Conservative liberalism
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Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and politicies with conservative stances, or, more simply, representing the right-wing of the liberal movement. The roots of it are to be found at the beginning of the history of liberalism: until the World Wars, in most European countries the political class was formed by conservative liberals, from Germany to Italy.
[edit] Ideology and issues
Conservative liberals differ from social liberals for some main reasons:
- First, they are more concerned with economic liberalism, adopting libertarian or neo-liberal policies, while the second ones tend to be more keen to statism, to Keynesian solutions and, also, to high taxes. Conservative liberals, in contrast, are staunch supporters of the free-market, small government, less bureaucracy, deregulation, privatizations and the lowering of taxes, often proposing the flat tax.
- Second, they place less emphasis upon social and moral issues (as euthanasia or gay marriage), although most of them are socially liberal on them.
- Third, while they are strong fans of globalization, they tend to be more skeptical about international organizations like the United Nations or European Union. Most conservative liberals support the foreign policy of the United States and, in NATO-member states support that political alliance.
- Fourth, conservative liberals are often in favor of stricter rules on immigration and are not enthusiastic about multiculturalism, of which social liberals are strong supporters. Conservative liberals are also tough on crime, supporting higher levels of punishment and are more committed to fighting terrorism, while social liberals tend to emphasize prevention and are more committed to civil rights.
One should not confuse Conservative liberalism with liberal conservatism, indeed the last one is a variant of conservatism. However it is possible to classify some parties as both conservative-liberal and liberal-conservative.
[edit] Conservative-liberal parties worldwide
Examples of conservative-liberal parties in history are: the National Liberal Party and the German People's Party in Germany, the Italian Liberal Party, the National Centre of Independents and Peasants and the Republican Party/Liberal Democracy in France and the Freedom Party of Austria, before turning nationalist.
Contemporary parties which fit the conservative-label are: the Free Democratic Party of Germany, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, Liberal Party of Denmark, the Progressive Democrats in Ireland, the National Liberal Party of Romania, the Liberal Party of Switzerland, the Liberal Front Party in Brazil, the Liberals of Serbia, some factions within Forza Italia (as Popular Liberalism and Liberal Reformers), the Democratic Convergence of Catalonia, the Croatian People's Party-Liberal Democrats and the Croatian Social Liberal Party, the Estonian Reform Party and the Liberal and Centre Union of Lithuania.
