Left-wing & right-wing is a broad classification of what people/parties stand for.
It was first used during the French Revolution in 1789.
Left stands for equal society and wants the government to drive it; it wants increased regulation on businesses and higher taxes on the rich.
Right says differences between rich and poor will remain and that increased taxation slows the growth and too much regulation limits innovation.
But it is not that a party can be only Left or only Right.
It is a spectrum, and depending upon what it stands for, a party can take any position on the spectrum, i.e., centre left, far left, centre right or far right.
It could also be that a party has a right-wing ideology on economic matters but a left-wing view on social matters.
For example, a party may be in favour of same-sex marriage (Socially Left) but doesn’t believe in business regulation (Economically Right) or against multinationals’ entry into a country (Economically Left) but in favour of individual right to own guns (Socially Right).
There could be many aspects that are beyond social and economic matters, and rarely will people fit neatly on this classification spectrum.
Therefore, parties judge themselves as Left or Right based on where the other political parties are on the spectrum.
The two extremes of this spectrum are Communism on the Left and Fascism on the Right.
Famous examples of Left-leaning Parties are Labour (Australia, UK), Democratic (US), and Congress (India).
Famous examples of Right-leaning Parties are Liberal (Australia), Conservative (UK), Republican (US), and BJP (India).
