WHEN people discuss political, economic and social issues, their viewpoints are shaped, consciously or subconsciously, by philosophies derived from the left or right of the political spectrum.
To understand these ideological positions it is essential to understand how each of these ideas manifest themselves.
It is important to understand these philosophies in order to avoid confusion in applying them, but more importantly, to understand how each offers or affects public policy, the welfare of citizens and general functioning of societies.
Contrary to disdainful belief that these philosophies are academic theories that are inconsequential in real life, they are central in determining whether a citizen has bread or not on a day-to-day basis.
In political science, there is a political spectrum that basically contains two sides, the left and the right.
This left and right characterisation dates back to the French Revolution when the supporters of the French Republic and those of the Monarchy sat on either side of the president’s chair in Parliament.
The French Republic supporters generally sat on the left while those of the Monarchy on the right.
This arrangement led to the emergence of the left who are generally described as progressive nowadays, and the right who are characterised as conservatives.
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When a person is said to be a leftist, for instance, it means that their political, economic and social viewpoints on issues are informed by ideas on the left of the political spectrum.
I will briefly outline the elements that make up the political, economic and social dimensions.
A caveat though, these are generalised categorisations as overlaps and contradictions can occur in these classifications in real life.
For instance, a leftist can have liberal social values, but require low taxes, just as a right wing can support balanced budgets, but still support social welfare.
From a political dimension, leftists are generally liberal, class-based and their ideas are influenced by Marxist, Leninist ideas among others.
The left elements comprise of recognition of masses as the vanguard of the political processes; they are opposed to a hierarchical society dominated by an elite class.
On the other hand, the political dimension of the right includes a belief in a hierarchical society dominated by a ruling class, the belief in limiting the role of government in interfering with people’s lives by legislating how citizens should live.
The right believes that the governments and the bureaucracy are inherently flawed, intrusive and corrupt public institutions.
On the economic dimension, the left elements include a tolerance of a of a big government that plays a significant role in the economy providing business, public goods such as land and job opportunities, the belief in Keynesian’s redistributive economics, the tolerance of budget deficits for the purposes of investing in citizens and enhancing the welfare of citizens and tolerance of higher taxes to fund social welfare programmes.
The right elements include the preference of a small government with a limited role in the economy both as a player and regulator, the perception of the private sector as the engine of the economy, demands fiscal restraints, low taxes, little or no tolerance for budget deficits and a strong belief in market based solutions, such as privatisation.
The social dimension of the left includes elements such as a belief in the welfare system – free or subsidised education and health, providing social assistance, promoting liberal social values, such as women emancipation.
Meanwhile, the right are against social welfare because they believe it creates free riders and encourages laziness among citizens, they hold conservative social values that restrict women’s liberties, and believe in a tough law-enforcement-based approach to crime.
Based on the three theoretical dimensions, it is clear that each addresses key day to day life issues affecting citizens. So when politicians or public servants formulate or implement policies from any one of these dimensions, they are bound to have an impact on the day to day welfare of citizens.
For instance, when the President Robert Mugabe’s government embarked on the land reform programme, economic empowerment and ordered some companies such as platinum miner, Mimosa not to retrench its workers, it was guided by a leftist philosophy.
When British Prime Minister David Cameroon drastically cut social services benefits and vowed to eliminate the budget deficit, he was guided by a right-wing philosophy.
The left and right philosophies can be applied to any daily situations and it will be apparent that the any of them chosen to deal with any public issue is important because it can make a difference as to whether a citizen has bread or not on a daily basis.
