In
politics,
left-wing,
political left,
leftist and
the Left refer to a segment of a
political spectrum with
right-wing politics as its opposing component. While use of the term
Left varies, it is most commonly used to refer to support for changing traditional
social orders or for creating a more
egalitarian distribution of
wealth and
privilege. The term
Left was coined during the
French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in parliament; those who sat on the left supported the
radical changes of the revolution, including the creation of a
republic and
secularization.
[1] The concept of a distinct political Left originated with the
June Days Uprising of
1848. The organizers of the
First International saw themselves as the successors of the left wing of the French Revolution. The term was applied to a number of revolutionary movements in Europe, especially
socialism,
anarchism[2] and
communism. The term is also used to describe
social democracy and
social liberalism.
[3]In politics the term left wing derives from the French Revolution, when radical Montagnard and Jacobin deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the president's chair, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789. Throughout the 19th century, the main line dividing Left and Right in France was between supporters of the Republic and those of the Monarchy.[1] The Republic itself, or, as it was called by Radical Republicans, the Democratic and Social Republic (la République démocratique et sociale), was the objective of the French workers' movement, and the lowest common denominator of the French Left. The June Days Uprising during the Second Republic was the attempt by the left to assert itself after the 1848 Revolution, that foundered on its own divided radicalism which too few of the (still predominantly rural) population shared.
Following Napoleon III's 1851 coup and the subsequent establishment of the Second Empire, the Left was excluded from the political arena and focused on organising the workers. The growing French workers movement consisted of diverse strands; Marxism began to rival Radical Republicanism and the "Utopian socialism" of Auguste Comte and Charles Fourier with whom Karl Marx had become disillusioned. Socialism fused with the Jacobin ideals of Radical Republicanism leading to a unique political posture embracing nationalism, socialist measures, democracy and anti-clericalism (opposition to the role of the church in controlling French social and cultural life) all of which remain distinctive features of the French Left. Most practicing Catholics continue to vote conservative while areas which were receptive to the revolution in 1789 continue to vote socialist. In the United States and United Kingdom, many leftists, social liberals, progressives and trade unionists were influenced by the works of Thomas Paine, who introduced the concept of Asset-based egalitarianism, which theorises that social equality is possible by a redistribution of resources, usually in the form of a capital grant provided at the age of majority. Paine was an early advocate of republicanism and liberalism, dismissing monarchy and viewing government as a necessary evil. He opposed slavery, proposed universal, free public education, a guaranteed minimum income and other ideas then considered radical.
From mid-19th century, 'left' would increasingly refer to various forms of socialism and communism. Particularly influential was the publication of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in 1848, which asserted that the history of all hitherto existing human society is the history of class struggle. It predicted that a proletarian revolution would eventually overthrow bourgeois society, and by abolishing private property create a classless, stateless, and post-monetary society. The International Workingmen's Association (1864-76), sometimes called the First International, brought together delegates from many different countries, and from many different left-wing groups and trade union organizations. Some of Marx's contemporaries espoused similar ideas, but differed in their views of how to reach to a classless and stateless society. Following the split between those associated with Marx and Mikhail Bakunin at the First International, the anarchists formed the International Workers Association.[4]
