Conservatism

Question 1

Anti-permissive

Answer 1

A rejection of permissiveness, which is the liberal belief that people should make their own moral choices (e.g. about abortion, marriage and relationships), stemming from the 1960s. The state should impose social order and public morality by promoting traditional values and tough law and order policies.

Question 2

Atomism

Answer 2

The concept that society, if indeed it exists, is a collection of individuals pursuing their own individual lives and being responsible for themselves. Collective identities, like class, are meaningless.

Question 3

Change to conserve

Answer 3

Conservatives oppose radical social change as they view society as an organic, complex whole. Long-established institutions and practices, such as the monarchy and parliamentary sovereignty, reflect the accumulated wisdom of the past and so are tried and tested. Change should be incremental, building on what works in order to conserve what is valuable.

Question 4

Empiricism

Answer 4

Politics should be based on what works most effectively, not on abstract principles or ideas. This idea emerges from the politics of imperfection, as human are limited in what they are able to know and understand about the world.

Question 5

Hierarchy

Answer 5

Human nature and society are naturally divided by wealth, status and power. For conservatives, there is a natural ruling class with the necessary wealth and authority to govern, while the masses should naturally obey the elite that is governing in their best interest.

Question 6

Objectivism

Answer 6

Rand’s philosophy based on the principles of reason, self-interest and capitalism, which she claims will deliver freedom, justice, progress and human happiness. It is set against statism or collectivism, where people’s life and work belong to the state, which she argues leads to ‘slavery, brute force, stagnant terror and sacrificial furnaces’.

Question 7

Organic society

Answer 7

Society is a natural, complex body like a tree. It develops and grows slowly, needs constant nurturing and pruning to ensure its health, and should not be uprooted and replaced with something new through radical change/revolution.

Question 8

Statism

Answer 8

A political system where the state has a large degree of control over social and economic affairs.