Ancient roots.

Myths dealing in left and right have origins that disappear into a time before recorded history. These ancient stories have similar themes. A person dies and meets a judge who examines the content of their lives. Those whose lives are judged to have been good are sent to the right to be taken up to some sort of eternal paradise. Those deemed to have been bad go to the left and down into a pit of damnation.

The concept of salvation to the right and damnation to the left pops up in the mythology of many civilizations. It is in the Old Testament, from which it found its way into European culture. As kings and queens were believed to be appointed by God, their hands were believed to take on good and evil characteristics. The monarch's right hand being sacred, that's where their trusted advisers and friends gathered.

That brings us to the French town of Versailles. Just outside Paris, this is where the king lived in a magnificent palace. During the summer of 1789, the king, Louis XVI, was about to face a crisis.

The mass of the population of France was fed up with the corruption and haughty behaviour of the monarchy. Rising taxes, the persecution of religious minorities, and wasteful government added to the anger of the people.

King Louis XVI was also not in a happy mood. Wars and his own extravagant spending had put the finances of France into a major pickle. To help get him out of the financial glue, the king recalled the Estates-General, an assembly that had not met for more than 150 years. It consisted of three estates: the clergy (First Estate), the nobility (Second Estate), and commoners (Third Estate). Each estate had one vote, and it had always been the habit of the clergy and nobility to gang up on the commoners and do the monarch's bidding.

But, in 1789, the commoners were feeling frisky. They heard the rumbling discontent among the population, invited members of the First and Second Estates to join them, and declared themselves to be France's National Assembly. They appointed a Speaker and set about writing a Constitution that would curb the power of the monarchy.

Those who favoured keeping the monarchy, although with diminished powers, gathered to the right of the Speaker. In France's National Assembly of 1789, those who favoured abolishing the monarchy sat to the left of the Speaker.

The right became associated with opposing change, with being conservative. The right wanted the established privileges of the nobility to remain. Those on the left favoured change, they were the revolutionaries. The left wanted power to be distributed among the masses of the people.

Those right and left labels, in a much-added-to form, have come down to us today.

During the second half of the 19th century, with the Industrial Revolution well underway, a new sense to the left-right division was added. The right favoured the needs and wishes of factory owners and capitalists. The left supported the claims to equal rights that were growing among the working classes.

The Harper Dictionary of Modern Thought lists other ways in which the political left and right were expressed, with the left mentioned first: "Egalitarianism versus inequalities, of reform (or revolution) versus tradition, of radicalism versus conservatism, of economic interventionism (a policy of state intervention in economic affairs) versus laissez-faire [capitalism], of internationalism versus patriotism." All those "isms" remained more or less unchanged until World War I (1914-18).

In addition to shaking up the physical landscape that terrible bloodbath also shook up the political landscape. The lines between the politics of left and right began to blur. The forces of privilege and wealth (the right) began to see that if they didn't give up some of their power it would be taken away from them, as happened in Russia in 1917.

A moderate "centre" developed; this is filled by people who like some of the ideas of both left and right wings.

Labelling political movements left, centre, or right on a horizontal line is convenient and simple--it's also not very accurate. There are some things that people on the extreme left and the extreme right agree on--strict control of society and obedience to the state, for example. So, political scientists have added a vertical line that reaches from authoritarian at the top to libertarian at the bottom.

An authoritarian is someone who supports dictatorship as a system of government in which the state has complete control of all aspects of the lives of people. At the other extreme, libertarians are people who argue for complete freedom for individuals. They believe that government has no right to tell people what they can or cannot do.

As with the horizontal axis, most people cluster somewhere near the middle.

A British group called Political Compass has assembled a team of experts to review the words and actions of some of the world's best-known leaders. They have plotted their positions on a chart (below).

Acknowledging that there are exceptions, the broad-brush strokes of left/centre/right are still useful.

Estates general

In Europe, in the Middle Ages, several countries set up a system that rigidly defined classes. England, France, and Spain used this "Estates General" system, dividing the population into clergy, nobility, and commoners. Membership in a particular estate was determined by birth-only the children of nobles could join the nobility, Members of each estate were selected to act as a representative body advise the monarch.