The left-right dichotomy is a conceptual tool to describe and classify political parties, actors, ideologies, attitudes, and specific policies along a spectrum. Historically, the terms left and right refer to the seating positions in the National Assembly, during the French Revolution (1789–1799), of pro and anti-Ancien Régime members. They became part of the mainstream political language in the nineteenth century and are still used to describe opposed political affiliations—notwithstanding debates on the contemporary relevance of the dyad.
Positions on a left-right axis are relative and not absolute. The right is not monolithic and one can distinguish between extreme, moderate, or center rights. The substantive content of the term right varies according to the political, social, cultural, or historical contexts, which explains that several disputed criteria have been put forward to differentiate the right from the left.
Very often the right has been defined as more in favor of status quo, of individual (as opposed to collective) rights and responsibilities, of limited government or social interventions in the economy, and of the acceptance of inequalities construed as (largely) natural as well as socially necessary. In contemporary political discourse, right often refers to variants of conservatism, fascism, libertarianism, and (neo)liberalism.
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