| Summary: | In the run-up to the presidential election in the United States in November 2012, the Republican primaries once again saw the emergence of a majority of candidates advocating a type of conservatism that has combined three basic principles since the mid-1950s : free enterprise, Judeo-Christian traditions, and strong national defence. Many theories hold that American conservatism in its current expression is philosophically incoherent and will ultimately disintegrate paving the way for a major partisan realignment. The purpose of this article is to explore the intellectual roots of conservatism in the United States and, in the process, to show how some of the principles of conservatism and classical liberalism of 18th and 19th-century Europe came to be fused into a typically American political doctrine that is both coherent and wary of big government as inaugurated by the New Deal. The article will also analyse the political challenges that so-called fusionist conservatism has had to face as social welfare policies have expanded in the United States and, in this context, will study the interaction between conservatism and the Republican Party.
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