National conservatism is a nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity. National conservatives usually combine nationalism with conservative stances promoting traditional cultural values, family values and opposition to immigration.[1][2][3]
It shares characteristics with traditionalist conservatism and social conservatism since all three variations focus on preservation and tradition. As national conservatism seeks to preserve national interests, traditionalist conservatism emphasizes the preservation of social order. Additionally, social conservatism emphasizes traditional family values which regulate moral behavior to preserve one's traditional status in society.[4][5][6][2][3] National conservative parties often have roots in environments with a rural, traditionalist or peripheral basis, contrasting with the more urban support base of liberal-conservative parties.[7] In Europe, most embrace some form of Euroscepticism.[1][8]
Most conservative parties in post-Communist Central and Eastern Europe since 1989 have been national conservative.[9]
Ideologically, national conservatives lean towards patriotism, nationalism, cultural conservatism, and monoculturalism, while opposing internationalism, globalism, multiculturalism, and cultural pluralism. National conservatives adhere to a form of cultural nationalism that emphasizes the preservation of national identity as well as cultural identity. As a result, many favor assimilation into the dominant culture, restrictions on immigration, and strict law and order policies.[1][2][3]
National conservative parties are "socially traditional"[1] and support traditional family values, gender roles, and religion.[10][2] According to the Austrian political scientist Sieglinde Rosenberger, "national conservatism praises the family as a home and a center of identity, solidarity, and tradition".[10] Many national conservatives are thus social conservatives.
National conservative parties in different countries do not necessarily share a common position on economic policy. Their views may range from support of a corporatism to a mixed economy to a laissez-faire approach.[citation needed] In the first, more common case, national conservatives can be distinguished from liberal conservatives,[11] for whom free market economic policies, deregulation, and tight spending are the main priorities. Some commentators have indeed identified a growing gap between national and economic liberal conservatism: "Most parties of the Right [today] are run by economically liberal conservatives who, in varying degrees, have marginalized social, cultural, and national conservatives."[11]