Political Spectrum
The political spectrum of contemporary U.S. politics places liberals such as Democrats on the left and conservatives such as Republicans on the right.
The origin of this term comes from the National Assembly in France just before the French Revolution. More liberal members, who supported political rights for all classes of society, would sit on the left side of the assembly hall in which they met. More conservative members, who supported the return of 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.
It has been commonly pointed out that there is no reason to suppose that political points of view can be arranged along a single spectrum from left to right.
- "The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left', established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape." The Political Compass </ref>
Libertarians and classical liberals, in particular, reject a one-dimensional view of the matter. They say that their point of view - advocating personal freedom in all its forms, as long as it does not conflict with the freedom of others, is not a left-wing or right-wing position. Advocating freedom sometimes leads them to take positions that are usually considered right-wing (for example, defending a worker's right not to join a labor union) but at other times leads them to take positions that are usually considered left-wing (for example, defending gay rights).
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