Stanga si dreapta: in cautarea unei definitii
Left and Right: Searching for a Definition

Summary/Abstract: The article asks questions whose answers are taken for granted, but are rarely formulated by the political students: What is left and what is right in politics? What is the criterion for classifying a certain public policy as being leftist or rightist? After presenting the difficulties of coming up with a clear definition of these two widely used political concepts, the article cuts the Gordian Knot by identifying the criterion that allows us to practically distinguish between the political left and the political right. The criterion is Equality, the same proposed by Norberto Bobbio. After clarifying the meaning of the concepts, the article takes the analysis one step forward by describing the two concepts as a dyad with a unique nature, form and historic evolution. Thus, the left-right dyad has a dual nature: (1) the equality criterion and the polarization effect (the enduring component) and (2) the time-dependent political ideologies (the perishable component). Moreover, the dyad has a one-dimensional and segmented form due to the liberty criterion and the polarization effect. Also, historically, the left-right dyad evolved by passing three phases: (1) 1789 – 1945: the birth and growth of the dyad, (2) 1945 – 1989: the freezing and (3) 1989 – present: unfreezing and confusion.

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