Centre-right politics
Centre-right politics lean to the right of the political spectrum, but are closer to the centre. Parties of the centre-right generally support liberal democracy, capitalism, the market economy, private property rights, and a modest welfare state. They support conservatism and economic liberalism and oppose socialism and communism.[1]
From the 1780s to the 1880s, there was a shift in the Western world of social class structure and the economy, moving away from the nobility and mercantilism, towards capitalism.[2][3][4] This general economic shift toward capitalism affected centre-right movements, such as the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, and the Republican Party of the United States, which responded by becoming supportive of capitalism.[5]
The International Democracy Union is an alliance of centre-right (as well as some further right-wing) political parties – including the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party of Canada, the Republican Party of the United States, the Liberal Party of Australia, the New Zealand National Party and Christian democratic parties – which declares commitment to human rights as well as economic development.[6]
Ideologies characterised as centre-right include liberal conservatism and some variants of liberalism and Christian democracy, among others. The economic aspects of the modern centre-right have been influenced by economic liberalism, generally supporting free markets, limited government spending and other policies heavily associated with neoliberalism and Third Way. The moderate right is neither universally socially conservative nor culturally liberal, and often combines both beliefs with support for civil liberties and elements of traditionalism.
Historical examples of centre-right schools of thought include One Nation Conservatism in the United Kingdom, Red Tories in Canada, and Rockefeller Republicans in the United States. New Democrats in the United States also embraced several aspects of centre-right policy, including balanced budgets, free trade, deregulation, and welfare reform. These ideological factions contrast with far-right policies and right-wing populism. They also tend to be more supportive of cultural liberalism and green conservatism than right-wing variants.
According to a 2019 study, centre-right parties had approximately 27% of the vote share in 21 Western democracies in 2018.[7] This was a decline from 37% in 1960.[7]
History since the French Revolution[edit]
Edmund Burke in England[edit]
The prominent inspiration for the centre-right (especially in Britain) was the traditionalist conservatism of Edmund Burke.[8] Burke's traditionalist conservatism was more moderate than the continental conservatism developed by Joseph de Maistre in France, that upon experiencing the French Revolution completely denounced the status quo that existed immediately prior to the revolution (unlike Burke) and de Maistre sought a reactionary counter-revolution that would dismantle all modern society and return it to a strictly religious-based society.[9] While Burke condemned the French Revolution, he had supported the American Revolution that he viewed as being a conservative revolution.[10]
Burke said that the Americans revolted for the same reason as the English had during the Glorious Revolution, in both cases a monarch had overstepped the boundaries of his duties.[10] Burke said that the American Revolution was justified because King George III had overstepped his customary rights by imposing taxes on the American colonists without their consent.[10] Burke opposed the French Revolution because he opposed its anti-traditionalism and its use of abstract ideas, such as the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen and its universal egalitarianism that Burke rebuked by claiming that it effectively endorsed "hairdressers" being able to be politicians.[10]
United States[edit]
In the United States the Federalist Party was dominated by staunch conservatives led by Alexander Hamilton. The Federalists denounced the French Revolution.[11] However there was a more moderate faction led by President John Adams during the 1798 Quasi-War against France. The Adams coalition secured peace with France, and also installed John Marshall, who led the Supreme Court for three decades. Historian Sarah Kreps in 2018 argues the Adams faction corresponds to "today's right-of-center party."[12]
In the 1830s the Whig Party emerged with a strong base in business, the professions and commercial farming, to lead the center-right. The center-left was led by the Jeffersonians and the Jacksonians in the Democratic Party. In the turmoil of the 1850s a new party emerged to lead the center-right to victory, the Republican Party.[13]
In the early 20th century Republicans split between the left-wing under Theodore Roosevelt and the center-right under William Howard Taft; Taft defeated Roosevelt for control of the party in 1912. According to David Hackett Fischer, as president (1909-1913) and chief justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930) Taft's political position:[14]