Chile’s traditional right founded a new authoritarian nationalist party after electoral collapse

Evidence

In response to electoral defeat—the Liberals fell from twenty-eight seats to six, and the Conservatives from seventeen to three—Liberals, Conservatives, and nationalist groups founded the National Party in 1966. The new party, exhibiting a style reminiscent of that of conservative governments at the beginning of the nineteenth century, advocated a strong authoritarian nationalism. “Interest group-led” party politics was to be replaced by a government relying on “neutral” experts, with an emphasis on private property and entrepreneurship. The new right thereby tried to distance itself from the traditional right, which was now disparaged as opportunistic and oligarchic, always seeming to be at the service of vested interests (Vergara 1985, 61f.). — Philip Mirowski & Dieter Plehwe (eds.), The Road from Mont Pèlerin, 1553

Categorization

• XREF: Electoral collapse driving parties to reinvent themselves along technocratic-authoritarian lines echoes the broader global resort to ‘neutral experts’ in the 1960s-70s across both right and left. — connects to: Authoritarianism links to right-wing politics across hostile national groups — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 502; Authoritarianism can manifest on the political left as well as right — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 446

Broader Connections

• Authoritarianism links to right-wing politics across hostile national groups #expands (0.75) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 502
• Authoritarianism can manifest on the political left as well as right #qualifies (0.70) — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 446