Left Vs Right,
What is it and does it still matter?
Left vs Right, What is it? How has it changed? and why does it still matter?
Modern politics has become so muddled, blurred, and confusing it’s hard to know what left and right is and what, or more importantly who it represents anymore. The purpose of this article is to try and give some necessary clarity and simplification of what it all means and why it’s still so important.
Left Vs Right
Ask 10 different people what the difference is and I’m sure you will get 10 different answers. The water has been muddied so much especially in the neo-liberal era that many people are either confused, disinterested, or actively don’t like simple designations such as left or right.
The term left and right originates from the French revolution of 1789 when members of the national assembly either lined up to the right to support the King or the left to support the revolution, simply put, left was the anti-establishment and right pro-establishment and to a certain extent and to huge varying degrees that is how it has remained. In Europe, the rise and huge influence of the left came about in conjunction with trade unions who were involved in forming the first leftist parties to represent trade unions and workers in parliament such as Germany’s Social Democratic Party ( SPD ) founded in 1863 or the UK Labour party founded in 1900. The purpose of the left was more clear-cut in those days as they were there to give the working class and trade unions active representation in parliament. Whereas for example the Conservative and or Liberal parties of the time represented the ruling class and or business interests.
The massive success of European left parties took off post World War 2 and in effect dominated European politics until the mid-1970s or later. It was an era where the basic elements of the light’s achievements such as the welfare state and trade union power were accepted also by the right. The Overton window in Europe was more to the left. Up to this point the left-right paradigm was still far less confusing than today, the left represented workers by supporting trade unions and an increased state in the form of an ever-increasing welfare state and social safety net. The right-leaning conservative parties at the time accepted many of the gains but were simply content with offering no more of them without proposing to disseminate the game wins. up until the mid-1970s then under the post-war Keynesian consensus, the distinction was quite simple. What happened since then was anything but and helps explain the modern confusion of the terms.
The Global Oil shocks of the 1970s and stagflation after the dismantling of the Bretton Woods financial system led to the change from the Keynesian consensus era to the Chicago economics school inspired by Milton Friedman Neo-Liberal era. This is the era we have been in ever since and it became so dominant so quickly that all the establishment Labour and left parties of Europe ended up adopting the model to varying degrees.
Following the rise of Thatcher in The UK and Reagan in The US, the free-market ideology of neo-liberal economics took hold to varying degrees everywhere in the west. The policies of a reduced state, in theory, banking deregulation, lower business tax, removal of capital controls, reduction or outright assault on trade union power, privatisation of public industries, and a massive reduction in public welfare spending became very quickly the accepted norm. In the UK in the 1980s, Labour fought constant internal battles between the left who wanted to continue the path of socialism, and the so-called pragmatic wing who wanted to cede more and more power to the right. Neil Kinnock brought the party to the middle and in the end, even that wasn’t enough as the final nail in the coffin came with the election of Tony Blair. As Labour leader, he managed to finally change the party’s constitution removing clause IV (a commitment to public ownership of industry) Thatcher has called Tony Blair her greatest achievement as he came to symbolize a left that agreed with the fundamentals of Thatcherism but with a softer edge and more investment in welfare programs for the poorest.
The Australian Labour Government in the 1980s under Bob Hawke and Paul Keating had earlier made such a similar shift. By the time Gerhard Schroeder returned the SPD to power in Germany in 1998 after 16 years outside of power the SPD had also become largely unrecognisable from the old party with even Schroeder himself touting Germany’s low wage manufacturing base as a strength. Bill Clinton’s Democrat’s 3rd way was another example of this although the pre-Reagan Jimmy Carter administration had, in reality, started that process in the 1970s. With the establishment of European parties from left and right all largely agreeing on Neoliberalism then the distinctions of the parties quickly began to fade. There were still significant differences but more and more they were only obvious to those who had followed politics closely which many people couldn’t. The blurring of differences came with it the blurring of who voted for who. Simply put, these days it isn’t as obvious as it once was which parties represent whom, and this is in my view what matters the most. What you represent is important but the real key is who you represent. The old left for the most part tried to at least in theory represent workers and the majority of society especially their poorest. Whereas the old conservative parties represented business and ruling class interests. These days the conservative parties still albeit with constantly changing guises represent the same interests. But now the left parties also represent business and financial interests as well as in theory offering more to the poorest in society.
What’s good for the country?
I will vote for whichever party is good for the country is a common claim. The phrase what’s good for the country is about as meaningless and subjective as they come. A financial trader might believe what’s good for the country is more financial deregulation to stimulate economic growth, a factory owner might believe less environmental regulations is what the country needs to get out of the way of business, a fisherman might think getting rid of quotas is what’s needed, a trade union member might believe more trader union power is what’s needed, a nurse might believe more investment into public health is what’s needed, a Conservative party leader might believe keeping gerrymandering and first past the post system is what’s needed as it prevents too many parties causing gridlock in parliament. In short often what people mean by what’s good for the country is what’s good for me and my sector, class, or interest group. This is why it’s most critical over anything else to know who politicians and parties represent over anything else. sure a leader could be well educated, presentable, and appear compassionate and well-spoken, but if he is loyal to and fundamentally represents for example the financial sector over the needs of the 99% then he isn’t the best leader to represent the needs of the majority of the country. Therefore because there isn’t such a thing as a party or political movement that is necessarily good for the country as such, we must support and vote for movements and parties that most and can best possibly represent the interests of the vast majority of the population
Am I Left or Right?
Another way of looking at this is, who needs political representation the most? This is the real question we have to ask ourselves before we either vote for or support certain parties and movements. We must try to forget about all the noise of culture wars and the personality-driven political soap opera that the media feeds us and break it down into this question. Who does the party represent and who needs representation the most. For example, if Conservative parties represent primarily the interest of big business, does big business need political parties looking out for their interest when they can afford lobbyists, lawyers, and media companies, etc to further their goals, or do normal working people who have no other means of influence need political representation more. Do the unemployed need more, do health care workers need more, do childcare workers need more, do charities need more, or do big multinationals need even more power than they already do. If you can answer this you can answer whether you are more left-leaning or right-leaning and this is why it’s as if not more important than ever. Do modern left parties represent workers and most of the population over business as much as they should? Not, do they represent more than Conservatives? yes. This is why I believe most people need to and should support left movements and parties going forward.
