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Right-wing politics

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Right wing is also a term used in several sports; see winger (sport).

In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the Right, are terms that refer to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of conservatism, classical liberalism, the religious right, authoritarian nationalism; or often simply the opposite of left-wing politics.

The term comes originally from the legislative seating arrangement during the French Revolution, when monarchists who supported the Ancien Régime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side of successive legislative assemblies.

As this original reference became obsolete, the meaning of the term has changed as appropriate to the spectrum of ideas and stances being compared, and the point of view of the speaker. In recent times, the term almost always includes some forms of conservatism and Christian democracy.

Some consider the political Right to include those forms of liberalism that emphasize the free market more than egalitarianism in wealth, but many free-market advocates, including most libertarians conceive of an additional spectrum (libertarianism-totalitarianism) upon which they place themselves which intersects the left-right political spectrum and places them 90 degrees away from traditional left and right, much as many anarchists (including "libertarian socialists") avoid placing themselves on the spectrum.

See political spectrum and left-right politics for further discussion of this kind of classification.

Right-wing issues

In the 20th century, outside the United States, where capitalism was always supported by the many politicians and intellectuals, the most notable distinction between left and right was in economic policy. The right advanced capitalism, whereas the left advocated socialism (often democratic socialism) or communism. This distinction has shifted somewhat since the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, as mainstream politicians now accept limited capitalism to a large degree, but in a socialistic form in which government mandates significant redistribution of wealth.

The dominant modern strand of right wing thought is concerned with traditional values (often Christian in nature) and preservation of individual and corporate rights through constraints on government power. In a hard-line form the second and third of these priorities are associated with libertarianism, but some on the right reject the most ardent assumptions of libertarianism, especially outside of the United States, and a small minority of libertarians do not consider themselves to be right wing.

A more obscure strand of right wing thought, often associated with the original right wing from the times of monarchy, supports the preservation of wealth and power in the hands that have traditionally held them, social stability, and national solidarity and ambition.

Both of the above strands of right wing thought come in many forms, and individuals who support some of the objectives of one of the above stands will not necessarily support all of the others. At the level of practical political policy, there are endless variations in the means that right wing thinkers advocate to achieve their basic aims, and they sometimes argue with each other as much as with the left.

The values and policy concerns of the right vary in different countries and eras. Also, individual right wing politicians and thinkers often have idiosyncratic priorities. It is not always possible or helpful to try to work out which of two sets of beliefs or policies is more right-wing (see political spectrum).

History of the term

See the Left-Right politics article for more detailed discussion of the history and development of the term

Since the French Revolution, the political use of the terms "left" and "right" has evolved across linguistic, societal, and national boundaries, sometimes taking on meanings in one time and place that contrast sharply with those in another. For example, as of 2004 the government of the People's Republic of China claims to remain on the "left," despite an evolution that has brought it quite close to what is elsewhere characterized as "right," supporting national cultural traditions, the interests of wealth, and privately owned industry. Conversely, the late dictator of Spain, Francisco Franco, who was firmly allied internationally with the right and who brutally suppressed the Spanish left, nonetheless pursued numerous development policies quite similar to those of the Soviet Union and other communist states, which are almost universally considered to be on the "left." Similarly, while "right" originally referred to those who supported the interests of aristocracy, in many countries today (notably the United States) the left-right distinction is not strongly correlated with wealth or ancestry.

Far Right

The Far Right, Radical Right, and Hard Right are terms used by many scholars to discuss political groups, movements, and political parties that are difficult to classify within the conventional right wing.

Much confusion is caused by widely varying usage of these terms. The term Far Right is used in different ways by different authors. It has been used by scholars in at least three somewhat conflicting ways to encompass:

  • Reform-oriented right-wing movements or rightist factions of conservative political parties. These are sometimes called the dissident right, activist right, or right-wing populism, These are all forms of Right-wing politics located between traditional conservatives and the extreme right. In this case participants are found outside mainstream electoral politics, but they generally produce a movement of drastic reform rather than actual revolution.
  • The extreme right or ultra right, which includes neo-fascists, White supremacists, and Neo-Nazis. Such groups are generally revolutionary in character rather than reformist.
  • The whole range of right-wing politics from the borders of conservatism out to the far reaches of the extreme right.

Even these categorisations are by no means universally accepted, and other uses exist, making comparative use of the term complicated.

Fascism is considered to be a form of far right politics by most scholars despite their overt and clear support for socialism. Most right-wingers reject any association with fascism (and socialism in general) however, and a handful of scholars place fascism on the political left, (see Fascism and ideology).

Current political parties referred to as far right

The list below includes a range of political parties, some of which have also been decribed as extreme right or even neo-fascist:

Extreme or Ultra Right

The Extreme right or Ultra right is the term used by most scholars to discuss right-wing political groups that step outside the boundaries of traditional electoral politics. This generally includes the revolutionary right, militant racial supremacists and religious extremists, Fascists, neo-fascists, Nazis, and neo-Nazis. It is distinct from other forms of right wing politics such as the less-militant sectors of the Far Right and Right-Wing Populists, as well as from the more traditional conservatives (Betz & Immerfall 1998; Betz 1994; Durham 2000; Durham 2002; Hainsworth 2000; Mudde 2000)


See also

External links

References

  • Betz, Hans-Georg and Stefan Immerfall, eds. 1998. The New Politics of the Right: Neo-Populist Parties and Movements in Established Democracies. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Betz, Hans-Georg. 1994. Radical Right-wing Populism in Western Europe. New York: St. Martins Press.
  • Durham, Martin. 2000. The Christian Right, the Far Right and the Boundaries of American Conservatism. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
  • Durham, Martin. 2002. "From Imperium to Internet: the National Alliance and the American Extreme Right" Patterns of Prejudice 36(3), (July): 50-61.
  • Hainsworth, Paul, ed. 2000. The Politics of the Extreme Right: From the Margins to the Mainstream. London: Pinter.
  • Mudde, Cas. 2000. The Ideology of the Extreme Right. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press.
  • Schoenbaum, David. Hitler's Social Revolution: Class and Status in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939. ISBN 0393315541
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