The Right and the Left in Contemporary Ideologies

Abstract

The bipolar structure of ideological movements is based on the opposition between the conservative tendency of European aristocracy and the rebellious nature of the bourgeoisie. After the French General Assembly of 1789 established that the bourgeoisie should sit on the left side of the Parliament room and the aristocracy on the right, the modern world retained the idea that being a “leftist” meant being a supporter of revolutionary change in public order; being a “rightist” meant defending the unequal order of a pyramidal and traditionalist society. Compared with its numerous initial meanings, the ideological gap between the “left” and the “right” was reduced (after the emergence of Marxism) to a predominantly economic dimension or, more precisely, to “economic ethics”: thus, the idea took hold that left-wing doctrines are in theory protective of the poorer classes, whose unfair status, imposed by the rich exploiters, is accounted for and who are promised, if not prosperity, then at least revenge against the rich. The “left” thus comes waving the flag of economic equality and social justice. The “right” adheres to natural order, inequalities justified by personal qualities (converted into “social usefulness”), individual freedom, etc.