Different Left and Right

It's often remarkable to see how Left and Right in politics differs between countries. What is considered a left-winged issue in one country may well be a right-winged in another, and the other way around. And I'm not talking about countries in different continents either. I'm talking about countries which in general are based on the same principles of democracy, constitution and free-market society. And what am I talking about? Lets take a striking example: Drug policy.

The Swiss parliament, the House of Representatives, recently voted narrowly against decriminalizing the production and consumption of cannabis for personal use in Swiss. The main promoters of the decriminalizion are Leftist - the centre-left Social Democrats and the Green Party. Strong supporters of the decriminalizion are the Federal Health Office in Swiss, and police officials and teachers. Those against the decriminalizion are the right-winged and centre-rights in Swiss.

In Iceland it's the other way around. Leftists in Iceland are very keen on banning this and that. The Left in Iceland voted against selling of beer in Iceland in 1989, and the far-left in Iceland is very opposed to allowing anyone except the State to sell beer and wines. No-one dares to mention decriminalizion of any kind of drugs in Iceland. Just the thought of it is considered "extreme right" in Iceland, and no political force will discuss the issue openly except the Libertarian Society of Iceland (wiki). So the political-scale is reversed in Iceland compared to the fellow-European country of Swiss. I find that remarkable.

But I know like many others that the Left-Right is often not an applicable scale in personal affairs. It usually comes down to the economic issues, where the Left wants a big government taxing everything that changes hands, and even properties which don't change hands are taxed, while the Right fights for lower taxes and increased personal responsibility (which, as a result, will improve everything the government handles today and lower costs and increase selection and reduce government-excited poverty and so on).