Liberal conservatism is a
political ideology combining
conservative policies with
liberal stances, especially on
economic issues but also on
social and
ethical matters,[1] representing a brand of political conservatism strongly influenced by liberalism.
The ideology incorporates the
classical liberal view of minimal
government intervention in the economy, according to which individuals should be free to participate in the
market and
generate wealth without government interference.[2] However, liberal conservatives also hold that individuals cannot be thoroughly depended on to act responsibly in other spheres of life; therefore, they believe that a strong state is necessary to ensure
law and order and that social
institutions are needed to nurture a sense of duty and responsibility to the nation.[2] Liberal conservatives also support
civil liberties, along with some
socially conservative positions. They differ on
social issues, with some being socially conservative and others socially liberal, though all liberal conservatives broadly support the
rule of law regarding
civil rights,
social equality and
the environment.[3][4] This is equated with the creation of a
cohesive and
tolerant society with increased levels of
individual responsibility and less
inequality.[5]
Liberal conservatism shares the classical liberal tenets of a commitment to
individualism, belief in
negative freedom, a lightly regulated free market, and a minimal
rule of law state.[6] A number of commentators have stated that many conservative currents in the 1980s, such as
Thatcherism,[2] were rejuvenated classical liberals in all but name.[6] However, in contrast to classical liberalism there is a stronger social agenda and support for a greater degree of state intervention especially in certain areas of social life which liberal conservatives believe should not be subject to market forces.[6] Particularly in regards to the family, sexuality, health and education, these should either always be periodically regulated or minimally protected by the state.[6]
Overview, definitions and usage
Both conservatism and liberalism have had different meanings over time in different centuries. The term liberal conservatism has been used in quite different ways. It usually contrasts with
aristocratic conservatism, which deems the principle of equality as something discordant with human nature and emphasizes instead the idea of natural inequality. As conservatives in democratic countries have embraced typical liberal institutions such as the
rule of law,
private property, the
market economy and
constitutionalrepresentative government, the liberal element of liberal conservatism became consensual among conservatives. In some countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, the term liberal conservatism came to be understood simply as conservatism in popular culture,[7] prompting some conservatives who embraced more strongly
classical-liberal values to call themselves libertarians instead.[8] However, there are differences between classical liberals and libertarians.[9]
In their embrace of liberal and
free market principles, European liberal conservatives are clearly distinguishable from those holding
national-conservative, fully
socially conservative and/or outright
populist views, let alone a
right-wing populist posture. Being liberal often involves stressing free market economics and the belief in individual responsibility together with the defense of
civil rights and support for a limited
welfare state.[citation needed] Compared to other centre-right political traditions such as
Christian democracy, liberal conservatives are less socially conservative and more economically liberal, favouring low taxes and minimal state intervention in the economy.[citation needed] Some regional varieties and peculiarities can be observed:
In most
Nordic countries, liberal conservatives, Christian democrats and liberals form distinct political families and each have their own party. The largest liberal parties are the
Nordic agrarian parties, which are traditionally
agrarian.[citation needed]
In most countries where
Romance languages are spoken and where
Catholicism is or has been dominant as well as in Greece and Poland, liberal conservative movements, often encompassing Christian democrats and liberals, have more recently gained traction and the terms conservative and liberal may be understood as synonymous.[citation needed]
In the modern European discourse, liberal conservatism usually encompasses centre-right political outlooks that reject at least to some extent social conservatism. This position is also associated with support for moderate forms of
social safety net and
environmentalism (see also
green conservatism and
green liberalism). This variety of liberal conservatism has been espoused by Nordic conservatives (the
Moderate Party in Sweden, the
Conservative Party in Norway and the
National Coalition Party in Finland) which have been fending off competition from right-wing populists to their right and do not include Christian democrats; and at times the British
Conservative Party. In an interview shortly after taking office as
Prime Minister in 2010,
David Cameron introduced himself as a liberal conservative.[10] During his first speech to a party conference in 2006, Cameron had defined this as believing in individual freedom and
human rights, but being skeptical of "grand schemes to remake the world".[11]
Relation to American conservatism
In the United States, conservatives often combine the economic
individualism of classical liberals with a
Burkean form of conservatism that emphasizes the natural inequalities between men, the irrationality of human behavior as the basis for the human drive for order and stability and the rejection of natural rights as the basis for government.[12] From a different perspective,
American conservatism (a "hybrid of conservatism and classical liberalism") has exalted three tenets of Burkean conservatism, namely the diffidence toward the power of the state, the preference of liberty over equality and for
patriotism while rejecting the three remaining tenets, namely loyalty to traditional institutions and hierarchies, scepticism regarding progress and elitism.[13][clarification needed] Consequently, the term liberal conservatism is not used in the United States.
Modern American liberalism happens to be quite different from
European liberalism and occupies the
centre-left of the political spectrum, in contrast to many European countries where liberalism is often more associated with the
centre and
centre-right while
social democracy makes up a substantial part of the centre-left. The opposite is true in
Latin America, where
economically liberal conservatism is often labelled under the rubric of
neoliberalism both in popular culture and academic discourse.[14]
According to scholar Andrew Vincent, the maxim of liberal conservatism is "economics is prior to politics".[17] Others emphasize the openness of historical change and a suspicion of tyrannical majorities behind the hailing of individual liberties and traditional virtues by authors such as
Edmund Burke and
Alexis de Tocqueville[18] as the basis of current liberal conservatism which can be seen both in the works of
Raymond Aron and
Michael Oakeshott. However, there is general agreement that the original liberal conservatives were those who combined conservative social attitudes with an economically liberal outlook, adapting a previous aristocratic understanding of natural inequalities between men to the rule of
meritocracy, without directly criticizing privileges of birth as long as individual liberties were guaranteed. Over time, the majority of conservatives in the
Western world came to adopt free market economic ideas as the
Industrial Revolution progressed and the monarchy, aristocracy and clergy lost their wealth and power, to the extent that such ideas are now generally considered as part of conservatism. Nonetheless, the term liberal is used in most countries to describe those with free-market economic views. This is the case in
continental Europe,[19] Australia[20] and
Latin America.[21]
Liberal-conservative parties or parties with liberal-conservative factions
^United Russia officially supports the "liberal-conservative" ideology.[72] However, there is a controversy that United Russia is actually
authoritarian or
anti-liberal.[73]
^The AKP was described as a liberal-conservative and conservative-liberal, but there is controversy that the AKP is
illiberal.[89]
Citations
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020).
"Content". Parties and Elections in Europe.
^Bethell, Leslie: The Cambridge History of Latin America: Latin America since 1930. Cambridge University Press, 1991.
^Francesco Giubilei; Dmytro Finberg; Leonid Sinchenko, eds. (2021). The History of European Conservative Thought. Simon and Schuster. p. 25.
ISBN9781621579106.
^Oleksii Stus; Dmytro Finberg; Leonid Sinchenko, eds. (2021). Ukrainian Dissidents: An Anthology of Texts. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 346.
ISBN9783838215518. The tendency of neoconservatism (liberal conservatism) is most clearly represented by the literary ...
^Lakoff, Sandoff, "Tocqueville, Burke, and the Origins of Liberal Conservatism." The review of politics60(3), pp. 435–464, 1998.
doi:
10.1017/S003467050002742X
^Maipose, Gervase S. (2008). "Policy and Institutional Dynamics of Sustained Development in Botswana". Commission on Growth and Development (35): 20–21.
hdl:
10986/28032.
^Michel Ducharme; Jean-François Constant, eds. (2009). Liberalism and Hegemony: Debating the Canadian Liberal Revolution. Springer Nature. p. 150.
ISBN9780802098825.
^Arceneaux, Craig; Pion-Berlin, David (2005), Transforming Latin America: The International And Domestic Origins Of Change, University of Pittsburgh Press, p. 148
^
abPeter Humphreys; Michael Steed (3 November 1988).
"Identifying Liberal Parties". In Emil J. Kirchner (ed.). Liberal Parties in Western Europe. Cambridge University Press. pp. 408–409.
ISBN978-0-521-32394-9.
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019).
"Denmark". Parties and Elections in Europe.
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2017).
"France". Parties and Elections in Europe. Archived from
the original on 24 April 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2020.
^Martin Steven (2018). Mark Garnett (ed.). Conservatism in Europe – the political thought of Christian Democracy. Bloomsbury. p. 96. {{
cite book}}: |work= ignored (
help)
^Sylvia Kritzinger; Carolina Plescia; SKolja Raube; James Wilhelm; Jan Wouters, eds. (2020).
Assessing the 2019 European Parliament Elections. Taylor & Francis. p. 263.
ISBN9781000057263. As in 2014, seven minor parties with vote shares below 5 per cent gained seats in the European Parliament, ranging from single-issue parties like the Animal Protection Party (one seat) or the Family Party (one seat) to the satirical 'Die Partei' (two seats) or the liberal-Conservative 'Free Voters'.
^Amnon Rapoport (1990). Experimental Studies of Interactive Decisions. Kluwer Academic. p. 413.
ISBN0792306856. Likud is a liberal-conservative party that gains much of its support from the lower and middle classes, and promotes free enterprise, nationalism, and expansionism.
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2018).
"Italy". Parties and Elections in Europe.
^"Beautiful Harmony: Political Project Behind Japan's New Era Name – Analysis". eurasia review. 16 July 2019. The shifting dynamics around the new era name (gengō 元号) offers an opportunity to understand how the domestic politics of the LDP's project of ultranationalism is shaping a new Japan and a new form of nationalism.
^"Shinzo Abe and the long history of Japanese political violence".
The Spectator. 9 July 2022. Retrieved 3 March 2023. As the French judge at the trial, Henri Bernard, noted, Japan's wartime atrocities 'had a principal author [Hirohito] who escaped all prosecution and of whom in any case the present defendants could only be considered accomplices.' The result was that whereas ultranationalism became toxic in post-war Germany, in Japan neo-fascism — centred around the figure of the emperor — retained its allure and became mainstream albeit sotto voce within Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
^Abdo Baaklini; Guilain Denoeux; Springborg, Robert (1999), Legislative Politics in the Arab World: The Resurgence of Democratic Institutions, Lynne Riener, p. 129
^Vowles, Jack (1987). The New Zealand Journal of History. University of Auckland. p. 225. [T]he National Party is both conservative and liberal, its liberalism containing both elements of classical and new liberalism, the implications of the latter also overlapping with elements of conservatism. Within the National Party, it is the liberals rather than the conservatives who are most self-conscious and vocal, although the conservatives most frequently seem to prevail.
^ VMRO-DPMNE (Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization – Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity) |
https://vmro-dpmne.org.mk/
^Nordsieck, Wolfram (2020).
"Romania". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
^Lim Word, ed. (2022).
The Settlement Agreement. Make a repost. Litres.
ISBN9785041106676. On December 1, 2001, the Unity movement, the election blocs "Fatherland – All Russia" and "Our Home – Russia" merge into a single liberal-conservative political party, "United Russia".
^Elena Chebankova, ed. (2020).
Political Ideologies in Contemporary Russia. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP.
ISBN9780228004387. Russia's largest and leading United Russia Party is the main representative of this ideological direction. Its official doctrine states that the party espouses conservative, right-centrist, and liberal-conservative ideology.
^Carsten Schapkow; Frank Jacob, eds. (2022). Nationalism and Populism: Expressions of Fear or Political Strategies?. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 48.
ISBN9783110729740.
^Fernando Reinares (2014).
"The 2004 Madrid Train Bombings". In Bruce Hoffman; Fernando Reinares (eds.). The Evolution of the Global Terrorist Threat: From 9/11 to Osama bin Laden's Death. Columbia University Press. p. 32.
ISBN978-0-231-53743-8.
^David Hanley (1999).
"France: Living with Instability". In David Broughton (ed.). Changing Party Systems in Western Europe. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. 66.
ISBN978-1-85567-328-1. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
McAnulla, Stuart (2006). British Politics: A Critical Introduction. A&C Black.
ISBN978-0-826-46155-1.
Turner, Rachel S. (2008). Neo-Liberal Ideology: History, Concepts and Policies: History, Concepts and Policies. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
ISBN978-0-748-63235-0.
van de Haar, Edwin (2015). Degrees of Freedom: Liberal Political Philosophy and Ideology. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.
ISBN978-1-412-85575-4.
Vincent, Andrew (2009). Modern Political Ideologies. John Wiley & Sons.
ISBN978-1-4443-1105-1.