La Droite & the Right in France and Britain

When the National Assembly was convened during the French Revolution, a seating pattern was established whereby the adherents of the king and the old established order sat to the right of the assembly chamber, whereas the most radical opponents of the ancien regime sat to the left (Nugent and King, 1977, p. 3). From this seating practice arise the convention of using Right and Left as general expressions of political ideology, a convention now in worldwide use.

This convention can be criticized as simplistic, and as confusing or concealing vast differences in ideology and program. Thatcherite liberals and totalitarian fascists are thrown together on the Right, while social democrats and totalitarian Maoists are thrown together on the Left. Nevertheless, the very fact that the distinction between Right and Left has come into such general worldwide use suggest that it have some intuitive resonance. As an American judge once said of pornography, we may not be able to define it, but we know it when we see it.

Definitions have nevertheless been attempted. One such definition characterizes the Right in the following ways, with the Left representing the contrary position (Nugent and King, 1977, p. 3).

1) The Right identifies the nation, rather than socio-economic class, as being the primary element in social identity.

2) The Right is elitist rather than egalitarian.

3) The Right is doubtful of rational

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rican "divided government.") The new constitution also strengthened political parties; strong, cohesive parties are a rather new phenomenon in France (Frears, 1991, pp. 5-6), characteristic of the Fifth Republic. Although traditionally a multiparty system, the dominance of the Gaullist Party on the mainstream Right, and the collapse of the Communist Party, making the Socialists the dominant party of the Left, has made contemporary French politics approximate to a two-party system. Indeed, since 1968, the last occasion on which the famous barricades of Paris went up, the very deep divisions that previously typified France have substantially evaporated. Religion has for example largely ceased to be a decisive political indicator; while a trace of the old division appeared as recently as 1984, when the Socialists tried to cut state aid to Catholic schools, Socialists are now elected in such traditionally Catholic regions as Brittany (Frears, 1991, pp. 3-4). More generally, control of government has shifted from Gaullists to Socialists and back (along with periods of cohabitation) without either paralysis or drastic shifts in French public policy. However, after a long period of marginalization since the beginning of the Fifth
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Nugent King, Benjamin Disraeli, Tories Whigs, French British, France Britain, American-led NATO, French Thatcher, Earth King, Party Socialists, Bonapartist Anderson, de gaulle, frears 1991, nugent king 1977, frears 1991 pp, anderson 1974, 1991 pp, al 1998, le pen, british politics, king 1977, king et al, et al 1998, france britain, et al, al 1998 pp,
Approximate Word count = 4346
Approximate Pages = 17 (250 words per page)