STEFANO FALCO

Il significato politico dell'asse destra/sinistra  

N. 206

Summary -  The aim of this essay is to determine the political meaning of the  left/right axis through an application, at the political level, of the analytical/geometrical meaning of that axis when applied to the physical arrangements within parliaments. Once we assume the system of Cartesian axes, the right/left axis can be represented as the axis on which are located the coordinates, on the x-axis, of the political positions of each of the parliamentary representatives in the parliamentary semi-circle. These positions can be expressed using the algebraic signs « plus » and « minus » attached to absolute values (high/low). Transposing this system of Cartesian axes from the physical to the political level, the right/left distinction takes on the meaning of the cleavage   relation   pessimistic   (negative)/optimistic (positive) of each member of parliament (and, by extension, of each member of society) concerning the political capacity of society to realize the common good, while the centre/extreme distinction takes on the meaning of the cleavage low/high intensity (absolute value) of each of the two qualitative options. The second part of the essay verifies the applicability of the above meanings as a criterion for making sense of the existence of five political families (right-wing authoritarianism, right-wing liberalism, left-wing liberalism, left-wing authoritarianism and political Catholicism) and of their distribution along the left/right axis, both today and in the past.