Is the New Right Internally Coherent?
The New Right is a radical branch of Conservatism which emerged in the 1970’s which had a large impact on both UK and USA politics. The New Right consists of two ideologies, neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism. The Neo-Liberal and Neo-Conservatives have two very different outlooks upon the individual. The Neo-Libs (Neo-Liberals) view the individual as robust, resilient, self-seeking and essentially egotistical. Also that we are atomised rather than a group, we are a group of individuals. Whilst on the other hand the Neo-Cons (Neo-Conservatives) see us as intellectually, morally and psychologically limited, that we are imperfectable creatures. Though we have certain degrees of imperfection and those who are less imperfect should be the ones to rule and be in charge. Therefore in terms of their view of the individual they can be considered internally incoherent, since Neo-Libs have an optimistic view of the individual compared to Neo-Cons. Through their views on the individual comes their view on society. Neo-Libs view society as an implication of their view on the individual. As Thatcher said “There is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families.” People are atomistic, they only interact to promote self-interest. This differs from the Neo-Cons who see society as an Organic whole, that society is a collection of different parts and that these parts represent different organs when one fails or become damaged the others areas also suffer. Society has become like this through our imperfections as because we are imperfect we seek a sense of security and belonging shaping society. This shows that the New Right is again incoherent as the two ideologies clash and disagree with each other. With Society comes the need for a ruling body, the state, in which these two strands again have two different beliefs. The Neo-Libs believe in Negative Freedom, freedom from, so this why they wish a minimal state in terms on intervention into the economy and