Meanings
- uncountableA nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity, in particular family values, while opposing multiculturalism, immigration, and globalization.
In the words of rising Conservative star Miriam Cates, “national conservatism” was born out of the 2016 Brexit referendum and Tory 2019 election victory.
2023 May 14, Aletha Adu, Peter Walker, “Who are ‘national conservatives’ and what do they want?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN3 more examples
National conservatism, on an entirely different note, is a conservative variant based on nationalist stances that clash with multiculturalism, unlimited immigration, and globalization.
2019, Francesco Giubilei, The History of European Conservative Thought, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 26Which is why many were rightly alarmed by this week’s gathering in the name of “national conservatism”, where the writer Douglas Murray declared that nationalism need no longer hide its face just because the Germans had “mucked up” in the last century – a novel way to describe the murderous record of national socialism.
2023 May 19, Jonathan Freedland, “They’re openly saying it: Brexit has failed. But what comes next may be very dark indeed”, in The Guardian, →ISSNNational conservatism adheres to a belief that American society lost its moorings when it drifted from a core power structure centered on the Christian white men who founded the nation and instead embraced diversity, multiculturalism and feminism.
2025 November 6, Clyde McGrady, “Nick Fuentes’s Rise Puts MAGA Movement in a ‘Time of Choosing’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC
Translations
Bulgarian националконсерватизъм
- националконсерватизъм (nacionalkonservatizăm)nationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity
German Nationalkonservatismus
- Nationalkonservatismusnationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity
Hungarian nemzeti konzervativizmus
- nemzeti konzervativizmusnationalist variant of conservatism that concentrates on upholding national and cultural identity
Cite this entry
national conservatism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/national%20conservatism
“national conservatism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/national%20conservatism. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “national conservatism,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/national%20conservatism.
Source: national conservatism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.