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in the modern political world the terms
left-wing and right-wing can often be
heard and misunderstood but what do
these terms mean and where do they come
from the terms left and right were first
used in an ideological context during
the French Revolution of the 18th
century those on the left are in support
of the Revolution and those on the right
supported the monarchy this idea of the
left supporting change and the right
wanted to keep the status quo continues
today and is key in some of their
philosophy the difference between left
and right wing ideology fundamentally
comes down to the balance between
individual liberty and government power
the left strive for an equal society and
believed that the state should play a
substantial role in people's lives
this means increased regulation of
business and higher taxes on the rich
the left also tend to hold more
progressive views often opposing the
death penalty while supporting same-sex
marriage and woman's right to abortion
the Left have more lenient views on
immigration and are usually the driving
force behind any separation of church
and state economically the left often
follow the Keynesian or is it sometimes
called the interventionist school of
thought in brief this system would have
the government intervene to avoid an
economic recession this means tax in
highly during Cadore boom times and
spending this money when the economy
truly needs it the level of government
interference varies by how far left it
is with communists wanting complete
control over all aspects of the economy
whereas the center-left
want only moderate intervention the
right believed that a level of social
inequality is inevitable and think that
the government should have a limited
role in people's lives in business this
is as the right believes that preserving
personal freedom should be the
government's main goal and should not
impose too many rules on people's lives
the right also tend to hold more
traditional and religious attitudes than
the left
often opposing things those on the Left
support such as same-sex marriage and
women's right to abortion economically
the right can often be seen using the
new classical approach which includes
have analyzed a fair policy this roughly
translates to leave things alone
and means less regulation to increase
innovation and lower taxes to increase
growth ensure the right views government
interference in business as a bad thing
and thinks that the market prospers best
when left to its own devices parties on
the Left include labor the greens and
the Democratic Party while those on the
right include the Republicans
conservatives and the UK Independence
Party there is also a center ground
where parties like the Liberal Democrats
lie these parties hold views from both
the left and the right this will be in
said the use of left and right to
describe modern political parties is not
always accurate there are actually many
different political spectrums that can
be used to judge how far left or right
to party years parties often judge
themselves based on other current
political parties in this regard labor
is often seen to be on the left and
conservatives are often seen to be on
the right in actual fact lots of labor
policy actually places it in the center
or right of the political spectrum the
same is true in America where both the
Democrats and Republicans are on the
right of the spectrum in political terms
even if the Democrats are sometimes seen
as having more left-wing values the
political spectrum is also not just
2-dimensional within both the left and
the right there are people who hold
authoritarian and libertarian views
authoritarians wish for greater
government interference and libertarians
want the opposite as previously stated
the Left tend to be authoritarian and
the right tend to be libertarian but
this is not always the case
we are often taught the extremes of
left-wing is communism and the extremes
of right-wing as fascism this is not
strictly true as the extreme
authoritarian nature of fascist
governments combined with left-wing
economic beliefs make it hard to place
on a political scale while it is useful
to have these labels in order to help
the majority of people easily
distinguish between different ideologies
it is also important to remember that
they are not always accurate and looking
at the party's policy for yourself is
often the best way to choose who gets
your vote rather than following a label
blindly
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