France's right-wing & the rise of american nationalism

• Pages: 363-384
• Date: 01 April 2024
• Published date: 01 April 2024
• Author: Joel Ruiz
• Subject Matter: Derecho Público y Administrativo

FRANCE’S RIGHT-WING & THE RISE OF

AMERICAN NATIONALISM

JOEL RUIZ*

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363

II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALAIN DE BENOIST: THE ARCHITECT OF THE

FRENCH NEW RIGHT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364

A. Historical Context in Which de Benoist Was Writing. . . . . 366

B. Reception of the New Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368

III. THE RISE OF AMERICAN NATIONALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

A. Nationalism Globally ........................... 370

B. Rising Nationalist Sentiments in the U.S.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

IV. THE ANTI-GLOBALIST MISSION TO LIMIT MIGRATION . . . . . . . . . . . 372

A. The U.S. Nationalist View on Immigration. . . . . . . . . . . . 373

B. Immigration Policies and Trends in the U.S. . . . . . . . . . . . 376

C. Challenges to the U.S. Nationalist Immigration Agenda. . . 379

V. POTENTIAL AREAS OF COMPROMISE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382

VI. CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

I. INTRODUCTION

Alain de Benoist, a French philosopher, is considered the leading thinker

behind France’s Nouvelle Droite (the New Right) movement and has been

attributed to providing the intellectual framework behind the nationalist

* A pseudonym was chosen by the author to protect their identity.

363

movement in the United States.

1

JEAN-YVES CAMUS, KEY THINKERS OF THE RADICAL RIGHT: BEHIND THE NEW THREAT TO

LIBERAL DEMOCRACY 73–74, 86 (Mark Sedgwick ed., 2019); Thomas Chatterton Williams, The French

Origins of “You Will Not Replace Us”, THE NEW YORKER (Nov. 27, 2017), https://perma.cc/5ZTS-ZS86.

De Benoist primarily wrote to and

responded to a mid-20

th

century Europe against the backdrop of France’s his-

torical economic protectionism during an immigration and economic crisis in

France.

2

In recent years, de Benoist and the New Right have inspired the

United States nationalist movement, which has largely turned its focus to pro-

moting anti-immigrant statements, including utilizing historically antisem-

itic, white nationalist terms to sow mistrust and fear toward minorities.

3

Capitalizing on a broken immigration system, for which there is frustration

on all sides of the political aisle and national border, U.S. nationalists hope to

turn the fear and mistrust they have sown against minorities into sustained

votes for power.

4

Yet, widespread support for these policies in the U.S. does

not exist and would be antithetical to bedrock notions of patriotism based on

the founding principles of the United States.

5

All is not lost, however,

because de Benoist’s ideations for democratic solutions can be implemented

to overhaul and improve the U.S. immigration system for the benef‌it of all.

6

II. THE PHILOSOPHY OF ALAIN DE BENOIST: THE ARCHITECT OF THE FRENCH

NEW RIGHT

The French New Right began as a movement seeking to rethink the

European identity and challenge the rise of individualism and globalization.

7

One of de Benoist’s central critiques of Europe centers on his alleged interest

in defending pluralism and the freedom of minorities by rejecting the ideol-

ogy of Western human rights as a “new world civil religion” that primarily

legitimizes the role of global expansion of the market system, along with the

individualization of human rights.

8

De Benoist argues human rights are presented as a universal, moral cer-

tainty, yet they do not depend on democratic ratif‌ication, effectively eliminat-

ing popular sovereignty.

9

Further, he contends that international notions and

institutions of human rights have overtaken the sovereignty of nations and,

rather than requiring nations to adopt human rights policies democratically,

ref‌lect a skepticism toward citizens by assuming they do not independently

value human rights.

10

Ultimately, de Benoist argues this skepticism of citi-

zens’ morality has led to nations conf‌lating democracy with human rights,

1.

2. See infra Part II.

3. See infra Part IV.

4. See id.

5. See id.

6. See infra Part V.

7. CAMUS, supra note 1, at 73.

8. Arthur Versluis, A Conversation with Alain de Benoist, 8 J. FOR THE STUD. OF RADICALISM 79, 97

(2014).

9. Alain de Benoist, BEYOND HUMAN RIGHTS: DEFENDING FREEDOMS 99–100 (2011) (a translation

of his original text published as Au-Delà Des Droits De L’homme in 2004).

10. Id. at 100–01.

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