Il termine destra può generalmente riferirsi alla "sezione conservatrice o reazionaria di un partito o sistema politico".[19]
In Europa, i conservatori economici sono solitamente considerati liberali e la destra include i conservatori religiosi, gli oppositori all'immigrazione, i nazionalisti e, storicamente, un numero significativo di movimenti anti-capitalisti, inclusi conservatori e fascisti, che si opposero al capitalismo contemporaneo perché credevano che l'eccessivo materialismo e l'egoismo fossero intrinseci in esso.[20][21]
I termini politici destra e sinistra furono usati, per la prima volta, durante la Rivoluzione francese del XVIII secolo per indicare la disposizione dei posti a sedere nel Parlamento: coloro che sedevano a destra della sedia del presidente (le président) erano ampiamente favorevoli alle istituzioni dell'Antico Regimemonarchico.
La destra originale, in Francia, si formò come reazione contro la "sinistra" e comprendeva coloro che sostenevano il clericalismo, la gerarchia e la tradizione. L'espressione la droite ("la destra") aumentò in uso dopo la restaurazione della monarchia del 1815 quando fu applicata agli ultrarealisti.
Le persone dei Paesi di lingua inglese non hanno applicato i termini destra e sinistra alla propria politica fino al XX secolo. Il termine destra era, originariamente, applicato a conservatori tradizionali, monarchici e reazionari; un'estensione, l'estrema destra, denota fascismo, nazismo e supremazia razziale.
^T. Alexander Smith, Raymond Tatalovich. Cultures at war: moral conflicts in western democracies. Toronto, Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd, 2003. Pp 30.
^Left and right: the significance of a political distinction, Norberto Bobbio and Allan Cameron, pg. 37, University of Chicago Press, 1997.
^ Paul Johnson, Right-wing, rightist, in A Politics Glossary, Auburn University website, 2005. URL consultato il 23 ottobre 2014 (archiviato dall'url originale il 19 agosto 2014).
^T. Alexander Smith, Raymond Tatalovich. Cultures at war: moral conflicts in western democracies. Toronto, Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd, 2003. p. 30. "That viewpoint is held by contemporary sociologists, for whom 'right-wing movements' are conceptualized as 'social movements whose stated goals are to maintain structures of order, status, honor, or traditional social differences or values' as compared to left-wing movements which seek 'greater equality or political participation.' In other words, the sociological perspective sees preservationist politics as a right-wing attempt to defend privilege within the social hierarchy."
^Seymour Martin Lipset, cited in Fuchs, D., and Klingemann, H. 1990. The left-right schema. pp. 203–34 in Continuities in Political Action: A Longitudinal Study of Political Orientations in Three Western Democracies, ed.M.Jennings et al. Berlin:de Gruyter
^Lukes, Steven. 'Epilogue: The Grand Dichotomy of the Twentieth Century': concluding chapter to T. Ball and R. Bellamy (eds.), The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Political Thought. pp.610–612
^ William Roberts Clark, Capitalism, Not Globalism: Capital Mobility, Central Bank Independence, and the Political Control of the Economy, [Online-Ausg.]., Ann Arbor [u.a.], University of Michigan Press, 2003, ISBN978-0-472-11293-7.
^Smith, T. Alexander and Raymond Tatalovich. Cultures at War: Moral Conflicts in Western Democracies (Toronto, Canada: Broadview Press, Ltd., 2003) p. 30. "That viewpoint is held by contemporary sociologists, for whom 'right-wing movements' are conceptualized as 'social movements whose stated goals are to maintain structures of order, status, honor, or traditional social differences or values' as compared to left-wing movements which seek 'greater equality or political participation.'
«Defining the right by its adherence to the status quo is closely associated with a definition of the right as a defense of inequality (Bobbio 1996, Jost 2009, Luna & Kaltwasser 2014). As noted by Jost (2009), within the context of Western political development, opposition to change is often synonymous with support for inequality. Notwithstanding its prominence in the literature, we are hesitant to adopt this definition of the right since it requires the researcher to interpret ideological claims according to an abstract understanding of equality. For instance, Noel & Therien (2008) argue that right-wing opposition to affirmative action speaks in the name of equality and rejects positive discrimination based on demographic factors. From this perspective, the right is not inegalitarian but is “differently egalitarian” (Noel & Therien 2008, p. 18).»
^Scruton, Roger "A Dictionary of Political Thought" "Defined by contrast to (or perhaps more accurately conflict with) the left the term right does not even have the respectability of a history. As now used it denotes several connected and also conflicting ideas (including) 1)conservative, and perhaps authoritarian, doctrines concerning the nature of civil society, with emphasis on custom, tradition, and allegiance as social bonds ... 8) belief in free enterprise free markets and a capitalist economy as the only mode of production compatible with human freedom and suited to the temporary nature of human aspirations ..." pp. 281–2, Macmillan, 1996
^ J.E. Goldthorpe, An Introduction to Sociology, 3rd, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985, p. 156, ISBN978-0-521-24545-6.
«"There are ... those who accept inequality as natural, normal, and even desirable. Two main lines of thought converge on the Right or conservative side...the truly Conservative view is that there is a natural hierarchy of skills and talents in which some people are born leaders, whether by heredity or family tradition. ... now ... the more usual right-wing view, which may be called 'liberal-conservative', is that unequal rewards are right and desirable so long as the competition for wealth and power is a fair one."»
«...since different currents within the right are drawn to different visions of societal structures. For example, market liberals see social relations as stratified by natural economic inequalities.»