Neo conservatism

www.politicsassociation.com

A Level Ideologies

Neo-Conservatism


Why the ‘neo’?

• Liberals first applied the "neo" prefix to their
comrades who broke ranks to become more
conservative in the 1960s and 70s.
• The defectors remained more liberal on some
domestic policy issues.
• Foreign policy stands have always defined
neoconservatism.
• Where other conservatives favoured détente and
containment of the Soviet Union, neocons
pushed direct confrontation.


Neo-Conservative world-view

• A critique of modern society:
1. Moral decline
2. Crime
3. Drugs
4. Prostitution / pornography
5. Decline in family values – teenage pregnancies


Neo-Cons – in their own words
• we need to increase defence spending significantly if we
are to carry out our global responsibilities today and
modernize our armed forces for the future;
• we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and
to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values;
• we need to promote the cause of political and economic
freedom abroad;
• we need to accept responsibility for America's unique
role in preserving and extending an international order
friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles.
Statement of Principles of the Project of New American Century (1997)


Neo-Conservative foreign policy

• Interventionist, sometimes described as ‘hawkish’.
• Intervention – to replace to replace autocratic regimes
with democratic ones.

Neo-Conservative domestic

policy
• Neoconservatives are less sceptical of
government than other conservatives.
• They are less worried about reducing the size of
government, less enthusiastic about tax cuts,
more concerned about forging national crusades
that can tap either the American public's
patriotism or its desire for reform.


Neo-Cons – who are they?
• Individuals
• James Burnham , founding editor at the conservative National
Review and a vocal anticommunist figure of the Cold War era,
started his political life as a Trotskyite. James Burnham and the
Struggle for the World: Daniel Kelly. ISI Books, 2002.
• Max Shactman , a philosophical founder of the Democrat
Socialists, USA, that was guided for many years by Michael
Harrington, gravitated from Trotskyism to Socialism and finally to
neoconservatism. Shactman urged the Socialists to support U.S.
funding of the Nicaraguan contras and support nuclear weapons in
Europe and the Pacific.
• Irving Kristol , Distinguished Fellow at the conservative American
Enterprise Institute and a former editor of the once liberal
Commentary magazine, is also considered a leading founder of
Neoconservatism.
• Leo Strauss , a guiding philosopher of Neoconservative thought,
has been credited with giving the Neocons the proposition that "not
all lies are self-evident."



• Organisations
Heritage Foundation , American
Enterprise Institute , Empower America
and Project for a New American century
are only a few of many organizations that
present the new conservative mindset.



• In government
Government officials of prominent
importance in administrations of the last
twenty years and well-identified with the
Neocon ideology include State and
Defence department appointees Elliott
Abrams, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz,
Douglas Feith, Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
and John R. Bolton, former CIA Director
James Woolsey and previous Democrat
and UN representative Jeane Kirkpatrick.



• In the print media
The media well represents the voice of
Neoconservatism in the writings of pro-
war Campus Watch leader Daniel Pipes,
syndicated columnists Charles
Krauthammer and Robert Kagan, media
pundit David Brooks, Weekly Standard’s
Bill Kristol and Commentary Magazine's
Norman Podhoretz.



• In television
News empires and television
broadcasters , principally Reverend Moon's
Washington Times a nd Rupert Murdoch's
Fox News , favor Neocon policies and
personalities.



• Big business
Financial support of the organizations
that favour the Neocons (as well as other
conservative causes) come from the
Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation
($489 million in 2002), chemical and
munitions profits of the John M. Olin
Foundation and the banking and oil
money of The Scaife Foundations of
Pittsburgh.


Francis Fukuyama

• Fukuyama is best known as the author of The End of History and
the Last Man, in which he argued that the progression of human
history as a struggle between ideologies is largely at an end, with
the world settling on liberal democracy after the end of the Cold War
and when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.
• Active in the neo-conservative Project for the New American
Century, he signed the organisation's letter recommending the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He also signed a similar letter to
George W. Bush after the September 11 2001 attacks, calling for
removing Saddam Hussein from power "even if evidence does not
link Iraq directly to the attack".
• Recently distanced himself from the neoconservative agenda, which
he felt had become overly militaristic.
• He did not approve of the 2003 invasion of Iraq as it was executed,
and called for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation as Secretary of
Defence


Is Tony Blair a neo-con?

• Prepared to use military force for moral purposes?
• A shift of political beliefs from left to right?
• A strong belief in religion?
‘Blair’s moral sense is reflected in the
thinking of many neo-conservatives.’

Richard Perle
American Enterprise
Institute


It gets even more confusing -
• Centrist – Just what it sounds like. Someone who doesn’t have any
particularly strong ideological leanings in any direction.
• Left-libertarian –An anti-statist who is somewhat fearful of corporate and
religious influence on public life.
• Liberal – Supports economic regulation to promote social justice and takes
a progressive stance toward moral or cultural issues.
• Libertarian – A libertarian opposes most or all government activities. Does
not favour much or any government support for either moral or economic
systems.
• Paleoconservative – "Paleocons" want less US involvement in foreign
affairs than other conservatives and oppose mass immigration. They are
also more favourably disposed toward the South and the idea of secession,
or at least decentralization, than neoconservatives.
• Paleo-libertarian – Similar to other libertarians except for opposition to
mass immigration, and shares the paleocon appreciation of the South.
• Radical – Critical of bourgeois morality and strongly opposed to capitalism
and willing to use state power to achieve desired ends.
• Third-way – More supportive of foreign intervention than liberals and less
supportive of economic regulation, coupled with more-or-less progressive
social views. "Third-way" is to liberal what neoconservative is to
conservative.

Neo conservatism

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Was ist angesagt?

Was ist angesagt? (20)

Andere mochten auch

Andere mochten auch (20)

Ähnlich wie Neo conservatism

Ähnlich wie Neo conservatism (20)

Mehr von aquinaspolitics

Mehr von aquinaspolitics (20)

Neo conservatism