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While the division between "left" and "right" informs international political discourse, the unique historical and cultural background of Chinese society has led to a different understanding of these concepts there. This article focuses on Chinese political orientation and citizens' attitudes towards various political issues, portraying the political environment in China under the framework of "left–right" politics. This study reveals that, unlike the differences between the left and right in the West, Chinese people do not see obvious differences in their position towards egalitarianism, but they detect apparent attitudinal differences on issues like the conceptualisations of freedom, political systems and national identity. The thesis of this study is that the left–right divergence in China is contingent on whether Chinese people support the current political system. (China/GIGA)

The word left has different meanings in Latvian. Alongside with one side of your body it also means social democratic and socialist-communist political orientation. In its turn kreisā prece (the left goods) means something illegal, and an inadequate idea is sometimes also called kreisa ideja (a left idea). In Latvia the 1990s came with the rightist thinking and its notions: market economy, liberal democracy, open society, and competition. Since then the rightist ideas have dominated Latvian political ideology. Even the 2008 economic crisis was the success story in the opinion of the right-wing politicians because the crisis helped to cut the unnecessary, non-characteristic and non-economical positions of government spending. At the same time the policies implemented by the state of Latvia were rather left-wing in many sectors if we look at the level of state intervention in the distribution of funding. Latvia provides state maintained free healthcare, tuition-free system of education, and the availability of culture to society is state subsidised. It allows me to draw a speculative hypothesis that the rightist and leftist ideas are in a mutually complementary dialectic struggle in Latvia. The leftist ideas are not implemented, and there is no need to fully put them into practice. The best possible world is the one in which there is rightist market capitalism and liberal democracy which undergo constant criticism by the leftist ideas, however, never to the extent that the leftist ideas should be put into effect.

In diesem Artikel analysiere ich die Herausbildung und Positionierung des »Linksintellektuellen« in Schweden, ausgehend von den 1940er Jahren bis in die 1970er. Hierbei steht erstens der soziale Typus des »Intellektuellen« im Vordergrund meiner Analyse, d.h. die Frage, was diesen idealerweise ausmache, und zweitens die Position des Linksintellektuellen im öffentlichen Diskurs. In den 1960er und 1970er Jahren änderte sich das intellektuelle Klima in Schweden jäh, als junge Linksradikale auch Schweden in Verbindung mit europäischer Schuld brachten und damit einen neuen und eindeutig linken Standpunkt setzten. Plötzlich übernahm die Linke die intellektuelle Führungsrolle in Schweden, die auch durch die Integrationsstrategie des Staates und der Sozialdemokratischen Arbeiterpartei Schwedens (SAP) begünstigt wurde. Das Idealbild von »dem guten Linksintellektuellen«, basierte demnach auf Zusammenarbeit, Reformismus, Nahbarkeit und der Vorstellung eines »Kulturarbeiters« anstelle einer dezidiert akademischen Prägung. Dieses Ideal eines (Links)Intellektuellen erlangte aufgrund seiner erfolgreichen Interaktion mit der Bevölkerung und mit den etablierten Medien eine große Bedeutung im öffentlichen und im kulturellen Bereich. ; In this article I will examine the forming and positioning of »the left-wing intellectual« in Sweden from the late 1940s until the late 1970s. My main focus lies first on »the intellectual« as a social type, that is, ideal concepts of what it meant to be a »left-wing intellectual«, and second on the position of left-wing intellectuals within Swedish public debate. The Swedish intellectual setting changed rapidly during the 1960s and 1970s, when young radicals, by connecting Sweden to European culpability regarding the horrors of the early 20th century, created a new and firm left intellectual stance. Suddenly the radical left dominated Sweden's intellectual debate, and became influential since the Swedish state and the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) adopted a strategy of collaboration. The ideal of the »good left-wing intellectual«, was pictured in terms of state collaboration, reformism, sociability and being a »cultural worker« rather than a high-brow intellectual confrontation. This type could easily interact with the state while simultaneously reaching parts of the population and satisfying the media establishment – all of which strengthened the left-wing intellectuals' public and cultural significance.

Ce travail tente d'examiner la relation entre la classe sociale, l'appartenance syndicale, l'expérience du chîomage, l'ethnicité, l'affiliation religieuse et le radicalisme de gauche dans un secteur de Winnipeg. Les données démontrent que le gauchisme a ses origines dans la classe sociale et la conception marxiste de classe sociale a plus d'importance que la conception sociologique traditionnelle. Ce travail démontre aussi que ni l'ethnicité ni l'affiliation religieuse ne contribuent beaucoup à la compréhension des attitudes politiques de gauche que détiennent les résidents du Nord de Winnipeg.This paper attempts to examine the relationship between social class, union membership, un‐employement experience, ethnicity, religious affiliation, and left‐wing radicalism in a part of Winnipeg. The resultant data show that leftism is rooted in social class, with the Marxian view of class being of greater import than the traditional sociological view. In this study, neither ethnicity nor religious affiliation contributes much to our understanding of left‐wing political views adhered to by the people of Winnipeg North.

This paper provides evidence that daughters make people more left-wing. Having sons, by contrast, makes them more right-wing. Parents, politicians and voters are probably not aware of this phenomenon - nor are social scientists. The paper discusses its economic and evolutionary roots. It also speculates on where research might lead. The paper ends with a conjecture: left-wing individuals are people who come from families into which, over recent past generations, many females have been born.

Il Manifesto, a small Italian national daily newspaper, is one of the few political dailies in Europe that is not associated with either a political party or an interest group. Though its readership has been small since its inception in 1971 (about five million copies per day), Il Manifesto has literally evolved into a distinct political actor. Though the paper has undergone significant change over the last three decades, not the least of which is a softening of its left-wing/communist stance, it remains dedicated to salary equality & quasi-independence from advertising revenue. K. A. Larsen

AbstractThe Labour party cannot ignore its newly acquired liberal voters if it is to win the next election