National conservatism focuses on "threats to moral order and the loss of moral bearing due to liberalism'srelativism".[25]: 1089 It rejects the basic precepts of enlightenment liberalism, such asindividualism and the universality ofhuman rights. In America and Europe, national conservatives aremajoritarianpopulists and advocate for fewer limits on the power of elected representatives to "smash the liberal state".[10] It opposes modernity, secularism,liberalism,socialism,communism andanarchism, instead valuingEurope’s Christian heritage and "defending"Western civilization.[25]: 1099 [25]: 1093 National conservatism is silent on classical conservative thought expressed byMichael Oakeshott andEdmund Burke.[25]: 1099 InThe Virtue of Nationalism,Yoram Hazony criticisesJean-Jacques Rousseau andJohn Locke for creating a "dream world" in which the "Jewish and Christian world" have "no place to exist".[21] National conservatism disagrees with liberalism and socialism over the interpretation of key historical developments, such asthe Enlightenment,modernization, andemancipation, and key political events like those that occurred in1789,1968, and1989.Patrick Deneen argues that the "current elite" should be replaced with "a better aristocracy brought about by a muscular populism" to advance the "common good", with the common good loosely defined as "integration" that includes the reunification ofchurch and state.[21] While national conservatism distances itself from fascism, some forms of what scholars likeRoger Griffin term "para-fascism"—a type of authoritarian nationalism that seeks to preserve traditional structures rather than pursue apalingenetic ultranationalism—are seen as aligning more closely with the tenets of national conservatism than with purefascism.[26] In his 2022 bookConservatism: A Rediscovery, Hazony wrote that "in the political arena,conservatism refers to a standpoint that regards the recovery, restoration, elaboration, and repair of national and religious traditions as the key to maintaining a nation and strengthening it through time."[27][28][29][30] National conservatism distances itself fromfascism, viewing it—along with liberalism and socialism—as aspects of modernity that "disconnect human designs from normative order", instead calling for the "restoration and order" of social, moral, and political structures.[25]: 1099
National conservatives in different countries do not necessarily share a common position on economic policy. Their views may range from support ofcorporatism,mixed economy, andprotectionism to a morelaissez-faire approach. In the first, more common case, national conservatives can be distinguished fromliberal conservatives,[35] for whomfree market economic policies,deregulation, and tight spending are the main priorities. Some commentators have indeed identified a growing gap between national and economically liberal conservatism: "Most parties ofthe Right [today] are run by economically liberal conservatives who, in varying degrees, have marginalisedsocial,cultural and national conservatives."[35] National conservatism developed its economic alternative to liberalism through political representatives in post-communist Europe, most notably Poland and Hungary, and the emergence of "pro-worker conservatism" in the United States.[25]: 1095 Throughout the 1990s, economic positions of national conservatives were largelyfusionist.[25]: 1097 The works ofLeo Strauss andEric Voegelin have served as building blocks for the modern national conservative movement's socio-economic policies. Strauss's indictment of capitalism as 'economism' through the reduction of individual needs to consumption plays a role in national conservative thought, which argues forsolidarism and an increased statist role in the economy to bring about a moralizing "financial nationalism" in opposition to communism and the individualism of liberalism.[25]: 1097–1098 Depending on the country, this can include increased support ofprotectionism; increased state social spending for "pro-worker" and "pro-family" conservatism; the re-nationalization of banks and strategic enterprises; and opposing tax breaks.[25]: 1098–1099 It supports "social nativism" in East Asian state-led development as a socio-economic policy paradigm.[25]: 1093
National conservatives usually support a foreign policy that upholds the interests of their nation. They lean towardsmilitarism,unilateralism, andisolationism. They reject theinternationalism andmultilateralism that have characterized the modern age.[36][37] They often have a negative view of theUnited Nations, feeling that its multinational agenda erodes their unique national identity,[36][37] as well as theEuropean Union and other international organizations.[21]
National conservatism has gained ground across theWestern world in recent decades, but has been particularly strong in certain countries and among certain demographic groups. Costas Panayotakis has argued that theeconomic inequality engendered byneoliberalism contributed to the rise of national conservatism.[38]
Regional or regionalist parties can be nationalist or national conservative, without aligning with the country to which the region belongs.South Tyrol is a notable example, as "national conservative" parties there represent itsGerman-speaking majority and identify with neighbouringAustria, with which South Tyrol shares cultural and historical ties.
^Dahms, Harry F., ed. (7 November 2014).Mediations of social life in the 21st century. Bingle, UK.ISBN9781784412227.OCLC896728569.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^ab"The American and Russian right are aligning".The Economist. 20 March 2025. Retrieved23 March 2025.Within the West, the international coalition of nationalist conservatives, stretching from Trumpism in America to bolsonarismo in Brazil to Orbanism in Hungary, rejects the basic precepts of enlightenment liberalism, like individualism and the universality of human rights. ... The nationalist conservative movement in America and Europe, however, is couched in majoritarian populism—expressing the democratic will of people while imposing ever-fewer limits on the authority of their elected representatives. In America the goal is to smash the liberal state.
^abcdefghijklmnBakke, Elisabeth (2010), "Central and East European party systems since 1989",Central and Southeast European Politics Since 1989, Cambridge University Press, p. 79
^Ferraresi, Mattia (10 April 2020)."Nationalists Claim They Want to Redefine Conservatism, but They're Not Sure What It Is".Foreign Policy. Washington, D.C.: Graham Holdings Company.standing "in stark opposition to political theories grounded in race." Thus, in addition to formulating their political theses around ideas of nationality and values, the national conservatives also include ideas about race, culture, and religion to define their outlooks.
^Pytlas, Bartek (2015).Radical Right Parties in Central and Eastern Europe: Mainstream Party Competition and Electoral Fortune.Routledge. p. 36.
^Bonikowska, Monika (2014)."India After The Elections".Centre for International Relations (6): 2. Archived fromthe original on 24 September 2017. Retrieved13 May 2018.
^Misra, Amalendu (1999). "Savarkar and the Discourse on Islam in Pre-Independent India".Journal of Asian History.33 (2): 175.
^Lee, Doreen (2016).Activist Archives: Youth Culture and the Political Past in Indonesia. Duke University Press.
^Hitchcock, Michael (1997).Images of Malay-Indonesian Identity. OUP. p. 101.
^Ganesan (2015).Bilateral Legacies in East and Southeast Asia. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. p. 67.
^Bernd Henningsen; Krister Hanne; Tobias Etzold, eds. (2017).The Baltic Sea Region: a Comprehensive Guide. Berliner Wissenschafts-Verlag. p. 341.ISBN978-3-830-51727-6.National Alliance (Nacionālā apvienība, NA): National conservatism, economic liberalism; right-wing
^Jan Senkyr (2013)."Political Awakening in Malaysia".KAS International Reports (7):73–74.the UMNO can be described as a national conservative Islamic party
^Teehankee, Julio (2016). "Weak State, Strong Presidents: Situating the Duterte Presidency in Philippine Political Time".Journal of Developing Societies.3 (3).
^Krzypinski, Dariusz (2017). "Patterns of Recruitment of Polish Candidates in the 2014 European Parliament Elections". In Boicu, Ruxandra; Branea, Silvia; Stefanel, Adriana (eds.).Political Communication and European Parliamentary Elections in Times of Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 245.
^Berger, Mark (2014).Rethinking the Third World. Macmillan. p. 98.
^"Korean Dilemma".The Statesman (India). 16 March 2022. Retrieved16 February 2023.Politically, the conservatives are on the rise in South Korea, and the country has just elected its new President, Yoon Suk-yeol, from the nationalist-conservative, People Power Party (PPP).
^Daniel Kübler; Urs Scheuss; Philippe Rochat (2013)."The Metropolitan Bases of Political Cleavage in Switzerland". In Jefferey M. Sellers; Daniel Kübler; R. Alan Walks; Melanie Walter-Rogg (eds.).The Political Ecology of the Metropolis: Metropolitan Sources of Electoral Behaviour in Eleven Countries. ECPR Press. p. 211.ISBN978-1-907301-44-5.
^"Thailand".De Agostini. Archived fromthe original on 18 October 2020. Retrieved5 February 2020.PPP (Palang Pracharath, People's State Power Party, conservative nationalist)
^Bayat, Asef (2013).Post-Islamism. Oxford University Press. p. 11.
^"Erdoğan's Triumph".Financial Times. 24 July 2007. Archived fromthe original on 7 March 2021. Retrieved13 May 2018.The AKP is now a national conservative party — albeit rebalancing power away from the westernised urban elite and towards Turkey's traditional heartland of Anatolia — as well as the Muslim equivalent of Europe's Christian Democrats.
^Carkoglu, Ali (2004).Turkey and the European Union: Domestic Politics, Economic Integration and International Dynamics. Routledge. p. 127.
^Hloušek, Vít; Kopeček, Lubomír (2010).Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties: East-Central and Western Europe Compared. Farnham, Surrey and Burlington, VT: Ashgate. p. 165.
^Hloušek, Vít (2016).Origin, Ideology and Transformation of Political Parties. Routledge. p. 165.
^Matin-Asgard, Afshin (2018).Both Eastern and Western. CUP. p. 243.
^Marco Tarchi (2007), "Recalcitrant Allies: The Conflicting Foreign Policy Agenda of theAlleanza Nazionale and theLega Nord",Europe for the Europeans, Ashgate, p. 188