Conservatism

Question 1

conservative perspective on human nature?

Answer 1

-believe that human beings are essentially limited and security seeking individuals, drawn to the known and familiar, the tried and tested. human rationality is unreliable and moral corruption is implicit in each human individual. the new right nevertheless embraces a form of self-seeking individualism.

Question 2

conservative perspective on human nature?

Answer 2

-limited and dependent individuals
-people fear isolation and instability
-drawn to known and familiar and seek the security of knowing their place.
-this has led to the emphasis of social order and hierarchy.
-ground ideas in tradition

Question 3

what is the view on society?

Answer 3

-based on the belief that human beings are dependent and security seeking and therefore they cannot exist outside of society.
-Society does provide a framework for individuals to enable them to flourish/survive.
-They all tend to prefer a society where the state plays a smaller role and individuals or communities provide the ‘societal glue’

Question 4

what do they believe holds society together?

Answer 4

-the bonds of duty and obligation

Question 5

how do Traditional, one-nation see society?

Answer 5

-Traditional, one-nation and Neo-Conservatives emphasise society as ‘like a living organism’, organicism
Stress the importance of tradition and hierarchy.

Question 6

what is organicism?

Answer 6

Organicism – A belief that society operates like an organism or living entity, the whole thing being more than a collection of its individual parts.

Question 7

what is atomism?

Answer 7

Atomism – Society exists as loose collection of self-interested and self-reliant individuals who owe no duty to individuals other than themselves

Question 8

how do new right/ neo-liberals conservatives see society?

Answer 8

-New Right Conservatives emphasise a more mechanistic view of society – tend to reject tradition (in favour of radical change) and hierarchy (favour meritocracy over ‘elitism’)
-atomistic

Question 9

what do conservatives agree about the state?

Answer 9

-Conservatives tend to agree that the state is important body for providing leadership and national security.
-Most conservatives agree that authority is ‘top down’ and the state helps to provide that authority for the purposes of ensuring stability and order in society.
-Conservatives do tend to support the idea that the state should be as ‘minimal as possible’ – although there is clear and deep disagreement as to what this means.

Question 10

how is authority rooted?

Answer 10

-develops naturally
-can only be imposed from above never from below
-rooted in the nature of society
-for example by teachers in school, by employers in the workplace.

Question 11

what do conservatives agree about the economy?

Answer 11

-Economy should be based on system of private property ownership
-Agree that private property acts as incentive, provides security, ensures responsibility and order. (it promotes important social values)
-Reject ‘socialised’ property ownership.

Question 12

why do new right object to state welfare?

Answer 12

Firstly – Creates dependency – rational individuals will calculate that state help preferable to own efforts. State provision therefore creates disincentive to be self-reliant.
Secondly – Inefficient as much state provision delivered by public sector monopolies and therefore act in own self-interest and not public one. Market more efficient they argue.

Question 13

what does paternalism mean?

Answer 13

-the one nation idea of the duty to look out for the poorest in society.

Question 14

what does anomie mean?

Answer 14

-weakening of values and normative rules associated with feelings of isolation, loneliness and meaninglessness.

Question 15

what is pragmatism?

Answer 15

-being non-ideological, supporting incremental change in order to conserve.

Question 16

how do neo-liberals see society

Question 17

Hobbes main beliefs?

Answer 17

-sceptical view of human nature, humans would govern by ruthless self-interest.
-human nature was shaped by a relentless desire for goods, distrust for others and a constant fear of death.
-in this state life would be ‘nasty brutish and short’
- as individuals were rational they would eventually realise that nature was led by self-interest and agree to a contract and render to a sovereign.
-this social contract was a necessary evil to avoid the cruel fate that awaited men if not.

Question 18

Oakeshott main beliefs?

Answer 18

-most men and women were ‘imperfect but not immoral’
-tried to make conservatism more optimistic.
-state existed to prevent the bad rather than create the good and the best things in life normally emerge from routine apolitical activity.
-free markets need to be monitored by the state
-the job of the government is to ‘keeping the ship afloat at all costs… using experience to negotiate every storm..’

Question 19

Burke’s main beliefs?

Answer 19

-human imperfection, stresses mankind’s fallibility and it’s tendency to fail more than succeed.
-change should proceed based on empiricism and tradition
- both society and the government are more akin to a plant than a machine, organicism
-change must be organic and cautious.
-within all organic societies a ruling class was inevitable and desirable however the class had a clear obligation to govern in the interests of all.
-society of ‘little platoons’, multitude of small, diverse and largely autonomous communities which would ‘acknowledge nurture and prune the crooked timber of humanity’

Question 20

Rand’s main beliefs?

Answer 20

-new right
-talented individuals rather than ambitious governments lay at the heart of a successful society.
-without the energy of such individuals society would quickly wither.
-‘objectivism’ as core belief, being that we should all be guided by self interest and rational self-fulfilment.
-so became associated with atomism and society was ideally just a loose collection of independent individuals, atomisitic.
-objectivism became strongly linked to the New rights support for a more laissez faire brand of capitalism and its renewal of negative liberty
-proud to call herself a libertarian in that she defended not just free markets but an individuals right to choose.
-liberty was impossible without order and security which only a state could provide.

Question 21

Nozick’s main beliefs?

Answer 21

-growth of the government was the gravest contemporary threat to individual freedom and the growth of welfare states allowed a dependency culture.
-identified with libertarianism and argues that the individual should be left alone.
-optimistic view of human nature, e.g tax for the most part is theft because individuals have self ownership and should be left alone to realise they are the sole authors of their talent.
-but not entirely positive view argued that the preservation of life liberty and property should not be taken for granted without some authority enforcing laws.
-limited state would allow a multitude of self-sufficient communities to emerge, like Burkes little platoons.

Question 22

what strands are each thinker?

Answer 22

-Hobbes, traditional
-burke, one nation/trad
-Oakeshott, one nation
-Rand, new right
-Nozick, new right