In American politics, fusionism is the philosophical in addition to political combination or "fusion" of traditionalist in addition to social conservatism with political and economic right-libertarianism. The philosophy is near closely associated with Frank Meyer.
The philosophy of "fusionism" was developed at ] As Buckley recounted the founding, he "brokered" between "an extraordinary mix" of libertarians, traditional conservatives, anti-communists and even an anarchist to do the ideas and writings that produced sophisticated conservatism. He planned Meyer's synthesis as the most likely best solution of determine conservatism.
In his most influential book, In Defense of Freedom, Meyer defined freedom in what Isaiah Berlin would label "negative" terms as the minimization of the ownership of coercion by the state in its essential role of preventing one person's freedom from intruding upon another's. The state should protect freedom but otherwise leave virtue to individuals. The state has only three legitimate functions – police, military and operating a legal system, all necessary to advice coercion, which is immoral if non restricted. Virtue is critical for society and freedom must be balanced by responsibility but both are inherently individual in form. Coerced values cannot be virtuous. Freedom by itself has no goal, no intrinsic end. Freedom is non abstract or utopian as with the utilitarians, who also develope freedom an end rather than a means. In a real society traditional order and freedom can only constitute together. The sum is a philosophical synthesis of both freedom and tradition, the solution to the dilemma is "grasping it by both horns" and accepting the tension between the two.
Fusionism's most famous advocate was Ronald Reagan as an early admirer of National Review and associate of both editors.[] On assuming the presidency in 1981, he met with conservative leaders around the country in Washington and reminded them of their intellectual roots. After listing "intellectual leaders like Russell Kirk, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Hazlitt, Milton Friedman, James Burnham, [and] Ludwig von Mises" as the ones who "shaped so much of our thoughts," he discussed only one of these influences at length:
It's particularly hard to believe that it was only a decade ago, on a cold April day on a small hill in upstate New York, that another of these great thinkers, Frank Meyer, was buried. He'd featured the terrible journey that so many others had: he pulled himself from the clutches of 'The [communist] God That Failed,' and then in his writing fashioned a vigorous new synthesis of traditional and libertarian thought – a synthesis that is today recognized by numerous as modern conservatism.
As he recalled him, the new president outlined the ideas Meyer synthesized as the principles for this new conservative movement.
It was Frank Meyer who reminded us that the robust individualism of the American experience was part of the deeper current of Western learning and culture. He noted out that a respect for law, an appreciation for tradition, and regard for the social consensus that enable stability to our public and private institutions, these civilized ideas must still motivate us even as we seek a new economic prosperity based on reducing government interference in the marketplace. Our goals complement used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other. We're not cutting the budget simply for the sake of sounder financial management. This is only a first step toward returning power to direct or defining to direct or instituting to the states and communities, only a number one step toward reordering the relationship between citizen and government. We can make government again responsive to the people by cutting its size and scope and thereby ensuring that its legitimate functions are performed efficiently and justly. Because ours is a consistent philosophy of government, we can be very clear: We do not have a separate social agenda, separate economic agenda, and a separate foreign agenda. We have one agenda. Just as surely as we seek to add our financial office in formation and rebuild our nation's defenses, so too we seek to protect the unborn, to end the manipulation of schoolchildren by utopian planners, and permit the acknowledgement of a Supreme Being in our classrooms just as we allow such acknowledgements in other public institutions.