Since it appeared as one of the supreme ideals of 1789, fraternity was a troublesome, disturbing presence. Revolutionaries and their ideological heirs condemned it to obliteration. The contemporary crisis of the ideals of freedom and equality has recently brought fraternity into focus again. A deeper analysis of Fraternity as a political concept reveals a whole world of analogical concepts that political Modernity has ignored.

Since it appeared during the French Revolution and for about two centuries, the left/right distinction has been one of the most extended and significant forms of political identity. This pair of synthetic and complex concepts have been a real challenge to political science. The left is the original term of the pair, the one that gives birth to political opposition. Carl Schmitt’s concept of the political can be an interesting and provoking theoretical framework to improve our understanding of the left (...) as a political identity. (shrink)