Genealogies of Illiberalism

Abstract

Abstract Two lineages are at the intellectual core of illiberalism. The revolutionary-conservative New Right claims to defend an “ethno-pluralist” (European, Indo-European, or Eurasian) identity from the multiculturalist threat of a “Great Replacement” through immigration. By contrast, the national-conservative lineage is more concerned with threats to the moral order and the loss of moral bearing due to liberal relativism. Even though both illiberal lineages blame liberalism for undermining (traditional) identity and normative order, they engender different political projects regarding policies, institution-building, and transnational cooperation. Both lineages seek to appropriate conservatism as their ideological choice while ignoring established conservative traditions. This leads to significant differences regarding their relation to modernity, their positioning vis-à-vis fascism, their geopolitical orientations or envisioned socio-economic policies. The chapter underscores the need to view illiberalism as a temporary formation and that illiberalism is not monolithic and stable but a complex formation with nuanced relationships between intellectual circles and political networks, which are not devoid of tensions and differences.