RIGHT-LEFT POLITICAL SPECTRUM

Ideological differences and contradicting perspectives are fundamental attributes of political

Origin

As the French Revolution gained momentum, the National Constitutional Assembly was set up
in Paris in July, 1789. Those sitting to the right side of the president, argued for preservation of
aristocracy and defence of the ancient Regime. Those sitting to the left side of the presidency
represented liberalists, republicans and democrats who highlighted the ideas of freedom, equal
rights and change of regime. This seating arrangement provided a new definition for left and
right. Liberty, freedom, and equality became the key characteristics of the left while power,
obedience and hierarchy became the important commitments of the right.

In the beginning of Industrial Revolution in Europe, when the absolute governments where
declining, some liberal-democratic thinkers sprouted out and reformatory discussions were very
prevalent. Arguments between national traditions and social change played an integral role in
shaping and differentiating left and right wing ideas.

France National Assembly gave rise to three left wing orientations. They are:

 Liberal Individualists,
 Democratic Republicans, and
 Radical Egalitarians.

Similarly, three right wing adaptations were also developed. They are:

 Absolutist (Nostalgic towards old values, theocratic in nature).

Rightist Ideologies

The Right wing being aligned with conservative politics has got variety of definitions through
the historic epochs. According to Neal O’Sullivan, Right politics is classified into five
categories. They are:

1. Reactionary: The Reactionary rights, highly support aristocracy and show utmost
support to religious and authoritarian rule
2. Moderate: According to Edmund Burke, Moderate rights, though are tolerant to change,
consider radical thoughts and individualism as threat to the society. They promote social
welfare and nationalism.
3. Radical: The Radical rights argue for values such as intolerance, radical nationalism,
authoritarianism, xenophobia and anti-parliamentarism. Right wing Populism is a key
aspect of radical rights through which they vehemently oppose egalitarianism.
4. Extreme: Also referred as far-rights, the extreme rightist are ultra conservative and
highly intolerant. Roger Eatwell, assert that Nationalism, Anti Democracy, Racism and
Strong sovereign are fundamental characteristics of extreme rights.
5. New Rights: They are also known as liberal conservatives. They somewhat align to
liberal stances on economic and ethical issues. They stress upon free markets, small
government and individuality.

Scholars have also mentioned the concept of Centre-right. The arguers of Centre-right though
accept government control, promote market economy, capitalism and property rights. They
support economic liberalism but oppose communism and socialism.

Social Stratification and right wing politics

‘Men are all equal before law and god, but unequal in all other aspects of life. Hierarchy is the
order of nature and privilege is an award for honourable services.’

These were the words of R.J White, a British rightist scholar. It is evident from the above
statement that the right wing ideas align themselves with the concepts of social inequality and
hierarchy. They claim that, economic inequalities are inevitable and are much needed to maintain
social order. Opposing the left wing egalitarian principles, conservatives argue that, ‘All men
are created different, and ignoring this rule would become unjust’.2

Nationalism

The concept of nationalism was once a leftist theory in France. Later, Georges Boulanger, a
popular French General and politician, encouraged aggressive nationalism and absolute
sovereign of the state within its boundary. This was done to oppose Germany and avenge for
France’s loss in the Franco-Prussian War. This was the key incident to draw nationalism within
the ambit of right wing. Nationalists of right wing aimed to secure national identity and separate
those who were corrupting it. This was the main principle behind the rightist hate towards
immigration.

Leftist theories

Opposing the right wing ideologies of social hierarchy, the left wing promotes individualism,
egalitarianism (equal rights for all), Democracy and liberalism. These concepts laid foundations
for various movements such as republicanism, anarchism, socialism, communism in the early
19th and 20th centuries. Later it also led to the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-war movement,
feminist movements and environmental movements.

Internationalism, fraternity, freedom and social change are key aspects of left wing politics that
are in straight contradiction with conservative ideas. The aim of left wing politics is to abolish
the existing social differences in economy, social status and power.

Economic principles

The leftist ideals on economy support industrial democratization and increased government
intervention. During the Industrial revolution, severe support was offered by the left wing to the
trade unions. Exposing their strong hatred towards capitalism, left wing encourages socialism
and communism.

According to the left wing thinkers, increase in economic inequality would result in failure of
democracy. They demand income equality, increased tax rates on wealthy class of the society,
increased government spending on social schemes, improvised infrastructure and effective
regulations on business. By linking environmental protection and economic activities, they state
that those economic activities which are capable of creating potential damage to the environment
must be banned.

Marxism and Left wing3

Marxism aligns itself with the ideas of leftism in a revolutionary way. Marxism is based on both
hatred towards capitalism and love towards leftism. Karl Marx, the man behind Marxism, highly
condemned capitalism, stating that, it makes the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. He desired a
classless state which totally abolished inequality. Marxism vehemently opposed the existence of
private property.

With its concepts of social equality Marxism voices out some of the fundamental ideologies of
left wing politics. Advocating a state with limited powers, Marxism highly prioritizes the
strengthening of working class at all aspects. During the existence of capitalist society, the
Marxists revolted with left-wing consciousness.

Social Reform Cultural Pluralism

Leftism welcomes progressive social change which has been the important idea behind various
movements such as Civil rights movements, abolition of slavery, anti-racist movements, woman
suffrage etc. Acknowledging individual liberty, the leftists are against all sorts of activities that
curb ones freedom and rights. They don’t believe in the ideas of implicit obedience and
hierarchy.

Moreover, left wing politicians support immigration, since they believe that increased
immigration would result in cultural diversity. They also encourage citizenship for migrants who
are undocumented. They also recommend prohibition of prosecuting undocumented young adult
immigrants with no criminal record

Right-Left Populism

Populism is the phenomenon that separates common people from the elites of the society. This
political approach highlights those rights of common people which are disregarded by the elites.
The contemporary world is facing a huge rise in the intensity of populism- both left as well as the
right. Some examples of right wing populism over the past two decades were that of Haider’s
Freedom Party of Austria, the Polish Law and Justice Party, Fidesz Party of Victor Orban in
Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey etc.

Similarly there has been equally broad based left wing populism as well. The Tahrir Square Arab
Spring protest of 2011 is a great example. It involved revolt and protest in the streets of Cairo.
Followed by this, the Occupy Wall Street protest took place in the same year in North America
against economic inequality. This movement was widespread throughout the western world and
was highly influential.

According to Prof. Muddle4, in spite left populists such as Venezuela's late President Chávez,
Podemos Party of Spain and Syriza of Greece, the most successful populist of the contemporary
world are those of the radical right. He quotes Marine Le Pen of France, Victor Orban of
Hungary, and Donald Trump in the United States for his above stated stand. He substantiates his
stand by quoting that right wing populists combine populism with nationalism and
authoritarianism

Key Differences

Right and left hold contrasting views in almost all aspects of socio-political life. As discussed
earlier, since right wing supporters argue for nationalism, they consider immigration as a threat
and are highly xenophobic. Whereas, leftists encourage immigration as they believe that it results
in cultural diversity. Views of left economy, as addressed, aligns itself with socialism and
communism. The right wing on the other hand, appreciates reduced government spending and
property rights.

Apart from economy and immigration, other key differences between the left and the right are as
follows:

Healthcare:

Those who argue on behalf of the right wing do not believe in Government provided universal
health care. They rather strongly believe in organizing certain standards for care giving,
promoting healthy competitions among pharmaceutical companies, and reforming payment
methods for medical care.
On the other hand, the liberalists argue that it is a fundamental right of every citizen to access
health care. They strongly support government aided universal healthcare policies. They
encourage universal healthcare on two standpoints:

a) Promotes equality: Enabling any person in the society to access healthcare would create
equality of opportunity
b) Utilitarian theory: Universal healthcare results in ‘greatest good for the greatest number’,
which is the underlying principle of utilitarian theory.

Education:

The right wing is generally not against Public Education system, but it emphasizes on parents to
decide the type of education which they feel would be appropriate for their children. They also
support Home Schooling system to an extent.

The left wing is totally in support of government aided free public education. They convey their
liking towards increased government involvement in the education sector.

Abortion:

Supporters of right take the ‘Life’ theory when it comes to abortion. They totally disagree with
the concept of abortion as they feel that the child within has the right to life and aborting it would
amount to murder. So far as stem cell research is concerned, they support it only in case of
adults.

Left wing arguers take the ‘Choice’ theory in abortion. They feel that it is the woman bearing the
child who goes through difficulty during the time of pregnancy and therefore, it is her choice to
continue or abort the pregnancy as the foetus is a mere organ of the woman before giving birth.
They completely support embryonic stem cell research as well.

LGBTQ Rights:

Rightists believe that LGBTQ is religiously wrong and strongly oppose gay relationships. They
oppose Anti-discriminatory laws against LGBTQs and as they feel that it restricts their freedom
of religion.
The left on the other hand, covey utmost support to the LGBTQ and Gay marriages. They
strongly emphasize on anti-discriminatory laws and protection of LGBTQ community in all
sectors and recommend laws against workplace discrimination.

Environmental policies:

As mentioned previously, leftists opine that environmental protection takes an upper hand over
unemployment. Whereas, the right wing thinkers generally think about the impact on economy
due to stopping certain actions owing to environmental protection. They believe trade will fix the
environmental problems in its own way.

Conclusion

In the contemporary world, with the emergence of multi party systems, the Left-right political
spectrum enables the people to clearly understand the stands and policies of their representatives.
More the political parties anchor themselves with the right or left ideology more will be the
pressure upon them to hold their promises and prioritize decisions.5

There are examples of systems, such as European parliament, that are trying to cover right and
left minded people under the same umbrella. The aim of such bodies is to identify converging
ideas of both the groups and work in a common platform towards development. Yet, it is
doubtless that the tensions between right and left in the past are becoming outdated with the
development of new ideals leading towards peaceful relationships among nations.
1
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Beyond_Left_and_Right.html?id=OnR3yQh1ZRkC&redir_esc=y
2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5842255/
3
https://www.marxists.org/glossary/terms/l/e.htm
4
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9hvtcf.7?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
5
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/pops.12476