What is left, right, left and right in politics?

Left-leaning and Right-leaning originated from the French Revolution, initially referring to the seating arrangement in various French legislatures. Nobles sit on the right side of the Speaker of the House of Representatives (traditional honorary seats), and civilians sit on the left, thus producing the arguments of right-wing politics and left-wing politics. In the French National Assembly in 1789, the second class aristocrats sat on the right side of the house, and the third class civilians sat on the left. They were some radicals at that time. Therefore, generally speaking, "Rightists" refer to conservatives who support the existing social or political order; The left is radical, trying to reform or overthrow the existing order. At that time, the left was a new bourgeoisie, and they advocated free capitalism and market economy. Now this idea is regarded as the right wing, that is, liberalism in the European sense. With the development of history, there have been groups that are even more left than the original "leftist", that is, groups that represent the interests of workers and peasants in favor of socialism and * * * productism.

In political tradition, left wing and right wing refer to two ideologies in the political field within a society, especially in a democratic society. In modern western countries, politics is usually divided into right wing or left wing, that is, conservatism (right wing) and socialism (left wing). In the United States, liberalism in a broad sense refers to left-wing politics, while in Europe, liberalism refers to right-wing politics in a broad sense. But what are left wing and right wing? Up to now, there is no exact and consistent definition, and the left and right factions have different views: First, Michael Lei Kedun Wald believes that the left advocates egalitarianism, democracy and diversity in the cultural field, while the right advocates the inevitable rule of a few people; Second, in his book Left and Right: The Meaning of a Political Division, Norberto Bobbio believes that the fundamental difference between left and right lies in whether a country should attach importance to equality or freedom (privilege). The former is left and the latter is right. Third, the relationship between government and economic development should be interventionism or laissez-faire, the former is left-wing and the latter is right-wing; Nolan's chart, for example, takes this as one of the criteria for distinguishing the left from the right. Another criterion is that the government should be secular and independent of religious or moral beliefs, which is the left wing, or should be the integration of politics and religion, which is the right wing; Fourth, Australian Labor Party politician mark latham pointed out that the difference between the left and the right lies in the fairness of the result (left) or the fairness of the process (right), that is, daniel bell, an American thinker and sociologist who considers himself a socialist in the economic field, said that "it is not equal opportunity, but equal result"; Fifth, eric hoffer believes that radical change (leftist) or strict control of change (rightist) is needed; Sixth, the left is the most marginalized social force in history, the most dissatisfied with the status quo, the most dissatisfied with the distribution of power related to the existing society, and demands to change the society through reform and revolution, while the right is a social force that is basically consolidated and can adapt to the status quo, and their way of changing the society is conservative; Thomas Sowell believes that the left advocates that human nature and society are plastic, that human nature is the result of acquired education, and that the right believes that human nature and society are immutable and innate. Seventh, the left advocates that economic interests serve the poor, while the right advocates serving the rich. For example, Michael Parenti believes that the current media market is inherently beneficial to the right, because the rich have greater ability to pay for the use of media.

Although left and right have these different viewpoints and positions, it is difficult to accurately distinguish whether a person is left or right. As daniel bell said, those who "think that as long as someone is radical in one field, he will be radical in other areas; On the contrary, if someone is conservative in one field, he will be conservative in other fields. This understanding misjudges the nature of different fields of sociology and morality. "

The differences between left-wing and right-wing political views are manifested in philosophy and history, as well as in economic policy, reform and conservatism. Strictly speaking, the left and the right are two factions in a democracy, the origin of the two-party system and the two groups of liberalism. However, these two factions do not exist in an authoritarian regime, so the left and right are the concepts of democratic politics.

In terms of philosophy and historical view, the left wing generally believes that history is created by the people, believes in the "little people's historical view", and its political views are biased towards the lower class and the grassroots. The left wing opposes the disparity between the rich and the poor and pursues social justice and "wealth equality". It believes that poverty is caused by "injustice" and that the state and society should be responsible for personal misfortune. The left wing dreams of a harmonious and just society. In terms of economic policy, it advocates strengthening national macro-control, expanding taxes, especially for the rich, expanding public welfare, and even holding national public projects to solve the economic crisis and unemployment problems. On the whole, the left wing is transformative and progressive, and it is the fundamental position of liberalism and democratic politics.

On the other hand, the right wing believes in the "heroic historical view", believing that history is created by heroes, and its political views are biased towards the middle class and elite. The right wing especially opposes the left wing's view of "wealth equality", which is wrong because it is actually pursuing ultimate equality. The similarity between the right wing and the left wing is that they both pursue equality at the starting point, but the right wing emphasizes personal sense of mission and responsibility, that the state should give every citizen a chance, respect everyone's personality, emphasize equal rights to receive education (basic education), and that people must be responsible for their own destiny. Poverty can only come from low quality, laziness and incompetence, and other factors can't be blamed. The right-wing economic policy advocates laissez-faire, small government and big society, and the less intervention and macro-control in the economy, the better. By advocating tax reduction, reducing public welfare, stimulating investment, we can solve unemployment and social problems. It is believed that the more welfare, the stronger people's dependence and the worse enterprising spirit, which will encourage laziness and discourage diligence, thus having a negative impact on a country's future.

The right wing emphasizes "law and order", is conservative and opposes change. The right wing's economic view is authentic liberalism, but its political view is a sideline of liberalism.

In democratic politics, there is no question of who is right or wrong, who is advanced and who is reactionary. The left and right are the right hands of a country and a nation, and they are indispensable. It is impossible for a country to be governed by the left wing for a long time, otherwise the society will be too unified and too welfare, which will hinder economic development and easily lead to populism; A country cannot be ruled by the right wing for a long time, otherwise the disparity between the rich and the poor will lead to social injustice and unfair distribution, which will eventually hinder economic development. A country's road to "freedom and progress" cannot be straight. The road to freedom twists and turns like a highway. Democracy is a car. If you want to advance smoothly on the road of freedom, you must adjust the steering wheel at any time, turning right and left for a while. Only in this way can the car not run off the road and roll over, and then it can reach the finish line smoothly. Therefore, it is the basis of the two-party system under democratic politics that the left and the right take turns to govern and adjust the road of national progress. In a truly mature democracy, there are generally only two main political parties, the left and the right. In a democratic country with many political parties, its democratic politics is still immature and naive, and it is still in the low stage of democratic politics.

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1789 In June, at the Constituent Assembly of the French Revolution, priests and nobles mostly sat on the right side of the parliament, while the bourgeoisie, urban civilians, workers and peasants sat on the left. Thus, "right" or "right" has become synonymous with conservatism and opposition to social change, while "left" or "left" supports liberalism and revolution, sometimes referring to radicals.

What is the left wing? What is the right wing?

Right wing is a conservative and typical school of thought and position. The word right wing comes from the French Revolution, when royalists and conservatives sat on the right side of the meeting. There is a lot of controversy about the word right wing. Generally speaking, it is associated with conservatism and opposes innovation. In the past, the traditional right wing in Europe generally advocated retaining the monarchy and opposed peace. The right-wing thoughts in modern Europe and America mainly include anti-capitalism, laissez-faire economy, opposing excessive welfare and supporting Christian traditional values, with George W. Bush as the representative. There is also a right-wing ideology in Europe and America, called the extreme right, which is manifested in anti-immigration, racism, and even public support for fascism and Nazism. The representative is a skinhead. In Japan, the right wing refers to historical revisionists, that is, they do not recognize Japan's unjust role in World War II and the crime of the Nanjing Massacre.