Ultraconservatism refers to extremeconservative views in politics or religious practice.[1] In modern politics,ultraconservative usually refers toconservatives of thefar-right on thepolitical spectrum, comprising groups or individuals who are located to the right of those who hold mainstream conservative views, and continuing further right to includefringe parties.[2]
Elements of ultraconservatism typically rely on cultural crisis; they frequently supportanti-globalism – adopting stances ofanti-immigration,nationalism, andsovereignty – usepopulism andpolitical polarization, within-group and out-group practices.[3][4] The primaryeconomic ideology for most ultraconservatives isneoliberalism.[5]
PresidentJavier Milei is a right-wing populist who is often referred to in the media as ultra-conservative[6][7][8] orultra-liberal.[9][10][11] Milei's ideology is close toanarcho-capitalism[12] orpaleolibertarianism.[13] TheLibertad Avanza coalition, led by Milei is referred to asanti-establishment because it rejects Argentina's long-standing political legacy ofPeronism.[14]
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PresidentJair Bolsonaro was described as an ultraconservative during his tenure, often aligning his views with PresidentDonald Trump.[4][15] Upon taking office, Bolsonaro nominated ultraconservativeDamares Alves to head theMinistry of Human Rights and Citizenship.[15][16] His government would go on to be headed by elites who broadenedextractivist activities in theAmazon rainforest, while having confrontations with theindigenous peoples in Brazil.[17]
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In the United States, ultraconservatism first appeared when right-wing politicians and businesses led the opposition to theNew Deal of PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt.[18] Beginning in the 1960s, during theCold War, ultraconservatism began to rise to prominence, especially with theradical right organization, theJohn Birch Society.[19][20][21][22] At this time, ultraconservatives wereanticommunist, and opposed to thecivil rights movement, trade unions, andsocial programs.[19][20] Members of the John Birch Society believed that the civil rights movement would lead to the creation of aSoviet Negro Republic in the Southern United States.[20][21][23] In 1961,Jacob Javits would say that ultraconservatism "represents a danger to the Republican Party", as it was "moving the party farther to the right ... [which] would transform the Republican Party into a fringe party".[24] Beginning in the 1970s, ultraconservatives attempted to establish their principles into the government and culture of the United States, with the use ofthink tanks,political action committees, andlobbyists.[5] These groups were typically supported by wealthy individuals, includingRichard Uihlein,John McIntyre, and George Coleman.[25] Ultraconservatives would then "mark some groups, seemingly based on race, class, and immigration status", in an effort to polarize the public, saying that some groups were "parasitic" to the economy.[5]
Early into the 21st century, theSecond New Right became more ultraconservative, with some elements ofneofascism, usingnationalism to describe a mythical "past national glory".[26] Following theelection of Barack Obama in 2008, ultraconservatives made alarmist statements about theUnited States debt ceiling, calling for extreme cuts to social spending and the elimination of some social programs entirely.[5] During the Obama administration, ultraconservatives would organize around a message of "taking back our country" from Obama and creating thebirther movement.[5]
DuringXi Jinping's leadership, theChinese Communist Party (CCP) has become more closely related to ultraconservative[27] andultranationalist views,[28][29] and is referred by some as havingHan-centric elements.[30][31] TheBeijing Daily is a mainland Chinese newspaper, referred to by some as "ultraconservative".[32]
Some hardline pro-Beijing conservatives in Hong Kong have been referred to by critics as "ultraconservative".[33][34][35]
"Ultra conservatives"—also known as "neoconservatives" or "neo-fundamentalists" are among the factions of theIranian principalists. This grouping is moreaggressive and openly confrontational toward the West.[36] Many ultra- or neo-Principlists are laymen representing theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) collectively.[36]
Japan's far-right nationalist organizationNippon Kaigi has been described as "reactionary"[37] or "ultraconservative"[38][39][40] due to its support for the constitutional amendment ofArticle 9 of the Japanese Constitution, defense of theEmpire of Japan, and denial ofJapanese war crimes. Since 2006, all Japanese prime ministers from the conservativeLiberal Democratic Party (LDP) have been affiliated with the Nippon Kaigi.[41]Sanae Takaichi, who is the current prime minister of Japan, is also a member of Nippon Kaigi.
Japan's former prime ministerShinzo Abe, was often described as "ultraconservative" because he supported socially conservative and strongJapanese nationalist policies.[42][43]Bryan Mark Rigg referred to the LDP itself as "ultraconservative".[44]
Ultraconservative has occasionally been used interchangeably withfascism,ultranationalism, andright-wing populism when describing theradical right in Europe.[45]
TheUltra-royalists were an ultra-conservative faction from 1815 to 1830 under theBourbon Restoration in France.[46] An Ultra was usually a member of the nobility of high society who strongly supportedRoman Catholicism as the state and only legal religion of France, theBourbonmonarchy,[47]traditional hierarchy between classes andcensus suffrage against the interests of thebourgeoisie and theirdemocratic tendencies.[48]
Action Française is a French ultraconservativemonarchist political movement.[49] Its ideology was dominated bythe precepts ofCharles Maurras, following his adherence and his conversion of the movement's founders toroyalism.[50] The movement supported a restoration of theHouse of Bourbon and, after the1905 law on the separation of Church and State, the restoration ofRoman Catholicism as the state religion—all as rallying points in distinction to theThird Republic of France which was considered corrupt and atheistic by many of its opponents.[51]
TheConservative Revolution (German:Konservative Revolution) was an ultraconservative movement in Germany prominent during theWeimar Republic—betweenWorld War I and theNazi seizure of power—with intellectual exponents such asOswald Spengler,Carl Schmitt, andErnst Jünger.[52] Plunged into what historianFritz Stern has named a deep "cultural despair," uprooted as they felt within therationalism andscientism of the modern world, theorists of the Conservative Revolution drew inspiration from various elements of the 19th century, includingFriedrich Nietzsche's contempt forChristian ethics, democracy and egalitarianism;[53] the anti-modern and anti-rationalist tendencies ofGerman Romanticism;[54] the vision of an organic and naturally-organizedfolk community cultivated by theVölkisch movement; the Prussian tradition of militaristic and authoritarian nationalism; and their own experience of comradeship and irrational violence on the front lines ofWorld War I.[55] From the 1960–1970s onwards, the Conservative Revolution has largely influenced theEuropean New Right, in particular the FrenchNouvelle Droite and the GermanNeue Rechte.[56][57][58]
In its first years,Jobbik held ultraconservative stances, promotinganti-communism andanti-globalism as some of its core tenets, though it became more successful as its views became more moderate.[59]
In religion, "ultraconservative" is anti-secular,hatred of other religions orLGBTQ people, andfundamentalist. Unlike ultraconservatives in secular politics, religious ultraconservatives can useanti-nationalism as an extension ofanti-modernism;Haredi ultraconservativeSatmar isagainst Zionism;[60]Islamic fundamentalists are generally opposed to nationalism.[61]
Robert Sarah, who was considered a likely candidate for pope in the death of liberal-moderatePope Francis in 2025, is widely considered an ultraconservative view;[62][63] Sarah is known for his staunch opposition toliberal theology,gender ideology, and what he sees as the moral decline of Westernsecularism.[64]
Falun Gong is known for its views described as "ultra-conservative", including opposition to theChinese Communist Party (CCP), espousinganti-evolutionary views, opposition tohomosexuality andfeminism, and rejection ofmodern medicine, among other views.[65][66][67][68][69][70][71]
ultraconservative governments. This deep conservative identity-set emphasizes three interrelated national role conceptions: (1) an anti-globalist role, composed of narratives in opposition to international institutions; (2) a nationalist role, composed of pro-sovereignty narratives; and (3) an anti-foe role, composed of friend/foe narratives.
Under the ultraconservative Bolsonaro government, the state has been taken over by elites with rural and extractive capital who plan on exploiting the Amazon rain forest at any cost and see indigenous peoples as an obstacle to their goal.
Ultraconservatism, which combined traditional anticommunist rhetoric with fresh acrimony toward civil rights legislation, welfare programs, organized labor, and taxation
a recent meeting in Chicago attended by the apostles of rightwing extremism and ultraconservatism, Mr. Robert Welch, ... founder and titular head of the John Birch Society, ... charged that the civil rights movement is being guided by Communists to dismember American society. He said that the Communist master plan calls for an in- dependent Negro-Soviet republic
Added the ultraconservative Beijing Daily, "the fate of the CCP depends on whether it can defend the battlefield of ideology and thought."
... widely considered to be a stronghold of the ultra-conservative Heung Yee Kuk, the body representing Hong Kong's "indigenous" residents.
This assumes, of course, that it is possible to isolate a single, purely indigenous perspective on Chinese history and culture an assumption that some ostensibly 'progressive' Western scholars such as Pennycook appear to share with ultra-conservative pro-Beijing traditionalists.
All four LDF candidates, as well as two from the ultraconservative New Hong Kong Alliance and one from the Civic Association, ...
the reactionary group Nippon Kaigi (Japan Conference)—has been waging war over its shared past with China and South Korea on battlegrounds ranging from Yasukuni Shrine to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Abe's key ultra-conservative supporter, Nippon Kaigi, or Japan Conference, was among the organizers Saturday.
Abe and Kagoike, who has indicated he will resign as principal, both belong to Nippon Kaigi, an ultra-conservative lobby group whose members include more than a dozen cabinet ministers.
In 2008, she made an unsuccessful run at the LDP's chairmanship. Following her defeat, she worked to build an internal party network and became involved in a revisionist group of lawmakers that serves as the mouthpiece of the ultraconservative Nippon Kaigi ("Japan Conference") movement.
In the 2012 election campaign that brought the ultraconservative Shinzo Abe back to power, the LDP expressed its opinion that no additional measures are required to protect the rights of gays and lesbians.
The ultraconservative Abe Shinzō government (2012–2020) became Japan's longest-running postwar administration, ...
This is especially the case with politicians in his current ruling party, The Liberal Democratic Party (which is really ultraconservative, not liberal).
the ideological manifestations of the radical right after 1989 may be called ultranationalism, clericalism, fascism, ultraconservatism, or radical populism
In fact, the ideological claims of these Catholic 'ultraroyalists' seeped into public discourse on a regular basis as early as 1818 […] Like their counterparts in Germany or Austria, ultraconservatives were profoundly influenced by Edmund Burke'sReflections on the Revolution in France (1790).
The ultraconservatives of the Action Française felt greatly encouraged by the new nationalistic spirit and the increasing discredit of Leftist ideology.
right-wing ultra-conservative thinkers such as Oswald Spengler and Carl Schmitt
