The Primarily Political Functions of the Left-Right Continuum

Abstract

The concepts of left and right-or liberal and conservative in their American versions-are common terms in politics, in political discourse, and in political analysis. Their meaning, however, is multifaceted at best, elusive at worst, and-over time and across polities-quite divergent. The left-right continuum in politics has been used for 200 years as a means to order a cognitive map of political and ideological relationships. Right and left make sense only if you happen to be the king of France chairing the first joint meeting of the States General on May 5, 1789, or the second meeting on June 23. There the nobility took the place of honor to the king's right, and the representatives of the Third Estate were to the king's left. In August 1789 when the Aristocrats and the Patriots met at the Tuilleries to form the Constituent Assembly in order to write a constitution, it was the Patriots who sat to the left and the Aristocrats to the right of the speaker's tribune. It was on August 26 that this group voted the Declaration of the Rights of Man, a landmark of political thought and practice. Most often in political discourse the left-right continuum has been given economic meaning, referring to equality as opposed to inequality, government intervention as opposed to free enterprise, tolerance of change as opposed to adherence to the status quo. Political activists, commentators, and scientists have widened the scope of the terms to include the major issues of the day. Thus hawks and doves were labeled conservative and liberal in the United States, and similarly in Israel the hawks are right, the doves left. Issues such as divorce laws, abortion, foreign aid, and integration have also been subsumed under these headings. The concept of left-right or liberal-conservative has come to be regarded as an overall ideological dimension, as a kind of superissue, as ideology. For political savants the continuum denotes ideological content; political scientists and elites use these terms more or less consistently to reflect the political and ideological realities of the time.