Cowen on Classical Liberals and the New Right
The Elite vs the Anti-Elite Counter-Elite
Tyler Cowen in a recent piece compares Classical liberalism vs. The New Right. Classical Liberals stress “the benefits of capitalism, democracy, civil liberties, free trade (with national security exceptions), and a generally cosmopolitan outlook, which in turn brings sympathy for immigration.” To them, “the great failing of elites is that they do not keep society as free as it ought to be.”
By contrast, he describes the New Right as being more concerned with political power, coercion/conformity among elites, and culture. He argues that the “main difference [between Classical Liberals and the New Right] is how much faith each group puts in the possibility of trustworthy, well-functioning elites. While Classical Liberals worry that special interests and poorly informed voters render elites ineffective, he contends that New Righters have a much darker view of elites, writing:
“The New Right thinkers are far more skeptical of elites. They are more likely to see elites as evil and pernicious, and sometimes they (implicitly) see these evil elites as competent enough to actually wreck society. The classical liberals see checks and balances as strong enough to limit the worst outcomes, whereas the New Right sees ideological conformity and indeed collusion within the Establishment. Checks and balances are a paper tiger.”
It is not hard to find New Righters holding elites in utter contempt, for example Tucker Carlson here. However, Cowen fails to emphasize that most New Rightists actually describe themselves as elitists. James Burnham’s The Machiavellians is must-reading among New Rightists, and it emphasizes thinkers like Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, and Robert Michels—the developers of Elite Theory. These thinkers emphasize the inevitability of an elite in society. According to Pareto’s notion of the Circulation of Elites, an elite is only overthrown by a counter-elite; “the people” are never an effective political force without an elite leading them.
Cowen characterizes Classical Liberals as being more pragmatic about the need for elites, writing “after all, someone has to steer the ship.” But this is probably a strawman—Curtis Yarvin, the New Right (or Deep Right) prophet in the piece, promotes monarchism in his manifesto(s). Twitter New Right frogs and frens yearn for a Caesar. This does not exactly sound like a crowd uncomfortable with social hierarchy or the existence of an elite. Rather, it seems more like they take issue with the “liberal elite” presently at the helm, specifically the “liberal” part. I think Cowen got it right in a earlier piece describing the future of the intellectual right. He wrote:
Last and perhaps most significant, the intellectual right will dislike the left. It pretty much does already, but the antagonism will grow. Opposition to political correctness and cancel culture, at least in their left-wing versions, will become the most important defining view. As my colleague Bryan Caplan succinctly put it four years ago: “Leftists are anti-market. … Rightists are anti-leftist.”
The intensity of this dislike will mean that, within right-wing circles, free speech will prosper. As long as you take care to signal your dislike of the left, you will be allowed to hold many other heterodox views without being purged or penalized.
So Cowen probably gets it wrong describing the New Right as fundamentally anti-elite in nature. However, he does put his finger on an irony at the heart of the movement. The New Right gains its power from Trumpish populism, but its intellectual core is anti-democratic, anti-egalitarian, and elitist. This is why in figures like Curtis Yarvin you can sometimes read an of admiration for the liberal elite. They are, after all, the elite—holy based! Occasionally the Liberal Elite also relax their democratic values and allow a sneer of cold command.
If the New Right wants an elite who is not afraid to govern and conquer with an iron fist, they may not have to look far. Incidentally, Francis Fukuyama was recently spotted doing a victory lap. As China struggles in COVID-19 autism and Russia appears to be losing a war with its small neighbor, the Western Liberal Elite is looking pretty robust. It turns out rumors of the end of the end of history were greatly exaggerated. Classical Liberalism is Lindy; Cowen may be right when he concludes that New Right ideas are not “ready to step into the space long occupied by classical liberal ideals.”