The Two Faces of the ‘Global Right’: Revolutionary Conservatives and National-Conservatives

Abstract

Studies of the Global Right usually trace its intellectual underpinnings to the revolutionary conservative New Right and its ideas claiming to defend an ‘ethno-pluralist’ European identity from the multiculturalist threat of a ‘Great Replacement’ through immigration. A second lineage, which we refer to as ‘national-conservative’, is less explored and is more concerned with threats to moral order and the loss of moral bearing due to liberalism’s relativism. These two intellectual lineages, and corresponding political alignments, engender different political projects of the Global Right, which is not that coherent as it seems. Taking a long-term historical-ideational perspective that underlines the power of ideologies as templates, we argue that a closer look at the different intellectual traditions of the Global Right can help explain the contrasting political preferences for socio-economic action, institution-building and transnational cooperation.

Strange bedfellows: Why right‐wing intellectuals in South Korea chose to cooperate with their country's former coloniser

“…Our framework pays attention to significant diversities in local contexts that shape the nature of transnational collaboration, but is also broad enough to uncover a wide variety of instances of right‐wing networking and alliances across national borders. As Varga and Buzogány have argued, given the extraordinary reach of today's global Far Right, it is important not only to focus on seeming commonalities among actors in the Global Right but also ‘to approach the “Global Right” as a temporary formation and analy[z]e why these actors come together and the extent they really do’ (2022, p. 1101). This case study exemplifies one such effort and serves as a useful reference point for understanding comparable instances of collaboration both within East Asia and beyond.…”

What’s in a name? Gender equality and the European Conservatives and Reformists’ group in the European Parliament

“…To use the terminology of seminal studies on historical conservatism, the type of conservatism advocated by ECR can be defined as radical, militant, and reactionary (Allen, 1981; cf. Varga and Buzogany, 2021). Both future research and political configurations in the EP will need to consider the increasingly radical stance of the ECR and their reactionary construction of conservatism.…”

“…A more extreme wing of conservatism – defined in the literature as ‘radical’, ‘militant’ or ‘reactionary’ – has existed since the 19th century, endorsing nationalistic, imperialist, and anti-Semitic ideas (Allen, 1981: 597–591). Current radical conservatism in Europe advocates the defense of European identity from multiculturalism and immigration, and of the traditional moral order from the relativism of liberalism (Varga and Buzogany, 2021).…”

Natural allies? Varieties of attitudes towards the United States and Russia within the French and German radical right

“…However, as Drolet and Williams and a recent contribution by Varga and Buzogány (2021) highlight, there is not a consensus about the boundaries of civilisational identity. Varga and Buzogány point to distinct intellectual sources to the ‘Global right’.…”

“…A recent contribution by Varga and Buzogány highlights different transnational or civilisational kinship orientations within the ‘Global Right’. They differentiate ‘Revolutionary Conservatives’—the ‘esoteric, conspirationist and post‐truth European New Right’—which is anti‐American and open to cooperation with Russia, from National‐Conservatism, ‘which perceives itself as defending “Western civilisation” on both sides of the Atlantic’ (Varga & Buzogány, 2021, p. 5).…”