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Student URN 6413997

Programme International Politics

Level 4

Module Number POL1012

Module Name INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS: POWER AND THE STATE

Assignment Title Essay 1

Word Count 1534

Module Tutor: Dr. Alia Middleton

Submission Date: 15/11/2016

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What are the key concepts of Conservativism?

The foundations of what we have come to know today as the political philosophy
of conservatism can be traced back to the Bourbon Restoration in France during
1814, following the fall of Napoleon. In this context, it was used to describe the
withdrawal of the politics of the French Revolution (Muller 1997). In the present
day, Conservativism has grown to encompass a wide range of concepts. This
essay will explore the most fundamental of these concepts in order to reach a
judgement on the defining characteristics of this political philosophy.
Firstly, perhaps the concept most associated with Conservativism is that of
tradition. In essence, conservatives would argue that customs, practices and
institutions which have stood the test of time should be preserved. This can be
contrasted with Progressivism which asserts that change to the status quo is
highly necessary in order for human advancement to occur. However, a
conservative may argue that social cohesion and sticking to ones roots are far
more important in terms of their benefit to society. For conservatives, the desire
for tradition can manifest itself in a number of ways. In his 2009 speech to the
Welsh Conservative Conference in Cardiff, then-party leader David Cameron
proclaimed that families are the most important institution in our society. We
have to do everything we can do to strengthen them. Here we see the desire to
uphold tradition and in particular the family, indeed a key concept within
conservativism. Nowhere is more apparent than in the United States, where the
traditional family has become a lens through which a great number of stances on
certain issues can be formed. The traditional sometimes referred to as nuclear
family consists of the husband who is the main or sole earner and the wife
whose role it is to raise children and look after the home. It is the desire to retain
this structure in the face of rising alternative family forms that has caused wide
opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion. The idea of the traditional family
influencing conservative political thought is best summed up by The Strict Father
Model, proposed by George Lakoff (2010). Acting as moral leader, protector and
punisher-in-chief, the father in the family instils discipline and acts as an
incentive for children keep to the right path. The Strict Father Model explains to
some extent the conservative desire for law and order.
Another principle commonly associated with conservativism is the ownership of
property. For many conservatives, property creates a sense of security,
something to fall back on in an uncertain world. Property can also at as a barrier
of independence from the government. For some conservatives, your material
possessions are an indicator of where you stand in society, reinforcing ideas
about hierarchy. The idea that the government should take a lesser role than the
people when it comes to ownership is clearly demonstrated by conservative
approaches to economics. Perhaps the approach most commonly associated with
conservativism is laissez-fairs economics. French for leave-alone, in this
economic system the government should have as little involvement as possible
in free market capitalism. It should be noted that whilst these views are often
associated with conservativism, they do not necessarily fall into its category,
better being described as neoliberalist ideas. However, political leaders such as
Margaret Thatcher have shown that the two ways of thinking can go hand in
hand, as her fiscal austerity measures naturally brought about the need for law
and order such as during the Miners Strike of 1984. Privatisation was also
taking place at the same time in the United States, as part of Ronald Raegans
economic strategy known as Reaganomics. According to Tingle (1988), the
administration embraced privatisation as a new, supplementary strategy for
deficit reduction. It is no surprise that the Thatcher and Reagan eras are often
seen as conservatism at its peak and this can largely be attributed to their
shared aim of privatisation.

Organic society is also often considered a key element of traditional

conservativism. The idea that society can be considered organic was first raised
by Edmund Burke in the 18th Century. He is often considered the founder of
modern conservativism. Conservatives do not see society as product of human
ingenuity (Heywood 2013), rather as an organic, living entity in its own right. The
various institutions that comprise society are all integral to its success, much like
a living ecosystem where if one part fails, the implications are felt throughout.
Under the view of Organic society, social change should be resisted at all costs
unless it is natural. Under the principle of organic society, individuals who
become separate from society suffer as a result. However, the rise of the New
Right challenged the idea of the organic society. Indeed, Thatcher once famously
said that there is no such thing as society, there are individual men and women
and there are families. This was widely perceived as a harsh statement to make,
one which emphasised her staunch individualism. However, statements such as
these are typical of the New Right, which is often considered to have come about
as a kneejerk reaction against the swing towards post-1945 interventionism.
Arguably, the idea of the organic society made a return under David Camerons
leadership of the Conservative party. In a 2010 speech early on in his
premiership, he championed what he called the Big Society. This involved
aiming to empower communities and families in order to facilitate economic
growth. Some see this as an attempt to bring the conservative party towards the
centre-ground of British Politics. Professor of Social Policy Alan Walker (2013)
claims that by rediscovering the social in this way, the Conservatives have
been able to occupy part of the traditional ground of the social-democratic left.
In sum, recent years have seen the revival of a key conservative principle,
though it should be noted that the term Big Society was not used very often
following David Camerons original speech.
Closely linked with the principle of organic society is that of social hierarchy. In
the conservative view, there will always be different positions in society that
require different responsibilities, thus a graduated structure is formed. In
addition, hierarchies are essential in order to maintain order in society, for
example in the workplace where there are managers and low-level employees. In
order for the hierarchy to effectively function, in essence those in higher
positions in society often have a duty of care to those who are not in such a
situation. In this sense, equality is not only unnatural but also undesirable. This
can be directly contrasted with socialism, which stresses the need for social
equality as perhaps its most import value. Furthermore, Marxism would take
equality one step further by calling for complete equality achieved through the
means of production. Conservatives would argue that where a person sits on the
social hierarchy is largely due to luck, therefore equality will occur naturally. An
example of this would be the hereditary peers in the House of Lords in the UK,
who have not been elected yet still possess legislative power. Though less
important today, the aristocracy would also be a key example of how people
come to be born wielding immense amounts of power over others. Since this
cannot be prevented, inequality is inevitable in the eyes of a conservative.
The desire for law and order is a principle which comes to mind time and time
again when thinking about conservativism. As mentioned previously, the strict
father model can provide an insight into the conservative desire for law and
order, since children being disciplined by their parents reinforces the idea that
there are always consequences for their actions in society. Law and order was
extremely prevalent amongst conservative thought in the US in the late 1960s
under the Nixon presidency and Ronald Reagan (then Governor of California).
Republicans at this time criticised the Democrats for being too soft on crime,
something which has continued in US political spheres even to this day, with the
current President-elect Donald Trump using law and order as a key theme
throughout his presidency, possibly a factor that helped secure his election as it
did with Nixon. Michael Flamm, a historian at Ohio Wesleyan University has
explain what makes law and order such a powerful principle: "Part of what makes
law and order such a powerful slogan is its amorphous quality, its ability to
appeal to different people at different times with different issues." It is natural
that law and order would promote conservative values, since disorder would
cause their much-vaunted hierarchies to break down and can often cause change
to occur drastically.
In conclusion, conservativism cannot be narrowed down to a set of key
principles. Rather, it can mean very different things to different people. The
individual strands within conservativism can also be contested, particularly when
it comes to economics. However, there is no doubt that tradition, property
ownership, an organic society, social hierarchy and law and order have all been
at some point fundamentals of conservative thought. They are a mere selection
of an ever-changing set of ideas and doctrines which have never settled since
conservativism was first conceived. The direction which conservativism takes in
the future will certainly be of great interest.
Bibliography

Jerry Z. Muller (1997). Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and

Political Thought from David Hume to the Present. Princeton U.P. p.
26.

Lakoff, G (2010), Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives

Think, Second Edition, University of Chicago Press, p.274

Tingle, M (1988), Yale Law and Policy review, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp229-
257

Heywood, A (2013), Politics, fourth edition, Palgrave Macmillan, p.35

Speri.dept.shef.ac.uk. (2013) The Big Society, neoliberalism and

the rediscovery of the social in Britain | SPERI. [online] Available at:
http://speri.dept.shef.ac.uk/2013/03/08/big-society-neoliberalism-
rediscovery-social-britain/ [Accessed 14 Nov. 2016].
Denver, D (2016) The Long, Ugly History of 'Law and Order'
Candidates [online] Available at
http://www.citylab.com/politics/2015/09/the-long-ugly-history-of-law-
and-order-candidates/405709/ [accessed 14th Nov. 2016].