Conservatism

Easy to define
• share a desire to conserve or preserve something

• the traditional or customary way of life of their

societies----- vary from one society to another

• different conservatives----- different ideas

• want to conserve something------but not all want to

conserve the same things

• so difficult to define
• difficulty is in two ways

• First, the word "conservative" is often applied

to anyone who resists change
• free-market economy
• the old-line communist in Russia

• the diehard anti-communist in the US

• If it is a distinctive political position, it must
entail more than the simple desire to resist
change

Secondly
• the contrast b/w the early conservatives &
self-proclaimed conservatives of recent years
 classical conservatives
• trying to preserve or restore an aristocratic
society
• defended the traditional social hierarchy
• insisted on the need for a government strong
enough to restrain the passions of the people
• skeptical of attempts to promote individual
freedom & equality of opportunity in a
competitive society
Conservatives of the late twentieth century

• former British Prime Minister Margaret

Thatcher & former US President Ronald
Reagan ------- individualist conservatives
• advocated reducing the size & scope of
government
• to free individuals to compete for profits
• enthusiasm for laissez-faire capitalism
• similar to classical and neoliberalism
• the true founder of conservatism was Edmund
Burke (1729-1797)
• diverges in many ways from modern
conservatism
• objected to the way liberal ideas in France
• liberalism turned into radicalism
• An ideology devised in one place became
warped when applied to different circumstances
• Easy to apply liberalism in America without
resistance
• in France, a large aristocratic class and a state-
supported Roman Catholic Church had a lot to
lose
• revolutionaries tried to solve the problem with
the guillotine
• swept away all established institutions
• Liberal place too much confidence in human
reason
• only partly rational------ wildly irrational
passions
• society ------evolved traditions, institutions,
and standards of morality
• Burke----man's irrational impulses will lead to
chaos------ end in tyranny------ predicted that
France would fall under the rule of a military
dictator
• Institutions and traditions ------ can't be all bad,
• the products of hundreds of years of trial and error
• should be preserved or "conserve“
• not a matter if they aren't perfect; they work
• not to say that things should never change
• should change, but only gradually, giving people time to
adjust
• no "stand-patter", a point some current conservatives
fail to grasp
• Burke ------ " A state without the means of some change
is without the means of its conservation"
• discover the irrational in human behavior
• institutions are like living things, they grow and adapt over
time
• revolutions tend to end badly
• society cannot be instantly remade according to the dictates
of human reason
• Burke's ideas------- an anti-ideology, they have considerable
staying power
• emphasis on religion, traditions, and morality strikes a
modern conservative's heart.
• applying reason to solve social problems were echoed by
Jeane Kirkpatrick, President Reagan's UN ambassador and
political scientist
• leftists are always imagining
• classic conservatism is still alive in modern thought