The Meaning of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’

When the newly elected French Legislative Assembly met on October 1, 1791 its radical members took their places on the left side of the chamber while the moderate deputies occupied the seats on the right. A new political terminology was born: Ever since then the great divide in modern political life has been that between “Left” and “Right.”

The accidental seating arrangements of the French revolutionary Assembly have influenced not only the vocabulary but the political thought of succeeding generations. As politics became more and more of a contest between two clearly defined sides, so the previously blurred outlines of political divisions acquired a new sharpness. First came the denominations, then the ideas. Or rather, political ideas which had existed and coexisted side by side for centuries were now sorted out, separated and classified around the rival poles of Left and Right. Anyone who persisted in combining elements of both became “unprincipled,” anyone who moved from one set of ideas to another, a “traitor.” The struggle of Left and Right has dominated the whole political history, first of Europe, then of the world.

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Tibor Szamuely

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When the newly elected French Legislative Assembly met on October 1, 1791 its radical members took their places on the left side of the chamber while the moderate deputies occupied the seats on the right. A new political terminology was born: Ever since then the great divide in modern political life has been that between “Left” and “Right.”

The accidental seating arrangements of the French revolutionary Assembly have influenced not only the vocabulary but the political thought of succeeding generations. As politics became more and more of a contest between two clearly defined sides, so the previously blurred outlines of political divisions acquired a new sharpness. First came the denominations, then the ideas. Or rather, political ideas which had existed and coexisted side by side for centuries were now sorted out, separated and classified around the rival poles of Left and Right. Anyone who persisted in combining elements of both became “unprincipled,” anyone who moved from one set of ideas to another, a “traitor.” The struggle of Left and Right has dominated the whole political history, first of Europe, then of the world.