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Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values.[1][2][3] The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears.[4] In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote and preserve a range of institutions, such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, the nation-state, property rights, rule of law, aristocracy, and monarchy.[5][6] Conservatives tend to favor institutions and practices that enhance social order and historical continuity.[7]
The 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke, who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the forefathers of conservative thought in the 1790s along with Savoyard statesman Joseph de Maistre.[8] The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution and establish social order.[9]
Conservatism has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures.[10] Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world, each upholding their respective traditions, may disagree on a wide range of issues.[11] One of the three major ideologies along with liberalism and socialism,[12] conservatism is the dominant ideology in many nations across the world, including Hungary, India, Iran, Israel,[13] Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, Singapore, and South Korea. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has been used to describe a wide range of views. Conservatism may be either libertarian or authoritarian,[14] populist or elitist,[15] progressive or reactionary,[16] moderate or extreme.[17]
Beliefs and principles
[edit]Scholars have tried to define conservatism as a set of beliefs or principles. Political scientist Andrew Heywood argues that the five central beliefs of conservatism are tradition, human imperfection, organic society, authority/hierarchy, and property.[18] Historian Russell Kirk developed five canons of conservatism in The Conservative Mind (1953):
- A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
- An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
- A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize natural distinctions;
- A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
- A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and a recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of prudence.[19]
Some political scientists, such as Samuel P. Huntington, have seen conservatism as situational. Under this definition, conservatives are seen as defending the established institutions of their time.[20] According to Quintin Hogg, the chairman of the British Conservative Party in 1959: "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself."[21] Conservatism is often used as a generic term to describe a "right-wing viewpoint occupying the political spectrum between [classical] liberalism and fascism".[1]
Conservatism has been called a "philosophy of human imperfection" by political scientist Noël O'Sullivan, reflecting among its adherents a negative view of human nature and pessimism of the potential to improve it through 'utopian' schemes.[22] Thomas Hobbes, the "intellectual godfather of the realist right", argued that the state of nature for humans was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short", requiring centralized authority with royal sovereignty to guarantee law and order.[23] Edmund Burke, often called the father of modern conservatism, believed that human beings are steeped in original sin and that society therefore needs traditional institutions, such as an established church and a landed aristocracy, in order to function.[7]
Tradition
[edit]Despite the lack of a universal definition, certain themes can be recognized as common across conservative thought. According to Michael Oakeshott:
To be conservative […] is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.[24]
Such traditionalism may be a reflection of trust in time-tested methods of social organization, giving 'votes to the dead'.[25] Traditions may also be steeped in a sense of identity.[25]
Hierarchy
[edit]In contrast to the tradition-based definition of conservatism, some left-wing political theorists like Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social and economic inequality.[26] From this perspective, conservatism is less an attempt to uphold old institutions and more "a meditation on—and theoretical rendition of—the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back".[27] On another occasion, Robin argues for a more complex relation:
Conservatism is a defense of established hierarchies, but it is also fearful of those established hierarchies. It sees in their assuredness of power the source of corruption, decadence and decline. Ruling regimes require some kind of irritant, a grain of sand in the oyster, to reactivate their latent powers, to exercise their atrophied muscles, to make their pearls.[28]
In Conservatism: A Rediscovery (2022), political philosopher Yoram Hazony argues that, in a traditional conservative community, members have importance and influence to the degree they are honored within the social hierarchy, which includes factors such as age, experience, and wisdom.[29] Conservatives often glorify hierarchies, as demonstrated in an aphorism by conservative philosopher Nicolás Gómez Dávila: "Hierarchies are celestial. In hell all are equal."[30] The word hierarchy has religious roots and translates to 'rule of a high priest.'[31]
Authority
[edit]Authority is a core tenet of conservatism.[32][33][34] More specifically, conservatives tend to believe in traditional authority. According to sociologist Max Weber, this form of authority is "resting on an established belief in the sanctity of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them".[35][36] Philosopher Alexandre Kojève distinguishes between two different forms of traditional authority:
- The Authority of the Father—represented by actual fathers as well as conceptual fathers such as priests and monarchs.
- The Authority of the Master—represented by aristocrats and military commanders.[37]
Sociologist Robert Nisbet acknowledges that the decline of traditional authority in the modern world is partly linked with the retreat of old institutions such as guild, order, parish, and family—institutions that formerly acted as intermediaries between the state and the individual.[38][39] Philosopher Hannah Arendt argues that the modern world suffers an existential crisis with a "dramatic breakdown of all traditional authorities," which are needed for the continuity of an established civilization.[40][41]
Historical background
[edit]Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke has been widely regarded as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism.[42][43] He served as the private secretary to the Marquis of Rockingham and as official pamphleteer to the Rockingham branch of the Whig party.[44] Together with the Tories, they were the conservatives in the late 18th century United Kingdom.[45]
Burke's views were a mixture of conservatism and republicanism. He supported the American Revolution of 1775–1783 but abhorred the violence of the French Revolution of 1789–1799. He accepted the conservative ideals of private property and the economics of Adam Smith, but he thought that capitalism should remain subordinate to the conservative social ethic and that the business class should be subordinate to aristocracy.[46] He insisted on standards of honor derived from the medieval aristocratic tradition and saw the aristocracy as the nation's natural leaders.[47] That meant limits on the powers of the Crown, since he found the institutions of Parliament to be better informed than commissions appointed by the executive. He favored an established church, but allowed for a degree of religious toleration.[48] Burke ultimately justified the social order on the basis of tradition: tradition represented the wisdom of the species, and he valued community and social harmony over social reforms.[49]
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Another form of conservatism developed in France in parallel to conservatism in Britain. It was influenced by Counter-Enlightenment works by philosophers such as Joseph de Maistre and Louis de Bonald.[50] Many continental conservatives do not support separation of church and state, with most supporting state cooperation with the Catholic Church, such as had existed in France before the Revolution. Conservatives were also early to embrace nationalism, which was previously associated with liberalism and the Revolution in France.[51] Another early French conservative, François-René de Chateaubriand, espoused a romantic opposition to modernity, contrasting its emptiness with the 'full heart' of traditional faith and loyalty.[52] Elsewhere on the continent, German thinkers Justus Möser and Friedrich von Gentz criticized the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen that came of the Revolution. Opposition was also expressed by German idealists such as Adam Müller and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the latter inspiring both leftist and rightist followers.[53]
Both Burke and Maistre were critical of democracy in general, though their reasons differed. Maistre was pessimistic about humans being able to follow rules, while Burke was skeptical about humans' innate ability to make rules. For Maistre, rules had a divine origin, while Burke believed they arose from custom. The lack of custom for Burke, and the lack of divine guidance for Maistre, meant that people would act in terrible ways. Both also believed that liberty of the wrong kind led to bewilderment and political breakdown. Their ideas would together flow into a stream of anti-rationalist, romantic conservatism, but would still stay separate. Whereas Burke was more open to argumentation and disagreement, Maistre wanted faith and authority, leading to a more illiberal strain of thought.[54]
Ideological variants
[edit]Authoritarian conservatism
[edit]Authoritarian conservatism refers to autocratic regimes that portray authority as absolute and unquestionable.[34][55][56] Authoritarian conservative movements show strong devotion towards religion, tradition, and culture while also expressing fervent nationalism akin to other far-right nationalist movements.[57][58] Examples of authoritarian conservative dictators include Marshal Philippe Pétain in France,[59] Regent Miklós Horthy in Hungary,[60] General Ioannis Metaxas in Greece,[61] King Alexander I in Yugoslavia,[62] Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal,[63] Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in Austria,[64] Generalissimo Francisco Franco in Spain,[65] King Carol II in Romania,[66] and Tsar Boris III in Bulgaria.[67]
Authoritarian conservative movements were prominent in the same era as fascism, with which they sometimes clashed.[68] Although both ideologies shared core values such as nationalism and had common enemies such as communism, there was nonetheless a contrast between the traditionalist and elitist nature of authoritarian conservatism and the revolutionary and populist nature of fascism—thus it was common for authoritarian conservative regimes to suppress rising fascist and Nazi movements.[66] The hostility between the two ideologies is highlighted by the struggle for power in Austria, which was marked by the assassination of the ultra-Catholic dictator Engelbert Dollfuss by Austrian Nazis. Likewise, Croatian fascists assassinated King Alexander I of Yugoslavia.[69] In Romania, as the fascist Iron Guard was gaining popularity and Nazi Germany was making advances on the European political stage, King Carol II ordered the execution of Corneliu Zelea Codreanu and other top-ranking Romanian fascists.[70] The exiled German Emperor Wilhelm II was an enemy of Adolf Hitler and stated that Nazism made him ashamed to be a German for the first time in his life.[71] The Catholic seminarian António de Oliveira Salazar, who was Portugal's dictator for 40 years, denounced fascism and Nazism as a "pagan Caesarism" that did not recognize legal, religious, or moral limits.[72]
Political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset has examined the class basis of right-wing extremist politics in the 1920–1960 era. He reports:
Conservative or rightist extremist movements have arisen at different periods in modern history, ranging from the Horthyites in Hungary, the Christian Social Party of Dollfuss in Austria, Der Stahlhelm and other nationalists in pre-Hitler Germany, and Salazar in Portugal, to the pre-1966 Gaullist movements and the monarchists in contemporary France and Italy. The right extremists are conservative, not revolutionary. They seek to change political institutions in order to preserve or restore cultural and economic ones, while extremists of the centre [fascists/Nazis] and left [communists/anarchists] seek to use political means for cultural and social revolution. The ideal of the right extremist is not a totalitarian ruler, but a monarch, or a traditionalist who acts like one. Many such movements in Spain, Austria, Hungary, Germany, and Italy have been explicitly monarchist […] The supporters of these movements differ from those of the centrists, tending to be wealthier, and more religious, which is more important in terms of a potential for mass support.[73]
Edmund Fawcett states that fascism is totalitarian, populist, and anti-pluralist, whereas authoritarian conservatism is somewhat pluralist but most of all elitist and anti-populist. He concludes: "The fascist is a nonconservative who takes anti-liberalism to extremes. The right-wing authoritarian is a conservative who takes fear of democracy to extremes."[74]
During the Cold War, right-wing military dictatorships were prominent in Latin America, with most nations being under military rule by the middle of the 1970s.[75] One example of this was General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled over Chile from 1973 to 1990.[76] According to Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, military dictatorships arise in democratic systems in order to stop leftist parties from becoming totalitarian.[77] The most recent instance occurred in Bolivia in 2024, when General Juan José Zúñiga staged a coup in order to overthrow the far-left president Luis Arce.[78]
In the 21st century, the authoritarian style of government experienced a worldwide renaissance with conservative statesmen such as President Vladimir Putin in Russia, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India, and President Donald Trump in the United States.[79]
Liberal conservatism
[edit]Liberal conservatism is a variant of conservatism that is strongly influenced by liberal stances.[80] It incorporates the classical liberal view of minimal economic interventionism, meaning that individuals should be free to participate in the market and generate wealth without government interference.[81] However, individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life; therefore, liberal conservatives believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure law and order, and social institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation.[81] Originally opposed to capitalism and the industrial revolution,[82][83] the conservative ideology in many countries adopted economic liberalism, especially in the United States where this ideology is known as fiscal conservatism.[84][85]
National conservatism
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National conservatism prioritizes the defense of national and cultural identity, often based on a theory of the family as a model for the state.[86] National conservatism is oriented towards upholding national sovereignty, which includes limited immigration and a strong national defense.[87] In Europe, national conservatives are usually eurosceptics.[88][89] Political philosopher Yoram Hazony has argued for national conservatism in his work The Virtue of Nationalism (2018).[90]
Paternalistic conservatism
[edit]Paternalistic conservatism is a strand in conservatism which reflects the belief that societies exist and develop organically and that members within them have obligations towards each other.[91] There is particular emphasis on the paternalistic obligation (noblesse oblige) of those who are privileged and wealthy to the poorer parts of society, which is consistent with principles such as duty, organicism, and hierarchy.[92] Its proponents often stress the importance of a social safety net to deal with poverty, supporting limited redistribution of wealth along with government regulation of markets in the interests of both consumers and producers.[93]
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Paternalistic conservatism first arose as a distinct ideology in the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's "One Nation" Toryism.[94] There have been a variety of one-nation conservative governments in the United Kingdom with exponents such as Prime Ministers Disraeli, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, and Harold Macmillan.[95]
In 19th-century Germany, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck adopted a set of social programs, known as state socialism, which included insurance for workers against sickness, accident, incapacity, and old age. The goal of this conservative state-building strategy was to make ordinary Germans, not just the Junker aristocracy, more loyal to state and Emperor.[7] Chancellor Leo von Caprivi promoted a conservative agenda called the "New Course".[96]
Progressive conservatism
[edit]In the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt has been identified as the main exponent of progressive conservatism. Roosevelt stated that he had "always believed that wise progressivism and wise conservatism go hand in hand".[97] The Republican administration of President William Howard Taft was progressive conservative, and he described himself as a believer in progressive conservatism.[97] President Dwight D. Eisenhower also declared himself an advocate of progressive conservatism.[98]
In Canada, a variety of conservative governments have been part of the Red Tory tradition, with Canada's former major conservative party being named the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada from 1942 to 2003.[99] Prime Ministers Arthur Meighen, R. B. Bennett, John Diefenbaker, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, and Kim Campbell led Red Tory federal governments.[99]
Reactionary conservatism
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Reactionary conservatism, also known as reactionism, opposes policies for the social transformation of society.[100] In popular usage, reactionism refers to a staunch traditionalist conservative political perspective of a person who supports the status quo and opposes social, political, and economic change.[101] Some adherents of conservatism, rather than opposing change, seek to return to the status quo ante and tend to view the modern world in a negative light, especially concerning mass culture and secularism, although different groups of reactionaries may choose different traditional values to revive.[7][102]
Some political scientists, such as Corey Robin, treat the words reactionary and conservative as synonyms.[103] Others, such as Mark Lilla, argue that reactionism and conservatism are distinct worldviews.[104] Francis Wilson defines conservatism as "a philosophy of social evolution, in which certain lasting values are defended within the framework of the tension of political conflict".[105]
Some reactionaries favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary society. An early example of a powerful reactionary movement was German Romanticism, which centred around concepts of organicism, medievalism, and traditionalism against the forces of rationalism, secularism, and individualism that were unleashed in the French Revolution.[106]
In political discourse, being a reactionary is generally regarded as negative; Peter King observed that it is "an unsought-for label, used as a torment rather than a badge of honor".[107] Despite this, the descriptor has been adopted by intellectuals such as Italian esoteric traditionalist Julius Evola,[108] Austrian monarchist Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn,[109] Colombian political theologian Nicolás Gómez Dávila, and American historian John Lukacs.[110]
Religious conservatism
[edit]Religious conservatism principally applies the teachings of particular religions to politics—sometimes by merely proclaiming the value of those teachings, at other times by having those teachings influence laws.[111] In most democracies, political conservatism seeks to uphold traditional family structures and social values. Religious conservatives typically oppose abortion, LGBT behavior (or, in certain cases, identity), drug use,[112] and sexual activity outside of marriage. In some cases, conservative values are grounded in religious beliefs, and conservatives seek to increase the role of religion in public life.[113]
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Christian democracy is a moderately conservative center-right ideology inspired by Christian social teaching.[114] It originated as a reaction against the industrialization and urbanization associated with laissez-faire-capitalism.[115] In post-war Europe, Christian-democratic parties dominated politics in several nations—the Christian People's Party in Belgium, CDU and CSU in Germany, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil in Ireland, and Christian Democracy in Italy.[116] Many post-war Europeans saw Christian democracy as a moderate alternative to the extremes of right-wing nationalism and left-wing communism.[117] Christian-democratic parties were especially popular among European women, who often voted for these parties to a large extent due to their pro-family policies.[118]
Social conservatism
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Social conservatives believe that society is built upon a fragile network of relationships which need to be upheld through duty, traditional values, and established institutions; and that the government has a role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or practices. A social conservative wants to preserve traditional morality and social mores, often by opposing what they consider radical policies or social engineering.[119] Some social-conservative stances are the following:
- Support of a culture of life and opposition to the destruction of human life at any stage, including abortion, embryonic stem cells research, and euthanasia.
- Support of bioconservatism and opposition to both eugenics and transhumanism.[120]
- Support of traditional family values, viewing the nuclear family model as society's foundational unit.
- Support of a traditional definition of marriage as being one man and one woman, and opposition to expansion of civil marriage and child adoption to couples in same-sex relationships.
- Support of public morality with prohibition of drugs and prostitution and censorship of pornography.
- Support of organized religion and opposition to atheism and secularism, especially when militant.[121][122][123]
Traditionalist conservatism
[edit]Traditionalist conservatism, also known as classical conservatism, emphasises the need for the principles of natural law, transcendent moral order, tradition, hierarchy, organicism, agrarianism, classicism, and high culture as well as the intersecting spheres of loyalty.[124] Some traditionalists have embraced the labels reactionary and counter-revolutionary, defying the stigma that has attached to these terms since the Enlightenment. Having a hierarchical view of society, many traditionalist conservatives, including a few notable Americans such as Ralph Adams Cram,[125] William S. Lind,[126] and Charles A. Coulombe,[127] defend the monarchical political structure as the most natural and beneficial social arrangement.
National variants
[edit]Conservative parties vary widely from country to country in the goals they wish to achieve.[4] Both conservative and classical liberal parties tend to favor private ownership of property, in opposition to communist, socialist, and green parties, which favor communal ownership or laws regulating responsibility on the part of property owners. Where conservatives and liberals differ is primarily on social issues, where conservatives tend to reject behavior that does not conform to some social norm. Modern conservative parties often define themselves by their opposition to liberal or socialist parties. The United States usage of the term conservative is unique to that country, where its first modern usage was for pro-free enterprise opponents of the New Deal.[128]
Asia
[edit]China
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Chinese conservatism can be traced back to Confucius, whose philosophy is based on the values of loyalty, duty, and respect. He believed in a hierarchically organized society, modeled after the patriarchal family and headed by an absolute sovereign. However, Confucius also believed that the state should employ a meritocratic class of administrators and advisers, recruited by civil service exams. An alternative school of thought called Legalism argued that administrative discipline, not Confucian virtue, was crucial for the governance of the state.[129]
For thousands of years, China was ruled by monarchs of various imperial dynasties. The Mandate of Heaven theory was invoked in order to legitimize the absolute authority of the Emperor.[130] The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 overthrew Puyi, the last Chinese Emperor, and ushered in the Republic of China. Between 1927 and 1949, China was ruled by the nationalist party Kuomintang, which became right-wing after General Chiang Kai-shek purged communists from his party. Following his defeat in the Chinese Civil War by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Chiang continued ruling the island of Taiwan until his death in 1975.[131]
On the mainland, Chinese conservatism was vehemently opposed and suppressed by the CCP, especially during the Cultural Revolution. Members of the "Five Black Categories"—landlords, rich farmers, counter-revolutionaries, bad influencers, and right-wingers—were violently persecuted. Young people formed cadres of Red Guards throughout the country and sought to destroy the Four Olds: old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits—leading to the destruction of a large part of China's cultural heritage, including historical artifacts and religious sites.[132] Among them, some Red Guards who embraced local officials were pejoratively called "conservatives".[133]
In recent decades, Chinese conservatism has experienced a national revival.[134] The ancient schools of Confucianism and Legalism have made a return into mainstream Chinese thought.[135][136][137] Wang Huning, widely regarded as the grey eminence and chief ideologue of the CCP, has criticized aspects of Marxism and recommended that China combine its historical and modern values.[138] General Secretary Xi Jinping has called traditional Chinese culture the "soul" of the nation and the "foundation" of the CCP.[139][140] China has also developed a form of authoritarian capitalism in recent years, further breaking with the orthodox communism of its past.[141] Neoauthoritarianism is a current of political thought that advocates a powerful state to facilitate market reforms.[142] A major conern of modern Chinese conservatism is the preservation of traditional culture.[143]
India
[edit]Indian politics has long been dominated by aristocratic and religious elites in one of the most hierarchically stratified nations in the world.[144][145] In modern times, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Narendra Modi, represents conservative politics. With over 170 million members as of October 2022, the BJP is by far the world's largest political party.[146][147][148] It promotes Hindu nationalism, quasi-fascist Hindutva, a hostile foreign policy against Pakistan, and a conservative social and fiscal policy.[149][150] The BJP movement is both elitist and populist, attracting privileged groups that fear encroachment on their dominant positions as well as "plebeian" groups that seek recognition around a majoritarian rhetoric of cultural pride, social order, and national strength.[151]
Iran
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The Pahlavi dynasty replaced the Qajar dynasty in 1925 after a coup d'état, ruling Iran as a constitutional monarchy from 1925 until 1953 and then as an autocratic monarchy from the U.S.-instigated 1953 coup d'état until 1979.[152] In an attempt to introduce reform from above while preserving traditional relations of hierarchy, the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, launched the White Revolution in 1963 as a series of reforms of aggressive modernization, resulting in a great redistribution of wealth from the aristocratic landlord class to Iran's working class and explosive economic growth in subsequent decades.[153] The Iranian Revolution of 1979, supported by the clergy and the aristocracy, overthrew the monarchy and transformed the Imperial State of Iran to the Islamic Republic of Iran, thus replacing the progressive conservatism of the Shah monarchy with the reactionary conservatism of Islamic theocracy.[154] The two main political camps in today's Iran are the Principlists and the Reformists.[155]
Israel
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After the declaration of the State of Israel, politics was initially dominated by left-wing parties, but overtime right-wing parties became increasingly powerful with conservatism now being the dominant ideology.[156] In the 2022 election, right-wing parties received 75 percent of the popular vote, a centrist party 17 percent and left-wing parties 7 percent, and the subsequent government has been variously described as the most right-wing, as well as the most religious, in Israeli history.[157][158]
Israeli conservatism is based around upholding Jewish culture, promotion of forms of Zionism that tend to be more irredentist in nature (i.e. Revisionist and Neo-Zionism, which promote the idea of Greater Israel, as compared to Liberal or Labor Zionism, which are supportive of a two-state solution), promoting Israeli national security, maintaining the role of religion and the Rabbinate in the public sphere, support for the free market, and closer ties with the United States.[13]
Japan
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Conservatism has been the dominant political ideology throughout modern Japanese history.[159][160] The right-wing conservative Liberal Democratic Party has been the dominant ruling party since 1955, often referred to as the 1955 System.[161] Therefore, some experts consider Japan a democratically elected one-party state since the populace always votes for the same conservative party.[162]
Up until 1868, Japan was largely a feudal state ruled by members of the aristocratic Samurai order with its bushido code of honor. In the Meiji era, a process of modernization, industrialization, and nationalization was initiated.[163] Power struggles between the old decentralized Samurai aristocracy and the new centralized imperial monarchy culminated in the Satsuma Rebellion in 1877 with imperial victory.[164] During the era of World War II, Japan was transformed into an ultranationalist, imperialist state that conquered much of east and southeast Asia.[165] Contemporary conservatives, notably during the second premiership of Shinzo Abe from 2012 to 2020, advocate for revising the country's constitution, particularly Article 9 which renounces war and prohibits Japan from maintaining a military.[166]
Japan is the oldest continuing monarchy in the history of mankind, with Naruhito currently serving as Emperor of Japan.[167] In accordance with the principle of monarchy, Japanese society has an authoritarian family structure with a traditionalist fatherly authority that is primarily transferred to the oldest son.[168]
Anti-communist and anti-Chinese sentiment is widespread in Japan.[169] In 1925 the Peace Preservation Law was enacted with the aim of allowing the Special Higher Police to suppress socialists and communists more effectively.[170] In 1936 the Empire of Japan and Nazi Germany opposed the Communist International by signing the Anti-Comintern Pact—a pact later joined by the Kingdom of Italy, Francoist Spain, and the Kingdom of Hungary.[171] The Japanese term tenkō refers to the coerced ideological conversions of Japanese socialists who were induced to renounce leftist ideology and enthusiastically embrace the monarchist, capitalist, and imperialist ideology favored by the state.[172] In the late 1940s and early 1950s, during the Red Purge, tens of thousands of supporters of left-wing groups, especially those affiliated with the Japanese Communist Party, were removed from their jobs in government, schools, and universities.[173]
Nippon Kaigi is an ultraconservative and ultranationalist organization that exerts a significant influence over contemporary Japanese politics. In 2014, a majority of National Diet members were part of the group. Many ministers and a few prime ministers, including Fumio Kishida, Tarō Asō, Shinzō Abe, and Yoshihide Suga, have been members.[174]
A highly developed and industrialized nation, Japan is more capitalistic and Western-oriented than other Asian nations. Therefore, some experts consider Japan part of the Western world.[175] In 1960 a treaty was signed that established a military alliance between the United States and Japan. However, the ultraconservative reactionary traditionalist Yukio Mishima feared that his fellow Japanese were too enamored of modernization and Western-style capitalism to protect traditional Japanese culture.[176]
Singapore
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Singapore's conservative party is the People's Action Party (PAP), which promotes conservative values in the form of Asian democracy and Asian values.[177] These values include: nation before community and society above self; family as the basic unit of society; regard and community support for the individual; consensus instead of contention, and racial and religious harmony. They are a contrast against the "more Westernised, individualistic, and self-centred outlook on life" and uphold the "traditional Asian ideas of morality, duty and society".[178]
The PAP is currently in government and has been since independence in 1965. Having governed for over six decades, the PAP is the longest uninterrupted governing party among modern multiparty parliamentary democracies.[179] Singapore is a city state and has a reputation as a nanny state, owing to the considerable number of government regulations and restrictions on its citizens' lives.[180] Former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, the architect of the modern Singapore, observed: "If Singapore is a nanny state, then I am proud to have fostered one".[181] In an interview in the Straits Times in 1987, Lee said:
I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens. Yes, if I did not, had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters–who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.[182]
South Korea
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South Korean army general Park Chung Hee seized power in the May 16 coup of 1961, after which he was elected as the third President of South Korea. He introduced the highly authoritarian Yushin Constitution, ushering in the Fourth Republic. He ruled the country as a dictator until his assassination by a fellow army general in 1979.[183]
Right-wing conservative parties have dominated South Korean politics for most of its modern history, while the main opposition parties have been moderate centrist and not left-wing. South Korea's major conservative party, the People Power Party, has changed its form throughout its history. First it was the Democratic-Liberal Party and its first head was Roh Tae-woo, who was the first President of the Sixth Republic of South Korea. Democratic-Liberal Party was founded by the merging of Roh Tae-woo's Democratic Justice Party, Kim Young Sam's Reunification Democratic Party and Kim Jong-pil's New Democratic Republican Party. Kim Young-sam became the fourteenth President of Korea.
When the conservative party was beaten by the opposition party in the general election, it changed its form again to follow the party members' demand for reforms. It became the New Korea Party, but it changed again one year later since the President Kim Young-sam was blamed by the citizen for the International Monetary Fund.[clarification needed] It changed its name to Grand National Party (GNP). Since the late Kim Dae-jung assumed the presidency in 1998, GNP had been the opposition party until Lee Myung-bak won the presidential election of 2007.
Europe
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European conservatism has taken many different expressions. Early forms were often reactionary and romantic, idealizing the Middle Ages and its feudal social order with aristocratic rule and an established church.[184][185] In the late 19th century, conservatism became increasingly progressive, adopting capitalism and espousing nationalism—which up until now had been anti-traditionalist and anti-imperialist forces.[186] During the first half of the 20th century, as socialist movements were becoming more powerful and the Tsarist regime was overthrown in the Russian Revolution, conservatism in Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Romania transformed into the far-right, becoming more authoritarian and extreme.[187] In the post-war era, conservatism assumed a more moderate form with center-right Christian-democratic parties dominating politics across Western Europe throughout the rest of the century,[116] although the authoritarian regimes of Francoist Spain and Salazarian Portugal survived for a few more decades.[188] Towards the end of the century, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, conservatism took on a more liberal form. In recent decades, nationalist parties have been on the rise across Europe in opposition to globalism.[189]
European nations, with the exception of Switzerland, have had a long monarchical tradition throughout history. Today, existing monarchies are Andorra, Belgium, Denmark, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Some reactionary movements in republican nations, such as Action Française in France, the Monarchist National Party in Italy, and the Black-Yellow Alliance in Austria, have advocated a restoration of the monarchy.
Austria
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Austrian conservatism originated with Prince Klemens von Metternich, who was the architect behind the monarchist and imperialist Conservative Order that was enacted at the Congress of Vienna in the aftermath of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.[7] The goal was to establish a European balance of power that could guarantee peace and suppress republican and nationalist movements.[190] During its existence, the Austrian Empire was the third most populous monarchy in Europe after the Russian Empire and the United Kingdom. Following its defeat in the Austro-Prussian War, it transformed into the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was the most diverse state in Europe with twelve nationalities living under a unifying monarch.[191] The Empire was fragmented in the aftermath of World War I, ushering in the democratic First Austrian Republic.
The Austrian Civil War in 1934 saw a series of skirmishes between the right-wing government and socialist forces. When the insurgents were defeated, the government declared martial law and held mass trials, forcing leading socialist politicians, such as Otto Bauer, into exile.[192] The conservatives banned the Social Democratic Party and replaced parliamentary democracy with a corporatist and clerical constitution. The Patriotic Front, into which the paramilitary Heimwehr and the Christian Social Party were merged, became the only legal political party in the resulting authoritarian regime, the Federal State of Austria.[193]
While having close ties to Fascist Italy, which was still a monarchy as well as a fellow Catholic nation, Austrian conservatives harbored strong anti-Prussian and anti-Nazi sentiment. Austria's most prominent conservative intellectual, the Catholic aristocrat Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, published several books in which he interpreted Nazism as a leftist, ochlocratic, and demagogic ideology opposed to the traditional rightist ideals of aristocracy, monarchy, and Christianity.[194] Austria's dictator Engelbert Dollfuss saw Nazism as another form of totalitarian communism, and he saw Adolf Hitler as the German version of Joseph Stalin. The conservatives banned the Austrian Nazi Party and arrested many of its activists, causing tens of thousands of Nazi sympathisers to flee to Nazi Germany in order to avoid persecution.[195] A few months later, Nazi forces initiated the July Putsch and managed to assassinate Chancellor Dollfuss in an attempt to overthrow the conservative government.[196] In response, Benito Mussolini mobilized a part of the Italian army on the Austrian border and threatened Hitler with war in the event of a German invasion of Austria. In 1938, when Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss, conservative groups were suppressed: members of the Austrian nobility and the Catholic clergy were arrested and their properties were confiscated.[197][198] Otto von Hapsburg, the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, was a fervent anti-Nazi, for which reason the Nazi regime ordered that he was to be executed immediately if caught.[199]
Following World War II and the return to democracy, Austrian conservatives and socialists alike abandoned their extremism, believing in political compromise and seeking consensus in the middle.[200] The conservatives formed the Austrian People's Party, which has been the major conservative party in Austria ever since. In contemporary politics, the party was led by Sebastian Kurz, whom the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung nicknamed the "young Metternich".[201]
Belgium
[edit]Having its roots in the conservative Catholic Party, the Christian People's Party retained a conservative edge through the 20th century, supporting the King in the Royal Question, supporting nuclear family as the cornerstone of society, defending Christian education, and opposing euthanasia. The Christian People's Party dominated politics in post-war Belgium. In 1999, the party's support collapsed, and it became the country's fifth-largest party.[202][203][204] Since 2014, the Flemish nationalist and conservative New Flemish Alliance is the largest party in Belgium.[205]
Denmark
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Danish conservatism emerged with the political grouping Højre (literally "Right"), which due to its alliance with King Christian IX of Denmark dominated Danish politics and formed all governments from 1865 to 1901. When a constitutional reform in 1915 stripped the landed gentry of political power, Højre was succeeded by the Conservative People's Party of Denmark, which has since then been the main Danish conservative party.[206] Another Danish conservative party was the Free Conservatives, who were active between 1902 and 1920. Traditionally and historically, conservatism in Denmark has been more populist and agrarian than in Sweden and Norway, where conservatism has been more elitist and urban.[207]
The Conservative People's Party led the government coalition from 1982 to 1993. The party had previously been member of various governments from 1916 to 1917, 1940 to 1945, 1950 to 1953, and 1968 to 1971. The party was a junior partner in governments led by the Liberals from 2001 to 2011[208] and again from 2016 to 2019. The party is preceded by 11 years by the Young Conservatives (KU), today the youth movement of the party.
The Conservative People's Party had a stable electoral support close to 15 to 20% at almost all general elections from 1918 to 1971. In the 1970s it declined to around 5%, but then under the leadership of Poul Schlüter reached its highest popularity level ever in 1984, receiving 23% of the votes. Since the late 1990s the party has obtained around 5 to 10% of the vote. In 2022, the party received 5.5% of the vote.[209]
Conservative thinking has also influenced other Danish political parties. In 1995, the Danish People's Party was founded, based on a mixture of conservative, nationalist, and social-democratic ideas.[206] In 2015, the party New Right was established, professing a national-conservative attitude.[210]
The conservative parties in Denmark have always considered the monarchy a central institution in Denmark.[211][212]
Finland
[edit]The conservative party in Finland is the National Coalition Party. The party was founded in 1918, when several monarchist parties united. Although right-wing in the past, today it is a moderate liberal-conservative party. While advocating economic liberalism, it is committed to the social market economy.[213]
There has been strong anti-Russian and anti-communist sentiment in Finland due to its long history of being invaded and conquered by Russia and the Soviet Union.[214][215] In the Finnish Civil War of 1918, White Finland defeated the leftist Red Finland.[216] The Finnish Defence Forces and the paramilitary White Guard, led by Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, were assisted by the German Imperial Army at the request of the Finnish civil government. The far-right Lapua movement continued to terrorize communists in post-war Finland, but it was banned after a failed coup d'etat attempt in 1932.[217]
France
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Early conservatism in France focused on the rejection of the secularism of the French Revolution, support for the role of the Catholic Church, and the restoration of the monarchy.[218] After the first fall of Napoleon in 1814, the House of Bourbon returned to power in the Bourbon Restoration. Louis XVIII and Charles X, brothers of the executed King Louis XVI, successively mounted the throne and instituted a conservative government intended to restore the proprieties, if not all the institutions, of the Ancien Régime.[219]
After the July Revolution of 1830, Louis Philippe I, a member of the more liberal Orléans branch of the House of Bourbon, proclaimed himself as King of the French. The Second French Empire saw an Imperial Bonapartist regime of Napoleon III from 1852 to 1870.[220] The Bourbon monarchist cause was on the verge of victory in the 1870s, but then collapsed because the proposed king, Henri, Count of Chambord, refused to fly the tri-colored flag.[221] The turn of the century saw the rise of Action Française—an ultraconservative, reactionary, nationalist, and royalist movement that advocated a restoration of the monarchy.[222]
Tensions between Christian rightists and secular leftists heightened in the 1890–1910 era, but moderated after the spirit of unity in fighting World War I.[223] An authoritarian form of conservatism characterized the Vichy regime of 1940–1944 under Marshal Philippe Pétain with heightened antisemitism, opposition to individualism, emphasis on family life, and national direction of the economy.[59]
Conservatism has been the major political force in France since World War II,[224] although the number of conservative groups and their lack of stability defy simple categorization.[163] Following the war, conservatives supported Gaullist groups and parties, espoused nationalism, and emphasised tradition, social order, and the regeneration of France.[225] Unusually, post-war conservatism in France was formed around the personality of a leader—army general and aristocrat Charles de Gaulle who led the Free French Forces against Nazi Germany—and it did not draw on traditional French conservatism, but on the Bonapartist tradition.[226] Gaullism in France continues under The Republicans (formerly Union for a Popular Movement), a party previously led by Nicolas Sarkozy, who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012 and whose ideology is known as Sarkozysm.[227]
In 2021, the French intellectual Éric Zemmour founded the nationalist party Reconquête, which has been described as a more rightist version of Marine Le Pen's National Rally.[228]
Germany
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Germany was the heart of the reactionary Romantic movement that swept Europe in the aftermath of the progressive Age of Enlightenment and its culmination in the anti-conservative French Revolution.[106] German Romanticism was deeply organicist and medievalist, finding expression philosophically among the Old Hegelians and judicially in the German historical school.[229] Prominent conservative exponents were Friedrich Schlegel, Novalis, Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, and Adam Müller.