National conservatism

National conservatism focuses on "threats to moral order and the loss of moral bearing due to liberalism's relativism". It rejects the basic precepts of enlightenment liberalism, such as individualism and the universality of human rights. In America and Europe, national conservatives are majoritarian populists and advocate for fewer limits on the power of elected representatives to "smash the liberal state".

National conservatism opposes modernity, secularism, liberalism, socialism, communism and anarchism, instead valuing Europe's Christian heritage and "defending" Western civilization.

National conservatism is similar to conservatism in Europe before World War I, epitomized by statesmen such as Otto von Bismarck and Franz Joseph I.

In The Virtue of Nationalism, Yoram Hazony criticises Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke for creating a "dream world" in which the "Jewish and Christian world" have "no place to exist". Patrick Deneen argues that the "current elite" should be replaced with "a better aristocracy brought about by a muscular populism" to advance the "common good", with the common good loosely defined as "integration" that includes the reunification of church and state.

National conservatism disagrees with liberalism and socialism over the interpretation of key historical developments, such as the Enlightenment, modernization, and emancipation, and key political events like those that occurred in 1789, 1968, and 1989. National conservatism is silent on classical conservative thought expressed by Michael Oakeshott and Edmund Burke.

While national conservatism distances itself from fascism, some forms of what scholars like Roger Griffin term "para-fascism"—a type of authoritarian nationalism that seeks to preserve traditional structures rather than pursue a palingenetic ultranationalism—are seen as aligning more closely with the tenets of national conservatism than with pure fascism. …

Ideologically, national conservatism is not uniform. Adherents have broadly expressed support for nationalism, patriotism, cultural assimilationism, and monoculturalism. At the same time, there is expressed opposition to internationalism, racial politics, multiculturalism, and globalism. National conservatives adhere to a form of cultural nationalism that emphasizes the preservation of national identity as well as cultural identity. As a result, many favor assimilation into the dominant culture, restrictions on immigration and strict law and order policies. National conservative parties support traditional family values, gender roles, and the public role of religion, being critical of the separation of church and state. According to the Austrian political scientist Sieglinde Rosenberger, "national conservatism praises the family as a home and a center of identity, solidarity, and tradition." It opposes the "1968 agenda" of gender-related emancipation.

National conservatives in different countries do not necessarily share a common position on economic policy. Their views may range from support of corporatism, mixed economy, national capitalism (mostly), economic nationalism, protectionism to a more laissez-faire approach. In the first, more common case, national conservatives can be distinguished from liberal conservatives, for whom free market economic policies, deregulation, and tight spending are the main priorities.

Some commentators have indeed identified a growing gap between national and economically liberal conservatism: "Most parties of the Right [today] are run by economically liberal conservatives who, in varying degrees, have marginalised social, cultural and national conservatives." National conservatism developed its economic alternative to liberalism through political representatives in post-communist Europe, most notably Poland and Hungary, and the emergence of "pro-worker conservatism" in the United States. Throughout the 1990s, economic positions of national conservatives were largely fusionist. The works of Leo Strauss and Eric Voegelin have served as building blocks for the modern national conservative movement's socio-economic policies. …

National conservatism has gained ground across the Western world in recent decades, but has been particularly strong in certain countries and among certain demographic groups. Costas Panayotakis has argued that the economic inequality engendered by neoliberalism contributed to the rise of national conservatism.

In the 2020s, national conservatism was described as causing a "new global divide", particularly in the Western world. Several very close elections pitted a national conservative candidate against a liberal candidate, with national conservative candidates sometimes winning. These included the 2024 United States presidential election (Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris by 1.5%) and the 2025 Polish presidential election (Karol Nawrocki defeated Rafał Trzaskowski by 1.8%). On the other hand, in the 2025 Romanian presidential election centrist Nicușor Dan defeated the far-right national conservative George Simion by 7.2%, though the Financial Times still described this as a close election.

National conservatism has gained notable ground in post-communist Eastern Europe (east of the former Iron Curtain). The national conservative and far-right Alternative for Germany is strongest in former East Germany. The Law and Justice party in Poland is strongest in Poland B, with Poland considered a post-communist European country. Russia, under the rule of Vladimir Putin, has waged an irredentist invasion of Ukraine since 2022. Putin has implemented and espoused national conservatism through his affiliated United Russia party.

Regional or regionalist parties can be nationalist or national conservative, without aligning with the country to which the region belongs. South Tyrol is a notable example, as "national conservative" parties there represent its German-speaking majority and identify with neighbouring Austria, with which South Tyrol shares cultural and historical ties.