Conservatism in North America is a political philosophy that varies in form, depending on the country and the region, but that has similar themes and goals. Academic study into the differences and similarities between conservatism in North American countries has been undertaken on numerous occasions. Reginald Bibby has asserted that the primary reason that conservatism has been so strong and enduring throughout North America is because of the propagation of religious values from generation to generation. This connection is strongest in mainstream Protestantism in the United States, and both Protestantism and Roman Catholicism in Canada.[1]
According to Louis Hartz, nations that developed from settler colonies were European "fragments" that froze the class structure and underlying ideology prevalent in the mother country at the time of their foundation. He considered Latin America and French Canada to be fragments of feudal Europe, and the United States and English Canada as liberal fragments.[2] However Gad Horowitz, writing that Hartz had acknowledged a Tory influence in English Canada, claimed a conservative tradition had developed there as well.[3] American conservatism is different from European conservatism, with its combination of traditionalism and libertarianism, and has its roots in American traditions and classical liberalism of the 18th and 19th centuries,[4] although Canada also developed an American-style conservatism that competed with the older Tory conservatism.[5] A right-wing conservatism, or "Latin conservatism", developed in Latin America and Quebec. Today, conservative and conservative liberal parties in North America cooperate through the International Democrat Union.[6]
Although there has always been a conservative tradition in America, the modern American conservative movement began during the 1950s. Russell Kirk popularized conservatism after publishing The Conservative Mind (1953). Two years later, in 1955, William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review, a conservative magazine that included traditionalists, such as Kirk, along with libertarians and anti-communists. This bringing together of separate ideologies under a conservative umbrella was known as fusionism. The term was invented by Frank Meyer. Politically, the conservative movement in the U.S. has often been a coalition of various groups, which has sometimes contributed to its electoral success and other times been a source of internal conflict.
Modern conservatism saw its first national political success with the 1964 nomination of Barry Goldwater, a U.S. Senator from Arizona and author of The Conscience of a Conservative (1960), as the Republican candidate for president. In 1980, the conservative movement was able to attract disaffected Southern Whites (who were formerly Democrats), neoconservatives (former Cold War liberal Democrats), and evangelical Christians, to nominate and elect the Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, a conservative, as president. The 1980s and beyond is known as the Reagan Era, a conservative decade. Today's conservatives regard Reagan as the iconic conservative hero. Subsequent electoral victories included gaining a Republican congressional majority in 1994 and the election of George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Since the 1970s, the two major American political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans, have become increasingly polarized, with the Democrats described as "liberal" and "left wing" and the Republicans as "conservative" and "right wing". The alt-right has pushed the Overton window to the right,[15] making conservative positions seem more centrist.[16][17][18]
In Mexico, political conservatism originally arose in reaction to the Mexican War of Independence. Because of his prominence in the Mexican Conservative Party, Lucas Alamán has been called "the most organized intelligence behind Conservatism in Mexico."[19] Throughout the presidency of Miguel Alemán Valdés between 1946 and 1952, the politics of the country experienced a significant shift towards conservatism.[20]Gastón García Cantú has performed the most extensive study of Mexican conservatism to date.[21]
Central America
Before the 1930s, Central American countries generally had dichotomous politics divided along conservative-liberal lines, but the effects of the Great Depression in the area caused most of these opposing parties to merge in order to maintain authority.[22] Traditionally, political conservatism in the area has been ideologically linked with Protestantism, but this connection has been questioned in recent years.[23] One of the most prominent historical representatives of conservatism in Central America was Rafael Carrera, the first President of Guatemala. Not only did he effectively suppress liberal reforms in his own country, but he contributed greatly to the unity and influence of conservatism in each of the countries throughout Central America.[24]
When Panama was separated from Colombia in 1903, the newly independent country of Panama was initially controlled by a military junta led by José Agustín Arango and Manuel Amador Guerrero. Although the junta included a few token liberal members, the administration was heavily conservative.[31] Politics in the country were strongly divided along conservative-liberal lines in the following years.[32] Conservatives were in power until a military coup in 1968.[33]
Although Cuba's government remains ideologically communist, evangelical churches have allowed the growth of conservative ideas and groups within religious institutions. Many of these churches influence debates on civil liberties such as abortion and LGBT rights.[40][41][42]
Study of concept
A 2002 conference at the University of Augsburg which was dedicated to this very topic.[43] There were two main concepts discussed at the conference. The first concept was the connection between the brand of conservatism arising in the 1980s and the 1990s and social democracy. The second concept was simply an exploration of the differences and similarities between conservatism in Canada and the United States. Some feminist scholars have suggested that the prevalence of conservatism throughout North America has resulted in the continent's general post-feminist stance.[44]
^Lori G. Beaman (2006). Religion and Canadian Society: Traditions, Transitions, and Innovations. Canadian Scholars' Press. p. 230. ISBN978-1-55130-306-2. "Reginald Bibby identifies a pervasive religious conservatism in North America demonstrated by the intergenerational transmission of religious traditions, which, in the United States, are more likely to be mainstream Protestantism, or, in Canada, mainstream Protestantism and Roman Catholicism."
^The Founding of New Societies: Studies in the History of the United States, Latin America, South Africa, Canada, and Australia (1964), Louis Hartz
^Ambrose, Emma; Mudde, Cas (2015). "Canadian Multiculturalism and the Absence of the Far Right". Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. 21 (2): 213–236. doi:10.1080/13537113.2015.1032033. S2CID145773856.
^Harrison, Brigid C. (2017). Power & society an introduction to the social sciences (14th ed.). Boston, MA. ISBN978-1-337-02596-6. OCLC1200495650.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Joel D. Aberbach; Gillian Peele, eds. (2011). Crisis of conservatism? : the Republican Party, the conservative movement and American politics after Bush. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-983026-8. OCLC741613249.
^Farmer, Brian R. (2005). American conservatism : history, theory and practice. Newcastle, UK.: Cambridge Scholars Press. ISBN1-904303-54-4. OCLC61218162.