/lit/ - Literature

>>10044647
>>10044681
The left-right distinction stems from the seating order in the national assembly of the French Revolution where proponents of the ancient regime were seated to the right and the proponents of the French Republic were seated to the left. Thinkers of the ancien regime were opposed to the (left-wing) liberal economics of the revolutionary bourgeoisie. That's where Catholic social thought and what Karl Marx labelled feudal socialism stem from. Right-wing politics is first and foremost centered around the conservative ideal of preserving the social order. The prime example of such thinking is Otto Bismarck's national healthcare and pension system.

Liberal capitalist economics being right-wing is a Cold War meme and stems from the fact that US conservatism is in itself just a form of economic liberalism. Liberalism again being an ideology which is in itself left-wing because it again opposes the conservative status quo and values progress to greater liberty.

It is important to note that thatcherite and or reaganite economics (so called far right economics) are not per se right-wing but instead have become associated with right-wing social concepts to which these models are not necessarily linked. You will find that Southern Democrats, UK Conservatives or German Christian Democrats had up until the 1960s a very "left-wing" understanding of economics.