The nobility, members of the Second Estate

coalition and centre-left government (1999–2002). However, the Alliance disintegrated in 2002.
National was defeated in 1999 due to the absence of a suitable, stable coalition partner given New
Zealand First's partial disintegration after Winston Peters abandoned the prior National-led coalition.
When Bill English took over National, it was thought that he might lead the Opposition away from its
prior hardline New Right economic and social policies, but his indecisiveness and lack of firm policy
direction led to ACT New Zealand gaining the New Right middle-class voting basis in 2002. When
Don Brash took over, New Right middle-class voters returned to National's fold, causing National's
revival in fortunes at the New Zealand general election 2005. However, at the same time, ACT New
Zealand strongly criticised it for deviating from its former New Right economic policy perspectives,
and at the same election, National did little to enable ACT's survival. ACT currently has two Members
of Parliament, and its survival depends on whether or not ACT leader Rodney Hide can retain his
Epsom electorate seat at the next general election. Furthermore, Don Brash resigned as National party
leader, being replaced by John Key, who is seen as a more moderate National MP.
As for the centre-left, Helen Clark and her Labour-led coalition have been criticised from ex-Alliance
members and non-government organisations for their alleged lack of attention to centre-left social
policies, while trade union membership has recovered due to Labour's repeal of the Employment
Contracts Act 1991 and labour market deregulation and the deunionisation that had accompanied it in
the nineties. It is plausible that Clark and her Cabinet are influenced by Tony Blair and his British
Labour Government, which pursues a similar balancing act between social and fiscal responsibility
while in government.
Just as a historical note the term “New right” comes from; The political term right-wing originates from
the French Revolution when liberal deputies from the Third Estate generally sat to the left of the
president's chair, a habit which began in the Estates General of 1789. The nobility, members of the
Second Estate, generally sat to the right. In the successive legislative assemblies, monarchists who
supported the Ancien Régime were commonly referred to as rightists because they sat on the right side.
It is still the tradition in the French National Assembly for the representatives to be seated left-to-right
(relative to the Assembly president) according to their political alignment. By the late 19th century, the
French political spectrum tended to be perceived as being composed of the far left (socialists and
radicals), the center-left (Liberal Republicans), the center (Moderate and Conservative Republicans),
the center-right (Constitutional Monarchists, Orleanists, and Bonapartists), and the far right (Ultra-
Royalists and Legitimists).
Since then, the right wing has come to be associated with preserving the status quo in the form of
institutions and traditions also preferring free market economies with strong private property rights.
[citation needed] Modern Western conservatism was influenced by the works of figures like Edmund
Burke. Burke argued against the idea of abstract, metaphysical rights of men and instead advocated
national tradition: He put forward that "We fear God, we look up with awe to kings; with affection to
parliaments; with duty to magistrates; with reverence to priests; and with respect to nobility. Why?
Because when such ideas are brought before our minds, it is natural to be so affected". Burke defended
prejudice on the grounds that it is "the general bank and capital of nations, and of ages" and superior to
individual reason, which is small in comparison. "Prejudice", Burke claimed, "is of ready application in
the emergency; it previously engages the mind in a steady course of wisdom and virtue, and does not
leave the man hesitating in the moment of decision, sceptical, puzzled, and unresolved. Prejudice
renders a man's virtue his habit". Burke criticised social contract theory by claiming that society is
indeed a contract, but "a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are
living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born".
Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, one of the earliest attempts to study the rise of industry and
commercial development in Europe, was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics.