Left and Right E-Book

Norberto Bobbio

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Serie: Themes for the 21st Century Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 210

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Following the collapse of communism and the decline of Marxism, some commentators have claimed that we have reached the 'end of history' and that the distinction between Left and Right can be forgotten. In this book - which was a tremendous success in Italy - Norberto Bobbio challenges these views, arguing that the fundamental political distinction between Left and Right, which has shaped the two centuries since the French Revolution, has continuing relevance today. Bobbio explores the grounds of this elusive distinction and argues that Left and Right are ultimately divided by different attitudes to equality. He carefully defines the nature of equality and inequality in relative rather than absolute terms. Left and Right is a timely and persuasively argued account of the basic parameters of political action and debate in the modern world - parameters which have remained constant despite the pace of social change. The book will be widely read and, as in Italy, it will have an impact far beyond the academic domain.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Title

Copyright

Introduction

The challenge to the left/right distinction and its survival

The nature of the distinction

The other distinction

Moderates and extremists

The relevance of Bobbio’s left and right

Preface to the First Italian Edition

1 A Challenge to the Distinction

2 Extremists and Moderates

3 The Left/Right Distinction Survives

4 In Search of the Criterion which Governs the Distinction

5 Other Criteria

6 Equality and Inequality

7 Freedom and Authoritarianism

8 The Pole Star

A Reply to the Critics (1995)

Notes

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

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Left and Right

The Significance of a Political Distinction

Norberto Bobbio

TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ALLAN CAMERON

This translation copyright © Polity Press 1996.

First published in Italy as Destra e Sinistra: Ragioni e significati di una distinzione politica copyright © Donzelli editore, Rome (first edition) 1994, (second edition) 1995.

This translation first published 1996 by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Reprinted 2005

Polity Press65 Bridge StreetCambridge, CB2 1UR, UK

Polity Press350 Main StreetMalden, MA 02148, USA

All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

ISBN 0–7456–1560–0

ISBN 0–7456–1561–9 (pbk)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

For further information on Polity, visit our website: www.polity.co.uk

Introduction

When this book was published in Italy just before the 1994 elections which brought Berlusconi’s short-lived right-wing alliance to power, it took the country by storm, selling over 200,000 copies in a year, making it the overall bestseller in Italy. It remained the bestseller in the non-fiction category for many months thereafter. As Norberto Bobbio himself points out, if Italians were looking for assistance on how to vote in Italy’s dramatically changed political landscape, they would have been sorely disappointed: the book is purely concerned with an analytical distinction, and its relevance goes far beyond Italy and its political vicissitudes.

The paradox which the author points out is that, while the left/right distinction is increasingly being challenged in Italy, the Italian parliamentary scene has shifted from a spectrum of parties dominated by the centre to a more polarized system in which two coalitions face each other, a stark choice between left and right. Such a situation is, of course, familiar in English-speaking countries which have a marked preference for the first-past-the-post electoral system (Italy abandoned proportional representation in favour of this system before the last elections). In many ways, Italy has acted as a barometer for Western Europe in the post-war period, reflecting general trends in a more acute form. When the Marxist left’s star was rising in the late sixties and early seventies, it seemed to rise higher in Italy; and when apathy and a general disorientation on the left took over in the eighties, Italy seemed to outperform other countries in its cynicism and its contempt for a political system whose corruption was becoming increasingly clear. While the left has been weak in America for some time, this trend towards the suppression of the left/right distinction through an atrophy of the left is a more recent development in Europe.