Centre-right politics
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Centre-right politics lean to the
From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and mercantilism, towards capitalism.[2][3][4] This general economic shift toward capitalism affected centre-right movements, such as the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, and the Republican Party of the United States, which responded by becoming supportive of capitalism.[5]
The International Democracy Union is an alliance of centre-right (as well as some further right-wing) political parties – including the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Republican Party of the United States, the Liberal Party of Australia, the New Zealand National Party and Christian democratic parties – which declares commitment to human rights as well as economic development.[6]
Ideologies characterised as centre-right include
Historical examples of centre-right schools of thought include
According to a 2019 study, centre-right parties had approximately 27% of the vote share in 21 Western democracies in 2018.[7] This was a decline from 37% in 1960.[7]
History since the French Revolution
Edmund Burke in England
The prominent inspiration for the centre-right (especially in Britain) was the
Burke said that the Americans revolted for the same reason as the English had during the Glorious Revolution, in both cases a monarch had overstepped the boundaries of his duties.[10] Burke said that the American Revolution was justified because King George III had overstepped his customary rights by imposing taxes on the American colonists without their consent.[10] Burke opposed the French Revolution because he opposed its anti-traditionalism and its use of abstract ideas, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and its universal egalitarianism that Burke rebuked by claiming that it effectively endorsed "hairdressers" being able to be politicians.[10]
United States
In the United States the Federalist Party was dominated by staunch conservatives led by Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists denounced the French Revolution.[11] However there was a more moderate faction led by President John Adams during the 1798 Quasi-War against France. The Adams coalition secured peace with France, and also installed John Marshall, who led the Supreme Court for three decades. Historian Sarah Kreps in 2018 argues the Adams faction corresponds to "today's right-of-center party."[12]
In the 1830s the Whig Party emerged with a strong base in business, the professions and commercial farming, to lead the center-right. The center-left was led by the Jeffersonians and the Jacksonians in the Democratic Party. In the turmoil of the 1850s a new party emerged to lead the center-right to victory, the Republican Party.[13]
In the early 20th century Republicans split between the left-wing under Theodore Roosevelt and the center-right under William Howard Taft; Taft defeated Roosevelt for control of the party in 1912. According to David Hackett Fischer, as president (1909-1913) and chief justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930) Taft's political position:[14]
was conservative and very old-fashioned in its idea of protecting property, preserving personal liberty, upholding the Constitution, and supporting the existing structure of American society. At the same time it was also progressive in its idea of a small but highly efficient government that intervened actively for the general good....Altogether, William Howard Taft's progressive conservatism combined new instruments of modern government with old ideas of liberty of contract, property rights, personal liberty, and commercial freedom.
British Conservative Party
In Britain, the traditionalist conservative movement was represented in the British Conservative Party.
Christian Democratic party in France and Italy
Another centre-right movement that arose in France in response to the French Revolution was the beginning of the
Post–World War II
In Europe after World War II, centre-right Christian democratic parties arose as powerful political movements while the Catholic traditionalist movements in Europe diminished in strength.[15] Christian democratic movements became major movements in Austria, the Benelux countries, Germany and Italy.[15]
Neoliberalism arose as an economic theory by Milton Friedman that condemned government interventionism in the economy that it associated with socialism and collectivism.[16] Neoliberals rejected Keynesian economics that they claimed advocate too much emphasis on relieving unemployment in response to their observance of the Great Depression, identifying the real problem as being with inflation and advocate the policy of monetarism to deal with inflation.[17]
Neoliberal economics was endorsed by Conservative British Prime Minister
In the United States, President
See also
- Conservative liberalism
- Centre-left politics
- Christian democracy
- Compassionate conservatism
- Far-right politics
- Fusionism (or libertarian conservatism)
- Glossary of the French Revolution
- Left-right politics
- List of right-wing political parties
- Moderate conservatism
- National liberalism
- One-nation conservatism
- Political spectrum
- Radical centrism
- Right-wing politics
References
- ISSN 0022-3816.
- ISBN 978-1412810630.
- title of nobility clause, which provides: 'No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States'.(subscription required)
- ^ Wood, Diane (October 2005). "Our 18th century constitution in the 21st century world". New York University Law Review, Madison Lecture. 80 (4). New York University School of Law: 1079–1107. Archived from the original on 20 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2015.
Debate [over the Constitution's] meaning is inevitable whenever something as specific as the... Titles of Nobility Clause is not at issue
pp. 105. Pdf. Archived 20 October 2017 at the Wayback Machine - ^ ISBN 978-0719060205.
- International Democrat Union. (History. Archived 1 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Founders. Archived 1 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine Declaration of Principles. Archived 1 July 2012 at the Wayback Machine) Accessed on 22 June 2012.
- ^ ISSN 1094-2939.
- ISBN 9780861879342,
Burke has been seen as the father of modern British conservatism, which serves as the best example of the moderate right tradition.
- ISBN 9780761985570.
- ^ ISBN 9780709934202.
- ^ David Hackett Fischer, "The revolution of American conservatism: The Federalist Party in the era of Jeffersonian democracy." (1965).
- ^ Sarah Kreps, Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2018) p. 53 and chapter 3.
- ^ Sean Wilentz, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005) pp. 505, 632, 644. [ https://archive.org/details/riseofamericande0000wile_f7q6 online].
- ^ David Hackett Fischer, Liberty and Freedom: A Visual History of America's Founding Ideas (Oxford UP, 2004) pp. 411-412.
- ^ ISBN 9780719060205.
- ISBN 9780719060205.
- ISBN 9780719060205.
- ISBN 9780719060205.
- ISBN 9780203178980,
Thatcher praised the winning party of the Hungarian election of 1990 as what she called a "really genuine centre-right government".
- ISBN 9780415347815.
- ^ Smith, John (4 March 2015). "Labour's lackluster tuition fee pledge is the tip of the iceberg: mainstream politics is melting away". openDemocracy.
- ^ Cornwell, Rupert (17 November 2006). "Milton Friedman, free-market economist who inspired Reagan and Thatcher, dies aged 94". The Independent. Washington: Independent Print Ltd.
- ^ "The second American revolution: Reagonomics". reaganfoundation.org. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.