Political spectrum
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=="Leftism" and "Rightism"== | =="Leftism" and "Rightism"== | ||
| − | As with "left wing", the meanings of '''leftism''' and '''rightism''' vary between different countries. Despite the "-ism", these labels do not designate a distinctive position that has at least some form of a common ideological and philosophical base, but are most often used to label people as having veered outside of the mainstream and towards one of the extreme fringes of the spectrum. "Leftist" is widely used in [[United States]] [[politics]] to refer to [[socialism]] and anti-[[capitalist]] ideologies, although it is also often mistakenly applied to [[liberal]]s, which can cause confusion and resentment, since there is a vast difference between the two groups. For [[User:Researcher|anyone]] who studies politics with rigor, the conflation of "leftist" and "liberal" is truly infuriating. The American right wing talking-point machine refers to anyone "left of center-right" (e.g. [[Hillary Clinton]], [[Al Franken]]), as a "far left" politician or pundit, further confusing political discourse. Indeed, the nomenclature of US politics is so [[Essay:Gaming the language: the US political spectrum|skewed]] as to be practically unrecognisable to anyone from outside the US. | + | As with "left wing", the meanings of '''leftism''' and '''rightism''' vary between different countries but there is more than sufficient shared meaning to enable Leftists in one country to affiliate with similar Leftists in other countries and for Rightists in in one country to affiliate with co-religionists in other countries, unless of course their countries are at war. The shared meanings that form the bases for their affiliation involve beliefs about human nature. Leftists tend to unreasonably optimistic while Rightists tend to be unreasonably pessimistic about the perfectability of human nature. |
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| + | Despite the "-ism", these labels do not designate a distinctive position that has at least some form of a common ideological and philosophical base, but are most often used to label people as having veered outside of the mainstream and towards one of the extreme fringes of the spectrum. "Leftist" is widely used in [[United States]] [[politics]] to refer to [[socialism]] and anti-[[capitalist]] ideologies, although it is also often mistakenly applied to [[liberal]]s, which can cause confusion and resentment, since there is a vast difference between the two groups. For [[User:Researcher|anyone]] who studies politics with rigor, the conflation of "leftist" and "liberal" is truly infuriating. The American right wing talking-point machine refers to anyone "left of center-right" (e.g. [[Hillary Clinton]], [[Al Franken]]), as a "far left" politician or pundit, further confusing political discourse. Indeed, the nomenclature of US politics is so [[Essay:Gaming the language: the US political spectrum|skewed]] as to be practically unrecognisable to anyone from outside the US. | ||
Some leftists wish to overthrow capitalism, and believe that '[[bourgeois]] democracy' is a sham, designed only to keep the rich in their places of privilege, while others believe in achieving a socialist society through democratic means. There are many different forms of leftism, as reflected in such terms as [[Marxism|Marxist]], Marxist-Leninist, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]ist, [[Trotsky]]ite, neo-Trostkyite, [[Mao]]ist, democratic socialist, libertarian socialist ([[anarchism|anarchist]]), De Leonist, council [[communist]], guild socialist, etc., not to mention various modern and postmodern theoretical schools that seem to exist mainly in academic circles, such as [[Deconstruction|deconstructionism]], left- or post-[[feminism]], [[Critical Theory]], and the [[Frankfurt School]]. Many of these groups have a fierce rivalry with each other, such as the Marxist-Leninists with libertarian socialists, and the Stalinists and Maoists with just about everybody else. | Some leftists wish to overthrow capitalism, and believe that '[[bourgeois]] democracy' is a sham, designed only to keep the rich in their places of privilege, while others believe in achieving a socialist society through democratic means. There are many different forms of leftism, as reflected in such terms as [[Marxism|Marxist]], Marxist-Leninist, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]ist, [[Trotsky]]ite, neo-Trostkyite, [[Mao]]ist, democratic socialist, libertarian socialist ([[anarchism|anarchist]]), De Leonist, council [[communist]], guild socialist, etc., not to mention various modern and postmodern theoretical schools that seem to exist mainly in academic circles, such as [[Deconstruction|deconstructionism]], left- or post-[[feminism]], [[Critical Theory]], and the [[Frankfurt School]]. Many of these groups have a fierce rivalry with each other, such as the Marxist-Leninists with libertarian socialists, and the Stalinists and Maoists with just about everybody else. | ||
Revision as of 20:04, 15 January 2012
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The political spectrum is a concept for representing different political stances in relation to one another.
At its most basic, the political spectrum consists of a line or continuum from left to right, with varying shades of opinion in between. Some people, particularly those at the edges, will tend to simplify it futher to be just two positions; left or right, with no room for compromise. This can be seen most clearly in the way that many neo-conservatives label anyone who doesn't agree with them as "liberal", even if they are very much to the right of the center. More realistic ways of assembling a political spectrum tend to be far more complex but the single dimensional spectrum from "left" to "right" is the most commonly used and most popular.
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The left-right axis
The terms "left wing" and "right wing" originated in the years following the French Revolution of 1789, when the nobility were seated on the right side in parliament meeting, and representatives of the liberal bourgeoisie sat on the left. Thus, the term "right wing" became associated with maintaining the status quo and protecting the interests of the established elites, like the nobility, clergy and the wealthy. The "left wing" is associated with demanding progress and equality, although the extent can vary from moderate liberals who seek change through economic reform (while retaining a market-based system) to socialists, who advocate the destruction of capitalism, and collective ownership of the means of production.
An example of a simple left-to-right spectrum, along with examples of ideologies and where they would fit, would look something like this:
There are several problems with the left-to-right spectrum. One is that the uses and definitions of the terms vary considerably between different cultures and contexts, since they are dependent on the political and economic status quo. For example, in a totalitarian country such as the USSR, hard-line communists have sometimes been described as "conservatives", while proponents of free market capitalism were regarded as progressive reformers, essentially the opposite of how the left and right wings of a spectrum would be labeled in democratic countries. "Centrism" is not so much a clearly distinguishable position in its own right, as it is always defined in the context of other positions - what counts as a "centrist" position in one country may well be considered extreme in another. The terms "left" and "right" are also meaningless for people in many non-Western cultures, simply because they lack a tradition of categorizing politicians and parties in this manner. Another problem with the left-right distinction is that it suggests a one-dimensional spectrum that is often reduced to disagreements over economic policy, ignoring the importance of social issues and freedoms.
"Leftism" and "Rightism"
As with "left wing", the meanings of leftism and rightism vary between different countries but there is more than sufficient shared meaning to enable Leftists in one country to affiliate with similar Leftists in other countries and for Rightists in in one country to affiliate with co-religionists in other countries, unless of course their countries are at war. The shared meanings that form the bases for their affiliation involve beliefs about human nature. Leftists tend to unreasonably optimistic while Rightists tend to be unreasonably pessimistic about the perfectability of human nature.
Despite the "-ism", these labels do not designate a distinctive position that has at least some form of a common ideological and philosophical base, but are most often used to label people as having veered outside of the mainstream and towards one of the extreme fringes of the spectrum. "Leftist" is widely used in United States politics to refer to socialism and anti-capitalist ideologies, although it is also often mistakenly applied to liberals, which can cause confusion and resentment, since there is a vast difference between the two groups. For anyone who studies politics with rigor, the conflation of "leftist" and "liberal" is truly infuriating. The American right wing talking-point machine refers to anyone "left of center-right" (e.g. Hillary Clinton, Al Franken), as a "far left" politician or pundit, further confusing political discourse. Indeed, the nomenclature of US politics is so skewed as to be practically unrecognisable to anyone from outside the US.
Some leftists wish to overthrow capitalism, and believe that 'bourgeois democracy' is a sham, designed only to keep the rich in their places of privilege, while others believe in achieving a socialist society through democratic means. There are many different forms of leftism, as reflected in such terms as Marxist, Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Trotskyite, neo-Trostkyite, Maoist, democratic socialist, libertarian socialist (anarchist), De Leonist, council communist, guild socialist, etc., not to mention various modern and postmodern theoretical schools that seem to exist mainly in academic circles, such as deconstructionism, left- or post-feminism, Critical Theory, and the Frankfurt School. Many of these groups have a fierce rivalry with each other, such as the Marxist-Leninists with libertarian socialists, and the Stalinists and Maoists with just about everybody else.
The term "rightism" is rarely used, but tends to refer to a form of extreme conservatism that seeks to do away with democratic politics entirely. In the past, most "rightist" groups either sought a restoration of a previous monarchy, or the creation of a fascist or authoritarian regime to "undo the chaos of democracy". Because the United States has never had a monarch or a totalitarian movement, true rightist groups in that country have been relatively few, though the US government has helped fascists such as Pinochet come into power. In recent years, traditional rightism has been on the wane in most of the world.
Another common component of rightism, however, has not waned: extreme nationalism. Most rightist groups try to force out all immigrants and minorities. It is possible that in modern rightism this form of nationalism is the only defining characteristic.
Other measures
Another problem with the left-to-right spectrum is that there are some political positions which do not fit into it. For example, libertarianism upholds both personal liberties (traditionally left wing) and unrestrained economic freedom (traditionally right wing). (This hasn't stopped some libertarians from claiming that therefore they are centrists.)
Libertarians often contend that a full variety of opinions can be better represented by two-dimensional diagrams where the (economic) left-to-right spectrum is balanced with another (social) axis representing a varying level of restriction on civil and social freedoms, both of which can be either left and right wing. Two examples of such a representation are the Nolan Chart and the Political Compass, where political opinions can be plotted anywhere in a square grid based on the two axes. The Vosem chart reworks the Nolan chart into three axes: Cultural, fiscal, and corporate.[1] The two ends of each axis are sometimes labeled as "hierarchical" vs. "egalitarian."[2]