The Dilemmas of American Conservatism

Eric Voegelin and American Conservatism

Eric Voegelin and American Conservatism JAMES L. WISER In reacting to numerous efforts by others to classify his thinking according to the terms of a particular school of thought or intellectual tradition , Eric Voegelin (1901–1985) wrote: “Because of this attitude I have been called every conceivable name by partisans of this or that ideology . I have in my files documents labeling me a Communist, a Fascist, a National Socialist, an old Liberal, a new Liberal, a Jew, a Catholic, a Protestant, a Platonist, a new-Augustinian, a Thomist, and of course a Hegelian—not to forget that I was supposedly influenced by Huey Long. . . . Understandably I have never answered such criticisms; critics of this type can become objects of inquiry, but they cannot be partners in a discussion.”1 It is interesting to note that among the labels listed, Voegelin did not include the one that is perhaps most commonly attributed to him: conservative. Although he himself never claimed to be a conservative thinker, others have frequently classified him as such. Why is this the case? I think there may be two types of “evidence” generally available to support this attribution: the indirect or associational, and the direct or thematic. As examples of indirect or associational evidence I offer the following: • Voegelin’s work has often been described and favorably commented on in such conservative publications as National Review, Intercollegiate Review, Modern Age, and American Spectator . Although Voegelin declined an offer by William Buckley to write a monthly one-page essay for National Review, he did publish articles in both Modern Age and Intercollegiate Review. 30  James L. Wiser • Voegelin’s work has been highly praised by such conservative intellectuals as William Buckley, Russell Kirk, Frank Meyer, Brent Bozell, and Henry Regnery. • Within the North American academy, those who were most interested in introducing their students to Voegelin’s work were often scholars who understood themselves to be working within an essentially European conservative intellectual tradition. Examples would be Gerhart Niemeyer at Notre Dame, John Hallowell at Duke, Willmoore Kendall at Yale, and George Grant at McMaster. • Throughout his career, Voegelin sought and received funding for his scholarly work from a variety of private foundations. Several that were particularly supportive of his research program were often associated with conservative causes, including the Earhart Foundation, the Relm Foundation, and the Volker Fund. • In 1958 Voegelin left Louisiana State University, where he had taught since 1942, to establish a new institute for political science at the University of Munich. Voegelin was one of several émigrés who returned to Germany after the war to introduce students there to the principles of Western political science, anticipating that these ideas would prove helpful in the construction of a new postwar, democratic European society. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer went to Frankfurt; Arnold Bergstraesser went to Freiberg; and Voegelin went to Munich.2 Voegelin’s appointment to the university was highly contested, and he had to be vetted and approved by the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. He was not the first choice, but his candidacy was championed by Catholic philosopher Aleis Demof, who held a distinguished professorship at the university. Voegelin’s appointment was eventually made possible only because of the support of a group of conservative Catholics who knew of him primarily through his 1952 publication The New Science of Politics.3 • After leaving Munich in 1969 Voegelin joined the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace at Stanford University. He was the Henry Salvatori Distinguished Scholar from 1969 to 1974 and remained as a senior research fellow until his death in 1985. The Hoover Institute is a prominent conservative think tank, and Voegelin’s major sponsors at Hoover were two impor- Eric Voegelin and American Conservatism  31 tant conservative Republican political leaders. Glenn Campbell , director of the institute from 1960 to 1989, was a senior adviser in Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign and was later appointed by President Ronald Reagan as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Oversight Board. Richard Allen, one of the few American students to study with Voegelin in Munich, later served as Reagan’s assistant for national security affairs. This listing of Voegelin’s association with conservative individuals and institutions does not establish that Voegelin himself was a conservative or that he wished to be thought of as such. It does, however, explain why the popular perception of Voegelin as a conservative is...