The first and most important point here is that 'left ' and ' right' are not

absolute terms there have been periods in history when it was the right that wished to dis solve itself in order to surviv e . The simple fac t is that what is left or right in one period is not necess arily so in another. This is proof not of their emptiness as political term s , but simply of their relativity . Left and right do not represent two s ets of fixed ideas , but rather an axis which shifts considerably from one generation to the next. difference' is now proposed as an opposite to 'equality' in English , principally as an anti- or post-socialist value . The confusion surrounding these terms , whereby equality , as the supposed opposite of difference , is identified with uniformity and a single world-view , has become the ustification for the 'post-modernist' equation of the left with totalitarianism . This has been countered by arguments that equality and difference are entirely compatible . only in dogmatic utopian theories does equality ever mean 'equ ality for everyone in everything' !ifference is a positive quality , particularly in the affluent "est , because it implie s the freedom of each individual to develop his or her particular nature. most people would agree that this egalitarian s truggle has given women m ore freedom to develop their own individual natures than in the past. Thus egalitarianism too could fairly claim to create c onditions for individual choice.

ma#es diversity possible , and ma#es it possible for every one to

Equality count as a person , quite unli#e that abs tract totalitarian idea of equality which means the elimination of those who are not the same.

$obbio is unusual on the left in perceiving individualism not as a negative value , but as a product of the m odern state , the re ection of the organic concept of the state and the development , however imperfect , of human rights . The left , which is generally associated with social rights , has long a ccused the right of

brea#ing up the community through its over-emphasis on the individual's libertarian rights at the expen se of the community's wider interests % while the right has accused the left of the s ame thing, on the grounds that it is suppo sed to have undermined religion and traditional v alues, which bind society together . equal lac# of choice to an equal freedom of choice equality engenders freedom and to "al&er' s concept of ' complex equality suppression of one ' s political identity is no guarantee of success at the polls ' (llean&a !emocratica , the left-of-centre coalition in )taly presented a programme which included drastic cuts in public spending , privati&ation , federalism and direct elections for the executive , but lost an election it had previously been expected to win . This boo# also reasserts the belief that humanity has choices and the ability to create its own future % while the oppo site argument , which claims that the left has been defeated definitively or is simply obsolete , means that there is no real choice for the electorate , other than that between different groups of technocrats whose efficiency and honesty may differ but whose fundamental approach is the s ame .