Right-wing politics
political alignment favoring social hierarchy
Right-wing politics, or rightism, is the range of political ideologies that view certain social stratifications and orders as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position in favour of conservatism, natural law, economics, authority, property, religion, or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies.
Right-wing politics are considered the counterpart to left-wing politics, and the left–right political spectrum is the most common political spectrum. The right includes social conservatives, as well as laissez-faire economic policies. "Right" and "right-wing" have been variously used as compliments and pejoratives describing neoliberal and conservative economic and social ideas.
Historical overview
The political terms Left and Right were first used in the 18th century, during the French Revolution, referencing the seating arrangement of the new National Assembly. Those who sat to the right of the chair of the presiding officer (le président) were generally supportive of the institutions of the monarchist Old Regime. The original "Right" in France was formed in reaction to the "Left" and comprised those supporting hierarchy, tradition, and clericalism. The expression la droite ('the right') increased in use after the restoration of the monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the ultra-royalists.
Edmund Burke is regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, and his writings played a significant role in influencing opinions regarding conservatism following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative and right-wing circles.
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This entry incorporates text from “Right-wing politics” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.