Postwar Conservatism, A Transnational Investigation : Britain, France, and the United States, 1930-1990

This volume offers a unique comparative perspective on post-war conservatism, as it traces the rise and mutations of conservative ideas in three countries - Britain, France and the United States - across a 'short' twentieth century (1929-1990) and examines the reconfiguration of conservatism as a transnational phenomenon. This framework allows for an important and distinctive point --the 1980s were less a conservative revolution than a moment when conservatism, understood in Burkean terms, was outflanked by its various satellites and political avatars, namely, populism, neoliberalism, reaction and cultural and gender traditionalism. No long running, unique 'conservative mind' comes out of this book's transnational investigation. The 1980s did not witness the ascendancy of a movement with deep roots in the 18th century reaction to the French Revolution, but rather the decline of conservatism and the rise of movements and rhetoric that had remained marginal to traditional conservatism. -- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-21 The Uses and Abuses of the Scottish Enlightenment in Modern Conservatism....Pages 23-41 The Theory and Practice of Conservative Propaganda and Organisation in Britain and France in the Interwar Years....Pages 43-77 The Long Road of French Neoliberalism....Pages 79-94 Principles, Markets and National Interest in Conservative Approaches to Social Policy....Pages 95-118 Taxation, Distribution and Incentives: Conservative Policy in Britain, 1945–1981....Pages 119-155 The Institutionalization of Tax Revolt in France and the United States....Pages 157-170 French Management Conservatism in Action: The Individualization of Labor Bargaining and Managerial Uses of the Law....Pages 171-185 “Thick” States and “Thin” States, in a New Era of Merchant Power....Pages 187-213 Transatlantic Dimensions of Electoral Strategy: Republican Party Interpretations of UK Politics, 1936–c. 1960....Pages 215-242 George Wallace and Enoch Powell: Comparing the Politics of Populist Conservatism in the USA and the UK....Pages 243-267 ‘Liberty Finds No Refuge in a Jurisprudence of Doubt’: Sexual Morality as Seen by Supreme Courts in France and the USA....Pages 269-288 Back Matter....Pages 289-297