Anyone who reads the newspaper or tunes into political talk shows will undoubtedly have heard the talking heads touch down on left-wing and right-wing political parties before. But what do these statements mean, and where did they come from?

The answer can be found within the pages of French history. Back in 1789, during the early phases of the French Revolution, members of the National Assembly followed a very specific seating plan. It was customary for supporters of the king to sit to the right and supporters of the revolution to the left. The press eventually got into the habit of identifying each faction by their position in the assembly: left and right. And so an important part of our modern political vocabulary was born.

Although these labels were invented over 200 years ago, their original meaning is still relevant to their modern usage. Take the left, or left-wing, for example. During the French Revolution, these people believed in a radical change for France’s political system. To them, the old political structures were unfair and ineffective, and they needed to be eliminated before the country could make progress. Nowadays, someone who is left wing tends to believe in trying new political strategies in order to improve society. They are also biased toward higher taxes and welfare programs that aim to redistribute wealth to poor and vulnerable people. Left-wing people also tend to stress peace and nonviolence, which is ironic given the chaos of the latter stages of the French Revolution.

On the other side of the National Assembly, there were the right-wing politicians. These people would hold on to tradition even if it meant hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens starved to death. Right-wing politicians already had money and power, so they feared change because they had the most to lose. Nowadays, right-wing politicians still favor tradition. They tend to believe that people should succeed or fail based on their own personal merit, without any help from the government. What they find difficult to understand, however, is differences in individual circumstances. Questions of merit aside, it’s a lot harder for someone to excel in life if he or she had to drop out of school in order to put food on the table.

只要你看報紙或是聽收音機的政論談話節目，你一定會聽到那些名嘴提到「左派」、「右派」政黨。可是，這些詞彙是什麼意思？又是從何而來？

答案就在法國的歷史中。早在1789 年法國大革命初期，國民議會的議員是按照固定的座位入座。當時，擁護君主的議員通常坐在議長的右邊，而支持改革的議員則坐在議長的左邊。最後，媒體習以其在國民議會的位置來辨別各黨派：即 「左」、「右」黨派，這個現代政治詞彙的重要部分也就此誕生。

雖然這些政治標籤是在二百多年前發明的，其原義與現代用法仍舊相關。以左派或左翼為例，這些人在法國大革命期間主張徹底改變法國的政治制度。在他們的眼中，舊的政治結構不公不義且無用，故要全部予以消除後，國家才可能有所進步。如今，左翼人士認為，要改善社會，就要嘗試新的施政方略。他們也偏好將財富重新分配給窮人與弱勢團體，而施行的高稅收與社會福利政策。左翼人士亦強調和平與非暴力政策，然而相對於他們在法國大革命後期所造成的混亂來說，這簡直就是諷刺。

國民議會的另一端是右翼人士。這些人緊抓著傳統不放，即使這個傳統等於無數人民正活活的被餓死。右翼政客已經有了金錢跟權力，所以他們害怕變革，因為他們的損失會最大。如今，右翼人士依舊支持傳統。他們認為一個人的成功或失敗乃是基於個人的特質，而不是來自政府的任何幫助。不過，他們覺得很費解的是個別情況下的差異。撇開優缺點的問題不談，當某人為了生存而不得不輟學時，是很難功成名就的。