Policical Question

Keeks

What i want to know is what is the difference between Left and Right wing policical parties?

Jug-A-Lug

right wing
Part of Speech noun
Pronunciation rait wIng
Definition 1. those within a political group who are the most conservative or reactionary. (Cf. left wing.)
Crossref. Syn. right

Derived Forms right-wing, adj. ; right-winger, n.


left wing
Part of Speech noun
Pronunciation lehft wIng
Definition 1. a faction of a political party or other group that advocates liberal reform or radical, revolutionary change, esp. in the social, political, or economic order. (Cf. right wing.)

Derived Forms left-wing, adj. ; left-winger, n.


Obtained from http://www.wordsmyth.net

Victor

No hard and fast rules:

Economics -
Socialism is left wing (generally)
Capitalism is right wing (generally)

Morality / religion -
Liberalism / pluralism is left wing
Conservatism is right wing

Law & order / military -
Liberalism is left wing
Militarism is right wing

Generally left wing supports the individuals rights more, whereas right wing supports the states / businesses rights more.

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Too many freaks, not enough circuses.

DadaKopf

Right:

• conservative
• pro-libertarian
• minimal state intervention

Left:

• socialist
• pro-egalitarianism
• state social responsibility
• intervention, 'progressive'

But then there's a whole load of other stuff like the Communists in Russia are classically leftist but they're politically conservative so it gets confusing. But by and large, Socialist/Communist is left, Conservative is right but then you have Socialist Anarchists (left) and Libertarian Anarchists (right) - usually.

BAH.

If your interested in all that stuff, check out stuff on the UCD Politics Dept website - there plenty of stuff.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">What Victor said:
Generally left wing supports the individuals rights more, whereas right wing supports the states / businesses rights more.</font>

Left wingers (assuming they're socialist) are about communal rights too - it depends on the position within the left segment of the political spectrum. Socialism is just pro-society as a whole (somewhat totalitarian and interventionist) whereas right-wingers are very pro-individual rights, above all else.

Then the big difference between socialist and anything to the right of the spectrum is the view of property and the right to accumulate property and trade. Socialism is classically pro-state ownership of the means of transport, exchange and production and favours state control in people's lives, attempting to deliver a modicum of equality in society (making the analysis that people are naturally unequal). Right wingers are traditionally the opposite where freedom of the individual is paramount, the right to wealth and property and minimum state interference/responsibility is central. So that's not necessarily correct.

[This message has been edited by DadaKopf (edited 28-06-2001).]

Winning Hand

Bah, for all you need to know about society just check here
http://ucsub.colorado.edu/~kominek/humour/cows

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I like my coffee like I like my women.......
In a plastic cup

I like my coffee like I like my women......
covered in bees

amp

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Keeks:
What i want to know is what is the difference between Left and Right wing policical parties?</font>

Very little these days

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Lunacy Abounds! GLminesweeper RO><ORS!
art is everything and of course nothing and possibly also a sausage

Manach

From a Western-religious view point, large church organisations tended to be conservative/right-wing (ie "The Anglican Church being the Tory party at Prayer" - Disraeli).
Smaller, unorthodox groups would favour liberal opinions.

bugler

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by amp:
Very little these days
</font>

Too true I'm afraid

The death of the left(and I hate categorising it like that) is to be lamented. We seem to be condemned to a life of lauding people like Bill Clinton, and hero worshipping JFK, and if you dare speak against the establishment risk being labelled as a 'radical'.It blows goats.

DadaKopf

Aye, but there's a few simple reasons for that.

1) Voting System: The voting system has a huge impact on the number of effective parties in government as well as their ideologial outlooks. Lipsett and Rokkan in the 60s proved that when theres a first past the post system, you generally get two effective parties which usually tend toward the centre. With two kinds of proportional representation (Single Transferable Vote and PR-List) you get between 3 and 5 effective parties and there is much wider scope for political-ideological difference as much as there is for central power-sharing coalitions.

2) Wealth and the Middle Class: It's also a statistical fact (uncovered by the same fellas) that the larger the middle class in a society, the more tempered class conflict becomes so, these days, if most people are earning more money and becoming more 'middle class' (salariat), then the fringe parties become more marginalised and can't compete against the general will, or lack thereof.

I assume that the recent 'fringe' will resurface, though; politics always has a way of drumming up support for important issues within a population but outside of official political structures. Take the anti-globalisation thingy: at the moment, it's a significant global phenomenon and it outside the legitimate political arena but their main tenets will one day be absorbed into the political mainstream. I'm not quite so pessamistic as other people I know about the whole corporate thing.

Eh, that last paragraph's not so important.