Right-wing politics, or rightism, is the range of political ideologies that view certain social stratifications and orders as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position in favour of conservatism, natural law, economics, authority, property, religion, or tradition. Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies.
Right-wing politics are considered the counterpart to left-wing politics, and the left–right political spectrum is the most common political spectrum. The right includes social conservatives, as well as laissez-faire economic policies.Leonard V. Kaplan, Rudy Koshar, The Weimar Moment: Liberalism, Political Theology, and Law (2012) pp. 7–8.Alan S. Kahan, Mind Vs. Money: The War Between Intellectuals and Capitalism (2010), p. 184.Jerome L. Himmelstein, To the right: The transformation of American conservatism (1992). "Right" and "right-wing" have been variously used as compliments and pejoratives describing neoliberal and conservative economic and social ideas.
Historical overview
The political terms Left and Right were first used in the 18th century, during the French Revolution, referencing the seating arrangement of the new National Assembly. Those who sat to the right of the chair of the presiding officer (le président) were generally supportive of the institutions of the monarchist Old Regime.Goodsell, Charles T., "The Architecture of Parliaments: Legislative Houses and Political Culture", British Journal of Political Science, Vol. 18, No. 3 (July 1988), pp. 287–302.Linski, Gerhard, Current Issues and Research In Macrosociology (Brill Archive, 1984) p. 59Clark, Barry Political Economy: A Comparative Approach (Praeger Paperback, 1998), pp. 33–34. The original "Right" in France was formed in reaction to the "Left" and comprised those supporting hierarchy, tradition, and clericalism. The expression ('the right') increased in use after the restoration of the monarchy in 1815, when it was applied to the ultra-royalists.Gauchet, Marcel, "Right and Left" in Nora, Pierre, ed., Realms of Memory: Conflicts and Divisions (1996) pp. 247–248.
Edmund Burke is regarded as one of the most influential conservative thinkers and political writers of the 18th century, and his writings played a significant role in influencing opinions regarding conservatism following the French Revolution in 1789, and he remains a major figure in modern conservative and right-wing circles. Burke postulated the importance of religious institutions for the moral stability and good of the state.Bourke, Richard. Empire and Revolution: The Political Life of Edmund Burke, Princeton University Press, 2015, pp. 220–221, passim. He expressed his views in a satirical book, A Vindication of Natural Society (1756). He also criticized the actions of the British government towards the American colonies, including its taxation policies. Burke supported the American colonists' right to resist metropolitan authority. He also supported Catholic emancipation.
While in the 19th century, Burke was praised by both conservatives and liberals, in the 20th century, Burke became widely regarded in the United States and the United Kingdom as the philosophical founder of conservatism.F. P. Lock, Edmund Burke. Volume II: 1784–1797 (Clarendon Press, 2006), p. 585. along with his ultra-royalist and ultramontane counterpart Joseph de Maistre. His publications influenced British conservative thought and helped establish the earliest foundations for modern conservatism.
The chief ideologue of French ultra-royalists, Joseph de Maistre, who was lawyer, diplomat, and political philosopher, is regarded as one of intellectual forefathers of modern conservatism. Maistre was noted for his advocacy of monarchism and social stratification in the period immediately following the French Revolution. Maistre is also regarded as one of the intellectual founders of the right-wing thought.
William F. Buckley Jr. was an American conservative writer and intellectual, who in 1955, founded National Review, a magazine for the development of the conservative movement in the United States. Buckley is widely considered to have been one of the most influential figures in the conservative movement and right-wing politics in the United States.
Positions Anti-communism Early communists used the term "right-wing" in reference to conservatives, placing the conservatives on the right, the liberals in the centre and the communists on the left. Both the conservatives and the liberals were strongly anti-communist, but the conservatives' anti-communism was much stronger than the liberals'. The history of the use of the term right-wing in reference to anti-communism is complicated.
By World War I, in most European monarchies, the divine right of kings had become discredited and was replaced by liberal and nationalist movements. Most European monarchs became figureheads, or they yielded some of their power to elected governments. The most conservative European monarchy, the Russian Empire, was replaced by the communist Soviet Union. The Russian Revolution inspired a series of other communist revolutions across Europe from 1917–1923. Many of these revolutions, such as the German Revolution, were crushed by nationalist and monarchist military units. During this period, nationalism was first considered right-wing, especially when it opposed the internationalism of the communists.
After World War II, communism became a global phenomenon and anti-communism became an integral part of the domestic and foreign policies of the United States and its NATO allies. Conservatism in the post-war era abandoned most of its monarchist and aristocratic roots, shifting its focus to patriotism, religious values, and nationalism. Throughout the Cold War, postcolonial governments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America turned to the United States for political and economic support. Communists were also enemies of capitalism, portraying Wall Street as the oppressor of the masses. The United States made anti-communism the top priority of its foreign policy, and many American conservatives sought to combat what they saw as communist influence at home. This situation led to the adoption of several domestic policies that are collectively referred to as McCarthyism. While both liberals and conservatives were anti-communist, the followers of Senator McCarthy were called right-wing and those on the right called liberals who favoured free speech, even free speech for communists, leftist.
Climate change
Economics
In post-revolutionary France, the Right fought against the rising power of those who had grown rich through commerce, and sought to preserve the rights of the hereditary nobility. They were uncomfortable with capitalism, the Enlightenment, individualism, and industrialism, and fought to retain traditional social hierarchies and institutions. In Europe's history, there have been strong collectivist right-wing movements, such as in the social Catholic right, that have exhibited hostility to all forms of liberalism (including economic liberalism) and have historically advocated for paternalist class harmony involving an organic-hierarchical society where workers are protected while class hierarchy remains.Holland, J., Modern Catholic Social Teaching: The Popes Confront the Industrial Age, 1740–1958. Paulist Press, 2003, p. 132.
In the 19th century, the Right had shifted to support the newly rich in some European countries (particularly Britain) and instead of favouring the nobility over industrialists, favoured capitalists over the working class. Other right-wing movements—such as Carlism in Spain and nationalist movements in France, Germany, and Russia—remained hostile to capitalism and industrialism. Nevertheless, a few right-wing movements—notably the French Nouvelle Droite, CasaPound, and American paleoconservatism—are often in opposition to capitalist ethics and the effects they have on society. These forces see capitalism and industrialism as infringing upon or causing the decay of social traditions or hierarchies that are essential for social order.
Laissez-faire schools
In modern times, "right-wing" is sometimes used to describe laissez-faire capitalism. In Europe, capitalists formed alliances with the Right during their conflicts with workers after 1848. In 1871, the Austrian school came to be with the work of Carl Menger, Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Friedrich von Wieser, and others,Joseph A. Schumpeter, History of economic analysis, Oxford University Press 1996, . originating from methodologically opposition to the Historical school, in a dispute known as Methodenstreit. The Austrian school opposition to be heterodox, advocating strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result primarily from the motivations and actions of individuals along with their self interest. Austrian-school theorists hold that economic theory should be exclusively derived from basic principles of human action.Ludwig von Mises. Human Action, p. 11, "Purposeful Action and Animal Reaction". Referenced 2011-11-23.
In France, the Right's support of capitalism can be traced to the late 19th century. The so-called neoliberal Right, popularised by US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, combines support for free markets, privatisation, and deregulation with traditional right-wing support for social conformity.
Nationalism
In France, nationalism was originally a left-wing and republican ideology. After the period of boulangisme and the Dreyfus affair, nationalism became a trait of the right wing.Winock, Michel (dir.), Histoire de l'extrême droite en France (1993). Right-wing nationalists sought to define and defend a "true" national identity from elements which they believed were corrupting that identity. Some were supremacists, who in accordance with scientific racism and social Darwinism applied the concept of "survival of the fittest" to nations and races.Adams, Ian Political Ideology Today (2nd edition), Manchester University Press, 2002, p. 68.
Right-wing nationalism was influenced by Romantic nationalism in which the state derives its political legitimacy from the organic unity of those who it governs. This generally includes the language, race, culture, religion, and customs of the nation, all of which were "born" within its culture. Linked with right-wing nationalism is cultural conservatism, which supports the preservation of the heritage of a nation or culture and often sees deviations from cultural norms as an existential threat.
In the 21st century, neo-nationalism came to prominence after the Cold War in the Western world. It is typically associated with cultural conservatism, populism, anti-globalisation, and nativism and is opposed to immigration. The ideology takes historical association in determining membership in a nation, rather than racial concepts.
Natural law and traditionalism Right-wing politics typically justifies a hierarchical society based on natural law or tradition.Left and right: the significance of a political distinction, Norberto Bobbio and Allan Cameron, pg. 68, University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Traditionalism was advocated by a group of United States university professors (labelled the "New Conservatives" by the popular press) who rejected the concepts of individualism, liberalism, modernity, and social progress, seeking instead to promote what they identified as cultural and educational renewal.Bruce Frohnen, Jeremy Beer and Jeffrey O. Nelson, ed. (2006) American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, p. 870.
Populism