New Right
Encyclopedia : N : NE : NEW : New Right
- For the British national anarchist group of this name, see New Right (UK). For the French movement, see Nouvelle Droite.
- In the United States, the New Right refers to a conservative political movement that coalesced through grassroots organizing in the years preceding the 1964 presidential campaign of Barry Goldwater. The Goldwater campaign, though failing to unseat incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, galvanized the formation of a new political movement. In elite think-tanks and local community organizations alike, new policies, marketing strategies, and electoral strategies were crafted over the succeeding decades. The New Right succeeded in building a policy approach and electoral apparatus that propelled Ronald Reagan into the White House in the 1980 presidential election. The American New Right is distinct from and opposed to the more moderate tradition of the so-called Rockefeller Republicans. Though mostly ignored by scholars until the late 1980s, the formation of the New Right is now one of the fastest-growing areas of historical research. New Right activists denounced abortion, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, and especially affirmative action.
- In the United Kingdom, New Right refers to a form of conservatism that carried on from the Old Right through the likes of Margaret Thatcher. They are ideologically committed to neo-liberalism as well as being socially neo-conservative. The best known examples of their reforms in Britain involved the privatisation of many utilities. There is also the national anarchist New Right group, which is in many ways hostile to the Thatcherite legacy and is closer to the French Nouvelle Droite (see below).
- 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. 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.
- The New Right is also the name of a political party in the Netherlands.
- In Germany the "Neue Rechte" (literally new right) consists of two parts the "Jungkonservative"(lit. young conservatives), which search for followers in the civically part of the population and have as main organ the newspaper "Junge Freiheit"(http://www.junge-freiheit.de/) and the other part is the "Nationalrevolutionäre"(national revolutionists), those search for followers in the ultra-left part of the German population, and use the rhetorics of NSDAP's left-wing politicans such as Gregor and Otto Strasser.
- In Australia and New Zealand, New Right movements emerged beginning in the 1970s (see below).
- In Croatia there is a political party named "Croatian New Right", whose leader is a philosophical-political writer, Mladen Schwartz. The semi-official organ of the party is the monthly "Ultimatum!" (http://www.ultimatum.ws), which also publishes articles in non-Croatian languages.
- In Romania, there is a nationalist organization called "Noua Dreaptă" (New Right).
Australia and New Zealand
In Australia the "New Right" refers to a movement in the late 1970s and 1980s which advocated economically liberal (see Economic Liberalism) and socially conservative policies (as opposed to the "old right" which advocated economically conservative policies). Unlike the United Kingdom and United States, but like neighbouring New Zealand, the Australian Labor Party initiated many "New Right" policy reforms, but desisted from others, such as wholesale labour market deregulation, "welfare reform" and "workfare", which John Howard and the Liberal Party of Australia were to initiate when they finally won office in 1996.
As with the New Zealand Labour Party, the ALP was strongly criticised for its share of New Right reforms, while the Liberal Party of Australia has also arguably been punished, given its loss of all of Australia's state and territorial governments over the last decade of federal office. The ALP is beset by left-right factionalism, which it has still not resolved, and much of this is to do with its past New Right legacy, as well as the current Howard administration policies of the last decade.
Economic liberalism - also called Economic Rationalism in Australia - is a philosophy which advocates small government, Deregulation, Privatisation, Free Trade and lower taxes. The politicians favouring New Right ideology were referred to as "dries", while those advocating continuation of conservative economic policies were called "wets" (the term "wets" was similarly used in Britain to refer to those Conservatives who opposed Thatcherite economic policies, but "dries" in this context was much rarer in British usage).
In New Zealand, as in Australia, it was the ostensibly social democratic New Zealand Labour Party that initially adopted "New Right" economic policies, while also pursuing 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 New Zealand general election 1987 due to 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 New Zealand Labour Party, which led to schism, which led to the exit of Jim Anderton and his New Labour Party, which later formed the Alliance Party with the Greens and other opponents of New Right economics.
However, dissent and schism were not to be limited to the New Zealand Labour Party and Alliance Party alone. Due to the Labour Party's second term, National selected Ruth Richardson as Opposition finance spokesperson, and when National won the New Zealand general elections 1990, Richardson became finance minister, 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 nineties, maverick New Zealand National Party MP Winston Peters also came to oppose New Right economic policies, and led his elderly voting bloc out of the National Party. Resultantly, his New Zealand First anti-monetarist party has become a coalition partner to both National (1996-1998) and Labour (2005- )-led coalition governments. However, New Zealand First's formation led to a New Right "Alliance of Consumers and Taxpayers" party, known as ACT New Zealand, formed by ex-Labour New Right-aligned Cabinet Ministers like Richard Prebble and others, and maintaining existing New Right policy initiatives like the Employment Contracts Act, while also introducing US-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 has 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.
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 took over National, it was thought that he might lead the Opposition 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 annexation of the New Right middle-class voting basis in 2002. When Don Brash took over, New Right middle-class voters returned to National's fold, causing National's revival in fortunes at the New Zealand general election 2005. However, at the same time, ACT New Zealand strongly criticised it for deviating from its former hardline New Right economic policy perspectives, and at the same election, National did little to enable ACT's survival. ACT New Zealand currently has two Members of Parliament, and its survival depends on whether or not ACT Leader Rodney Hide can retain his Epsom electorate seat at the next general election. Furthermore, Don Brash may not survive as Leader of the Opposition until then, as John Key is tipped to succeed him if it looks as if party fortunes are once more deteriorating.
As for the centre-left, Helen Clark and her Labour-led coalition have been criticised from ex-Alliance members and NGO social service providers about their relative lack of attention to centre-left social policies, while trade union membership has recovered due to Labour's repeal of the Employment Contracts Act 1991 and labour market deregulation and deunionisation that had accompanied it in the nineties. It is plausible that Clark and her Cabinet are influenced by Tony Blair and his British Labour Government, which pursues a similar balancing act between social and fiscal responsibility while in government.
What can one therefore conclude about the fate of the New Right in New Zealand? At present, New Zealand First and ACT appear to be ailing, which would leave National without a coalition partner, and unable to carry out any further New Right reforms, such as US-style welfare reform. Labour and the Green Party of New Zealand might therefore form the next government, with a decreased focus on free trade in favour of 'fair trade,' greater social service spending and still more robust industrial relations laws.
External links
- [New Right] Articles on new right movements.
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