[57] They said that lines of cleavage had become "frozen".[58]
The first modern political parties were liberals, organized by the middle class in the 19th century to protect them against the aristocracy. They were major political parties in that century, but declined in the twentieth century as first the working class came to support socialist parties and economic and social change eroded their middle class base.[59] Conservative parties arose in opposition to liberals to defend aristocratic privilege, but to attract voters they became less doctrinaire than liberals. However, they were unsuccessful in most countries and generally have been able to achieve power only through cooperation with other parties.[60]
Socialist parties were organized to achieve political rights for workers and were originally allied with liberals. However, they broke with the liberals when they sought worker control of the means of production.[61] Christian democratic parties were organized by Catholics who saw liberalism as a threat to traditional values. Although established in the 19th century, they became a major political force following the Second World War.[62] Communist parties emerged following a division within socialism first on support of the First World War and then support of the Bolshevik Revolution.[63] Right-wing extremist parties are harder to define other than being more right-wing than other parties, but include fascists and some extreme conservative and nationalist parties.[64] Green parties were the most recent of the major party groups to develop. They have mostly rejected socialism and are very liberal on social issues.[65]
These categories can be applied to many parties outside of Europe.[66] Ware (1996) asserted that in the United States both major parties were liberal, even though there are left–right policy differences between them.[67]
Contemporary terminology
[edit]Worldwide
[edit]The left-right political spectrum can change over time in a process that affects the views on politicians from more than one country. In most countries, classical liberalism is thought of as a right-wing ideology, but when classical liberal ideas made their debut, they were thought of as leftist.[68][20]
Western Europe
[edit]In the 2001 book The Government and Politics of France, Andrew Knapp and Vincent Wright say that the main factor dividing the left and right wings in Western Europe is class. The left seeks social justice through redistributive social and economic policies, while the right defends private property and capitalism. The nature of the conflict depends on existing social and political cleavages and on the level of economic development.[69]
Left-wing values include the belief in the power of human reason to achieve progress for the benefit of the human race, secularism, sovereignty exercised through the legislature and social justice for all people. To the right, this is regularly seen as anti-clericalism, unrealistic social reform, doctrinaire socialism, class hatred and a way to authoritarianism through the gradual lessening of individual rights in favour for the collective.
The right wing believes in the established church both in itself and as an instrument of social cohesion, and they believe in the need for strong political leadership to minimize social and political divisions. To the left, this is seen as a selfish and reactionary opposition to social justice, a wish to impose doctrinaire religion on the population and a tendency to authoritarianism and repression.[70][71]
The differences between left and right have altered over time. The initial cleavage at the time of the French Revolution was between supporters of absolute monarchy (the right) and those who wished to limit the king's authority (the left). During the 19th century, the cleavage was between monarchists and republicans. Following the establishment of the Third Republic in 1871, the cleavage was between supporters of a strong executive on the right and supporters of the primacy of the legislature on the Left.[72]
United States
[edit]A 2005 Harris Poll of American adults showed that the terms left wing and right wing were less familiar to Americans than the terms liberal or conservative.[73] Peter Berkowitz writes that in the U.S., the term liberal "commonly denotes the left wing of the Democratic Party" and has become synonymous with the word progressive,[74] a fact that is usefully contextualized for non-Americans by Ware's observation that at the turn of the 21st century, both mainstream political parties in the United States, generally speaking, were liberal in the classical sense of the word.[67]
Michael Kazin writes that the left is traditionally defined as the social movement or movements "that are dedicated to a radically egalitarian transformation of society" and suggests that many in the left in the United States who met that definition called themselves by various other terms.[75] Kazin writes that American leftists "married the ideal of social equality to the principle of personal freedom" and that contributed to the development of important features of modern American society, including "the advocacy of equal opportunity and equal treatment for women, ethnic and racial minorities, and homosexuals; the celebration of sexual pleasure unconnected to reproduction; a media and educational system sensitive to racial and gender oppression and which celebrates what we now call multiculturalism; and the popularity of novels and films with a strongly altruistic and anti-authoritarian point of view."[76] A variety of distinct left-wing movements existed in American history, including labor movements, the Farmer-Labor movement, various democratic socialist and socialist movements, pacifist movements, and the New Left.[77]
Criticism
[edit]Political scientists have frequently argued that a single left–right axis is too simplistic and insufficient for describing the existing variation in political beliefs and include other axes to compensate for this problem.[78][79]
American libertarian writer David Boaz argued that the political terms left and right are used to spin a particular point of view rather than as simple descriptors, with those on the left typically emphasizing their support for working people and accusing the right of supporting the interests of the upper class; and those on the right usually emphasizing their support for individualism and accusing the left of supporting collectivism. Boaz asserts that arguments about the way these terms should be used often displace arguments about policy by raising emotional prejudice against a preconceived notion of what the terms mean.[80]
In 2006, British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the main cleavage in politics as not left versus right, but open versus closed.[81] According to Blair, attitudes towards social issues and globalisation are more important than the conventional economic left–right issues. In this model, "open" voters tend to be culturally liberal, multicultural and in favour of globalisation while "closed" voters are culturally conservative, opposed to immigration and in favour of protectionism. The open–closed political spectrum has seen increased support following the rise of populist and centrist parties in the 2010s.[82][83]
Norberto Bobbio saw the polarization of the Italian Chamber of Deputies in the 1990s as evidence that the linear left–right axis remained valid. Bobbio thought that the argument that the spectrum had disappeared occurred when either the left or right were weak. The dominant side would claim that its ideology was the only possible one, while the weaker side would minimize its differences. He saw the left and right not in absolute terms, but as relative concepts that would vary over time. In his view, the left–right axis could be applied to any time period.[84]
A survey of Canadian legislative caucuses conducted between 1983 and 1994 by Bob Altemeyer showed an 82% correlation between party affiliation and score on a scale for right-wing authoritarianism when comparing right-wing and social democratic caucuses. There was a wide gap between the scores of the two groups, which was filled by liberal caucuses. His survey of American legislative caucuses showed scores by American Republicans and Democrats were similar to the Canadian right and liberals, with a 44% correlation between party affiliation and score.[85]
While in many Western European democracies, traditionally the left is associated with socially liberal and economically left values, while the right is traditionally associated with socially conservative and economically right values, Eastern European, post-communist parties are frequently juxtaposed, with economically left parties holding nationalist positions more frequently and economically right parties being liberal and internationalist.[86]
See also
[edit]- Big tent
- Nolan chart
- NOMINATE, a quantitative method for displaying the ideological orientation of legislators (such as members of the US Congress) on a two-dimensional map based on their roll-call voting, with one of the two dimensions corresponding to the left-right spectrum
- Political spectrum
- Sinistrisme
Notes
[edit]- ^ Among whom there are many strains, such as anarcho-syndicalism, anarcho-communism, eco-anarchism, anarcho-primitivism, and individualist anarchism.[22][23]
References
[edit]- ^ Milner, Helen (2004). "Partisanship, Trade Policy, and Globalization: Is There a Left–Right Divide on Trade Policy" (PDF). International Studies Quarterly. 48: 95–120. doi:10.1111/j.0020-8833.2004.00293.x.
- ^ Knapp & Wright 2001, p. 10.
- ^ Garfinkle, Adam (1997). Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 303.
- ^ "Left (adjective)". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2011. and "Left (noun)". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. 2011.
- ^ Broad, Roger (2001). Labour's European Dilemmas: From Bevin to Blair. Palgrave Macmillan. p. xxvi.
- ^ Bobbio 1996, pp. x, 33.
- ^ McPhee, Peter (2002). The French Revolution, 1789–1799. Internet Archive. Oxford University Press. pp. 85–6. ISBN 978-0-19-924414-0 – via Internet Archive. The quotation is an extract from a longer quotation translated on p. 110 of Voices of the French Revolution edited by Richard Cobb and Colin Jones accessible via the next citation.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - ^ Cobb, Richard; Jones, Colin, eds. (1988). Voices of the French Revolution. Topsfield, Mass.: Salem House Publishers. p. 110. ISBN 0-88162-338-5 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Hodgson, Geoffrey M. (2018). Wrong Turnings: How the Left Got Lost. University of Chicago Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-226-50591-6 – via Google Books.
- ^ De Gauville, Louis-Henry-Charles (1864). Journal du Baron de Gauville, député de l'ordre de la noblesse, aux Etats-généraux depuis le 4 mars 1789 jusqu'au 1er juillet 1790. p. 20.
- ^ Gauchet 1997, pp. 245–247.
- ^ Gauchet 1997, pp. 247–249.
- ^ a b Gauchet 1997, p. 253.
- ^ Crapez, Marc (February 1998). "De quand date le clivage gauche/droite en France?" [How old is the left/right divide in France?]. Revue française de science politique (in French). 48 (1): 70–72. doi:10.3406/rfsp.1998.395251. S2CID 191471833.
- ^ Gauchet 1997, pp. 255–259.
- ^ Gauchet 1997, p. 266.
- ^ Mowat, Charles Loch (1955). Britain Between the Wars: 1918–1940. p. 577.
- ^ Lipset 1960, p. 222.
- ^ Heywood, Andrew (2015). Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations (2nd ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. p. 119. ISBN 9781350314856 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b Ostrowski, Marius S. (2 January 2023). "The ideological morphology of left–centre–right". Journal of Political Ideologies. 28 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1080/13569317.2022.2163770. ISSN 1356-9317.
- ^ Ostrowski, Marius S. J. (2022). Ideology. Key concepts series. Cambridge: Polity. pp. 95–99. ISBN 978-1-5095-4072-3.
- ^ a b Brooks, Frank H. (1994). The Individualist Anarchists: An Anthology of Liberty (1881–1908). Transaction Publishers. p. xi.
Usually considered to be an extreme left-wing ideology, anarchism has always included a significant strain of radical individualism ...
- ^ Colin Moynihan (2007). "Book Fair Unites Anarchists. In Spirit, Anyway". The New York Times. No. 16 April 2007.
- ^ March, Luke (2009). "Contemporary Far Left Parties in Europe: From Marxism to the Mainstream?" (PDF). IPG. 1: 126–143 – via Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
- ^ "Left". Encyclopædia Britannica. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ See
- Euclid Tsakalotis, "European Employment Policies: A New Social Democratic Model for Europe" in The Economics of the Third Way: Experiences from Around the World (eds. Philip Arestis & Malcolm C. Sawyer: Edward Elgar Publishing 2001), p. 26: "most left-wing approaches (social democratic, democratic socialist, and so on) to how the market economy works...").
- "Introduction" in The Nordic Model of Social Democracy (eds. Nik Brandal, Øivind Bratberg & Dag Einar Thorsen: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013): "In Scandinavia, as in the rest of the world, 'social democracy' and 'democratic socialism' have often been used interchangeably to define the part of the left pursuing gradual reform through democratic means."
- ^ JoAnne C. Reuss, American Folk Music and Left-Wing Politics, Scarecrow Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8108-3684-6
- ^ Van Gosse, The Movements of the New Left, 1950–1975: A Brief History with Documents, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, ISBN 978-1-4039-6804-3
- ^ Michael J. Klarman, "From Jim Crow to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality", "... many of the white Americans who were most sympathetic to racial equality belonged to left-wing organizations...", p. 375, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0195310184
- ^ See
- Heikki Paloheimo, "Between Liberalism and Corporatism: The Effect of Trade Unions and Governments on Economic Performance in Eighteen OECD Countries" in Labour Relations and Economic Performance: Proceedings of a Conference Held By the International Economic Association in Venice, Italy (eds. Renator Brunetta & Carlo Dell'Aringa: International Economic Association/Palgrave Macmillan, 1990), p. 119: "It is easier for trade unions to have a mutual understanding with left-wing governments than with right-wing governments. In the same way, it is easier for left-wing governments to have mutual understanding with trade unions."
- Thomas Poguntke, "Living in Separate Worlds? Left-wing Parties and Trade Unions in European Democracies" in Citizenship and Democracy in an Era of Crisis (eds. Thomas Poguntke et al.: Routledge: 2015), p. 173 ("So far we have argued that parties of the left are the natural allies of the trade union movement ... it goes almost without saying that this a simplification."), p. 181: "When it comes to overlapping memberships, left-wing parties have always been, by and large, strongly connected to the trade union movement.").
- ^ a b c Ostrowski, Marius S. J. (2022). Ideology. Key concepts series. Cambridge, UK: Polity. pp. 102–8. ISBN 978-1-5095-4072-3. OCLC 1263663019.
- ^ Arthur Aughey, Greta Jones & W.T.M. Riches, The Conservative Political Tradition in Britain and the United States (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press: 1992), pp. 150–53.
- ^ Justin Vaïsse, Neoconservatism: The Biography of a Movement (Belknap Press: 2010), pp. 111–12: "In 1995, however, a new age of neoconservatism was born, ... one that persists to this day ... Neoconservatism became a full-fledged element of the Republican party, now unambiguously on the right. The newcomers, such as William Kristol and Robert Kagan (the editors of the Weekly Standard), David Brooks, Gary Schmitt, Max Boot, and David Frum ... were men of the right, even if their stance on domestic policy was somewhat different from that of other conservatives."
- ^ George H. Nash, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 (Regnery Gateway: 2023), p. 368.
- ^ John S. Huntington, Far-Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021).
- ^ Feser, Edward C. (2008). "Conservative Critique of Libertarianism". In Hamowy, Ronald (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Libertarianism. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE; Cato Institute. pp. 95–97. doi:10.4135/9781412965811.n62. ISBN 978-1412965804. LCCN 2008009151. OCLC 750831024 – via Google Books.
Libertarianism and conservatism are frequently classified together as right-wing political philosophies, which is understandable given the content and history of these views.
- ^ Meltzer, Albert (2000). Anarchism: Arguments for and Against. London: AK Press. p. 50. ISBN 978-1-873176-57-3.
The philosophy of 'anarcho-capitalism' dreamed up by the 'libertarian' New Right, has nothing to do with Anarchism as known by the Anarchist movement proper.
- ^ Vincent, Andrew (2009). Modern Political Ideologies (3rd ed.). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-4443-1105-1.
Whom to include under the rubric of the New Right remains puzzling. It is usually seen as an amalgam of traditional liberal conservatism, Austrian liberal economic theory Ludwing von Mises and Hayek), extreme libertarianism (anarcho-capitalism), and crude populism.
- ^ See
- Politics in Europe, 6th ed. (eds. M. Donald Hancock et al.: SAGE/CQ Press, 2015), p. 139: "Historically, the political right was characterized by its identification with the status quo. It favored monarchism and deplored the Revolutions of 1789 and 1848."
- Thomas M. Magstadt, Understanding Politics: Ideas, Institutions, and Issues, 12th ed. (Cengage Learning, 2015), p. 28: "Ideologies of the right: Monarchism is at the opposite end of the political spectrum .... After World War I, fascism supplanted monarchism as the principle ideology of the extreme Right."
- ^ See
- Robert O. Paxton, The Anatomy of Fascism, passim, e.g. "The Communist International was certain that the German swing to the Right under Hitler would produce a counterswing to the Left ...", p. 128, Vintage Books, 2005, ISBN 978-1400033911;
- Hans-Georg Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (Macmillan, 1994), p. 23: "One of the central arguments in the literature on fascism was that fascism, and by extension all radical right-wing movements..."
- The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, ISBN 0-231-05678-8 "Fascism, philosophy of government that glorifies nationalism at the expense of the individual. ... The term was first used by the party started by MUSSOLINI, ... and has also been applied to other right-wing movements such as NATIONAL SOCIALISM, in Germany, and the FRANCO regime, in Spain."
- ^ The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought (Third ed.). 1999. p. 729.
- ^ Boswell, Jonathan (2013). Community and the Economy: The Theory of Public Co-operation. Routledge. p. 160. ISBN 978-1136159015.
- ^ Bobbio 1996.
- ^ André Munro, Christian democracy, Encyclopædia Britannica (2013), "Christian democracy does not fit squarely in the ideological categories of left and right. It rejects the individualist worldview that underlies both political liberalism and laissez-faire economics, and it recognizes the need for the state to intervene in the economy to support communities and defend human dignity. Yet Christian democracy, in opposition to socialism, defends private property and resists excessive intervention of the state in social life and education."
- ^ a b Siep Stuurman, "Citizenship and Cultural Difference in France and the Netherlands" in Lineages of European Citizenship: Rights, Belonging and Participation in Eleven Nation-States (eds. Richard Bellamy, Dario Castiglione & Emilio Santoro: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), p. 178: "Regionalism and feminism, to take two major examples, were significantly different, but both cut across the old left-right cleavages, presenting a challenge to the traditional political cultures."
- ^ a b Jack Hayward, "Governing the New Europe" in Governing the New Europe (eds. Jack Ernest, Shalom Hayward & Edward Page: Duke University Press, 1995): "...the rebirth of a repressed civil society has led to a proliferation of social movements which cannot be subsumed under a left-right dichotomy. ... The emergency of a variety of new social movements, particularly green and feminist movements, as well as revived regionalist movements, has prompted the major parties to compete with one another in seeking to incorporate their demand."
- ^ Andrew C. Gould, "Conclusions: Regional, National, and Religious Challenges to European Identity" in Europe's Contending Identities: Supranationalism, Ethnoregionalism, Religion, and New Nationalism (eds. Andrew C. Gould & Anthony M. Messina: Cambridge University Press, 2014): "Regionalist parties in the center of the left-right spectrum generally favored integration. Regionalist parties on the extremes of left and right generally opposed integration, albeit for different reasons..."
- ^ See
- David Miller, "Strangers in Our Midst", HUP, Harvard, Cambridge: MA, 2016
- Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies Without Boundaries: on Telecommunications in a Global Age (ed. Eli M. Noam: Harvard University Press, 1990), p. 124: "Nationalism is not a monopoly of either the right or the left. Rather, nationalism is the doctrine of the right-wing that most easily co-opts the left. Historically, liberals and radicals have been internationalists ... Liberal intellectuals have fought for the freedom of movement, freedom from censorship, and world cultural exchange, and have condemned ethnocentrism and prejudice. Right-wing nationalists, on the other hand, have glorified the unique heritage of their own ethnic group. The right has fought foreign influences that would undermine their historic religion, language, customs, or politics. But the description of the left as open and internationalist and the right as closed and nationalist is misleadingly simple. Nationalism has always been the most popularly appealing element in right-wing doctrine. As such it has been seduced and been adopted by the left." *
- Anne Sa'adah, Contemporary France: A Democratic Education (Rowman & Littlefield, 2003): "The importance of nationalism as an opposition ideology is particularly clear in the record of the nineteenth century. For most of that century, nationalism was associated with the revolutionary rhetoric of popular sovereignty and used most effectively by the left, which was out of power. In the 1880s, however, after the creation of the Third Republic, nationalism became the preferred weapon the new regime's right-wing critics."
- ^ Chazel, Laura; Dain, Vincent (2021). "Left-Wing Populism and Nationalism: A Comparative Analysis of the Patriotic Narratives of Podemos and France insoumise". Journal for the Study of Radicalism. 15 (2): 73–94. ISSN 1930-1189. JSTOR 48642382.
- ^ See
- Javier Corrales & Michael Penfold, Dragon in the Tropics: Venezuela and the Legacy of Hugo Chávez (2d ed.: Brookings Institution Press, 2015), p. 150 (discussing difference and similarities between left- and right-wing populism).
- Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein, The End of the World as We Know it: Social Science for the Twenty-first Century (University of Minnesota Press, 1999), p. 95 (same).
- ^ See
- Andrew Dobson, Green Political Thought (3d ed.: Routledge, 1995: 2000 printing), pp. 27–28; "If ... we take equality and hierarchy as characteristics held to be praiseworthy within left-wing and right-wing thought respectively, then ecologism is clearly left-wing, arguing as it does for forms of equality among human beings and between human beings and other species. However, to argue that ecologism is unequivocal left-wing is not so easy. For instance, green politics is in principle adverse to anything but the most timid engineering of the social and natural world by human beings."
- Robyn Eckersley, Environmentalism and Political Theory: Toward an Ecocentric Approach (SUNY Press, 1992), p. 120: "The growing influence of ecosocialist ideas within the Green movement (most notably in Europe and Australia rather than in North America) has rendered the popular Green slogan "neither left nor right" somewhat problematic. While this slogan originally served to publicize the Green movement's efforts to find a distinct, third alternative to the growth consensus of capitalism and communism, it has since served to generate a lively and sometimes acrimonious debate within the Green movement concerning the proper political characterization of Green politics .... In particular, ecosocialists have mounted a challenge to the presumed left-right ideology neutrality of Green politics by pointing out the various egalitarian and redistribution (and hence 'leftist') measures that are needed to ensure an equitable transition toward a conserver society."
- ^ "The Return to "Green" Conservatism". Intercollegiate Studies Institute. 10 November 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2022.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 18–20.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 22.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 27–29.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 47.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 186.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 202.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 29–31.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 31–33.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 33–35.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 36–37.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 34.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 41–42.
- ^ Ware 1996, p. 43.
- ^ Ware 1996, pp. 44–47.
- ^ a b Ware 1996, p. 60.
- ^ Wright, Edmund, ed. (2006). The Desk Encyclopedia of World History. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 541, 370. ISBN 978-0-7394-7809-7 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Knapp & Wright 2001, p. 7.
- ^ Knapp & Wright 2001, p. 9.
- ^ Giddens, Anthony (1994). Beyond Left and Right, the Future of Radical Politics. Stanford University Press. pp. 22–24. ISBN 978-0-8047-2451-7.
In many continental European countries, for example, 'conservatism' suggests the political influence of Catholicism. (p. 22) [...] American conservatism, in some of its major forms at least, has almost from its beginnings been aggressively pro-capitalist in ways that its European counterparts have not. [...] (However) the basic dilemmas now faced by conservative and socialist thought are everywhere similar. (p. 23) [...] Conservatism, it is often said, opposes rationalism. (p. 24)
- ^ Knapp & Wright 2001, pp. 2–5.
- ^ "Political Labels: Majorities of U.S. Adults Have a Sense of What Conservative, Liberal, Right Wing or Left Wing Means, But Many Do Not". The Harris Poll No. 12. 9 February 2005. Archived from the original on 9 February 2010.
- ^ Berkowitz, Peter (2007). "The Liberal Spirit in America and Its Paradoxes". In Jumonville, Neil; Mattson, Kevin (eds.). Liberalism for a New Century. University of California Press. p. 14.
- ^ Kazin 2011, p. xiv.
- ^ Kazin 2011, pp. xiii–xiv.
- ^ Kazin 2011, p. xix.
- ^ Heywood, Andrew (2017). Political Ideologies: An Introduction (6th ed.). Basingstoke: Macmillan International Higher Education. pp. 14–17. ISBN 9781137606044. OCLC 988218349.
- ^ Fenna, Alan; Robbins, Jane; Summers, John (2013). Government Politics in Australia. Robbins, Jane., Summers, John. (10th ed.). Melbourne: Pearson Higher Education AU. pp. 126 f. ISBN 9781486001385. OCLC 1021804010.
- ^ Boaz, David (2008). The Politics of Freedom: Taking on the Left, the Right, and Threats to Our Liberties. Cato Institute. ISBN 978-1-933995-14-4.
- ^ Cowley, Jason (24 November 2016). "Tony Blair's unfinished business". New Statesman. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
- ^ "Drawbridges up". The Economist. 30 July 2016. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
- ^ "The Dutch election suggests a new kind of identity politics". The Economist. 18 March 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2017.
- ^ Bobbio, Norberto; Cameron, Allan (1996). Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction. pp. vi–xiv.
- ^ Altemeyer, Bob (1996). The authoritarian specter. pp. 258–298.
- ^ Rohrschneider, Robert; Whitefield, Stephen (10 October 2008). "Understanding Cleavages in Party Systems". Comparative Political Studies. 42 (2): 280–313. doi:10.1177/0010414008325285. ISSN 0010-4140. S2CID 154318189.
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