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Conservative liberalism
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Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies 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.
Conservative liberalism is a more positive and less radical version of classical liberalism.
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Encyclopedia
Conservative liberalism is a variant of liberalism, combining liberal values and policies 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.
Conservative liberalism is a more positive and less radical version of classical liberalism. The events such as World War I occurring after 1917 brought the more radical version of classical liberalism to a more conservative, or more moderate, type of liberalism.
Ideology and issues
Being less radical, conservative liberal parties can achieve more votes than classical liberal parties. They offer an increased level of state intervention and they often identify as law and order-parties, which are tougher on crime and support higher levels of punishment and are more committed to fighting terrorism.
Conservative liberals differ from social liberals for some main reasons:
- Firstly, they are usually socially liberal on such social issues as same-sex marriage, abortion, secularism, stem-cell research, and euthanasia but may place less emphasis on them than do most social liberals.
- Secondly, they are mostly strong supporters of economic globalization. Most conservative liberals support the foreign policy of the United States and, in NATO-member states, support that political alliance.
- Thirdly, conservative liberals are often in favor of stricter punishment of illegal immigrants and are usually tolerant of multiculturalism. Conservative liberals often identify as law and order-parties, which are tougher on crime and support 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.
Excepting English-language usage, one should not confuse conservative liberalism with liberal conservatism; indeed, the latter is a variant of conservatism. In continental Europe those called Liberal conservatives tend to be more committed to authority, tradition and established religion, while conservative liberals are supporters of the separation between church and state. However some parties are seen as both conservative-liberal and liberal-conservative, such as the Liberal Party of Australia.
Conservative liberalism differs from libertarianism in several ways. For example, it is far less radical in its economic program and it is supportive of an active defense policy and military interventions in contrast to the libertarian non-interventionist policy. Some conservative liberals supported the American-led interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, conservative liberals are tough on crime and are more willing to sacrifice civil liberties to fight terrorism and crime.
In the United States, conservative liberalism is often called moderate libertarianism or conservative libertarianism.
Historical development
Conservative liberal parties have tended to develop in those European countries where there was no strong secular conservative party and where the separation of church and state was less on issue. In those countries, where the conservative parties were christian-democratic, this conservative brand of liberalism developed.
Conservative-liberal parties worldwide
Current conservative-liberal parties
Parties with conservative-liberal factions
Historical conservative-liberal parties or parties with conservative-liberal factions
See also
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