What does "right" and 'left" mean when I am talking about political orientations?

Question

Please, try to explain it in simple words because I am not very smart.

Answer 1

Left - The left is generally secular. They are people and groups who advocate liberal, often radical measures to effect change in the established order, especially in politics, usually to achieve the equality, freedom, and well-being of the common citizens of a state. Also called left wing.

Left wing -The liberal or radical faction of a political group
ex. Many consider him a leader of the Democratic Party's left wing.

Center-left, left of center, and left liberal refer to the left side of mainstream politics in liberal democracies. These support liberal democracy, representative democracy, private property rights and some degree of free market, as well as high social spending, universal provision of social welfare, some state regulation of the economy and often public ownership. Examples are the British Labour Party, the American Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The left has traditionally been concerned with the lower classes and with combatting oppression. Thus the industrial revolution saw left-wing politics become associated with the conditions and rights of workers in the new industries. This led to movements around social democracy, socialism and trade unionism. More recently, the left has criticized what it perceives as the exploitative nature of current forms of globalization, e.g. the rise of sweatshops and the "race to the bottom", and either has sought to promote more just forms of globalization, such as fair trade, or has sought to allow nation-states to "delink" or break free of the global economy.

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Right - They are the opposite of the left. They are tradionalists & conservatives. They advocate very conservative policies. Right-wing groups generally support free enterprise. In the United States, the right wing generally argues for a strong national defense program and opposes federal involvement in promoting social welfare.

Although both major political parties in the United States have right-wing factions, right-wing policies are usually associated with the Republican party.

Right wing views have been concerned with keeping "traditional" values (often religious values) and the 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

Far right, extreme right, ultra-right, or radical right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or relative position a group or person occupies within a political spectrum. The terms "far right" and "far left" are often used to say that someone is an "extremist." "Far right" is thus usually a pejorative term used by outsiders rather than a self-label.[citation needed]

Far right - is usually applied to ideologies and political movements which embrace values including racism, male chauvinism, monarchism, military rule, religious fundamentalism, extreme nationalism and ethnocentrism to a degree significantly greater than is common in the society at large

Answer 2

Politics (real meaning, not current/popular meaning-America only):

Right-conservative-less gov't regulation and interferance into people's lives. Power starts locally and works up, city and state gov'ts have the most impact, then where they cant work things must be done at higher levels.

Left-liberal-larger gov't with more direct involvement in life. Power starts at largest levels and works down from there. National gov't takes direct interest instead of letting local gov'ts do that.

That being said, there is no "Right wing" major party currently. The Repubs under Bush are increasing the power of the federal gov't and many things previously done at local levels are being shifted up to at least state control.

The whole thing is misleading though. Political theory presents on a circle, not a straight line. When you go too far right you end up on the left and vice versa. The Repubs and the UK are headed to the same thing right now, but they came to it from opposite paths.

Answer 3

The Right is concerned with the interests of the Corporations and the richest 1%-10% of Americans that own the majority of the wealth; so they favor low taxes, privatization, deregulation and are not concerned with the majority of the population.
The Center contains both Social Issue Liberals and Conservatives but both usually agree on a huge Military budget and favorable conditions for Corporations; and are only somewhat concerned with the interests of the majority.
The Left, is not really represented in mainstream U.S. media, is interested in the interests of the majority and favors fair taxation on the wealthy to provide decent education, medical care and infrastructure. It sees 737 Military bases in 130 countries as Empire building and a half-Trillion Dollar Military budget as harming the interests of the majority and the world. It is against "Free Trade" agreements which only benefit Corporations looking overseas for cheap labor and resources.

Answer 4

left wing refers to socialists or communists. Right wing refer s to capitalists. Most people get this wrong, especially Americans because they mistakenly equate Left wing with Liberal. Liberal means anti-establishment. Whatever the establishment is depends on the country. They also mistakenly equate right wing with Conservative which is pro-establishment.

For example: A communist in Cuba would be considered Conservative, a capitalist would be Liberal - the complete opposite of the U.S.
Also a Conservative in Iran would be Islamic fundamentalist.
Conservative and Liberal all depends on the established values of the country. Right and left refers to economic systems. Left= socialist (governmental regulation of business) Right= Capitalist ( limited regulation of business by government) This is as simple as I can make it.

Answer 5

The terms right and left have become somewhat blurred over the last thirty or so years. They originally stood for political beliefs. Someone who was conservative was considered to be right of center, and someone who was liberal would be left of center. Most people fall somewhere in the middle.

Answer 6

right is conservative, like to stick with tradition, usually religious, believe in small government, don't normally like to use government benefits and believe in being very stable without much change.
left is liberal or progressive, like to push for constant change for what they believe is for the betterment of society, believe that government is the best way to tackle social and economic problems, believe that the rich and the government should take care of the poor and unprivileged, generally religion does not play a big part in their lives and they are usually very active protesters when they disagree with government.
hope I got that pretty well explained and right for you.

Answer 7

Right means conservative. Conservatives are people like Pres. Bush. They are often christians and usually believe in strict accordance with laws. Left refers to liberals. Liberals, like Bill or Hillary Clinton, believe in a more loose and open interpretation of the law.
I'll use abortion as an example. Conservatives (right) are commonly against abortion because of their affiliation with the church and their belief that abortion takes a human life. Liberals (left) support abortion because they believe it is a woman's right to rid her body of the unborn child.

Answer 8

Right means Right and Left means Wrong

Answer 9

Isn't that "I am not very smart" a ploy? It seems to me, it's gotten you all the answers from gullible people who wanted to help you.

Answer 10

Fundamentally, a "right-wing" government favors a smaller government, with less tax and less involvement in citizens' personal lives. A "left-wing" government favors a bigger government, with higher tax and more involvement in citizens' personal lives.
However, in recent years, "right" and "left" have changed in different ways, especially in America.