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The Dissolution of Classical Conservatism into Contemporary Politics

Matthew Prenter

310570164

Dr Logan Masilamani

Pol 100: Introduction to Political Science

April 4th 2024

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In recent years, a stark increase in the radicalization of those identifying with right-wing

ideologies has been observed. Historical events such as the January 6th Insurrection and the

indictment of former president Donald Trump are massive proponents of this divergence of

ideology. The encompassing band of what is conservatism has broadened greatly, and as a result,

contemporary ideologies of conservatism are popping up in the mainstream political discourse.

What are these contemporary ideologies, where are they coming from, and is this a concern to

the political climate of Western politics going forward?

First, we must build an understanding of what conservatism is in its classical sense to

understand the unstable climate it is facing today. As a written ideology, conservatism is defined

by its social belief of human imperfection. “Conservatives criticise their rivals for making a

utopian exaggeration of the power of theoretical reason” (Hamilton, 2019). Conservatism largely

revolves around a fear of the human spirit and an idea of human nature centred around less

communal beliefs. As such, the ideology largely focuses on economic policy and building

national GDP, as opposed to focusing on social policy like welfare programs and social services.

Conservatives believe in lower taxation rates on businesses as to promote a thriving and

self-sustaining market with minimal government intervention as to stimulate the production of

surplus wealth within a population. Largely, the government's purpose is to uphold infrastructure

and to serve as law enforcement. Conservatives believe largely in imprisonment and stringent

laws and rules to retain perfect order within a society. Another important aspect of right-wing

ideology in relation to conservatism is the ideological belief of Liberalism. Liberalism and

Conservatism are closely related, and sometimes overlapping, in their policy decision-making.

Liberalism, as defined, is the belief of little to no government within a society, and a free or
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near-free market with no regulation to stimulate the creation of business and economic ideas to

generate surplus wealth. Instead of utilising a government for the upholding of laws and rules,

Liberal ideology believes in social normativity that culminates within societies that will create

order within it. Similarly, punishment through imprisonment is largely absent within liberal

beliefs, and rather rehabilitation institutions are in place to separate the public from criminals.

Infrastructure is upheld by private firms rather than governing bodies, and as such it can be said

that liberal ideology turns the concept of money into a form of social currency. We can observe

the similarities between these two beliefs, both operating under capitalist beliefs, with minimal

governance or taxation, and how the line may blur between them. As such, this blur has caused

the two ideologies to begin to overlap with each other, creating discord within the political

stability of the conservative ideology.

There is a simultaneous push and pull between liberals and conservatives. While some

conservatives find their ideologies drifting to encompass more liberal thinking, other

conservatives are seeing this change as a threat to their beliefs, and as such tighten up on their

thinking and find themselves becoming further right wing, and vice versa with liberalism. As

such, the idea of Conservatism, which is generally viewed as a not far right-of-centre ideology, is

merging with the generally further right ideology of Liberalism, this merge has expanded both

ideologies into the further right spectrum and as such has begun overlapping with further right

ideologies. As such the right-wing spectrum has become fragmented into a hodge podge of

conflicting ideologies. Conservative and Liberal ideologies, both favouring a society with

minimal government interaction, find themselves adopting ideological beliefs that tie into more

authoritarian values. As conservatives value stagnation, one could say that “Conservatives have
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not been infected with the spirit of improvement” (Roggeveen, 1999) the same way liberals have,

but this is seen shifting as the adoption of “defending the Status Quo’ (Roggeveen, 1999)

becomes normative of conservative ideology, rather than exclusive to Liberal thinking. Another

proponent in the divergence is largely attributed to the current stream of news and media.

Opinions are becoming stronger and sometimes defining an individual's beliefs. Recent law

passes observed in the United States like the repeal of the Roe V. Wade abortion protection laws

and the increasing mainstream bigotry towards queer groups, namely those identifying as

transgender, have sparked an almost patriotic attachment to right-wing beliefs. The middle

ground, or centre, of right-wing politics, is dissolving. The analogy of Income Polarisation, the

economic phenomenon of market laws allowing for the upper-class wealth to disproportionately

grow in comparison to a nation's GDP, creating a larger lower-class population and a dissolution

of the middle class, is encompassing of what is happening in the right-wing political spectrum.

So this begs the question, what are these new contemporary right-wing ideologies emerging?

While political leanings are a spectrum, and titles are not properly encompassing the

nuance of political belief, political scientists have observed and categorised more niche

microcosms of conservatism that are on the rise. Libertarian Conservatism, or Conservative

Liberalism, is the most widely recognized of these beliefs and emerged through the

criss-crossing of the two ideologies. Those subscribing to the belief by and large subscribe to the

belief in minimal government, only to uphold the law, and the ability to freely navigate a

business-run market system to produce surplus value. Social programs are more commonly

found cited in this ideology compared to other forms of right-wing ideology, though are not
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abundant. The discrepancy between Conservative Liberalism and Libertarian Conservatism

comes down to which side of the two ideologies are more strongly believed in. This is a

simplification of the belief, and many of the points can be flipped in the reverse of the ideology

and still fit within the umbrella term of Libertarian Conservatism. Another widely recognized

belief is Anarcho-Capitalism, focussing almost solely on the economic side of politics. Anaracho

Capitalists believe in the dissolution of the state and the complete privatisation of all assets

within a society. This is the furthest libertarian belief and believes in a society's ability to become

completely self-governing within a market society. Social Conservatism is defined by its

determinants for traditional values. Religion is largely a proponent of social conservatism, with

the dominant religion being Christianity. Traditional structures of power are favoured in place of

modern approaches like social pluralism, as well as traditional gender norms, traditional family

structures and aesthetics, and what could be described as a yearning for the economic strength of

the 1950s-1970s America, or a pre Reagan economy, making them quite contrarian with National

Conservatives, another religious sect of Conservatism, who are staunchly pro Reagan and were

part of a movement called “The New Right” which gained Reagan his election over Carter

(Durham, 2000). National Conservatism is another sect of modern conservative ideology that

holds strong ties to notions of nationalism and patriotism. This form of conservatism is primarily

found in the United States, partly as the natural climate of desensitised patriotism is an instilled

belief in American schoolchildren. National Conservatism relies on a more authoritarian style of

governance, utilising a central form of governing to be the supreme upholder of the law within

society. National Conservatism is also closely intertwined with religion, and as such focuses

itself on upholding cultural identity, though, racialized political belief is commonly found within

this ideology and the notion of a true cultural identity is rarely the end goal. Rather, an idea of
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racialized “purity” within a society, namely a white-dominant society, is a prime directive in

National Conservative policy. National conservatism also has a unique perspective on its

economic policy. While other branches of modern conservatism base their economic standing on

an idea of a modernised global free market, that being, an economy stimulated by strong export,

low tariff, and broadband trade communications, National Conservatism is more interested in

forming a strong self-sustaining national economy. In a way, this ideology can be viewed as a

form of Mercantilism, choosing to fortify a personal economy and to minimise the threat of 3rd

party imports. This form of economy is a callback to more classical forms of capitalist trade, and

in a sense, National Conservatism can be seen as a more raw and stripped-back form of modern

Capitalist economy within a traditional set of social values. As such with this traditional social

normativity, religion is a large proponent of social order within this ideological system and is

seen as a sort of glue within a society. Because of the hedonistic nature of right-wing politics, the

notion of religion within a mercantilist society serves to unify state beliefs and to allow for

government within these systems to more effectively engage with a nation of people through a

shared respect for religious social law. National Conservatism is perhaps the most forefronted

form of neo-conservatism in the Western Hemisphere. As new globalised policy emerges, we can

observe a pushback from the general public, sometimes shunting people's political litigations

backward into a form of more comfortable and traditional politics revolving around a single

nation. This rise of patriotism that comes in tandem with National Conservatism and

traditionalist values is a major factor in recent American political history, with the patriot

storming of the White House after the insurrection of Donald Trump, as well as the increasingly

radicalized right-wing policy that can be observed in primarily southern, midwestern, and eastern

states in the United States, such as anti LGBTQ2IA+ laws, and the repeal of Roe V Wade
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abortion laws. The final and furthest right form of Neo-Conservatism is Fascism. In recent

months and years within left-leaning circles, this word has been used often to describe much of

the modern climate of right-wing policy and decision-making, but often this word is misspoken

and the blurring of the meaning has become increasingly apparent, resulting in a normativity of

this extremist belief. Fascism at its core is very similar to National Conservatism, but with an

even more authoritarian government system, the complete merging of religion and state, and

sects of authoritative power such as secret police to create a silent political atmosphere, as not to

oppose the central state power. Fascists are firmly anti-democratic, believing in a single

authoritative power to handle decision-making for extended periods of time within a nation. This

belief stems once again from the Conservative psychological belief of human imperfection,

believing that a constant rotating door of state leaders will only result in a blurry sense of

political dominance, rather than a more stone set form of ideology that can be achieved by one

singular dictator. Because of the anti-democratic nature of Fascist society, policy and law moves

far quicker than almost all forms of other ideology. As such, many fascist states see this as

advantageous from a militant front, being able to quickly mobilise troops or perform emergency

authoritative action. The reason for the perceived rise of fascism is due to the overlapping and

discord within right wing ideological space, making these extremist beliefs able to weasel their

way into mainstream discourse. So why is this grandiose merge of right wing ideology occurring

in todays modern political sphere?

There are two massive proponents in why the right wing is such contested territory today,

the increase of modernization, technology, and globalization, and the new pseudo-religious

dichotomy of what presidents have and are becoming. As policy shifts in western politics
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towards a new form of global governance, a pushback has been seen within all sects of politics.

Globalisation is one of the most hot button issues in modern politics and the climate of future

politics, and as such is creating a massive rift of push and pull across the board. Many are finding

their politics flipping to favour this new form of governance, and conversely many on the right

are flipping for opposite reasons. Globalisation for many can be seen as a threat to national

identity, communal cultures, and the sanctity of traditional values, and as such we see many on

the right taking a heel turn to try and embrace a society of yesteryear. This phenomena is nothing

new, in the early 20th century we saw the first rises of labour divisions and unionisation amongst

the rapidly modernising and technology progressing world, though in the past these revolts were

actually a way to turn social climate into favourable conditions for the average citizen. Is this

reason to be concerned from a global policy perspective? Absolutely.

Secondly, presidential eschatology is the second primary reason for this rapid shift. In

2016, Donald J. Trump was elected president of the united states, and while his political

knowledge lacked in comparison to his opponents, he was able to win his election on charisma

and marketing. What Donald Trump became to his followers was not in line with other

presidents, rather than being a subsidiary to god (or any theoretical higher power), Donald

Trump became equal to god in his supporters eyes. His ability to rally his supporters, and work

them up in his favour completely changed right wing politics, possibly forever. Donald Trump is

one of the few presidents in US history to have been able to mould his supporters to fit his

agenda, rather than the other way around. As such, right wing groups that find themselves

aligned with Donald Trump have begun to recognise their own political power, and have begun

rapid radicalisation within the right wing sphere to homogenise their belief. This new dichotomy

of power is exactly what lead to the storming of the capital on January 6th (Foyle, 2022). Author
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and Sociologist Daniel Bell provides a trough and clever insight and summary on this

phenomena, stating that “What the right fears as a whole is the erosion of its own social position,

the collapse of its power, the increasing incomprensibility of a world” (Thompson, 2007)

But is conservatism really moving at such a pace to draw concern? In recent statistical

analysis, right wing extremism has been observed on an ever upward slope. In 2015, 60% of

documented radicalised movements could be associated back to Islamist groups, but as of 2018,

2 years into Donald Trump's presidency, that number changed to 20%, with almost 60% of all

extremist movements being traced back to right wing groups (Rivinius and Pizzo, 2020). Within

these same statistics, left wing extremism is on a rapid decline. In similar vain, the number of

self identifying conservatives has risen 14% in the United States since 2021, rising from 60% to

74% in 2023 (Bohannon, 2023). As such, conservative policy has become more prevalent in

mainstream news, American government is becoming further right (Unequal balance of Judicial

powers observed, prime example: The split of Republican and Democratic supreme court

judges), and left wing groups seem to remain unmoving in this push from the right. So it can be

safely concluded that right wing extremism is on the rise, and dually suppressing leftist

movements, creating a homogenised right wing atmosphere.

Though primarily delving into analysis of the Western sphere of politics, specifically the

United States, right wing politics are facing a brand new frontier in the world of politics. What

was once a more generalised notion of ideological litigation has become fragmented and primed

for new engagements within the political world. For the better? Arguable, and a heavily biassed

subject to confront, but what could be inferred from this information is that a new generation of
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politics is on the rise in the western world, with nuanced political ideology becoming an

increasingly mainstream idea within discourse, we can expect to see a similar fragmentation in

left wing politics as a revolt to the expansion of contraction of right wing politics. Conversely,

this could be a bubble, spawning a simplified three party system, of a centre right group, a

further right group, and a more encompassing left wing group. This time of political uncertainty

provides an incredible analytical standpoint for political science, and will hopefully aid in the

development of political psychology and sociology, which is observably the missing component

in developing a system of global governance.

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