• Andrej Duhan
• October 13, 2023

The conservative movement is changing. Across the West, there is growing critique of the liberal-conservative fusion, in which conservatism emptied itself of content and largely forfeited its foundations. It allowed itself to be colonised by liberalism or outright libertarianism. Many conservatives adopted liberal notions of freedom and society and, under influence of neoliberalism, turned conservatism into an ideology that elevates economic efficiency and globalisation above all else. They became promoters of unfettered markets and extreme individualism, reducing man to a primitive homo economicus, society to a mere parallel to market operations, and culture and morality to purely personal choice and interest.

Conservatives thus abandoned public space as such. Social, cultural, and value issues, as well as virtually all institutions, were left to the liberal Left, even though concern for society and institutions has always been a central interest of conservatism. Too many conservatives accepted the parameters for discussion that were set by progressives, and even when they won elections, they played on a field staked out by the Left. In a spiral of caving in liberalism, many conservatives have failed to notice that conservatism has ceased to be a relevant social force, that it does not uphold conservative values or promote conservative policies.

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