Wikipedia: Right-wing politics

Right-wing politics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In politics, the term right-wing (or political right or simply on the right) refers to the segment of the political spectrum associated either with any of several strains of conservatism, or with opposition to left-wing politics. Some commentators also use the term with reference to fascism, although few non-fascists on the political right would consider their own politics to have anything in common with fascism.

This use of the terms "left" and "right" originated during the French Revolution. See Left-Right politics for the origin of the terms and for a summary of what political views would usually be characterized as "left" and "right". Many don't find the left/right dichotomy helpful in discussing contemporary politics (see Political spectrum for discussion of alternatives), but it remains a very common view of the political landscape.

Today, some conservatives who see themselves as defending society and its traditional institutions and freedoms from what they consider the irrational liberalism (especially in either the American sense of the word) or the repressive socialism of the left sometimes use the term "right-wing" in a positive sense. This active embrace of the term probably occurs more commonly in Europe and even in Latin America than in the United States. Some non-conservative groups also identify themselves as "on the right" (at least within some context) to indicate their opposition to the left, though such groups very likely dispute the left-right characterization altogther. Fascist and neo-fascist groups also often embrace the term positively.

Leftists often use the term "right-wing" as a pejorative label: they interpret the right as defending the traditional power of aristocrats, royalty, established religions and the wealthy against that of commoners. In this sense, the term has also become associated with nationalist or racist movements which promote the interests of a dominant majority, or, in cases such as apartheid-era South Africa, with a ruling minority, denying the rights of other groups. The radical right has associations with fascism or with terrorism, just as the radical left has associations with communism or with terrorism. Of course, most groups on the left and right tend to vigorously deny any such linkages.

Political groups on the right

One might normally characterise the following groups as on the political Right in their respective countries, though they might have relatively little in common with other Right-wing groups beyond their opposition to the Left.

Naturally, in all cases "left" and "right" express relative positioning. For example, the Log Cabin Republicans align on the right in the context of the U.S.'s gay communitiy, but generally appear within the Republican Party as part of the left wing of the party.