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3 Test 1) What are the six principles of Conservatism? Conservatives believe that a higher moral or spiritual order rules over nature and society. This belief in a higher or greater order leads to conservatives tendencies to disdain revolution or other such attempts to work outside of the system. There is no excuse for rash decision-making. Conservatives have great affection, even reverence, for the complexity and mystery of tradition. Individuals are not born into a world in which they are entitled to a social contract of sorts. Rather, conservatives believe that individuals are born into a society with history, a society governed by tradition, customs, habits, values, rituals, and symbols. Liberty must be carefully balanced with moral goods like duty, honor, and liberty. Moral goods must balance individual rights. Conservatives believe that there is a hierarchy of orders and classes in every society. Conservatives hold that men are entitled to equal rights, but not to equal things. In other words, men are entitled to equal opportunity, but not to equal outcomes. Unhappiness arises when men entertain false ideas of economic prosperity. Conservatives claim that human capacities vary naturally from birth; thus, there is a natural aristocracy. Conservatives believe that property and freedom are inextricably intertwined. Levellers, or those who wish to level the system, cause political instability through their efforts. In a balanced government a good government natural aristocrats counter democratic influences in the name of justice.

Conservatives believe that citizens are attached to a government only when it engages their moral imagination. Abstract rights or utilitarian themes do not accomplish this task. Instead, concrete symbols of power bolster political loyalties and affections. The degree to which chivalry is present in a society indicates the societys civility. Without illusions and symbols of power, power finds worse means of support most likely terror or violence.

Conservatives recognize that every society eventually undergoes changes, but they prefer that change be gradual. Evolutionary transformations are better than revolutionary ones. Edmund Burke, one of the philosophers whose work defines conservatism, explains that societal change should occur when statesmen make pragmatic decisions; practical wisdom replaces metaphysical abstractions of lieral ideology.

4) What are the five features of Neoconservatism according to Irving Kristol? Neo-conservatism is not at all hostile to the ideas of a welfare state, but it is critical of the Great Society version of this welfare state. Neo-conservatives hold that what was once virtue is today masked in fraud and greed. Inequalities in life are justifiable if the race of life is fair. Again, equal opportunity is supported, but equal outcome is not. Neo-conservatism has great respect for the power of the market to respond efficiently to economic realities while preserving the maximum degree of individual freedom. The government should focus fiscal policy on how changes in supply affect production levels. Tax increases are counterproductive to a prosperous economy,

for citizens responses will eventually be to work less. Only supply-side economic policies can finance a welfare state and maintain a healthy economy. Neo-conservatism tends to be respectful of traditional values and institutions: religion, the family, and the high culture of Western civilization. Claiming that the 1960s ethos of liberation contributed to the moral and spiritual decay of American society, neo-conservatives reassert religion, family, and culture in determining stances on social essays. Some argue that the founding documents never intended to undermine religion, only to free it from government constraints. Neo-conservatism affirms the traditional American idea of equality, but rejects egalitarianism the equality of condition for all citizens as a proper goal for government to pursue. Therefore, affirmative action is unfounded and misguided. Americans lack the statistical data necessary to claim that discrimination is structural and that statistical differences are not a result of demographic, geographic, and cultural differences. Neo-conservatism believes that American democracy is not likely to survive in a world that is overwhelmingly hostile to American values. United States foreign policy requires a moral foundation. Loss of faith allows ideologies like Communism, which disingenuously offers heaven on Earth, to flourish. 6) Are you a more traditional conservative, or identify more with what is labeled a neocon today? I identify myself more with neo-conservative ideology, though I reject many of their social policies and a few, to some degree, ideas concerning economics. I entirely agree with the neo-conservative perspective on the welfare state. Though entitlement

programs are, by nature, good, there are way too many that cost way too much. We have taken the idea of a welfare state too far, especially when considering the level of fraud and disincentive to progress inherent in the system. Furthermore, I believe that the federal government does not have the power to regulate social issues; the government cannot say gay individuals cannot marry, but the government also cannot say that gay individuals have the right to marry. Though the market, for the most part, responds efficiently to change, some change is so great that the economy would lose its ability to exist, thereby prompting necessary government action. Finally, the neo- conservatives stances on foreign policy are in line with my own.