National liberalism - features, history and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

A fairly small number of people can clearly say what national liberalism is. This movement throughout history experienced two bursts of interest from the population at once - at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, and also in the last decade. To fully understand what National Liberalism is, one must first understand the history of the movement, as well as identify the true concept.

The concept of liberalism

For the correct formulation of the concept of national liberalism, one should first give an interpretation of the very word "liberalism". At the moment, in various encyclopedias, you can find dozens of concepts of this word that explain liberalism with standardized words that are quite difficult to understand in practice for an ordinary person.

However, by the beginning of the 20th century, the concept used earlier by scientists became just an anachronism that cannot be objectively used. In recent years, this trend has begun to manifest itself most clearly - now there is a period of neoliberalism, which increasingly gives power to capital, which allowsregulate society, and the state itself acts only as a caretaker.

Now the most popular concept of liberalism as a socio-political and philosophical movement, which is based on the proclamation of the main rights and individual freedoms of man and citizen. They are the true and highest value of society, therefore they cannot be infringed upon with the help of religion, the state or other traditional institutions. In a liberal society, all citizens are equal among each other, and the law prevails over power.

The concept and history of national liberalism

This movement began in Germany in the 18th century, but the main postulates were formulated almost a century later. It had a significant role in the country's politics until the end of the First World War, since the main ideology of the party was the creation of a strong and independent democratic Germany.

However, after the war, national liberalism lost its positions, and was subsequently absorbed by a completely different one. Subsequent development began only at the end of the 20th century against the backdrop of Euroscepticism and the desire of the local population to limit migration.

Now national liberalism is understood as one of the varieties of liberalism that adheres to nationalist ideas on migration, civil, trade and international relations.

Definition inconsistency

The words liberalism and nationalism, which are included in the combined concept, are different in themselvesquite a strong contradiction. It is almost impossible to connect them on a practical level, only on a theoretical one. Nationalism, patriotism initially puts the nation at the head, which prevails over the individual, and liberalism offers the absolute opposite - individualism.

However, they were able to shape them into a political movement that needs to be deeply imbued first. As a rule, different ideologies use it in various spheres of life - the economy remains dominated by liberal ideas, and politics by nationalist ones.

Main problems of ideology

Particularly successful ways to implement this policy of national liberalism have not yet been carried out. In particular, this is due to the reasons why it is criticized by numerous scientists.

The first thing to understand is that many supporters of the movement look only on the bright side, indulging in naivety, since their nationalist ideas are quite softened and rational. They almost completely miss the darker sides of two such controversial movements. However, due to such indiscretion, people forget that it was nationalism that led citizens to go to war and shed blood for their country, regardless of the rightness of the side. The state was a priori considered right, since it was their homeland.

It is also worth noting that the idea of a community of states representing the world order is almost impossible to recreate on a practical level. Maybe a hundred years ago it wastheoretically possible, but with the current world politics and the isolation of nations, it is simply impossible to do this.

National liberalism vs conservatism

At first glance, the ideologists of these two political currents should always be in the struggle, but at the same time they have a very characteristic and striking trend.

National-conservatism pursues its entire policy based on the past, very successful years. In their opinion, the entire 19th century and half of the 20th are considered the most successful for America and Europe. The values of this era, their ideas about ethics and morality are considered ideal, so they should be returned back. In fact, this is unlikely, since in modern times, almost no one needs many values and traditions.

National Liberals, on the other hand, are looking for an ideal in the present, recognizing all the successful achievements of recent decades. Equality of women and different genders, the right to abortion and many other political innovations are considered a natural development of society, they are necessary in the modern world.

German Movement

As mentioned earlier, the movement began its solemn procession in Germany. However, German national liberalism is distinguished by its number of features, which appeared primarily because of the very concept of liberalism in this country. For too long it has been considered a purely theoretical and not a practical movement, which has influenced the ideology.

During hisThe emergence of the National Liberal Party, after separating from the traditional liberal party, relied on 2 main postulates: to make the German Empire the strongest, and also to govern the state itself in the manner of an authoritarian regime. Throughout the 19th century, the party was considered successful as its members were often elected to the country's parliament and government. After its dissolution in 1918, the party split, and its remnants formed the German People's Party or joined other right-wing movements. In its various manifestations, the National Liberal Party of Germany exists to this day.

National Orangeism

In 2006, the Other Russia party expressed the possibility of uniting liberals and nationalists in one union, which would recreate orange national liberalism that would be attractive to the electorate. Stanislav Belkovsky gave this movement a completely new name - National Orangeism. He believed that this strategy could be the only one possible for the change of power in the country and the subsequent transformation that it must undergo.

Ideology owes its origins to the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. With Yushchenko at the head of the country, not Yanukovych, as the Kremlin authorities wished, it was normal to assume that the entire revolution was organized by the American rich, who wanted to take away Russia's gas pipes in this way. Due to the many points of view, it is impossible to find out whether America really intervened, but it is impossible not to admit that the revolution was organized by the left and nationalistparties. Their main demands were justice, freedom and national rebirth.

The policy of National Orangeism claims to be a change of power without any revolution that will stop the existing heredity of heads of state: Yeltsin, Putin, Medvedev.

It is believed that a similar orange party already existed in 1996, when the National Patriotic Union of Russia supported Gennady Zyuganov in the presidential elections. However, they lacked power, so the Orange Revolution attempt in Russia failed.

Traffic in Russia

At the moment, the national liberalist ideas that exist in Russia appeared in the early 1990s. They were first used by Boris Nemtsov, who protested against the economic reforms of Chubais and Gaidar. However, Nemtsov could not hold his positions for a long time, so he retired.

For a long time in Russia, this movement was represented by a single party - "Democratic Choice". At the moment, her registration has been canceled largely due to a strong split. The main ideology is tax cuts, independence of the judiciary, limited immigration, reduction of the state apparatus.