Thread on politics

The origins of Left vs Right divide stem back to the last days of Roman republic when you had the Populares vs Optimates

The conservative aristocrats who upheld Senate power (Cato, Cicero)

The populist strongmen who wanted to undermine elites (Julius Caesar) https://twitter.com/doubtinggaurav/status/1306094107828187144

So in the Roman Republic -

The Right was represented by the senate aristocrats. The elites. For whom the Republic was sacred. Who feared concentration of power in an individual. Who feared populism

The Left was represented by Caesar - the populist strongman

So the Right vs Left divide was one of "Elites vs masses"

You could say it was something v similar even 1800 years later during French revolution

You had the old world conservatives who were skeptical of the Revolution (Edmund Burke)

And the radicals who favored it (Tom Paine)

In 19th century England, it took on a slightly different dimension

The Left / Liberals was now represented by bourgeoisie advocates. Those who favored "new money" (businessmen, industrialists)

The "conservatives" were the ones who favored "old money" (agricultural landlords)

In fact the "conservative" Tories of the 19th century sought an alliance of "old elites" (nobles, landlords) and masses - giving rise to Tory Radicalism (as represented by Lord Derby, Disraeli)

We call its modern avatar "compassionate conservatism" today.

These Tories were not that big on "Free market". They were ok with tariffs.

They also pushed for electoral reform, widening of franchise. As they felt patronizing the working class will help counter the liberal constituency as represented by te "middle classes"

Sure there were some Tories who chose to be v "pro free market" like Peel. But Peelites petered out, merged with Liberals

So in 19th century England, the Libs was "pro market", "pro middle class"

The conservatives were paternalists. Pro old elite, progenitors of welfare state

In the US, the evolution was slightly different...

Over there at the genesis of the American Republic, the Right was represented by the Hamiltonian Federalists.

Who were pro business, though not necessarily pro-free market. Aggressive modernizers. Strong state advocates

In contrast, the Left was represented by Democratic populists led by Thomas Jefferson. Who called themselves the "Democratic Republicans"

The Jeffersonians interestingly were more aggressively for laissez faire than Hamiltonians

But their sympathies were with the old elites. The agriculturalists, landlords. Not so much pro-business

So the 19th cen US model was

Left (Democratic Republicans later Democratic Party) -> Populist, pro slavery, weak state advocates

Right (Federalists -> Whigs -> Republican Party) :
Pro urban elite. Big business. Anti-slavery. Strong state. Modernizers

Now this is interesting because depending on what you want to call "Right vs Left", you could easily term the Jeffersonian tradition to be "right wing" and the Hamiltonian tradition to be "left wing"

Though conventionally we think of Jefferson as representing the Left.

This state of affairs sort of continued till the Great Depression. When tables turned...

In UK, we now had a new force - the Labor party (non existent in 19th cen)

And in the US, the Democratic Party became the party of the working classes

So by the time we reach the 1960s-70s we had a different configuration...

Conservatives (both in UK and US) were now the "pro-market", "pro-business" party

The Democratic party / Labor party was now pro working classes, pro ethnic minorities

But also the rural white vote was now shifting from Democratic to Republican party

So by 1980s, the Republican party was beginning to look v much like the Jeffersonian "Left"

Pro market, states rights, pro farmers....but also curiously big business (unlike Jeffersonians)

What we have seen over the past 20 years is yet another reconfiguration

Even the "working class" urban vote has now moved to the Republican party

The Democratic party now interestingly has a significant chunk of the urban elite vote (largely because of the rise of culture wars)

So we now have lots of big businesses supporting Democratic party (Silicon valley types)

The divides in politics are more around "cultural" issues and attitudes towards religion, immigration, gender. Than the old economic divides

In India, Modi is a bit like Disraeli conservative wing of the 19th century

Welfare orientation.. welding an alliance of "trad" support base (hindu conservatives) and masses (through intelligent welfare schemes)

He is a conservative "radical" so to speak

The other side is all confused at the moment...

To my mind if it needs a future, the Left in India should position itself as pro middle class, pro free market, socially liberal yet not hostile to religion

Something akin to the Whigs of 19th century England