Difference between revisions of "Political Spectrum"

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Political spectrum

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-The idea of a '''political spectrum''' stems from deliberative bodies in which groups of like-minded men would sit on opposite sides of a chamber, which gave rise to terms like "left" and "right" being attached to the views of the men on those sides.
+#redirect [[Political spectrum]]
-The earliest known left-right classification was that of the [[National Assembly]] in [[France]] just before the [[French Revolution]]. Members who supported political rights for all classes of society,{{fact}} would sit on the left side of the assembly hall in which they met.  Members who supported the monarchy, would sit towards the right. Those who had been offended by their own party would frequently stand up and walk over to the other side of the hall in order to make a political statement.
-Historian [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]] has said the spectrum theory was "adequate to the political simplicities of the nineteenth century, when the Right meant those who wished to preserve the existing order and the Left meant those who wished to change it. But the twentieth century, here as elsewhere, introduced new ambiguities." <ref>[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/schlesinger-notrightleft.html Not Right, Not Left, But a Vital Center], [[Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.]], ''New York Times Magazine'', April 4, 1948.</ref>
-==Definitions==
-The original definition referred to Church and State issues from the late 18th century Enlightenment period. At its root was faith vs. rationalism, or the Church vs. [[secularism]]. The so-called "right", defined as "traditional interests" refered to the Church & monarchy who ruled by the [[Divine right of kings]], and the so-called "left" constituted secular elements challenging the Church's longheld influence over civil government.  These definitions have always been problematic when attempting to assign Western notions of "left and right" to societies which traditionally have no conception of separation of chuch and states, such as in Islam <ref>[http://nobsopus.blogspot.com/1993/11/political-career-of-muhammad.html The Political Career of Muhammad], Arnold Toynbee, ''A Study of History'' Annex II TO III. C. (ii) (b) p. 466.</ref> or Czarist Russia.
-The monarchy and titled nobility became known as the "right"; this idea however has been disabused in the United States where a landlord class of titled nobles never existed, and in fact is specifically prohibited by the U.S. Constititution.  Hence Europeans today, based upon their own cultural idioms and history, have an extremely discolored view of what  the "American right" is.
-The "left" is often described as advocating "change" of traditional systems and institutions of a society, however the leftist regimes of [[Cuba]] and [[North Korea]] stoutly resist changes other leftist regimes abandoned 20 years ago after seven decades of stagnation and exploitation of the oppressed common people by a privileged leftist ruling elite.
-==Notes==
-<references/>
-==See also==
-* [[Nomenklatura]]
-* [[Communist]]
-* [[Socialist]]
-* [[Fascist]]
-* [[Libertarian]]
-* [[Republican]]
-* [[Democrat]]
-[[category:politics]]
-==External links==
-*[http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~garfinkm/Spectrum.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~garfinkm/Spectrum.html&h=697&w=724&sz=181&tbnid=eAv0lAZBMDi55M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dpolitical%2Bspectrum&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2 a 2-d view] with left-right based on US politics and a novel vertical axis

Difference between revisions of "Political Spectrum"

Latest revision as of 03:54, September 2, 2016

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