The Fight for Freedom
The Thirst for Freedom
The thirst for freedom is generally strong where Calvinism was strong. It takes various forms.
English eccentricity.
The US First Amendment.
Nederlandish Libertarianism.
Lutheran, Papist and Byzantine regions are keener to conform. Where there is protest, it is usually only against disruption, not against encroachment as a whole. The European Union has been at the forefront of Statery, an embryonic super-State, gangsterism on a continental scale, a budding United States of Europe but lacking the USA's Constitutional protections for individual freedom, itching to take its place alongside Russia and China among the Authoritarian mega-states of the world.
Accordingly, in mainland Europe the wish to leave the EU is mainly Traditionalist while in Britain the wish to get out (and stay out) (properly out, not Brexit In Name Only) has also involved Libertarianism.
How much thirst for freedom is there in India and Latin America? I have no insight. Any assessments would be welcome.
The Old Right
Sometimes a dominant regime handles the thirst for freedom by arranging for a political party that had promised to liberalise (such as US Republicans or UK Conservatives) to adminster the encroachments for a while.
This party liberalises slightly, is voted out, confesses its betrayal, maybe rebrands, promises again, seems so sincere that it is trusted again, etc. All with ever-improving methods of rhetorical deceit so that their persuasive technique stays one step ahead of voters' scepticism.
In between, the creeping encroachment continues. The openly encroachive party reverses the liberalisations and adds more encroachments.
The New Right
The New Right is sometimes called "Far Right" but in fact it is not especially "far" anything; it just practices what the Old Right preaches.
Against the ever-growing regulation and disruption a backlash is now ongoing, a political movement sometimes called the New Right.
Maybe 50% of the population feel positive about the New Right, though this cannot be measured as the movement is relatively young and ill-defined.
The New Right is united in protest against regulation and disruption. It contains a Libertarian and Traditionalist wings (sometimes within a single mind!). They are united in wanting the regime to cut down on regulation and disruption, but differ on who should decide how to spend the wealth saved thereby.
Libertarians want its producers to decide how to spend it. This means lower taxation.
Traditionalists want the regime to decide how to spend it. This means continuing high taxation.
Insofar as Traditionalists support Family against State, they have much common ground with Libertarians, but when they are Nationalist there is more strain.
A school of thought called "Fusionism" tries to combine ("fuse") the two viewpoints into a coherent whole, but this is impossible. There are areas of regulation, where it conflicts with tradition, where deregulation pleases both wings, but in some other areas Traditionalists support regulation.
They can never be more than a coalition. They can negotiate compromises and cohabit in a single party organisation if political tactics require it, but cohabitation is not marriage.
The Traditionalism tends to be more noisy. For instance, protest against artificially-induced immigration tends to shade into Traditionalistic suspicion of foreigners.
Brexit
"We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them re-imposed at a European level."
Margaret Thatcher, Bruges Speech, September 1988, protesting against the EU's increasingly extreme Statery, which at that stage she was trying to resist from within.
One achievement of the New RIght was Brexit, the UK's leaving the European Union.
In 2016 the English Brits voted for a more local, national regime to "take back control" from a more remote, multi-national regime, the European Union.
I say "English" because Scotland, in spite of its Calvinist past, voted 60% Remain.
Brexit in itself did little to advance freedom. It was necessary but not sufficient, and needed to be followed up by liberalisation. The 2020 Parliament did very little of this and the 2024 Parliament seems on course to reverse it, taking Britain back towards conforming to European standards, amounting to rejoining the EU, in all but name, by "the back door".
The New Right's Strategy
The New Right's strategy depends on the voting system.
Under Proportional Representation, where legislators represent opinions, as in most of Europe, New Right parties have supplanted Old Right parties and changes have begun, though in 2024 this is still at an early stage.
Under First Past the Post, where legislators represent places, it is harder for new parties to break through because of the "wasted vote" effect, so change may take longer. The New Right may need to take over an Old RIght party instead of replacing it, and this is harder. However, in the main lands where this applies, progress is now visible.
In the US, the New Right seems firmly in control of one of the old ruling parties (the Republicans).
In Canada, a New Right party (Canadian Alliance) outflanked an Old Right party (Progressive Conservatives). Maybe they should have stayed pure, hunted the PCs to extinction, and accepted longer in opposition, but in 2003 they merged to form the Conservative Party of Canada which governed 2006-2015. How Libertarian the CPOC is or will remain, seems doubtful. Its leadership seems Libertarian but the test is how far they will compromise with their Old Righters to hold the party together.
In the UK, in the 2024 general election, a New Right party (Reform UK) finally broke through. It only has 5 seats, but as its leader said at that epochal moment, "The fox is in the henhouse".