Why do we say left and right in politics? Left and right came from where politicians were sitting in the assembly hall during the French Revolution.
Many democracies use the left and right terms to apply to politics. Left are usually the liberals and right are usually the conservatives. Ultra-left is sometimes considered communist and ultra-right is sometimes considered to be Fascist. These are obviously extremes, but we use the terms to identify our politics. In the USA, the Democrats are considered to be left of center, and the Republicans are considered to be right of center, although this started to change after the 1932 election when FDR was elected. Up until then, the Republicans were on the left and were anti-slavery, and progressive. Lincoln, who fought to free the slaves, was a Republican, and the Democrats had very oppressive policies to African Americans, and they were the go-to party for the Southern states until the 1920s. FDR came to power in the 1930s and there was a gradual switching of sides. The Democrats moved from the right to the left. But the right of what to the left of what?
The use of “left” and “right” as a political denotation started in 1789, during the French Revolution. In the 18th century, France had a lot of problems. It was politically and economically broken. There were horrendous food shortage and massive inequality between the rich nobles and everyday people. The government was divided into three estates at the time. The first estate were representatives of the Catholic clergy, the second estate were representatives of the aristocracy, and the third estate were representatives of the commoners. The commoners were 95% of the French people. Each estate voted separately on any government issue and had one third of the vote. That meant 95% of the people only had one third of the voting power.
Things came to a head in 1789, and the third estate demanded reforms. The king, Louis XVI, granted some reforms, but they didn’t go far enough, and he very quickly reneged on them. He threatened to use the national guard to close the government, and things snowballed from there. Many of the third estate called for revolution. The Bastille was overthrown in July 1789 and the third estate declared themselves to be the National Constituent Assembly, the representatives of the people. They met to draw up a new constitution. They first met in the Hotel des Menus Plaisirs, in Versailles. They were locked out of there and met in the tennis courts of the Palace of Versailles, before they moved to Paris in the Salle du Manege.
When they met, they all knew that a new constitution was needed to protect the people of France, but they disagreed very strongly on several elements of it. Probably the most important element was how much power to let Louis XVI keep. Some people thought there should be no monarchy at all and France should be led by the people. Some people believed the monarchy was important and the king should keep a fair amount of power. These opinions divided people, and they found themselves forming blocks. The people who were against keeping the monarchy gravitated to the left of the room and the people who were more conservative and more in favor of the monarchy gravitated to the right.
Once the revolution was over and Louis had been guillotined, these sides continued. People tend to prefer being in groups of like-minded thinkers, and people tend to sit in the same place time after time when they go to a building they often frequent. Where do you sit in meetings? Probably with your friends and probably in the same place. The French parliament was the same. It wasn’t long before the people on the left were associated with the progressives and the innovators. The people who sat in the middle were the moderates and cautious about going too far to either side. And the people on the right were the conservatives who preferred things the way they were. More revolutions followed, then Napoleon came, and these sides disappeared for a while, but they returned. And left and right became associated with what people in France believed politically.
The terms didn’t come to the English speaking world for a while. They were first used in the UK in the mid 19th century, and in the US they were gradually adopted from the early 20th century. Since then, they have taken on the ideological meaning that they have today. And from this, you can see how ironic it is that the Republicans have become the party of the right. In the French Revolution, the republicans were the people who wanted to overthrow the monarchy and start a republic, and they were very firmly sat on the left. And this is what I learned today.
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Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Estatesgeneral.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Assembly_(French_Revolution)
https://www.history.com/articles/how-did-the-political-labels-left-wing-and-right-wing-originate
https://www.studentsofhistory.com/ideologies-flip-Democratic-Republican-parties