Photo Source Photo YourSpace | CC BY 2.0
Left, right, and center are spatial terms and relational notions; “left” and “right” are defined in relation to one another. In political contexts, these terms also have a more substantive meaning.
From the time of the French Revolution, when the more radical delegates to the National embly seated themselves to the left of the presiding officer, “left” has designated a relatively stable, though evolving and multi-faceted, political orientation; “right” has had a corresponding, contrary meaning. These polar opposites constitute a spectrum along which people, policies, programs, and political parities can be arrayed.
What they signify is impossible to say precisely, though the difference is well understood. This is because an idealized or notional left/right spectrum has been recognized, more or less explicitly, by nearly everyone since the late eighteenth century.
Very generally, the Left is dedicated to continuing the French Revolutionary commitment to “liberty, equality, and fraternity (community).” Tradition, authority, and order are the core values of the Right.
Socialists of all types, anarchists and New Deal-Great Society-Bernie Sanders liberals – but not “classical liberals” (“libertarians” in common parlance), at least not nowadays — are on the Left; conservatives are usually, though not necessarily, on the Right.
Political parties and social movements that everyone understands to…