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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The "Meaning" of Left and Right -- 3 Ideology, Dimensionality, and Asymmetry -- 4 The Structure and Content of Left / Right Differences -- 5 Left / Right Positions and Polarization -- 6 Left / Right Persistence and Evolution -- 7 Citizens' Left / Right Orientations -- 8 The Rise of Left / Right in Canadian Politics -- 9 Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Shadows : projecting left and right -- Truths : voting against Pythagoras -- Goods : freedom, justice and more -- Likes : the art of the cheeseburger -- Hopes : flying and singing -- Ethics : the gold that rules -- Timing : worry about that later -- Capitals : sacred cows and other forms -- Limits : the known limitations of markets -- Regulations : well-regulated capitalism -- Taxes : looking high and low -- Strategies : two sides, many arenas -- Dynamics : the evolution of death -- Intentions : the road to Hell -- Distractions : 500,000 is more than 43.

"The words "left" and "right" often signal a political divide in debates about abortion, homosexuality, capital punishment, gun control, law and order, social welfare, public transportation, taxation, immigration, and the environment, among other issues. Despite claims that this phenomenon is in decline, its persistence suggests that it is inherent to our society. At the same time, variations in the understanding of each side indicate that these labels do not fully capture the reality of ideological disagreement. In Left and Right Christopher Cochrane traces the origins of this political language to the very nature of ideology. What is ideology, what does it look like, and how does it manifest itself in patterns of political disagreement in Western democracies? Drawing on five decades of evidence from political scientists, including public opinion surveys, elite surveys, and content analysis of political party election platforms, Cochrane employs a new method to analyze the structure and evolution of the left/right divide in twenty-one Western countries since 1945. He then delves into the central argument of the book--that the language of left and right describes a meaningful, perceptible, and quantifiable pattern of political disagreement that has persisted over time and around the world. Calling for an adjustment to the way we view Canadian politics, Left and Right opens a window into the world of political ideologies--a world we see every day, but rarely analyze, define, or agree on."--

A clash over equality -- A worldwide value divide -- Two tales of globalization -- The rise of the modern state system (1776-1945) -- The age of universality (1945-1980) -- The triumph of market democracy (1980-2007) -- Twenty-first-century rapprochement -- The core currency of political exchange.

A psychological approach to the study of political ideology -- The end of the end of ideology -- Elective affinities : the intersection of "top-down" and "bottom-up" processes -- Political conservatism as motivated social cognition -- The secret lives of liberals and conservatives : dispositional and situational factors -- Authoritarian aggression, group-based dominance, and the liberal conundrum -- Ideological asymmetries and the essence of political psychology -- The promise and pitfalls of political neuroscience -- Epilogue: The values of a political psychologist.