For a new consensus: heroes of a postliberal turning?

Claudia Franziska Brühwiler

Chapter 3 in The Conservative Critique of Liberalism, 2026, pp 58-69 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Since the 1960s, the conservative movement in the United States relied on a marriage of convenience that united libertarians, traditionalists, the Religious Right, and neoconservatives. So-called fusionism combined socially conservative core values, economic liberalism, and anti-communism. With the first election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, the consensus was declared dead: running against both the Republican Party establishment and a practically united front of conservative intellectuals, Trump discarded conservative tenets and embraced a decidedly populist brand of politics. In the wake of his triumph, a new conservative sub-movement has gained traction, which likewise departs from fusionism. Postliberals suggest ‘big government conservatism’ that seeks a more active role of the state in upholding social mores and mending the perceived societal damage caused by modern liberalism.

Keywords: Conservatism; Conservative movement in the US; Fusionism; Postliberalism; Republican Party; Donald J. Trump (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035309214
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035309221.00009 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22181_4

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Darrel McCalla ().