What direction does the GOP take sans Watergate?

[Meursault]

Assuming the burglary is either successful or never attempted?

The impression I have of Nixon's domestic policy is that it was a close approxamation of French Gaullisime/etatisme: economically authoritarian (but not towards egalitarian ends),  heavily biased towards fiat support of big business at the expense of small competitors, and socially reactionary, with a tilt towards the police as a partner in making domestic policy.

This is quite different from the neoliberal policies pursued by Reagan, which, while every bit as reactionary socially, was less inclined towards pro-capital Statism.

Would Nixon Republicanism have endured in a world without Watergate, or was the neoliberal capture of the GOP inevitable?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

The neoliberal takeover was a product of the seventies economy of stagflation and oil supply shocks as well as the geographic distribution of the Party. The neoliberal-supply side takeover of the GOP was probably baked into the pie precisely because of Nixon's own economic policies and that of his Fed Chairman, as well as of course, OPEC.

The GOP was also top heavy in the increasingly Democratic leaning Northeast and wide at the bottom in the West and South were there was still plenty of room to grow. And where the primary business interests (always a critical component of the GOP) were agriculuture, oil and defense, all of which Nixon's policies hammered from environmental regulation, to price controls, to the cuts in the defense budget. Now you could say that Watergate removed Nixon's ability to keep these people in line, and historically, he had drawn support from them when he was up and coming. There is a scene in the movie Nixon where he threatens a Texas oilman played by Larry Hagman, with the IRS to keep him and his money in line after he complains about the EPA, busing and price controls. I could see a point that as long as Nixon remained in the White House, he could maintain control of these types, but it was essentially on borrowed time basically.

Reagan was still the two term Governor of the biggest Western state and a still a favorite of these types of business interests, and would likely have been a 1976 candidate even without Watergate. And it is more then likely he would have been running against the regulations, taxes and price controls, as well as the defense cuts as a result.

[The Mikado]

Tend to agree with Yankee that the declining 70s economy would have discredited Nixonism even if scandal hadn't discredited Nixon and that the GOP would have been looking to move in a drastically different direction to avoid major losses in the late 70s as the economy went into a nosedive.