Right beats wrong--and the left. (Scan).(world politics)(Brief Article)

An historic shift has recently given the Right an unprecedented amount of political power around the globe. Though few have noticed, a political earthquake has dislodged the Left from power across Europe, in the U.S., and in Australia.

Consider continental Europe, long considered a permanent stronghold of the Left. The E.U. presidency is held by Spain's Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, whose record of privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts has won his party two elections. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi--who has pledged to trim taxes and dismantle his country's archaic labor laws--rules with a huge parliamentary majority. Even left-wing journalists believe he will stay in office for a full five-year term--a rarity in postwar Italy.

In France, conservatives triumphed massively over the ruling socialist coalition this spring. In Ireland, the center-right, which had traditionally ruled in a coalition with the center-left, recently won enough votes to have the freedom to rule alone. Conservative parties have also made gains in the Netherlands and in Portugal.

In perhaps the largest surprise of all, the center-right carried the May elections in the German state of Saxony. A long-time leftist stronghold in what used to be the communist East, the victory represents nothing less than a ...