Political attitudes are best understood based on the idea of political spectrum. Students would be familiar with theconcept of spectrum of colours into which white light is divided when passed through a prism. Political spectrum is a graphic, or more specifically, a straight line along which political positions are shown from left to right. These positions are radical, liberal, moderate, conservative and reactionary. These terms are generic descriptions of political attitudes. They also refer to specific ideologies.
The spectrum of political attitudes can be shown as below:
Left Right
Radical Liberal Moderate Conservative Reactionary
Figure 1: The Political Spectrum
The terms left and right are of French origin. Supporters of the emperor’s policies were seated to his right, and their opponents who proposed changes in the prevailing system were seated to his left. Before looking at the meanings of the above five terms, we should note a few important points. The five terms designate political attitudes which (a) seek changes in the existing political set up and (b) which uphold certain political values. Another noteworthy point is that these terms have meanings specific to a given society. Thus they stand for different ideas in USA, Saudi Arabia and India. But within these countries, the five terms can be applied to characterise particular sets of political views. Further, what we commonly understand as ideologies such as communism, socialism and liberalism can be fitted into these five terms. On the spectrum, radicals are at the extreme left and reactionaries at the extreme right with others in intermediate positions. In political science, a radical means an individual on the extreme left of the political spectrum.