In the UK, the left/right wing division is normally used to refer to the political continuum in economic terms only. Traditionally, the Labour party was left wing, the Conservative party right wing, and the SDP, now Lib Dems were economically centrist.
Left wingers (in economical terms) seek to redistribute wealth, so the rich are more heavily taxed and the welfare system acts as a safety net to protect against poverty (ideally; though it's never actually worked that way).
Extreme left wingers, ie socialists, believe in an extreme redistribution of wealth, so that there is no reward for being in what would normally be a higher-paid job - they seek to correct what they regard as ill-distributed privilege and opportunities in society.
Socialism has never worked in practice, yet, but I think Marxist ideas are sound and I believe there will be a post-capitalist society (though not in my lifetime).
Right wingers, like the Tory party, believe in low levels of government intervention, low funding in safety nets like welfare provision and have a general belief that the free market economy provides all the checks and balances a society needs to survive/thrive. Hence the selling-off in the 80s of government-owned functions (eg British Gas, BT, British Steel, the railways) and the selling off of council homes. They believe in people being more responsible for every aspect of their lives and not running a 'nanny state'.
Economically, Tony Blair would seem to be pretty right wing, and is only kept in check by the other Labour party MPs (particularly the 'traditional Labour' ones).
Anyway, this economic continuum is shown with the extreme left wing element at the bottom and extreme right wing element at the top.
And I've waffled on quite long enough, so I'll shut up.
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Date: Sep. 21st, 2005 08:05 pm (UTC)In the UK, the left/right wing division is normally used to refer to the political continuum in economic terms only. Traditionally, the Labour party was left wing, the Conservative party right wing, and the SDP, now Lib Dems were economically centrist.
Left wingers (in economical terms) seek to redistribute wealth, so the rich are more heavily taxed and the welfare system acts as a safety net to protect against poverty (ideally; though it's never actually worked that way).
Extreme left wingers, ie socialists, believe in an extreme redistribution of wealth, so that there is no reward for being in what would normally be a higher-paid job - they seek to correct what they regard as ill-distributed privilege and opportunities in society.
Socialism has never worked in practice, yet, but I think Marxist ideas are sound and I believe there will be a post-capitalist society (though not in my lifetime).
Right wingers, like the Tory party, believe in low levels of government intervention, low funding in safety nets like welfare provision and have a general belief that the free market economy provides all the checks and balances a society needs to survive/thrive. Hence the selling-off in the 80s of government-owned functions (eg British Gas, BT, British Steel, the railways) and the selling off of council homes. They believe in people being more responsible for every aspect of their lives and not running a 'nanny state'.
Economically, Tony Blair would seem to be pretty right wing, and is only kept in check by the other Labour party MPs (particularly the 'traditional Labour' ones).
Anyway, this economic continuum is shown with the extreme left wing element at the bottom and extreme right wing element at the top.
And I've waffled on quite long enough, so I'll shut up.