Left vs Right … What is What?

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Atul Sharma

An extrovert by nature, Atul has been sharing his opinions and views on various social network platforms. He always had been thinking about having his own platform and here it is. Creative and tech-savvy Atul has a good sense of humor and when he is not programming or writing blogs or traveling, you can find him cooking, Netflixing or sleeping.

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It has always been a matter of huge interest what is left wing, what is right wing, how these political spectra are defined. They don’t have any specific set of rules of definition.

So, to start, I will take the example of their extremist behavior. When right-wing becomes extreme, it gives leaders like Hitler and Mussolini and while extreme left-wing results in Communism, Maoism.  

Now let us see the basic criteria of left-wing politics and right-wing politics and I am repeating again that there couldn’t any strict definition for them.

Left-wing Politics –

There follower are known as Liberals, Socialists, Communists

Basic characteristics –

1. Equality in society – It is about equal treatment to everyone, no one is VIP.
2. Separation of religion and state – religion and administration are two different subjects and must be kept separated always
3. Central Planning – Govt should have central planning and should be administrating that.
4. Govt intervention in the economy – More profit more taxes and that should be used for welfare.
5. Anti-free trade – Against free trade. Example of Chinese products in India are cheap and that harm local manufacturing unit so govt should add more tax to benefit local industries. This is also known as Protectionism.
6. Progressive views – They support LGBT, same-sex marriages, abortion, and immigration.
7. Against Death penalties

Left wing Believes that –

1. Religion is not important, rather they stress on scientific reasoning.
2. Criminals are victims of the system, economic diversity.
3. The community is based on ethics

Famous Personalities

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Einstein, Francois Hollande, Warren Buffet

Right-wing Politics

There followers are known as Conservatives, Nationalists

Basic Characteristics –

1. No role or less role of government in the economy
2. Cultural and religious conservatives
3. Nationalism
4. They also believe in equality when no special provision to the minority.
5. They believe in personal freedom.
6. Less govt intervention in the economy, private sector are promoted
7. Taxes are low
8. Tough on crime to prevent

Right wing Believes that –

1. Religion and culture must be preserved
2. Criminals are self-made by choice
3. The community is based on morals.

Famous Personalities

Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, George Washington, Winston Churchill, George W. Bush, Rupert Murdoch

Examples from India, The USA and rest of the world –

India – 

• INC – Center left
• BJP – Center Right
• CPI – Far Left
• Shiv Sena – Far right

The USA

• Democratic Party, Green Party – Center Left
• Republican Party, Libertarian Party – Center Right

Rest of the World

• Germany: Christian Democratic Union of Germany – Center right
• France: National Front – Far Right
• UK:
  • Conservative Party – Center Right
  • UKIP – Far right
  • Labor Party – Left Party

Mixed ideologies examples from India, USA and Rest of world –

India –

1. Congress brought privatization, free trade, globalization, being on the left side they adopted the principles of right wings
2. Continuation of many socialist schemes like MNREGA by BJP, where a right-wing party is following left wings ideologies.
3. Pro-Labor policies by current right-wing govt are again left wings’ policy adoption.
4. SP, BSP, RJD, JDU claims to be left wing, but they also try to attract foreign investment.
5.  JDU a center-left winger is in alliance with BJP and center-right winger party in Bihar.
6. Provision and continuation of reservation to deprived by BJP is again left-wing orientation but other policies of BJP make it a center-right party.
7. Religion and caste are the basis of Indian politics which makes it right winger society while central administration for infrastructure is part of left-wing politics

USA –

1. Gun law in the USA makes it right winger while Democrats also ruled the country for long but never revoked it.
2. The USA has a free trade policy that is against left-wing ideology, but it is followed by both parties.
3. Democrats are labeled as left but Barak Obama says is an interview that he is against same-sex marriage. later after 4 years in 2012, he said that he is in favor of same-sex marriage.

Rest of the world

1. Germany has a right-wing party in power, but they supported immigrants from Syria and other middle east countries.

Summary

Here we saw differences in the political spectrum. In today’s politics, no party is ideal right-wing or ideal left-wing. This era is beyond any political spectrum. It changes with time, political equations and relative to other available parties in the country. In the next article, I have discussed the economic side on the left and the right wing ideologies.