A Theoretical Survey on the Relationship between Conservative Nationalism and Populism

Abstract

In recent years, many conservative nationalist movements and parties have been criticized for being populist and applying populist political strategies. Keeping it in mind, this paper addresses the relationship between conservative nationalism and populism, and questions whether there is any factor which causes conservative nationalist movements to adopt populism. Instead of analyzing certain movements and making deductions from them, the research is directly carried out on an ideological level and a philosophical research method is employed in accordance with this preference. As a consequence, it has been found that there are two main factors which create a tendency in conservative nationalist movements to populism. The first one is the inherent inconsistency and tension between the constituents of conservative nationalism, namely conservatism and nationalism. The second one is the transformation of conventional nationalism especially in the European context within a new framework which is discussed as the new nationalism in the paper.