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Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political ideologies > Conservatism & right-of-centre democratic ideologies
John Stuart Mill described the Conservatives as 'the stupidest party', yet they governed the UK for nearly three-quarters of the twentieth century. Conservative leaders typically have been and are explicitly anti-intellectual, yet the party is not without an intellectual history of its own. Ideologies of Conservatism charts developments and changes in the nature of Conservative political thought and the meaning of Conservatism throughout the twentieth century. Ewen Green's penetrating study explores the Conservative mind from the Edwardian crisis under Balfour to the Thatcherite 1980s and beyond. It examines how Conservative thinkers, politicians, and activists sought to define the problems they faced, what they thought they were arguing against, and what audiences they were seeking to reach. This is the only study which blends the history of Conservative thought with the party's political action, and it offers significant new insights into the political culture of the 'Conservative Century'.
Twice in the past generation, the Republican party has proclaimed a "revolution" in American politics. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won a landslide victory on a platform of tax cuts, smaller government, and a stronger defense. And in 1994, Newt Gingrich took up the revolutionary mantle, tossing out the Democratic Congress and proclaiming the end of "business as usual" in Washington. As the 2000 presidential election draws near, the optimism of those heady days seems like ancient history. The Reagan years are a dim memory, and the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill after five years in power has failed to enact the Contract with America. In 2000, the GOP faces not only the possibility of a third consecutive presidential defeat but the prospect of losing its House majority as well. The time for dithering is over, and the time for action is now. "Completing the Revolution" is Robert Novak's manifesto for a Republican victory in November and for implementing a conservative vision for government in the years to come. He brings to his analysis the combativeness familiar to those who watch him on CNN's "Crossfire, " and the insight and perspective that have helped to make him one of America's leading political columnists. He is not afraid to criticize the various presidential candidates or the Republican leaders in Congress, especially those who fail to stand up for the party's principles -- whom he calls "Clintonized Republicans." At the center of "Completing the Revolution" is Novak's bold proposal for a new Republican agenda, one that remains true to the party's core values and can command a majority in the country. He offers surprising and original perspectives on taxes, Social Security, abortion, campaign finance, race and gender politics, and term limits, among other issues. He also lays bare the fault lines that have emerged in the 2000 presidential race and shows how they offer the party a stark choice: division and defeat, or principled victory. The road to the White House, Novak admonishes, requires one thing above all, from candidates and supporters alike: the courage to stick to real Republican principles. For any conservative who cares about the direction of public life in America, Robert Novak has provided the essential guide to our nation's millennial election.
"Liberalism: Time-Tested Principles for the Twenty-First Century" offers a multi-dimensional definition of Liberalism and calls upon American Liberals to rally behind their principles. Key sentences: The principal concern of Liberalism has always been good government, which Liberals regard as an essential element of a good society. Liberals have a tradition of Nationalism. If they wish to flourish again, Liberals must find leaders who can win the confidence of those ordinary Americans who consider the well-being of America as their primary concern. Bill Clinton, and his counterpart in Britain, Tony Blair, were on the right track. They had grasped the essential principles of Liberalism, and they made an effort of avoid the contentious, special-interest issues that had become attached to the liberal message. My book is a work of passion, and I hope it arouses a similar passion in others, because without passion there will be no action.
Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) was one of the twentieth century's most brilliant and disturbing critics of liberalism. He was also one of the most important intellectuals to offer his services to the Nazis, for which he was dubbed the "crown jurist of the Third Reich." Despite this fateful alliance Schmitt has exercised a profound influence on post-war European political and legal thought-on both the Right and the Left. In this illuminating book, Jan-Werner Muller traces for the first time the permutations of Schmitt's ideas after the Second World War and relates them to broader political developments in Europe. Offering a fresh account of Schmitt's life and career along with discussions of his key concepts, Muller explains why interest in the political theorist continues. He assesses the current uses of Schmitt's thought in debates on globalization and the quest for a liberal world order. He also offers new insights into the liberalization of political thinking in post-authoritarian societies and the persistent vulnerabilities and blind spots of certain strands of Western liberalism.
View the Table of Contents. "This thoughtful book will appeal to readers across the
political spectrum." "An invaluable source . . . for anyone interested in navigating
the judiciary's politics." "The Myth of the Imperial Judiciary makes a formidable argument
that conservatives indeed have an unrealistic conception of the
Supreme Court." "Kozlowski marshals history to show that not only was a strong
and active judiciary intended by the Founding Fathers, but also
that it has served the nation extremely well." "Kozlowski effectively demonstrates that courts have far less
power to operate as free agents than many believe." "Kozlowski marshals history to show that not only was a strong
and active judiciary intended by the Founding Fathers, it has
served the nation extremely well. . . . A fine piece of
scholarship." "How many minds his book will change on a subject so charged
with emotion remainds dubious, but the points Mr. Kozlowski makes
so expertly cannot in fairness be ignored." Few institutions have become as ferociously fought over in democratic politics as the courts. While political criticism of judges in this country goes back to its inception, today's intensely ideological assault is nearly unprecedented. Spend any amount of time among the writings of contemporary right-wing critics of judicial power, and you are virtually assured of seeing repeated complaints about the "imperial judiciary." American conservatives contend not onlythat judicial power has expanded dangerously in recent decades, but that liberal judges now willfully write their policy preferences into law. They raise alarms that American courts possess a degree of power incompatible with the functioning of a democratic polity. The Myth of the Imperial Judiciary explores the anti-judicial ideological trend of the American right, refuting these claims and taking a realistic look at the role of courts in our democracy to show that conservatives have a highly "unrealistic" conception of their power. Kozlowski first assesses the validity of the conservative view of the Founders' intent, arguing that courts have played an assertive role in our politics since their establishment. He then considers contemporary judicial powers to show that conservatives have greatly overstated the extent to which the expansion of rights which has occurred has worked solely to the benefit of liberals. Kozlowski reveals the ways in which the claims of those on the right are often either unsupported or simply wrong. He concludes that American courts, far from imperiling our democracy or our moral fabric, stand as a bulwark against the abuse of legislative power, acting forcefully, as they have always done, to give meaning to constitutional promises.
Dissatisfied with a liberal Republican party, American conservatives in the 1960s engineered a revolution. Mainstream conservatives advocated reform through the development of party and electoral solutions, while extremists looked to private organizations. Though often at odds, the divisions cross-fertilized each other, giving rise to new strategic and tactical strains, and bringing political success by the end of the decade.
In 1971 Dr. Theodore Kaczynski rejected modern society and moved to a primitive cabin in the woods of Montana. There, he began building bombs, which he sent to professors and executives to express his disdain for modern society, and to work on his magnum opus, Industrial Society and Its Future, forever known to the world as the Unabomber Manifesto. Responsible for three deaths and more than twenty casualties over two decades, he was finally identifed and apprehended when his brother recognized his writing style while reading the 'Unabomber Manifesto.' The piece, written under the pseudonym FC (Freedom Club) was published in the New York Times after his promise to cease the bombing if a major publication printed it in its entirety.
THE TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES and EVENING STANDARD BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2018 Whiteshift tells the most important political story of the 21st century: how demographic change is transforming Western politics and how to think about the future of white majorities 'Powerful and rigorously researched. . . this is a book that speaks to the most urgent and difficult issues of our time' - John Gray, author of Seven Types of Atheism This is the century of whiteshift. As Western societies are becoming increasingly mixed-race, demographic change is transforming politics. Over half of American babies are non-white, and by the end of the century, minorities and those of mixed race are projected to form the majority in the UK and other countries. The early stages of this transformation have led to a populist disruption, tearing a path through the usual politics of left and right. One of the most crucial challenges of our time is to enable conservatives as well as cosmopolitans to view whiteshift as a positive development. In this groundbreaking book, political scientist Eric Kaufmann examines the evidence to explore ethnic change in Western Europe and North America. Tracing four ways of dealing with this transformation - fight, repress, flight and join - he charts different scenarios and calls for us to move beyond empty talk about national identity. If we want to avoid more radical political divisions, he argues, we have to open up debate about the future of white majorities. Deeply thought provoking, Whiteshift offers a wealth of data to redefine the way we discuss race in the twenty-first century.
The southern Agrarians were a group of twelve young men who joined, from 1929 to 1937, in a fascinating intellectual and political movement. Prominent among them were Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, and Donald Davidson. In the midst of the depression, these gifted writers tried, as did so many other intellectuals, to plot the best cultural and economic choices open to southerners and Americans as a whole. That they failed to gain most of their goals does not diminish the significance of their crusade, or the enduring values that they espoused. Interweaving group biography and intellectual history, Conkin traces how these young intellectuals came to write their classic manifesto, "I'll Take My Stand, " relates their political advocacy to the earlier Fugitive movement in poetry, and follows their careers after the Agrarian crusade fell apart. More than any other historian or critic, Conkin takes seriously the economic and political beliefs of these southern writers.
Since the 1930s, industrial sociologists have tried to answer the
question, Why do workers not work harder? Michael Burawoy spent ten
months as a machine operator in a Chicago factory trying to answer
different but equally important questions: Why do workers work as
hard as they do? Why do workers routinely consent to their own
exploitation?
Holding fast to traditional values in the face of unprecedented
economic hardship, nearly a million American women joined
right-wing organizations during the Great Depression and World War
II. "Days of Discontent" provides a new perspective for
understanding why the far right appealed to these women, whose
political self-awareness grew with the tumultuous times.
In 1930, a group of southern intellectuals led by John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, and Robert Penn Warren published "I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition." A stark attack on industrial capitalism and a defiant celebration of southern culture, the book has raised the hackles of critics and provoked passionate defenses from southern loyalists ever since. As Paul Murphy shows, its effects on the evolution of American conservatism have been enduring as well. Tracing the Agrarian tradition from its origins in the 1920s through the present day, Murphy shows how what began as a radical conservative movement eventually became, alternately, a critique of twentieth-century American liberalism, a defense of the Western tradition and Christian humanism, and a form of southern traditionalism--which could include a defense of racial segregation. Although Agrarianism failed as a practical reform movement, its intellectual influence was wide-ranging, Murphy says. This influence expanded as Ransom, Tate, and Warren gained reputations as leaders of the New Criticism. More notably, such "neo-Agrarians" as Richard M. Weaver and M. E. Bradford transformed Agrarianism into a form of social and moral traditionalism that has had a significant impact on the emerging conservative movement since World War II.
Dissatisfied with a liberal Republican party, American conservatives in the 1960s engineered a revolution. Mainstream conservatives advocated reform through the development of party and electoral solutions, while extremists looked to private organizations. Though often at odds, the divisions cross-fertilized each other, giving rise to new strategic and tactical strains, and bringing political success by the end of the decade.
The movement that forged the way for the rise of the Republican Party in the South In 1948, a group of conservative white southerners formed the States' Rights Democratic Party, soon nicknamed the ""Dixiecrats,"" and chose Strom Thurmond as their presidential candidate. Thrown on the defensive by federal civil rights initiatives and unprecedented grassroots political activity by African Americans, the Dixiecrats aimed to reclaim conservatives' former preeminent position within the national Democratic Party and upset President Harry Truman's bid for reelection. The Dixiecrats lost the battle in 1948, but, as Kari Frederickson shows, the political repercussions of their revolt were significant. Frederickson situates the Dixiecrat movement within the tumultuous social and economic milieu of the 1930s and 1940s South, tracing the struggles between conservative and liberal Democrats over the future direction of the region. Enriching her sweeping political narrative with detailed coverage of local activity in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina - the flashpoints of the Dixiecrat campaign - she shows that, even without upsetting Truman in 1948, the Dixiecrats forever altered politics in the South. By severing the traditional southern allegiance to the national Democratic Party in presidential elections, the Dixiecrats helped forge the way for the rise of the Republican Party in the region.
First published in 1980, this contribution to political thought is a statement of the traditional conservative position. Roger Scruton challenges those who would regard themselves as conservatives, and also their opponents. Conservatism, he argues, has little in common with liberalism, and is only tenuously related to the market economy, to monetarism, to free enterprise or to capitalism. It involves neither hostility towards the state, nor the desire to limit the state's obligation towards the citizen. Its conceptions of society, law and citizenship regard the individual not as the premise but as the conclusion of politics. At the same time it is fundamentally opposed to the ethic of social justice, to equality of station, opportunity, income and achievement, and to the attempt to bring major institutions of society such as schools and universities under government control.
Once a marginal political coalition, the French National Front has become the most high-profile far-right organization in Europe. In "Politics on the Fringe" Edward G. DeClair provides the first extensive analysis of the Front's history, from its creation in 1972 and outcast status in the early 1980s to its achievement of broad-based support and show of political strength in the 1997 elections. Using rare, in-depth interviews with twenty-nine members of the Front elite, as well as public opinion survey data and electoral results, DeClair examines the internal structure of the Front, its political agenda, and its growing influence in France. DeClair shows how the party has dramatically expanded its traditionally narrow core constituency by capitalizing upon anxieties about national identity, immigration, European unification, and rising unemployment. In illustrating how the rhetoric surrounding such topics is key to the Front's success, DeClair examines the Front's legacy by detailing the links between the French far-right and similar movements in such countries as Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, and the United States. Finally, "Politics on the Fringe" offers not only a complete picture of the Front's increasingly influential role in French partisan politics but also further insight into the resurgence of right-wing extremism throughout western societies in the late twentieth century. This volume will be of primary importance to political scientists and those engaged with European politics, culture, and history. It will also appeal to those concerned with right-wing populism and political movements.
Despite its avowed commitment to liberalism and democracy internationally, the United States has frequently chosen to back repressive or authoritarian regimes in parts of the world. In this comprehensive examination of American support of right-wing dictatorships. David Schmitz challenges the contention that the democratic impulse has consistently motivated U.S. foreign policy. Compelled by a persistent concern for order and influenced by a paternalistic racism that characterized non-Western peoples as vulnerable to radical ideas, U.S. policymakers viewed authoritarian regimes as the only vehicles for maintaining political stability and encouraging economic growth in nations such as Nicaragua and Iran, Schmitz argues. Expediency overcame ideology, he says, and the United States gained useful - albeit brutal and corrupt - allies who supported American policies and provided a favorable atmosphere for U.S. trade. But such policy was not without its critics and did not remain static, Schmitz notes. Instead, its influence waxed and waned over the course of five decades, until the U.S. interventions in Vietnam marked its culmination.
Carter's essays present graphic evidence of the extent to which race continues to matter in American politics. - Journal of Southern History In this penetrating survey of the last three decades, Dan T. Carter examines race as an issue in presidential politics. Drawing on his broad knowledge of recent political history, he traces the ""counterrevolutionary"" response to the civil rights movement since Wallace's emergence on the national scene in 1963, and detects a gradual intersection of racial and economic conservatism in the coalition that re-shaped American politics from the 1970s through the mid-1990s. Concise yet replete with insight, wit, and often-amusing, always-telling anecdotes, this timely, timeless book is an uncommon blend of important and enjoyable reading.
Late Capitalism is the first major synthesis to have been produced by the contemporary revival of Marxist economics. It represents, in fact, the only systematic attempt so far ever made to combine the general theory of the "laws of motion" of the capitalist mode of production developed by Marx, with the concrete history of capitalism in the twentieth century. Mandel's book starts with a challenging discussion of the appropriate methods for studying the capitalist economies. He seeks to show why the classical approaches of Luxemburg, Bukharin, Bauer and Grossman failed to accomplish the further development of Marxist theory whose urgency became evident after Marx's death. He then sketches the structure of the world market and the variant types of surplus-profit that have characterized its successive stages. On these foundations, Late Capitalism proceeds to advance an extremely bold schema of the "long waves" of expansion and contraction in the history of capitalism, from the Napoleonic Wars to the present. Mandel criticizes and refines Kondratieff's famous use of the notion. Mandel's book surveys in turn the main economic characteristics of late capitalism as it has emerged in the contemporary period. The last expansionary long wave, it argues, started with the victory of fascism on the European continent and the advent of the war economies in the US and UK during the 1940s, and produced the record world boom of 1947-72. Mandel discusses the reasons why the dynamic upswing of growth in this period was bound to reach its limits at the turn of the 1970s, and why a long wave of economic stagnation and intensified class struggle has set in today. Late Capitalism is a landmark in Marxist economic literature. Specifically designed to explain the international recession of the 1970s, it is a central guide to understanding the nature of the world economic crisis today.
Brought up by eccentric intellectuals, Ed West experienced what he believed was a fairly normal childhood of political pamphlets as bedtime reading, family holidays to East Germany and a father who was one political step away from advocating the return of serfdom. In his mid-twenties, West found himself embracing a mindset usually acquired alongside a realisation that all music post-1955 is garbage, agreeing with everything said in the Telegraph and all the other bad things people get in middle age. This is his journey to becoming a real-life Tory boy. Forgoing the typically tedious and shouty tone of the Right, West provides that rare gem of a conservative book - one that people of any political alignment can read, if only to laugh at West's gallows humour and dry wit. Crammed with self-deprecating anecdotes and enlightening political insights, Tory Boy discloses a life shaped by politics and the realisation that perhaps this obsession does more harm than good.
In this history of the "other Sixties," Gregory L. Schneider traces the influence of Young Americans for Freedom, a conservative political group that locked horns with the New Left and spawned many of the major players in the contemporary conservative movement, from the Goldwater campaign in 1964 to Reagan's revolution in the 1980s. Cadres for Conservatism reveals how young political conservatives, unlike their leftist counterparts, avoided fracture in the wake of the Sixties. Rather, YAF continued to serve as a seedbed for future conservative leaders, many of whom drew on the contacts and (counter-)activism of their youth to consolidate conservative power. Schneider's talent for trenchant archival research is supplemented by a plethora of detailed interviews with virtually every past national chairman and executive director of the YAF, as well as important sponsors such as William F. Buckley, William Rusher, and M. Stanton Evans.
For nearly a decade, Michael Lind worked closely as a writer and editor with the intellectual leaders of American conservatism. Slowly, he came to believe that the many prominent intellectuals he worked with were not the leaders of the conservative movement but the followers and apologists for an increasingly divisive and reactionary political strategy orchestrated by the Republican party. Lind's disillusionment led to a very public break with his former colleagues on the right, as he attacked the Reverend Pat Robertson for using anti-Semitic sources in his writings. In "Up From Conservatism," this former rising star of the right reveals what he believes to be the disturbing truth about the hidden economic agenda of the conservative elite. The Republican capture of the U.S. Congress in 1994 did not represent the conversion of the American public to conservative ideology. Rather, it marked the success of the thirty-year-old "southern strategy" begun by Barry Goldwater and Richard Nixon. From the Civil War to the civil rights revolution, the southern elite combined a low-wage, low-tax strategy for economic development with a politics of demagogy based on race-baiting and Bible-thumping. Now, Lind maintains, the economic elite that controls the Republican party is following a similar strategy on a national scale, using their power to shift the tax burden from the rich to the middle class while redistributing wealth upward. To divert attention from their favoritism toward the rich, conservatives play up the "culture war," channeling popular anger about falling real wages and living standards away from Wall Street and focusing it instead on the black poor and nonwhite immigrants. The United States, Lind concludes, could use a genuine "one-nation" conservatism that seeks to promote the interests of the middle class and the poor as well as the rich. But today's elitist conservatism poses a clear and present danger to the American middle class and the American republic.
An authoritative inside account of the origins, successes and failures of monetarism in Britain. Gordon Pepper provides a portrait of early monetarism in the UK, explains its growing appeal in the 1970s and assesses the outcome of monetarism under Thatcher, from his own perspective as a 'fly on the wall'. He provides a comprehensive guide to macroeconomic forecasting and its policy implications.
Barry Goldwater is widely regarded as one of the most prominent and controversial politicians of our century, a man whose influence on American conservatism led President Ronald Reagan to honor him with the title "Mr. Conservative" when he retired after thirty years in the Senate. A populist from Arizona, Goldwater helped change the complexion of the Republican Party both ideologically and geographically and planted the seeds for the future growth of the New Right. This biography is the most up-to-date and balanced account of Goldwater ever written. Drawing on interviews with Goldwater and with a wide range of his friends, family members, and colleagues, as well as on family papers, Robert Goldberg provides new and fascinating information about Goldwater's private and public life. Goldberg describes Goldwater's youth, family, and early business enterprises, showing how he both shaped and was shaped by the increasingly sophisticated American southwest. He tells us about Goldwater's political career and its aftermath, giving insight into his opposition to the senatorial censure of Joseph McCarthy; his 1964 presidential campaign; his role in such political turning points as Watergate and Reagan policy in Nicaragua; his lifelong interest in the military, which culminated with the passage of the Goldwater Military Reorganization Act during his last year in the Senate; and his recent attack on the religious right in the Republican party. Engagingly written and handsomely illustrated, the book presents a vivid picture of a man who has attained almost mythical stature as a forthright, tough-minded figure from America's past. |
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