The political spectrum is a concept for representing different political stances in relation to one

another.
At its most basic, the political spectrum consists of a line or continuum from left to right, with
varying shades of opinion in between. Some people, particularly those at the far sides of the
spectrum, will tend to simplify it futher to be just two positions; left or right, with no room for
compromise. More realistic ways of assembling a political spectrum tend to be far more complex
but the single dimensional spectrum from "left" to "right" is the most commonly used and most
popular.

The left-right axis

The terms "left wing" and "right wing" originated in the years following the French Revolution of
1789, when the nobility were seated on the right side in parliament meeting, and representatives
of the liberal bourgeoisie sat on the left. Thus, the term "right wing" became associated with
maintaining the status quo and protecting the interests of the established elites, like the nobility,
clergy and the wealthy. The "left wing" is associated with demanding progress and equality,
although the extent can vary from moderate liberals who seek change through economic reform
(while retaining a market-based system) to socialists, who advocate the destruction of
capitalism, and collective ownership of the means of production.
The following is the classic left-to-right political spectrum that still makes a good deal of sense to
many people in the United States of America and resonates strongly throughout western
civilizations. Included in this basic linear political spectrum are examples of western ideologies
and where they would fit:
Communism ----- Democratic
Socialism----Social
Democracy ----- Liberalism ----- Centrism ----- Conservatism ----- Reactionism ----- Fascism

Understanding this left-to-right political spectrum

There are several problems with the the left-to-right spectrum. One is that the uses and
definitions of the terms vary considerably between different cultures and contexts, since they
are dependent on the political and economic status quo. For example, in a totalitarian country
such as the USSR, hard-line communists have sometimes been described as "conservatives",
while proponents of free market capitalism were regarded as progressive reformers, essentially

the opposite of how the left and right wings of a spectrum would be labelled in democratic
countries. "Centrism" is not so much a clearly distinguishable position in its own right, as it is
always defined in the context of other positions - what counts as a "centrist" position in one
country may well be considered extreme in another. The terms "left" and "right" are also
meaningless for people in many non-Western cultures, simply because they lack a tradition of
categorizing politicians and parties in this manner. Another problem with the left-right distinction
is that it suggests a one-dimensional spectrum that is often reduced to disagreements over
economic policy, ignoring the importance of social issues and freedoms.
Another common observation is that the movements found at both the far left and far right
positions tend to have more in common with each other than they do with more moderate
liberals or conservatives, since both extremes have a tendency towards radicalism and
totalitarianism. The horseshoe theory contends that the left-right axis should be viewed in terms
of a horseshoe curve, with the ends of the axis curving towards each other, rather than a
straight line from one extreme to the other.
Leftism" and "Rightism"
Although the meanings of Left and Right vary between different countries, there is more than
sufficient shared meaning to enable Leftists in one country to affiliate with Leftists in other
countries and for Rightists in in one country to affiliate with co-religionists in other countries,
unless of course their countries are at war. The shared meanings that form the bases for their
affiliation involve beliefs about human nature. Otherwise they would be unable to form
organizations like the Socialist International or the International Democrat Union. Leftists tend to
be unreasonably optimistic while Rightists tend to be unreasonably pessimistic about the
perfectibility of human nature. Whether it is nurture or nature is still up for grabs.
Despite the "-ism", these labels do not designate a distinctive position that has at least some
form of a common ideological and philosophical base, but are most often used to label people
as having veered outside of the mainstream and towards one of the extreme fringes of the
spectrum. "Leftist" is widely used in United States politics to refer to socialism and anticapitalist ideologies, although it is also often mistakenly applied to liberals, which can cause
confusion and resentment, since there is a vast difference between the two groups. For anyone
who studies politics with rigor, the conflation of "leftist" and "liberal" is truly infuriating. The
American right wing talking-point machine refers to anyone "left of center-right" (e.g. Hillary
Clinton, Al Franken), as a "far left" politician or pundit, further confusing political discourse.
Indeed, the nomenclature of US politics is so skewed as to be practically unrecognisable to
anyone from outside the US.

Some leftists wish to overthrow capitalism, and believe that 'bourgeois democracy' is a sham,
designed only to keep the rich in their places of privilege, while others believe in achieving a
socialist society through democratic means. There are many different forms of leftism, as
reflected in such terms as Marxist, Marxist-Leninist, Stalinist, Trotskyite, neo-Trostkyite, Maoist,
democratic socialist, libertarian socialist (anarchist), De Leonist, council communist, guild
socialist, etc., not to mention various modern and postmodern theoretical schools that seem to
exist mainly in academic circles, such as Deconstructionism, left- or post-feminism, Critical
Theory, and the Frankfurt School. Many of these groups have a fierce rivalry with each other,
such as the Marxist-Leninists with libertarian socialists, and the Stalinists and Maoists with just
about everybody else.
The term "rightism" is rarely used, but tends to refer to a form of extreme conservatism that
seeks to do away with democratic politics entirely. In the past, most "rightist" groups either
sought a restoration of a previous monarchy, or the creation of a fascist or authoritarian regime
to "undo the chaos of democracy". Because the United States has never had a monarch or a
totalitarian movement, true rightist groups in that country have been relatively few, though the
US government has helped fascists such as Pinochet come into power. In recent years,
traditional rightism has been on the wane in most of the world.
Another common component of rightism, however, has not waned: extreme nationalism. Most
rightist groups try to force out all immigrants and minorities. It is possible that in modern rightism
this form of nationalism is the only defining characteristic.
Other measures

The Political Compass

The Nolan Chart

Another problem with the left-to-right spectrum is that there are some political positions which
do not fit into it. For example, libertarianism upholds both personal liberties (traditionally left
wing) and unrestrained economic freedom (traditionally right wing). (This hasn't stopped some
libertarians from claiming that therefore they are centrists.)
Libertarians often contend that a full variety of opinions can be better represented by twodimensional diagrams where the (economic) left-to-right spectrum is balanced with another
(social) axis representing a varying level of restriction on civil and social freedoms, both of which
can be either left and right wing. Two examples of such a representation are the Nolan
Chart and the Political Compass, where political opinions can be plotted anywhere in a square
grid based on the two axes. The Vosem chart reworks the Nolan chart into three axes: Cultural,
fiscal, and corporate.The two ends of each axis are sometimes labeled as "hierarchical" vs.
"egalitarian.
Key players

Politicians

Political parties

Government