What exactly does "conservative" mean in European countries?

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K_Kelly
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11 Dec 2014, 11:22 pm

I heard people from Europe tell me how different conservatism is in Europe than from the US. So i'm conservative but love in the US, I'm still open minded about these things though.

What specific political issues do the European and American right differ? What is the attitude toward the European right in Europe? What is debate like?

Also one thing I always felt bothered by is that I hear some Europeans talk crap about the American right. Almost as if we can't even agree on a single thing.



trollcatman
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11 Dec 2014, 11:43 pm

To me conservative implies right wing economics and conservative/religious on social issues. In many continental European countries there are several main political parties: Social Democrats (moderate left), Christian Democrats (these are what I would call the conservatives) and a Liberal Party (in the European sense: ring wing free-market economics, and very secular on social issues). In the Netherlands there are also two smaller Christian parties that have very conservative religious views compared to the mainstream Christian Democrats.
Then there are the newer, "new right" populist parties that have popped up in most countries over the last 15 years or so. They could be called conservative in some ways, their main points are often anti-immigration and anti-European Union.



K_Kelly
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12 Dec 2014, 12:37 am

Thanks i just wanted some of that stuff cleared up.



techstepgenr8tion
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12 Dec 2014, 2:35 am

trollcatman wrote:
and a Liberal Party (in the European sense: ring wing free-market economics, and very secular on social issues).

That would be my pick, albeit here in the states our libertarianism gets a bit to Randian and our neoconservatism/neoliberalism gets too wild with ineffecient government growth and spending.


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Jacoby
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12 Dec 2014, 4:45 am

Conservatism and the right in general in Europe is more connected with nationalism I believe.



trollcatman
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12 Dec 2014, 4:54 am

Jacoby wrote:
Conservatism and the right in general in Europe is more connected with nationalism I believe.



Isn't it the same in the US? That patriotism is more associated with the right?
In Europe generally the moderate left/right parties both are pro-EU, and the far left/far right parties are anti-EU. I think you could consider the anti-EU position a form of nationalism, since they don't want to give more power to Brussels, they want to keep the power with their own country's government instead.
The right wing populist parties seem to thrive on nationalism, and anti-immigrants and anti-muslim feelings.



Jacoby
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12 Dec 2014, 5:35 am

trollcatman wrote:
Jacoby wrote:
Conservatism and the right in general in Europe is more connected with nationalism I believe.



Isn't it the same in the US? That patriotism is more associated with the right?
In Europe generally the moderate left/right parties both are pro-EU, and the far left/far right parties are anti-EU. I think you could consider the anti-EU position a form of nationalism, since they don't want to give more power to Brussels, they want to keep the power with their own country's government instead.
The right wing populist parties seem to thrive on nationalism, and anti-immigrants and anti-muslim feelings.

I'd say the vast majority of Americans are pretty nationalistic, certain elements of the "right" in this country might play up some nativist sentiment and there few more real pinkos on the left in contrast. I think the difference between nationalism in America and Europe is that the US practices more civic nationalism whereas Europe is more ethnic nationalist, so it's not really the same thing.



The_Walrus
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12 Dec 2014, 8:10 am

In the EU Parliament, there are three main conservative groupings:

1) The European People's Party. This is composed primarily of Christian Democrats. Parallels can be drawn with "Faith and Family" Democrats in the USA. They're moderately socially conservative, weak on civil liberties, opposed to drug reform, and will usually prefer shrinking welfare to expanding it, but they're also generally not advocates of a small state like most of the Republican Presidential Candidates were - they won't talk about abolishing healthcare programs very often, for example. Think: Angela Merkel
2) European Conservatives and Reformists. Less religious than the Christian Democrats (so often stronger on reproductive rights and LGBT+ rights), but broadly occupy a similar platform. Generally more Eurosceptic, but advocates of reform rather than abolishing the EU. Think: David Cameron
3) Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy - a mixture of some far-right, highly conservative politicians, anti-politics parties like the Five-Star Movement, and hard-right Eurosceptics like UKIP. It's hard to pin a political position on these guys given that they're basically united by Euroscepticism and nothing else (the Five-Star movement tried to join two left-wing groups before settling for EFDD, which puts them rather at odds with Robert Iwaszkiewicz who is a monarchist and Holocaust denier), but generally they're both further to the right and more authoritarian than the other two groups... they'd just like domestic authoritarianism rather than dictatorship from Brussels.

There's also a far-right group but that doesn't have support from enough countries to be officially recognised (you need members from at least 7 or 8 member states). It would be a large group if it could get that one extra country though, particularly if it recruited UKIP. Prominent parties include the Dutch PVV led by Gert Wilders and the French National Front led by Marine Le Pen.



K_Kelly
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12 Dec 2014, 9:07 am

Wow. Thank you.

I was just curious as what exactly is conservative for the European countries.

So as far as I'm reading here, the European right generally doesn't view big government the exact way as the right in the states do. But still have some anti-immigrant feelings.