New Right Conservatism Flashcards
Explain the origins of New Right Conservatism
Origins
- Mid-1970s - rival to one-nation conservatism and socialism
- During mid-1970’s - used interventionist policies based on Keynesianism and welfarism –> led to stagflation in their economies
- This stagflation caused several problems for the society, economy and state
- Tried solving problems
- By combining Neo-Conservatism and Neo-Liberalism, the New Right contains radical, traditional and reactionary elements:
–> Radicalism = seek to abandon govt intervention in economic and social affairs and attack permissive (people should be allowed to make their own moral choices) social attitudes
–> Traditional = stress the benefit of traditional value e.g. organicism, order and community
–> Reactionary = often appear to want to return to the 1800s, which they regard as a mythical age of economic liberty and moral responsibility
Neo-Liberalism
= modernised version of classical liberalism, based on a commitment to the free-market economy, minimal state, individual freedom and responsibility [I] Minimal State
– Right-wing economists = Friedman + Hayek free market only mechanism that can meet consumer demand for goods and services efficiently
- Argue government intervention merely causes the economic problems or deepens them
– Reagan = “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much”
– Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981) - Reagan - econ growth - tax cuts
[II] Self-reliant individuals
= Although humans may be selfish, they’re rational and entitled to pursue their own interests in their own way as long as they accept other can do the same
- This approach to individualism, releases human potential and creates natural harmony through free relations between people
[III] Rejection of Collectivism
- Neo-liberalism advocates atomistic individualism
- According to the liberal new right, the freedom of the market is the guarantee of individual freedom
- Neo-liberals believe freedom in negative terms, stressing the need to remove external limitations on the individual and that individual freedom can only be preserved by opposing collectivism and rolling back the state
- Neo-liberals criticise state welfare policies for creating a dependency culture
- They argue such a system, actually institutionalises poverty and unemployment and undermines atomistic individualism
[IV] Elimination of Government Intervention
- Neo-liberals argue if people no longer face govt interference, they will be free to deal with each other without restrictions
- These unhindered human interactions will create a ‘natural’ order vastly superior to any imposed model because it is based on everyone’s consent
- Neo-liberals regard govt intervention in the economy as the most potent threat to the free market
- State planning, nationalisation and high taxation are all rejected on the ground that they distort the market and contribute to further economic problems
- Any economic policy looks to the ‘supply-side’ economics as opposed to Keynesian policies to stimulate demand
- They argued that Keynesian policies to stimulate demand create inflation by governments printing too much money or providing too much credit
– Promotion of free market through deregulation policies affection London’s financial sector – The Bing Bang 1986
Neo-Conservatism
[I] Stress on Authority and Need to Preserve Society
- Neo-conservatism stress on authority and the need to preserve society shows that the conservative New Right is influenced to some degree by traditional conservative ideas of organicism
- However, this form of conservatism is much more authoritarian, placing an emphasis on strengthening society by reasserting authority and social discipline
[II] Protection of Public Morality
- There is a view with the New Right that since the 1960s authority and respect have declined in Western nations, leading to higher crime figures and a rise in anti-social behaviour
- Neo-conservatives have argued for the re-imposition of authority and discipline at every level of society, to restore the authority of traditional social structures
- This includes the family with its ‘natural’ internal relationships based on hierarchy and patriarchy
- New right conservatism promotes the ‘strong state’ or state authoritarianism, with increased police powers and harsher punishments, to tackle crime and public disorder
[III] Anti-Permissiveness
= the rejection of permissiveness
- Permissiveness = belief that people should make their own moral choices
- This suggests there’s no objective right and wrong
- This anti-permissiveness and concern for public morality stems from the emergence of a ‘free-for-all’ culture in some Western countries during the 1960s
– This permissive society of the 1960s was largely condemned by Thatcher who advocated ‘Victorian values’
- For the conservative New Right, there are two problems if an individual is free to adopt their own personal moral code or lifestyle:
1) The individual concerned may opt for an immoral lifestyle
2) People should not be free to choose different moral positions because it prevents the creation of common moral standards which undermines social cohesion
(this view can be seen with the New Right critique of multiculturalism, which in their view, threats social and national unity by dividing along ethic/racial and religious lines
– e.g. the morality of Saudi Arabian society greatly contradicts British – Punishment for petty crimes, promiscuity before marriage, LGBTQ rights)
– Determination to protect public morality led to government regulation of the UK video market, following concerns about ‘video nasty’ horror films – The Video Recording Act 1984 (T)
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984) - resulted in major sentencing and bail reform –> harsher sentences and preventative bail for violent offenders.
– Gay rights + the growing HIV/AIDS emerged as an important matter of public concern in the 1980s, however no civil rights legislation for gay individuals passed during Reagan’s tenure
Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
Thatcher = “They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours”
Freidman = “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government”
Freidman = “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand”
Trump = “There’s nothing wrong with law and order. There’s law and order, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it”
Explain key concepts of Neo-Liberalism
= modernised version of classical liberalism, based on a commitment to the free-market economy, minimal state, individual freedom and responsibility
Key Concepts:
1) Minimal State
– Right-wing economists = Friedman + Hayek view the free market as the only mechanism that can meet consumer demand for goods and services efficiently, maximise the use of resources, and achieve the greatest overall prosperity
- Neo-liberals argue government intervention merely causes the economic problems or deepens them
– Reagan = “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much”
2) Self-reliant individuals
= New Right believe although humans may be selfish, they’re rational and entitled to pursue their own interests in their own way as long as they accept other can do the same
- This approach to individualism, releases human potential and creates natural harmony through free relations between people
- Deregulation = The Bing Bang 1986
3) Rejection of Collectivism
- Neo-liberalism advocates atomistic individualism
- According to the liberal new right, the freedom of the market is the guarantee of individual freedom
- Neo-liberals believe freedom in negative terms, stressing the need to remove external limitations on the individual and that individual freedom can only be preserved by opposing collectivism and rolling back the state
- Neo-liberals criticise state welfare policies for creating a dependency culture
- They argue such a system, actually institutionalises poverty and unemployment and undermines atomistic individualism
- Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (2017)
- Economic Recovery Tax Act (1981)
4) Elimination of Government Intervention
- Neo-liberals argue if people no longer face govt interference, they will be free to deal with each other without restrictions
- These unhindered human interactions will create a ‘natural’ order vastly superior to any imposed model because it is based on everyone’s consent
- Neo-liberals regard govt intervention in the economy as the most potent threat to the free market
- State planning, nationalisation and high taxation are all rejected on the ground that they distort the market and contribute to further economic problems
- Any economic policy looks to the ‘supply-side’ economics as opposed to Keynesian policies to stimulate demand
- They argued that Keynesian policies to stimulate demand create inflation by governments printing too much money or providing too much credit
Explain key concepts of Neo-Conservatism
1) Stress on Authority and Need to Preserve Society
- Neo-conservatism stress on authority and the need to preserve society shows that the conservative New Right is influenced to some degree by traditional conservative ideas of organicism
- However, this form of conservatism is much more authoritarian, placing an emphasis on strengthening society by reasserting authority and social discipline
– Trump = “There’s nothing wrong with law and order. There’s law and order, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it”
– NSA’s mass surveillance
– Russia + Turkey = laws targeting journalists, activists
2) Protection of Public Morality
- There is a view with the New Right that since the 1960s authority and respect have declined in Western nations, leading to higher crime figures and a rise in anti-social behaviour
- Neo-conservatives have argued for the re-imposition of authority and discipline at every level of society, to restore the authority of traditional social structures
- This includes the family with its ‘natural’ internal relationships based on hierarchy and patriarchy
- New right conservatism promotes the ‘strong state’ or state authoritarianism, with increased police powers and harsher punishments, to tackle crime and public disorder
- Prohibition Era
- Gambling banned in Saudi Arabia + Qatar
- Hays Code (1930-1968) = guidelines on Hollywood films - prohibit nudity, profanity, criticisng reliigon or govt
- British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) = regulated films to ensure they’re suitable for different age groups
3) Anti-Permissiveness
- ‘free-for-all’ culture - 1960s
– Condemned by Thatcher who advocated ‘Victorian values’
1) The individual concerned may opt for an immoral lifestyle
2) Prevents creation of common moral standards –> social cohesion
– e.g. Saudi Arabian v British society - Punishment for petty crimes, promiscuity before marriage, LGBTQ rights)
– Section 28 (1988)
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984) - resulted in major sentencing and bail reform –> harsher sentences and preventative bail for violent offenders.
– Gay rights + the growing HIV/AIDS emerged as an important matter of public concern in the 1980s, however no civil rights legislation for gay individuals passed during Reagan’s tenure
– China’s Great Firewall - blocks access to websites that are critical of govt
- NSA’s mass surveillance
Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
Thatcher = “They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there’s no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first. It is our duty to look after ourselves and then, also, to look after our neighbours”
Freidman = “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government”
Freidman = “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand”
Trump = “There’s nothing wrong with law and order. There’s law and order, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of it”
Explain the views on human nature in New Right Conservatism
Philosophy of imperfection
- Believes in the moral imperfections of humanity
- They deny any possibility of a perfect, utopian society comprising of rational individuals, like the ideas proposed by Liberals
- Their view of humanity is pessimistic
- They argue that they view humanity as it is rather than as it could or should be
– Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
Rational selfishness
- But New Right believe humans are capable of rationality, especially concerning economics and thus are able to change
– Ayn Rand- form of radical individualism
- Objectivism = “the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute” (Rand)
- Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
- Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
- Rand = “man must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others not sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life”
– Nozick also aligns with this differing view of human nature, but more optomistic - all individuals have self-ownership - owners of their own body, mind and abilities - saw individuals as having their own ends and projects to which they rationally devote themselves
- Led him to conclude that there are only individual people, different individual people, with their own individuals lives who are dignified and rational in pursuit of their own goals rather than brutishly competitive atoms (rejecting Hobbesian ideas)
- e.g. voting, interest groups + lobbying,
Authority
- Nightwatchman state
- Sir Robert Peel)
- The aim = provide order, security and authority
– Hobbes - law and order can only be provided by the state
– Rand = “When the state becomes flabby, it also becomes feeble”
– “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter” - Macmillan
- Trump = “I am the law and order candidate”
Explain the views on society in New Right Conservatism
Neo-conservatives
- New right - divided = between neo-conservatives (want to return to a society built around authority, national identity and traditional morality) and neo-liberals (advocate a society built around individual choice)
- Neo conservatives are anti-permissive and would extend the role of the state to promote traditional family values, protection of national security and defence
- Conservatives emphasise their dedication to traditional family values by being critical of those that abandon their childcare responsibilities to ‘society’ in the form of the welfare state
– Thatcher = “there is no such thing as society, merely individuals and families”
- They largely fear significant societal change such as immigration due to its impact on social cohesion and national identity
- Law and order - Trump = “I am the law and order candidate”
- NIXON = “You can’t have progress without order, because when you have disorder, and revolution, you destroy all of the progress you have”
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
Neo-liberals
- For neo-liberals, individual choice is not just about economics but also morality and so the state should not intervene in areas of private morality (e.g. religion)
- The state should be stripped back to the minimum to minimise tax and spending
- Neo-liberals are relaxed about immigration seeing it as a natural consequence of a free market to have a free movement of people/labour, instead of an inherent threat
– Rand emphasises the view of atomism laid out by Thatcher (no such thing as society, only a collection of individuals pursuing their own happiness)
– Also argued society should be meritocratic not hierarchical = most talented individuals will start businesses, invent new technologies and create ideas through their won talents, and trade with other rational egoists to reach their goals
(A true meritocracy based upon vested interest and collaboration to further said personal interest)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
Traditional values
Limited government
- Individualism
- Free-market capitalism
Law and order
Explain the views on the state in New Right Conservatism
Rational self-interest
- New right state has inspirations from Rand’s idea of the morality of rational self-interest
- For rational self-interest to be the key principle of society, the state needs to be rolled back to ensure true individualism
- The state should be limited to providing armed forces, a police force and a court system in order to ensure that property is respected, and contracts enforced
- Bar these principles, the state should have no presence in the lives of individuals
- Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
- Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
Limited intervention
- The new right opposes public spending on welfare, such as benefits, as it is both unjust according to Nozick and creates a ‘dependency’ culture
– Rand outlined that the state’s role is vital but strictly limited to acting as a police officer/nightwatchman, protecting the rights of each individual against criminals and foreign invaders (national defence)
– Nozick: minimal state is justified but also inspiring
– Samuel Smiles - self help
– Adam Smith = “The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations”
- Freidman = “Many people want the government to protect the consumer. A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government”
- Freidman = “If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand”
Law and order
- This appears paradoxical - to strengthen the nation state by rolling back its frontiers
– To Nozick and Rand the paradox is easily explained, as if the nation state is burdened by nationalised industries and welfare, it is then harder for it to focus on its true function of order and security (resources are dispersed from the primary role)
– Rand = “When the state becomes flabby, it also becomes feeble” (aim – “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s …” - Macmillan
– Sir Robert Peel
Explain the views on economy in New Right Conservatism
Overview
- Respond to stagflation
- Reject welfare - ‘dependency culture’
- Reject paternalism - people should work
- Reactionary, radical, __
- Friedman = “If you put the govt in charge of the Sahara desert..”
Laissez-faire (neo-lib)
- Thatcher = let 20 mines close - 20,000 jobs
- Sunak - letting businesses “bleed to death” during COVID as chancellor
- Reagan = “ We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because …”
- Friedman = “a more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government”
- Rand = “Tax is on par with forced labour”
- Nozick = ‘separation of state and economics’
Free market (neo-cons
- Adam Smith
- Friedman = “freedom to enjoy the resources we possess”
- Globalisation, Maos
- NAFTA (1992), CPTPP (2018), Mexico-US-Canada (2018)
- New right believes market forces are the best method for the distribution and management of society’s resources
- Therefore, deep cuts in taxation, privatisation, de-regulation and tight restrictions on government spending are needed to return to free-market capitalism
– Rand believed the ideal social system is free market capitalism, which involves a ‘separation of state and economics’ - Reduce funding in areas like welfare to concentrate money on law and order, promoting the national identity and security
– Nozick argues individuals should be free from any form of legally enforced obligations in either the social or economic sphere
– For Nozick, any attempt at social justice via the redistribution of wealth and progressive taxation is an assault on liberty, as —> “Taxation of earnings from labour is on a par with forced labour. Seizing the results of someone’s labour is equivalent to seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities”
Neo-conservatives
- For neo-conservatives increased spending is justifiable to promote the country abroad (in regards to trade and new markets) and for national security (increased defence spending)
Neo-liberals
- Neo-liberals argue to minimise all forms of government spending in all areas where possible but accept the need for government funding of defence and justice
