What is left from the Left-Right Cleavage?

What is left from the Left-Right Cleavage? A Comparative Perspective Dupa caderea comunismului, rolul si impactul ideologiilor a fost in mod repetat si profund revizitat. Dintre aspectele variate care au fost decorticate de oameni de stiinta, jurnalisti, analisti si decidenti, relevanta clivajului stanga-dreapta a constituit si constituie obiectul unor controverse de substanta. Volumul de fata si-a popus sa reconsidere persistenta, rolul, importanta si impactul actualitatea ideologic stanga-dreapta in epoca contemporana. Autori: Sergiu Miscoiu, Valentin Naumescu In the aftermath of the financial and economic crisis of 2009, economics professors began their courses by asking students to forget all they had learnt up to that point. Indeed, the crisis altered everything: the context, premises, economic theories and classic concepts. It all had to be re-evaluated — this was the message of academics. Being confronted with the recent political evolutions on the old continent and beyond, we cannot help but wonder how far the moment is when sociology or political science professors will broaden their course through a request prompting students to forget all they will have learnt by that time on the "left" and "right". As nothing seems to function anymore, nothing remains intelligible according to the classic distinction engendered by the French Revolution. The volume our readers are presented with tackles this enormous challenge in political science as we know it. Are we heading for such a situation? What (if anything) remains from this well-known distinction, at a time when the political spectrum is changing around us in the most unpredictable and radical manner? Who (if anyone) can be deemed as a "right" or "left-wing" sympathiser? What (if any) is the political "package" attached to either denomination? The authors, prominent experts in the field, draw our attention to the fact that the ambiguities in this distinction have occurred since its creation, but today they are becoming difficult to manage amid the political pressure — vaguely and ambiguously referred to as "populismn" — manifesting itself in a conspicuous way at the European level. It is a particularly useful volume, which the publishing house of our institute has embraced whilst being fully aware of the urgency and importance of a topic that neither our academic nor our political environment can circumvent. - Professor Dan Dungaciu Director of the Institute of Political Science and International Relations Romanian Academy