Miscellaneous published in:
Studying Identity: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges
[Journal of Language and Politics 2:2] 2003
► pp. 333–360

Right/left in the context of new political frontiers

What’s radical politics today?

| Roskilde University
The modern political distinction between right and left has functioned as the symbolic structuring of democratic politics. The significance of this political code lies in the institutionalisation of political discourse as relatively autonomous in relation to cultural and religious discourses in which right as a general rule has been conceived as positive and left as negative. Modern political revolutions marked the transformation of RIGHT/LEFT from a cultural and religious codex of domination/subordination to a political one of parity, which cleared a space for the legitimacy of opposition and disagreement as well as for public reason and the balancing of judgement. RIGHT/LEFT is thus associated with a political symbolic order that underpins the autonomy of democratic politics by signifying the distinction between parties of equal political status.
Keywords: Bobbio, Mouffe, orientational metaphors: right/left, up/down, front/back, in/out, democratic politics, political orientation and identification, discourses of the far right
Published online: 18 November 2003
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.2.2.09dyr
Cited by

Cited by 8 other publications

Ceron, Andrea
2015. Changing politics, changing language. Journal of Language and Politics 14:4 ► pp. 528 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin
2015. “Flemish Friends, Let us Separate!”: The Discursive Struggle for Flemish Nationalist Civil Society in the Media. Javnost - The Public 22:1 ► pp. 37 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin
2019.  In Imagining the Peoples of Europe [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 83], ► pp. 19 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin & Nico Carpentier
2010. Contesting the populist claim on “the people” through popular culture: the 0110 concerts versus the Vlaams Belang. Social Semiotics 20:2 ► pp. 175 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin, Jason Glynos & Aurelien Mondon
2018. Critical research on populism: Nine rules of engagement. Organization 25:5 ► pp. 649 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin, Benjamin Moffitt, Panos Panayotu & Yannis Stavrakakis
2020. The Potentials and Difficulties of Transnational Populism: The Case of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). Political Studies 68:1 ► pp. 146 ff. Crossref logo
De Cleen, Benjamin & Yannis Stavrakakis
2017. Distinctions and Articulations: A Discourse Theoretical Framework for the Study of Populism and Nationalism. Javnost - The Public 24:4 ► pp. 301 ff. Crossref logo
Katsambekis, Giorgos & Yannis Stavrakakis
2017. Revisiting the Nationalism/Populism Nexus: Lessons from the Greek Case. Javnost - The Public 24:4 ► pp. 391 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 september 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

References

References

Bienfait, H. F. and Beek, W. E. A.
2002 Right and Left as Political Categories: an Exercise in “not-so-primitive” Classification. Anthropos 96(1), 2001, 169–179.Google Scholar
Bobbio, Norberto
1987 The Future of Democracy: Towards a General Theory of Politics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
1990 Liberalism and Democracy. London: Verso.Google Scholar
1996 Left and Right: The Significance of a Political Distinction. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cristi, Renato
1998 Carl Schmitt and Authoritarian Liberalism. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Dyrberg, Torben Bech
2000 Racisme som en nationalistisk og populistisk reaktion på elitedemokrati. In: Torben Bech Dyrberg, Allan Dreyer Hansen and Jacob Torfing (eds). Diskursanalysen på arbejde. Frederiksberg: Roskilde Universitetsforlag, 221–246.Google Scholar
Etzioni-Halevy, Eva.
1993 The Elite Connection. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
1999 Elites, Inequality and the Quality of Democracy in Ultramodern Society. International Review of Sociology 9, 239–250. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Finocchiaro, Maurice A.
1999 Beyond Right and Left: Democratic Elitism in Mosca and Gramsci. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony
2000 The Third Way and Its Critics. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Hertz, Robert
1973 The Pre-eminence of the Right Hand: A Study in Religious Polarity. In: Rodney Needham (ed.). Right and Left: Essays in Dual Symbolic Classification. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 3–32.Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto
1994 Why Do Empty Signifiers Matter to Politics?. In: Jeffrey Weeks (ed.). The Lesser Evil and the Greater Good, London: Rivers Oram Press, 167–179.Google Scholar
1996 Emancipation(s). London: Verso.Google Scholar
2000 Identity and Hegemony: The Role of Universality in the Constitution of Political Logics. In: Judith Butler, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek. Contingency, Hegemony, Universality. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Laclau, Ernesto and Chantal Mouffe
1985 Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Lakoff, George and Mark Johnson
1980 Metaphors We Live By, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Laponce, J. A.
1981 Left and Right: The Topography of Political Perception. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Geoffrey
1973 Right and Left in Greek Philosophy. In: Rodney Needham (ed.). Right and Left: Essays in Dual Symbolic Classification. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 167–187.Google Scholar
Mouffe, Chantal
1990 Radical Democracy or Liberal Democracy?. Socialist Review 20(2), 57–67.Google Scholar
1993 The Return of the Political, London: Verso.Google Scholar
1995a Politics, Democratic Action, and Solidarity. Inquiry 38(1–2), 99–108. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1995b Democracy and Pluralism: A Critique of the Rationalist Approach. Cardozo Law Review 16(5), 1533–1546.Google Scholar
1995c The End of Politics and the Rise of the Radical Right. Dissent, Fall, 498–503.Google Scholar
1997 Decision, Deliberation, and Democratic Ethos. Philosophy Today 41(1), 24–31. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1998 The Radical Centre: A Politics without Adversary. Soundings 9, 11–23.Google Scholar
1998a The End of Politics?. Interview with Chantal Mouffe. New Times online, Issue 141.Google Scholar
2000 The Democratic Paradox, London: Verso.Google Scholar
2002a Midten fremmer højrefløjen. Interview with Chantal Mouffe. Information, 18. February.Google Scholar
2002b Centrum-venstre mangler lidenskab. Interview with Chantal Mouffe. Politiken, 31. August.Google Scholar
Parkin, Robert
1996 The Dark Side of Humanity. Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Puhovski, Zarko
1994 The Moral Basis of Political Restructuring. In: Chris Brown (ed.). Political Restructuring in Europe. London and New York: Routledge, 201–221.Google Scholar
Østergård, Uffe
1989 Politikkens arena: Opståen, udvikling, afvikling?. In: Hans Fink (ed.). Arenaer — om politik og iscenesættelse. Århus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 23–66.Google Scholar