Assignment of political positions to the left and right

The various political positions are assigned in the traditional manner to the political orientations of the left and right. According to this, the left stands primarily for:

• Strengthening the community and equality among people
• Strengthening the principle of solidarity, according to which the strong should support the weak
• Strong social policies
• High wages and minimum wages
• Restricting the economy, for example in labour law and pricing policy
• High corporate, wealth and inheritance taxes
• A less authoritarian state, even to the point of anarchy, and therefore also
• Restricting the police
• No surveillance of individuals or communications
• Nationalisation of businesses with monopolistic power or infrastructure for basic needs of the population, such as water, food, housing and energy
• Restriction or abolition of the military
• Free immigration and open borders
• Open view of the family

The right wing, on the other hand, stands for the following:

• Strengthening the individual
• Strengthening the principle of meritocracy, according to which those who achieve more should also receive more
• Strong economic policy
• Low wages and minimum wages
• Economic freedom, for example in labour law and pricing policy
• Low corporate, wealth and inheritance taxes
• Authoritarian state, even dictatorship, so that
• Strengthening the police
• Stronger surveillance of individuals and communications
• Freedom for entrepreneurs, even with monopolistic power or infrastructure for the basic needs of the population, such as water, food and housing, or privatisation of state-owned companies
• Strengthening and expansion of the military
• Restriction of immigration and border surveillance
• Traditional image of the family

In current debates, it can occasionally be observed that left-wing parties are fighting for right-wing positions and right-wing parties are fighting against them. For example, there are left-wing parties in Europe that are fighting for more surveillance of digital communication and restrictions on what can be said, as well as a strengthening of the military, while right-wing parties, such as the RN Rassemblement National (France), the AfD Alternative für Deutschland (Germany), the PVV Partij voor de Vrijheid (Netherlands) and the FPÖ Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (Austria), are against them. However, these positions are traditionally part of the right-wing political spectrum and we continue to classify them as such. The Danish Social Democrats, the Socialdemokraterne, advocate left-wing social and fiscal policies with higher taxes for the rich and extensive social benefits, but right-wing immigration policies with severe restrictions on immigration. However, it is not unusual for moderate left-wing and moderate right-wing parties in particular to represent both left-wing and right-wing positions, as their members often represent a wide range of political positions.

The fact that extreme left-wing, mostly communist governments have ruled dictatorially does not contradict this classification, as the strong, authoritarian state is seen by the left as a means to an end, but not as an end in itself, whereas the right often sees it as an end in itself.

We do not consider this classification of the individual positions to be outdated, even if some parties would like to see it that way. The basic logic behind each position can be traced back to either strengthening equality among people and society or strengthening the individual and individual freedom. For example, factor analysis can be used to determine that people who tend to align themselves with the left of the political spectrum strongly support many left-wing positions and rarely support right-wing ones. The opposite is true for people on the right of the political spectrum. If people cannot be clearly assigned to either spectrum, they usually hold moderate left-wing and right-wing positions on all issues. People who strongly support both left-wing and right-wing positions, on the other hand, are very rare.