6.1 Conservatism core ideas

Question 1

6

List the core ideas of conservatism

Answer 1

• Pragmatism
• Tradition
• Human imperfection
• Organic state/society
• Paternalism
• Libertarianism

Question 2

6

Describe pragmatism

Answer 2

• Decisions should value practical experience (what works) over ideology (realism not idealism)
• Rigid adherence leads to radical change that creates unstable society
• Thus flexible approach to society needed
• Humans not rational to implement abstract strategies in complex reality
• Advocate incrimental, pragmatic change to preserve essential institutions within society
• Closely linked to Traditional/ON Conservatives who see pragmatism as most important core value

Question 3

3

Describe disunity on pragmatism

Answer 3

• Traditional/ON conservatives use pragmatism as reasoning for accepting middle-way to economy
• e.g. Disraeli’s Artisans Dwelling Act (1875) - slum clearances in response to industrial revolution
• Neo-liberals reject this pragmatic approach due to posiitve view of human nature and rationalism

Question 4

4

Describe tradition

Answer 4

• Institutions (monarchy, religion, customs, practices) should be preserved
• If something survives the test of time, they offer value to previous and future generations
• Accumulated wisdom of past generations creates connection and stability between generations
• Tradition creates sense of identity and furthers social cohesion, enhancing human security

Question 5

5

Describe tradition’s link to organic society

Answer 5

• society has evolved naturally, not radically
• maintenance of tradition needed to avoid instability, anxiety and insecurity (e.g. Terror of French Revolution)
• Change should only be considered if slow and if it enhances exisiting institutions/practices
• Burke: ‘change to conserve’
• Hobbes opposed devolution, HoL reform, republicanism

Question 6

4

Describe disunity on tradition

Answer 6

• Traditional/ON feared intellectual replacement of religion with rationalism via secularisation
• Argued secularisation weakened ties to tradition and conservative values
• Opposed by neo-libs
• Later ON advocated keynesian economics, a rational economic blueprint of state management that broke long-standing tradition of laissez-faire

Question 7

3

Describe the 3 types of human imperfection

Answer 7

• Morally - motivated by selfish desires
• Intellectually - little capacity for rational thinking (true nature of reality beyond understanding)
• Psychologically - seek security and dependence - so need tradition and social order

Question 8

4

Describe Hobbesian imperfection

Answer 8

• Humans flawed and unchangeable
• Neglect responsibilities of wider society
• Self-seeking and driven by ‘desire of power’
• reject utopias and question their potentiality

Question 9

3

How did Hobbes propose maintaining order

Answer 9

• Social contract needed where individuals traded personal freedoms for state protections
• Needed to prevent perpetual conflict of ‘state of nature’ created by self-interest
• Advocated monarchy in strong goverment to keep humanity in check

Question 10

2

Describe human imperfection and irrationality

Answer 10

• Humans irrational and driven by desires of power, wealth and property
• Cannot be trusted to govern for others - ‘leviathan’ needed

Question 11

4

Describe human imperfection and society/crime

Answer 11

• Humans have capacity for evil
• Thus law and order required to deter criminal behaviour
• Crime should be punished to act as deterrent
• Society can keep individuals in check through education, tough prison sentences

Question 12

3

Describe the policy applications of human imperfection

Answer 12

• strong on law and oder
• FP based on national security
• promotion of self interest

Question 13

4

Describe disunity on human imperfection

Answer 13

• Trad Con, ON and neo-Con all agree that humans are imperfect
• Neo-liberals reject human imperfection outright, arguing humans are capable of ratioanlity
• Rand and Nozick argue this rationalism means people make self-serving decisions in their best interests (agree on ends, though not reasons)
• Hobbesian imperfection vs Burkean/Oakeshott imperfection

Question 14

4

Describe the organic state/society

Answer 14

• Made up of many connected individual parts, with the sum (society and state) being greater than those individual parts
• Not created, but grows in slow, evolutionary matter to prevent anomie and instability
• Society like living organism - needs education system and family structure to work properly
• Breakdown in one or more structures in society leads to breakdown of society as whole

Question 15

2

How are structures within the organic society/state maintained?

Answer 15

• Tradition inherent to provide authority and maintain structure
• All branches accept natural heirarchy where humans have differing abilities - maintains authority in society even if unequal

Question 16

4

Describe anomie

Answer 16

• Humans naturally dependent on one another
• If they are isolated from society, they will suffer from anomie
• Anomie - do not feel invested in society’s shared norms and values
• Leads to crime and discontent, none of which is good for society

Question 17

4

Describe Traditional Conservative views on organic state/society

Answer 17

• State provides order
• Society emerges organically
• Matures into traditions and customs
• Burke spoke of ‘little platoons’ which would enable integration into wider society

Question 18

3

Describe disunity on organic society among conservatives

Answer 18

• Hobbes preferred sovereign to control all aspects of society (law, religion and parliament) and economy (private property and taxation)
• Other Trad Cons (Burke/Oakeshott) + ON/neo-Cons favoured constitution monarchy established during Glorious Revolution of 1868
• Hobbes - sovereign personifies state; Other - smaller communities do

Question 19

3

Describe paternalism

Answer 19

• Society inherently unequal and hierarchical, which forms dominant part of society
• Within natural order of society, elite are natural leaders
• noblesse oblige

Question 20

3

Describe noblesse oblige

Answer 20

• Elite held responsibility to help less fortunate in society
• This was necessary to protect traditional hierarchy and organic state
• paternalism therefore a pragmatic response to counter societal and economic issues

Question 21

2

Describe Traditional Conservative views on paternalism

Answer 21

• Society naturally unequal and hierarchal
• Ruling elite had duty of care for those who could not act in their own interests (noblesse oblige)

Question 22

4

Describe One-Nation views on paternalism

Answer 22

• Ruling elite held obligation to industrial WC to enact social reforms and limited welfarism
• Paternalistic change governed by empircism
• later influenced by rational ideas of state management of Keynesian economics
• Larger state spending and welfare state involvement (would have not been sanctioned by earlier ON - yet demonstrates organic change)

Question 23

3

Describe neo-conservative views on paternalism

Answer 23

• Criticise ON version of paternalistic welfarism as breeding state dependency
• acknowledge need for state intervention in society - but limit scale of assistance
• e.g. state has duty to pay for primary/secondary education, but students must pay for higher education

Question 24

7

Describe neo-liberal views on paternalism

Answer 24

• Outright reject state-sponsored paternalism
• paternalism restricts negative freedom as individuals obligated to pay taxation to fund welfare state they may not support
• Noblesse oblige arrests individuals from self-development (learning from mistakes) as they are dependent on state (link with neo-Con)
• Paternalism creates state-dependent underclass
• Society is atomistic, rather than organic
• Nozick: ‘there are only individual people… with their own lives’
• Rand argued for voluntarism - individuals rationally decide themselves whether to be charitable

Question 25

4

Describe neo-liberal views libertarianism

Answer 25

• Minimal state with laissez-faire economics
• Focus on negative freedom
• Paternalism infringes on individual rights
• Explained by belief in ‘atomistic individualism’ (Rand) that facilitates autonomy and sufficiency

Question 26

3

Describe unity on libertarianism

Answer 26

• Traditional Conservatives equally advocated minimal state with limited economic intervention
• Neo-libs/Neo-Cons agree that welfare programmes create ‘dependency culture’ where people free of burden of looking after themselves
• e.g unemployment payment disincentivises work, harming wider society

Question 27

3

Describe disunity on libertarianism

Answer 27

• Traditional Conservatives support minimal state due to organic state/society; neo-libs support due to belief in rationality
• Neo-conservatives support welfare state - but far less so than ON who support partnernalism and maintenance of organic society
• Neo-libs reject empiricism and human imperfection of other branches