New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain parties after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[Hanley, Seán (2008). The New Right in the New Europe: Czech Transformation and Right-wing Politics, 1989–2006. Routledge. ] In the United States, the Second New Right campaigned against abortion, LGBT civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the Panama Canal Treaty, affirmative action, and most forms of .
History
New Right appeared during the 1964 presidential campaign of
Barry Goldwater to designate the emergence, in response to American style
liberalism (i.e., social liberalism), of a more combative, anti-egalitarian, and uninhibited right. Popularized by
Richard Viguerie, the term became later used to describe a broader global movement: those proponents of the night-watchman state but who also tended to be socially conservative, such as
Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, Turgut Özal or
Augusto Pinochet. However, as
Jean-Yves Camus and
Nicolas Lebourg point out, this leaning had only a few aspects in common with the "European New Right" that had been emerging since the 1960s, more inspired by the conservative revolutionary Moeller van den Bruck than by the classical liberal
Adam Smith.
Anarcho-capitalism, a form of
libertarianism that advocates for the replacement of all state institutions with private institutions,
is usually seen as part of the New Right.
New Right by country
Australia
In
Australia,
the New Right refers to a late 1970s/1980s onward movement both within and outside of the Liberal/National Coalition which advocates economically liberal and increased socially conservative policies (as opposed to the
old right which advocated economically conservative policies and "small-l liberals" with more socially liberal views).
[Verity Archer, "Dole bludgers, tax payers and the New Right: Constructing discourses of welfare in 1970s Australia." Labour History 96 (2009): 177–190.] Unlike the United Kingdom and United States, but like neighbouring New Zealand, the 1980s saw the Australian Labor Party initiate Third Way economic reforms, which bear some familiarity to New Right ideology. After the
John Howard Coalition ended the 13-year rule of the Hawke-Keating Labor government at the 1996 federal election, economic reforms were taken further, some examples being wholesale labor market deregulation (e.g.,
WorkChoices), the introduction of a Goods and Services Tax (GST), the privatisation of the telecommunications monopoly
Telstra, and sweeping
welfare reform including "work for the dole". The H. R. Nicholls Society, a think tank which advocates full workplace deregulation, contains some Liberal MPs as members and is seen to be of the New Right.
[Marian Sawer, Australia and the new right (Sydney: G. Allen & Unwin, 1982).]
Economic liberalism is also called economic rationalism in Australia. The term economic rationalism was first used by Labor's Gough Whitlam.[Hugh Collins, "Political ideology in Australia: the distinctiveness of a Benthamite society." Daedalus (1985): 147–169. online ]
Brazil
The New Right in Brazil has grown sharply in recent years within population, intelligentsia, and academia. That is mainly due to a generalized discontent with the left-wing government and its policies.
This new movement distinguishes itself from what is known in Brazil as old right, which was ideologically associated to the Brazilian military government, União Democrática Nacional (National Democratic Union), and Integralism.
There have been two major phenomena relating to the rise of the new Brazilian right: the Free Brazil Movement, which has managed to bring together millions of people on demonstrations against the government in March 2015;
Some Brazilian new-right thinkers are: Kim Kataguiri, and his movement Movimento Brasil Livre (Free Brazil Moviment), Roberto Campos,
As a result of this movement, in the 2018 Brazilian election, Jair Messias Bolsonaro was elected President of Brazil with 55% of the votes; his Minister of the Economy, Paulo Guedes, graduated from the University of Chicago, famous for its economically liberal school of economics.
Chile
The term
New Right (Spanish:
Nueva derecha) has come into mainstream political discourse since the election of Sebastián Piñera in 2010, when interior minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter used it to describe his government. Hinzpeter's introduction of the term caused a buzz among newspapers, politicians and analysts. According to a column published in
The Clinic, the New Right is different from the old dictatorial right of
Augusto Pinochet, in the sense that it embraces democracy. It is also different from the religiously conservative Unión Demócrata Independiente party, in that it is more open to discussing issues like
divorce. According to the same analysis, the New Right is becoming increasingly pragmatic, as shown by their decision to increase taxes following the 2010 Chilean earthquake.
[Marcelo Pollack, New Right in Chile (Springer, 1999). ]
France
In France, the New Right (or
Nouvelle Droite) has been used as a term to describe a modern think-tank of French political philosophers and intellectuals led by Alain de Benoist. Another noted intellectual, who was once part of Alain de Benoist's GRECE, is
Guillaume Faye. Although accused by some critics as being "
far-right" in their beliefs, they themselves claim that their ideas transcend the traditional left–right divide and actively encourages free debate. France also has one Identitarian New Right group (which is connected with Thule Seminar in Germany); that is Terre et Peuple of Pierre Vial, who was once an integral part and founding member of Alain de Benoist's GRECE.
[Simon Bornschier, "Why a right-wing populist party emerged in France but not in Germany: cleavages and actors in the formation of a new cultural divide." European Political Science Review 4.1 (2012): 121–145. online ]
Germany
In Germany, the
Neue Rechte (literally,
new right) consists of two parts: the
Jungkonservative (literally, young conservatives), who search for followers in the civic part of the population; and, secondly, the "Nationalrevolutionäre" (national revolutionists), who are looking for followers in the ultra-right part of the German population and use the rhetoric of right-wing politicians such as Gregor and Otto Strasser. Another noted New Right group in Germany is Thule Seminar of Pierre Krebs.
[Michael Minkenberg, "The new right in Germany: The transformation of conservatism and the extreme right." European Journal of Political Research 22.1 (1992): 55–81.]
Greece
Failos Kranidiotis, a Greek politician who had been expelled by New Democracy chairman Kyriakos Mitsotakis for expressing views similar to those of political rival Golden Dawn, founded the New Right party, based on national liberalism, in May 2016.
[Vasiliki Georgiadou, and Lamprini Rori. "Economic crisis, social and political impact. The new right-wing extremism in Greece." Anuari del Conflicte Social (2013). online ] His views diverged from those of former Prime Minister of Greece Konstantinos Mitsotakis, whose legacy expressed the most important principle of its recently elected leadership, including Adonis Georgiadis, who had been a member only since leaving far-right Popular Orthodox Rally in 2012.
Iran
In Iran,
New Right and the term
Modern Right () is associated with the Executives of Construction Party, which has split from the traditional Right.
Israel
New Right is a right-wing political party in Israel, founded in 2018 and led by
Ayelet Shaked and
Naftali Bennett. The party aims to be a party open to both secular and religious people. The party advocates the preservation of a strong right-wing in Israel.
Netherlands
The New Right (NR) was the name of a far-right/nationalist political party in the Netherlands from 2003 to 2007. The Party for Freedom (PVV), founded in 2005 and led by
Geert Wilders, also is a New Right movement.
Since March 2017, Forum for Democracy is another New Right party in the Dutch parliament.
New Zealand
In New Zealand, as in Australia, it was the Labour Party that initially adopted New Right economic policies.
Rogernomics involved
monetarism approaches to controlling inflation, corporatisation of government departments, and the removal of
and
subsidy, while the party also pursued social liberal stances such as decriminalisation of male homosexuality, pay equity for women and adopting a nuclear-free policy. This meant temporary realignment within New Zealand politics, as New Right middle-class voters voted Labour at the 1987 New Zealand general election in approval of its economic policies. At first, Labour corporatised many former government departments and state assets, then emulated the Conservative Thatcher administration and privatised them altogether during Labour's second term of office. However, recession and privatisation together led to increasing strains within the Labour Party, which led to schism, and the exit of
Jim Anderton and his NewLabour Party, which later formed part of the Alliance Party with the Greens and other opponents of New Right economics.
[Michael Peters, and James Marshall. "Education, the new right and the crisis of the welfare state in New Zealand." Australian Journal of Education Studies 11.1 (1990): 77–90.]
However, dissent and schism were not to be limited to the Labour Party and Alliance Party alone. During the Labour Party's second term in office, the Opposition New Zealand National Party (popularly known as National) selected Ruth Richardson as Opposition finance spokesperson, and when National won the 1990 general election, Richardson became Minister of Finance, while Jenny Shipley became Minister of Social Welfare. Richardson introduced deunionisation legislation, known as the Employment Contracts Act, in 1991, while Shipley presided over social welfare benefit cuts, designed to reduce welfare dependency – both core New Right policy initiatives.
In the early 1990s, maverick National Party MP Winston Peters also came to oppose New Right economic policies and led his elderly voting bloc out of the National Party. As a result, his New Zealand First anti-monetarist party has been a partner in coalition governments led by both National (1996–98) and Labour (2005–08 and 2017–20). Due to the introduction of the MMP electoral system, a New Right "Association of Consumers and Taxpayers" party, known as ACT New Zealand, was formed by ex-Labour New Right–aligned Cabinet Ministers like Richard Prebble and others, and maintaining existing New Right policy initiatives such as the Employment Contracts Act, while also introducing U.S.-style welfare reform. ACT New Zealand aspired to become National's centre-right coalition partner but has been hampered by lack of party unity and populist leadership that often-lacked strategic direction.
As for Labour and National themselves, their fortunes have been mixed. Labour was out of office for most of the nineties, only regaining power when Helen Clark led it to victory and a Labour/Alliance coalition and centre-left government (1999–2002). However, the Alliance disintegrated in 2002. National was defeated in 1999 due to the absence of a suitable stable coalition partner, given New Zealand First's partial disintegration after Winston Peters abandoned the prior National-led coalition. When Bill English became leader of National in 2001, it was thought that he might lead the party away from its prior hardline New Right economic and social policies, but his indecisiveness and lack of firm policy direction led to ACT New Zealand gaining the New Right middle-class voting basis in 2002. When Don Brash became leader, New Right middle-class voters returned to National's fold, causing National's revival in fortunes at the 2005 New Zealand general election. However, at the same time, ACT New Zealand strongly criticised it for deviating from its former New Right economic policy perspectives, and at the same election, National did little to enable ACT's survival. Don Brash resigned as National party leader, being replaced by John Key, who was a more moderate National MP.
As for the centre-left, Helen Clark and her Labour-led coalition were criticised by ex-Alliance members and non-government organisations for their alleged lack of attention to centre-left social policies, while trade union membership recovered due to Labour's repeal of the Employment Contracts Act 1991 and labour market deregulation and the deunionisation that had accompanied it in the nineties. It is plausible that Clark and her Cabinet were influenced by Tony Blair and his British Labour Government, which pursued a similar balancing act between social and fiscal responsibility while in government.[Roger Dale, "National reform, economic crisis and ‘New Right’ theory: A New Zealand perspective." Discourse 14.2 (1994): 17–29.]
Poland
In Poland, a conservative libertarian
and
euroscepticism political party Congress of the New Right (New Right) was founded on 25 March 2011 from former political parties Freedom and Lawfulness (WiP) and Real Politics Union (UPR) by Janusz Korwin-Mikke. It is backed up by various voters, some conservatives, far left people who want to legalize marijuana and citizens who endorse
free market and
capitalism .
South Korea
In South Korea, the South Korean New Right movement is a Korean attempt at
neoconservatism politics. The Lee Myung-bak government led by President
Lee Myung-bak and the conservative Grand National Party is noted for being a benefactor of the domestic New Right movement.
United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, the term New Right more specifically refers to a strand of Conservatism that Margaret Thatcher and
Ronald Reagan influenced. Thatcher's style of New Right ideology, known as
Thatcherism, was heavily influenced by the work of
Friedrich Hayek (in particular the book
The Road to Serfdom). They were ideologically committed to economic liberalism as well as being socially conservative.
United States
In the United States, New Right refers to two historically distinct conservative political movements.
[Frohnen, Bruce, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson (2006) American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia. ISI Books: Wilmington, DE. ] These American New Rights are distinct from and opposed to the more moderate tradition of the so-called Rockefeller Republicans. The New Right also differs from the Old Right (1933–55) on issues concerning foreign policy with
neoconservatives being opposed to the non-interventionism of the Old Right.
[
]
First New Right
The first New Right (1955–68) was centered on the right-wing libertarians, traditionalists, and Anti-communism at William F. Buckley's National Review.[ Sociologists and journalists had used new right since the 1950s; it was first used as self-identification in 1962 by the student activist group Young Americans for Freedom.][Viguerie, Richard. The New Right: We're Ready to Lead. 1981, Caroline House, p. 53 ]
The first New Right embraced what it called "fusionism" (an ostensible synthesis of classical liberal economics, traditional social values, and anti-communism)[ and coalesced in the years preceding the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. The Goldwater campaign, which failed to defeat incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, hastened the formation of a new political movement.
]
First New Right figures:
-
William F. Buckley Jr., editor of National Review
-
James Burnham, anti-communist political theorist
-
M. Stanton Evans, journalist and author of Young Americans for Freedom's Sharon Statement
-
Barry Goldwater, U.S. Senator from Arizona and Republican U.S. presidential candidate
-
Frank Meyer, anti-communist libertarian and creator of the Fusionism
Second New Right
The second New Right (1968 to present) was formed in the wake of the Nixon campaign and had a more populist tone than the first New Right. The second New Right tended to focus on (such as abortion) and was often linked with the Christian right.[Arin, Kubilay Yado: Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy. Wiesbaden: VS Springer 2013.] The second New Right objected to a perceived decline in morality, including increased drug use, more public and open displays of sexuality, rising crime rates, race riots and unrest from civil rights protesters, and Vietnam War protesters.
Second New Right figures:
-
James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family
-
Pat Buchanan, political commentator, founder of The American Conservative, and candidate in the 1992 Republican Party presidential primaries
-
George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States
-
Terry Dolan, founder of the National Conservative Political Action Committee
-
Jerry Falwell, Southern Baptist minister, founder of Liberty University and Moral Majority
-
Newt Gingrich, former Congressman, Speaker of the House, candidate for the Presidency of the United States, author
-
Robert Grant, Christian right activist and founder of Christian Voice
-
Rush Limbaugh, nationally syndicated talk radio and former cable news host, author
-
Milton Friedman, neoclassical economist of the Chicago school of economics, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences
-
Howard Phillips, founder of The Conservative Caucus
-
Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, actor, 33rd governor of California, Trade union leader
-
Phyllis Schlafly, anti-feminist activist and founder of the Eagle Forum
-
Richard Viguerie, direct mail activist
-
Paul Weyrich, founder of The Heritage Foundation and the Free Congress Research and Education Foundation
Third New Right
The Third New Right is a much lesser known emerging movement and a loosely coordinated group that began to form during the Trump presidency.
The group consists of factions such as National Conservatives, postliberals, and the Nietzschean right.
Third New Right Figures:
-
Ron DeSantis, 46th governor of Florida
-
JD Vance, 50th vice president of the United States
-
Donald Trump, 45th and 47th president of the United States
-
Yoram Hazony, philosopher and chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation
-
Josh Hawley, United States senator from Missouri
-
Patrick Deneen, political theorist and professor at the University of Notre Dame
-
Sohrab Ahmari, author and co-founder of Compact Magazine
-
Adrian Vermeule, legal scholar and professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School
-
Stephen Wolfe, author of The Case for Christian Nationalism
-
Curtis Yarvin, blogger and founder of the Dark Enlightenment
-
Bronze Age Pervert, internet personality and author
-
Peter Thiel, venture capitalist, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund
-
Balaji Srinivasan, entrepreneur and former CTO of Coinbase
-
Marc Andreessen, venture capitalist, co-founder of NCSA Mosaic, Netscape, Andreessen Horowitz, Opsware, and Ning
-
Ben Horowitz, entrepreneur and co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz
-
Steve Sailer, columnist and blogger
-
Steve Bannon, political strategist, pundit, White House Chief Strategist
-
Michael Anton, essayist, speechwriter, and Director of Policy Planning
-
R. R. Reno, theologian, political philosopher, and editor of the First Things magazine
-
Jonathan Keeperman, owner of Passage Publishing
See also
Further reading
-
Andrews, Geoff; Richard Cockett; Hooper, Alan; Williams, Michael (1999): New Left, New Right and Beyond. Taking the Sixties Seriously. Palgrave Macmillan.
-
Arin, Kubilay Yado (2013): Think Tanks, the Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy. Wiesbaden: VS Springer
-
Betz, Hans-George. (1993) "The new politics of resentment: radical right-wing populist parties in Western Europe." Comparative politics (1993): 413–427. online
-
Cunningham, Sean P. (2010). Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right
-
Klatch, Rebecca E. (1999) A generation divided: The new left, the new right, and the 1960s (Univ of California Press, 1999).
-
Lyons, Paul. (1996) New left, new right, and the legacy of the sixties (Temple University Press, 1996).
-
Minkenberg, Michael. (1992) "The new right in Germany: The transformation of conservatism and the extreme right." European Journal of Political Research 22.1 (1992): 55–81.
-
Richards, David; Smith, Martin J. (2002). Governance and Public Policy in the UK. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 92–121.
-
Murray, Charles (1984). Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1950–1980
-
Murray, Charles (1999). The Underclass Revisited
-
-
-
Wink, Georg (2021): Brazil, Land of the Past: The Ideological Roots of the New Right. Cuernavaca, Mexico: Bibliotopía.
External links
