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ve scholar R. J. White, who rejects egalitarianism, wrote: "Men are equal before God and the laws, but unequal in all else; hierarchy is the order of nature, and privilege is the reward of honourable service". American conservative Russell Kirk also rejected egalitarianism as imposing sameness, stating: "Men are created different; and a government that ignores this law becomes an unjust government for it sacrifices nobility to mediocrity". He took as one of the "canons" of conservatism the principle that "civilized society requires orders and classes". Right libertarians reject collective or state-imposed equality as undermining reward for personal merit, initiative, and enterprise. In their view, it is unjust, limits personal freedom, and leads to social uniformity and mediocrity.

Anti-communism

The original use of "right-wing" in reference to communism had the conservatives on the Right, the liberals in the center, and the communists on the Left. Both the conservatives and the liberals were strongly anti-communist. As time went on, however, conservatives accused liberals of being "soft on communism" and of using freedom of speech and freedom of religion as a cover for their hidden communist sympathies. The history of the use of the term "right-wing" to mean anti-communist is a complicated one.

Early Marxist movements were at odds with the traditional monarchies that ruled over much of the European continent at the time. Many European monarchies outlawed the public expression of communist views, and the Communist Manifesto, which began "A spectre is haunting Europe," stated that monarchs feared for their thrones. Advocacy of communism was illegal in the Russian Empire, the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, the three most powerful monarchies in continental Europe prior to World War I. Many Monarchists (except Constitutional Monarchists) viewed inequality in wealth and political power as resulting from a divine natural order. The struggle between monarchists and communists was often described as a struggle between the Right and the Left.

By World War I however, in most European monarchies, the Divine Right of Kings had become discredited and replaced by liberal and nationalist movements. Most European monarchs became figureheads; elected governments held the real power. 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 in the years 1917–1922. Many of these, such as the German Revolution, were defeated by nationalist and monarchist military units. In this period, nationalism began to be considered right-wing, especially when it opposed the internationalism of the communists.

The 1920s and 1930s saw the fading of traditional right-wing politics. The mantle of conservative anti-communism was taken up by the rising fascist movements on the one hand, and by American-inspired liberal conservatives on the other. When communist groups and political parties began appearing around the world, as in the Republic of China in the 1920s, their opponents were usually colonial authorities, and the term right-wing came to be applied to colonialism.

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 its monarchist and aristocratic roots, focusing instead on patriotism, religion, and nationalism. Throughout the Cold War, colonial 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 led to the adoption of a number of domestic policies that are collectively known under the term "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 favored free speech, even for communists, leftist.

Economics

In France after the French Revolution, 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, with the Enlightenment, with individualism, and with 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 has exhibited hostility to all forms of liberalism, including economic liberalism, and has historically advocated for paternalist class harmony involving an organic-hierarchical society where workers are protected while hierarchy of classes remain.

In the 19th century, the Right had shifted to support the newly rich in some European countries, particularly England, and instead of favouring the nobility over industrialists, favoured capitalists over the working class. Other right-wing currents on the Continent, such as Carlism in Spain and nationalist movements in France, Germany, and Russia, remained hostile to capitalism and industrialism. There are, however, still a few right-wing movements today, notably the French Nouvelle Droite, CasaPound, and American paleoconservatives, that are often in opposition to capitalist ethics and the effects they have on society as a whole, which they see as infringing upon or causing the decay of social traditions or hierarchies that they see as essential for social order.

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 France, the Right's support of capitalism can be traced to the late 19th century. The so-called neoliberal Right, popularized by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, combines support for free markets, privatisation, and deregulation with traditional right-wing support for social conformity. Right-wing libertarianism (sometimes known as libertarian conservatism or conservative libertarianism) supports a decentralized economy based on economic freedom, and holds property rights, free markets and free trade to be the most important kinds of freedom. Russell Kirk believed that freedom and property rights were interlinked. Anthony Gregory has written that right-wing libertarianism, "can refer to any number of varying and at times mutually exclusive political orientations." He holds that the issue is not right or left but "whether a person sees the state as a major hazard or just another institution to be reformed and directed toward a political goal."

Conservative authoritarians and those on the far right have supported fascism and corporatism.

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. Right-wing nationalists sought to define and defend a "true" national identity from elements deemed to be corrupting that identity. Some were supremacists who, in accordance with Social Darwinism, applied the concept of "survival of the fittest" to nations and races. Right-wing nationalism was influenced by romantic nationalism, in which the state derives its political legitimacy from the organic unity of those 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.

Natural law and traditionalism

Right-wing politics typically justifies a hierarchical society on the basis of natural law or tradition.

Traditionalism was advocated by a group of U.S. university professors (labeled 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 and a revived interest in what T. S. Eliot referred to as "the permanent things" (concepts perceived by traditionalists as truths that endure from age to age alongside basic institutions of western society such as the church, the family, the state, and business).

Populism

Right-wing populism is a combination of ethno-nationalism with anti-elitism, using populist rhetoric to provide a radical critique of existing political institutions. According to Margaret Canovan, a right-wing populist is "...a charismatic leader, using the tactics of politicians’ populism to go past the politicians and intellectual elite and appeal to the reactionary sentiments of the populace, often buttressing his claim to speak for the people by the use of referendums."

In Europe, right-wing populism often takes the form of distrust of the European Union, and of politicians in general, combined with anti-immigrant rhetoric, and a call for a return to traditional, national values. In the United States, the Tea Party movement states that the core beliefs for membership are an opposition to illegal immigration, a strong national military force, the right to individual gun ownership, cutting taxes, reducing government spending, and balancing the budget.

Religion

Government support for an established religion was associated with the original French "right wing." Joseph de Maistre argued for the indirect authority of the Pope over temporal matters. According to Maistre, only governments founded upon a Christian constitution, implicit in the customs and institutions of all European societies but especially in Catholic European monarchies, could avoid the disorder and bloodshed that followed the implementation of rationalist political programs, as in the French Revolution. The Church of England was established by Henry VIII. Some churchmen are given seats in the House of Lords but are considered politically neutral, rather than right or left wing.

Religious fundamentalists frequently feel that governments should enact laws supporting their religious tenets. The Christian right is a major force in North America. They generally support laws upholding what they consider religious values, such as opposition to abortion, contraception, sex outside marriage, and to same-sex marriage, and reject scientific positions on evolution and other matters where science disagrees with the Bible. Outside the West, other religious and ethnic groups are considered right-wing. In India, Hindu nationalism is sometimes considered a part of the Right. The Hindu nationalist movement has attracted privileged groups fearing encroachment on their dominant positions, and also "plebeian" and impoverished groups seeking recognition around a majoritarian rhetoric of cultural pride, order, and national strength. Many Islamist groups have been called "right wing" including the Great Union Party, and the Combatant Clergy Association/Association of Militant Clergy and the Islamic Society of Engineers of Iran.

The term "family values" has been used as a buzzword by right-wing parties such as the Republican Party in the United States, the Family First Party in Australia, the Conservative party in the United Kingdom and the Bharatiya Janata Party in India to describe support for traditional families, and opposition to the changes the modern world has made in how families live. Right-wing supporters of "family values" may oppose abortion, euthanasia, the normalizing of homosexuality, divorce, teenage pregnancy and adultery.

Right-wing terrorism

Right-wing terrorism is terrorism motivated by a variety of far right ideologies and beliefs, including anti-communism, neo-fascism, neo-Nazism, racism, xenophobia and opposition to immigration. This type of terrorism has been sporadic, with little or no international cooperation. Modern right-wing terrorism first appeared in western Europe in the 1980s and in eastern Europe following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Right-wing terrorists aim to overthrow governments and replace them with nationalist or fascist-oriented governments. The core of this movement includes neo-fascist skinheads, far right hooligans, youth sympathisers and intellectual guides who believe that the state must rid itself of foreign elements in order to protect rightful citizens. However, they usually lack a rigid ideology.

See also

• Left–right politics

Notes

1. ^ Moyra Grant. Key Ideas in Politics. Cheltenham, England, UK: Nelson Thornes, Ltd., 2003. p. 52.
2. ^ John, David C. (21 November 2003). "The Origins of the Modern American Conservative Movement". heritage.org. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
3. Cynthia Hendershot, Anti-communism and Popular Culture in Mid-century America, "Communism aroused the hostility of people on the right, the center, and the left." (statement attributed to John Haynes), p. 162, McFarland, 2002, ISBN 978-0786414406
4. Cite error: The named reference Parliaments 1988 pp. 287–302 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
5. Martin E. Marty, R. Scott Appleby, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fundamentalisms observed, "Reactionary right-wing themes emphasizing authority, social hierarchy, and obedience, as well as condemnations of liberalism, the democratic ethos, the "rights of man" associated with the legacy of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and the political and cultural ethos of modern liberal democracy are especially prominent in the writings and public statements of Archbishop Lefebere", p. 91, University of Chicago Press, 1994. P. 91. ISBN 0-226-50878-1, ISBN 978-0-226-50878-8.
6. Modern Catholic Social Teaching: The Popes Confront the Industrial Age, 1740–1958. Paulist Press, 2003. P132
7. ^ Fascism, Comparison and Definition, Stanley Payne, University of Wisconsin Press, ISBN 0-299-08064-1, ISBN 978-0-299-08064-8, pg 19: "Right radicals and conservative authoritarians almost without exception became corporatists in formal doctrines of political economy, but the fascists were less explicit and in general less schematic."
8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Knapp was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
9. ^ Cite error: The named reference Lukes was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
10. Anthony Gregory, Left, Right, Moderate and Radical, LewRockwell.com, 21 December 2006.
11. William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, Oxford University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-19-925298-5, "An exuberant, uncompromising nationalism lay behind France's revolutionary expansion in the 1790s...", "The message of the French Revolution was that the people are sovereign; and in the two centuries since it was first proclaimed it has conquered the world."
12. Winock, Michel (dir.), Histoire de l'extrême droite en France (1993)
13. Adams, Ian Political Ideology Today (2nd edition), Manchester University Press, 2002, pg. 68
14. Sabrina P. Ramet, The Radical Right in Central and Eastern Europe since 1989, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0271018119
15. Cite error: The named reference T. Alexander Smith 2003. p. 30 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
16. Cite error: The named reference Allan Cameron pg. 37 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
17. Cite error: The named reference Fuchs, D. 1990. p. 203 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
18. Cite error: The named reference Clark, William 2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
19. Cite error: The named reference autogenerated68 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
20. Frohnen, Bruce, Jeremy Beer, and Jeffrey O. Nelson, ed. (2006) American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia Wilmington, DE: ISI Books, p. 870.
21. Margaret Canovan, Populism, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1981, ISBN 978-0151730780
22. Jack Hayward, editor, Elitism, Populism, and European Politics, Oxford University Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0198280354
23. http://www.teaparty.org/about-us/
24. Martin E. Marty, R. Scott Appleby, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fundamentalisms observed. University of Chicago Press, 1994. P. 91. ISBN 0-226-50878-1, ISBN 978-0-226-50878-8.
25. Martin E. Marty, R. Scott Appleby, American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Fundamentalisms observed. University of Chicago Press, 1994. P. 91. ISBN 0-226-50878-1, ISBN 978-0-226-50878-8.
26. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/03/26/this-conservative-myth-about-birth-control-coul/198623
27. "Sex outside marriage should be illegal, says Parnell nominee". Alaska Dispatch News.
28. DeGette, Diana (2008). Sex, Science, and Stem Cells: Inside the Right Wing Assault on Reason. The Lyons Press. ISBN 978-1-59921-431-3.
29. Chris Mooney, The Republican War on Science: Revised and Updated, ASIN: B001OQOIPM
30. Thomas Blom Hansen, The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu Nationalism in Modern India, Princeton University Press, 2001, ISBN 1-4008-0342-X, 9781400803422
31. Demirtas, Burcu (27 March 2009). "Rescue Teams Could Not Reach Turkish Party Leader, Muhsin Yazicioglu after Helicopter Crash". Turkishweekly.net. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
32. "Readings". uvm.edu. Fall 2007. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
33. "Poll test for Iran reformists". BBC News. 10 February 2000. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
34. "Middle East Report Online: Iran's Conservatives Face the Electorate, by Arang Keshavarzian". Merip.org. 23 May 1997. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
35. Anoushiravan Ehteshami and Mahjoob Zweiri, Iran and the rise of its neoconservatives: the politics of Tehran's silent revolution, I.B. Tauris, 2007.
36. "2004 Republican Party Platform: A Safer World and a More Hopeful America" (PDF). MSNBC. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
37. ^ Aubrey, Stefan M. The New Dimension of International Terrorism. p. 45. Zurich: vdf Hochschulverlag AG, 2004. ISBN 3-7281-2949-6
38. ^ Moghadam, Assaf. The Roots of Terrorism. pp. 57-58. New York: Infobase Publishing, 2006. ISBN 0-7910-8307-1

References

• Berlet, Chip. "When Alienation turns Right". In Langman, Lauren and Kalekin-Fishman (Eds.) The Evolution of Alienation: Trauma, Promise, and the Millennium. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 ISBN 0-7425-1835-3, ISBN 978-0-7425-1835-3
• Davies, Peter. The Extreme Right in France, 1789 to the Present: From De Maistre to Le Pen. New York, NY: Routledge, 2002 ISBN 0-415-23982-6, ISBN 978-0-415-23982-0
• Eatwell, Roger. "Introduction: the new extreme right challenge". In Eatwell, Roger and Muddle, Cas (Eds.) Western Democracies and the new Extreme Right Challenge. London, UK: Routledge, 2004 ISBN 0-415-36971-1, ISBN 978-0-415-36971-8
• Eatwell, Roger. "Conclusion: The 'End of Ideology'". In Eatwell, Roger and Wright, Anthony (Eds.) Contemporary Political Ideologies. Continuum International Publishing Group, 1999 ISBN 0-8264-5173-X, 9780826451736
• Paola Bacchetta and Margaret Power (eds). Right-Wing Women: From Conservatives to Extremists around the World. New York: Routledge, 2002.

• Right-wing politics
• Political theories
• Political terminology
• Capitalism
• Conservatism
• Monarchism
• Theocracies
• Nazism
• Fascism
• Tradition