Left, Right and Centre: National Political Authority and Its Symbolisation

ABSTRACT This lecture explores ideas through which we both do and analyse national politics in the modern world, as both concepts and symbols, examining three conceptual pairs: Left/Right, Centre/Periphery and Liberal/Authoritarian. I argue that Left/Right is a symbolic structure that is necessary for democratic politics, but not reflective of deep political principles. We tend to overweight the analytic value of this distinction. Drawing on Edward Shils, I argue that the Centre/Periphery distinction is essential for the analysis of the distributions of material and ideological power in all states, across human history. I argue that the modern distinction between Liberal/Authoritarian hinges on how ‘loose’ or ‘tight’ the governing relationship between centre and periphery is. Beneath this analysis of political ideas is a concern with how nations construct political authority, the core problem of nationalism. I invite comparisons of my approach to Anthony Smith's ethnosymbolism.