metaphors, could have expressed the cleavages driving contemporary
political life.^26 Colors, for instance, have often played such a role,
and they have many of the qualities of the left–right representation,
allowing a range of positions from the various shades of blue to those
of red, along with the outlying tints of green, orange, or yellow. Many
popular revolutions have been draped in colors, from the red of the
French and Russian Revolutions to the orange of the recent Ukrainian
democratic movement. In the end, it was the left and the right,
however, which prevailed as the universal political metaphor. These
two poor classificatory words, remarks Gauchet with wonder, con-
densed like no others the passions, the emotions, the ideas, and the
memories of entire generations, all over the world.^27
The standard narrative starts with the French Revolution. In France
as elsewhere, prior to the Revolution, the main political metaphor was
not horizontal but vertical. It distinguished three estates, ranked in a
descending order, from the clergy to the nobility to the commoners.^28
In June 1789, the Third Estate proclaimed itself a National Assembly
and successfully invited the other two estates to join in constitutional
discussions. This illegal act created an unprecedented situation, and
placed the different orders on an equal plane. At the outset, however,
the delegates did not constitute parties. They aspired on the contrary
to unity, and hoped a consensus could emerge out of their free
deliberations.^29 In practice, the Assembly proved unruly and chaotic,
with few rules of procedure, much noise and interruption, and voting
by standing or sitting. By the end of August, a pattern had emerged
out of this disorder, with partisans of the king and of gradual change
moving to the right of the president, and more ardent promoters of
liberty and equality to the left.^30 Some tried to be independent and
move around but, as explained in his memoirs by a member of the
National Assembly from the nobility, in the end one had to “abandon
absolutely the left side,” where he “was condemned to always vote
(^26) McManus,Right Hand, Left Hand, pp. 260–61; Gauchet, “La droite et la
27 gauche,” p. 446; Laponce,Left and Right, p. 27.
28 Gauchet, “La droite et la gauche,” p. 442.
29 Laponce,Left and Right, p. 47.
Michel Vovelle, “La gauche sous la Re ́volution: naissance d’une notion,” in
Jean-Jacques Becker and Gilles Candar (eds.),Histoire des gauches en France.
Volume 1: L’he ́ritage du XIXesie`cle, Paris, La De ́couverte, 2004, pp. 53–54.
(^30) Ibid., p. 50; Laponce,Left and Right, pp. 48–49.
14 Left and Right in Global Politics