CONSERVATISM

Question 1

When was the modern Conservative party founded?

Answer 1

1830’s under the leadership of Robert Peel- police making man

Question 2

What did the party do during the 20th Century?

Answer 2

Conflict began as they began to oppose the rise of socialism.

Question 3

When did Margaret Thatcher become leader?

Answer 3

1975

Question 4

What did they support during Margaret Thatcher’s rule?

Answer 4

They had strong support of individualism and free market capitalism.

Question 5

What is Pragmatism in conservatism? (key values)

Answer 5

-conservatives adapt their values and objectives over time, according to changes in society.
-Pragmatism is arguably the most distinct feature of conservatism. No other ideology could in any sense of the phrase depict itself as pragmatic. At its core, pragmatism entails a complete rejection of ideology.
Willing/ability to adapt/compromise

Question 6

What is Tradition in conservatism?(key values)

Answer 6

established customs and traditions are important because they are God-given therefore beyond question.
Traditional values, such as remaining to use traditional convention regarding a range of issues. Some believe as god given right, less change/disruption in society eg church marriage family etc

Question 7

What is the belief in human imperfection in conservatism?(key values)

Answer 7

harsh controls and punishment are important because humans are naturally selfish and irrational
conservatives adopt a pessimistic view of human nature
Conservatives also believe that we are driven by baser instincts rather than higher reasoning
those ideologies which adopt a fixed view of human nature are inherently wrong
humans need controlling through institutions such as church
if everyone had access to wealth it would be wrong and people need to be controlled
moral imperfection-
psychological imperfection-

Question 8

What is organic society?(key values)

Answer 8

• everyone in society has a different function; this means inequality is natural and acceptable
• Conservatives also believe that society is in a constant process of evolution. As a consequence, adopting a revolutionary stance is both foolish and contrary to the lessons of the past. This is a key point of disagreement between conservatives and radical extremists.

Question 9

What is the conservative belief of hierarchy and authority?(key values)

Answer 9

• hierarchy is natural and authority is important because humans need guidance, order and stability
• Traditionalist conservatives believe that human society is essentially hierarchical (i.e. it always involves various interdependent inequalities, degrees and classes and that political structures that recognize this fact prove the most just, thriving and generally beneficial). Hierarchy allows for the preservation of the whole community simultaneously, instead of protecting one part at the expense of the others.

Question 10

What is the conservative belief about property?(key values)

Answer 10

• private ownership is important because it promotes law and order, respect, hard work and security
• property provides security – ownership gives people a sense of confidence and assurance. Those who possess property are also more likely to respect other peoples’ proper – property owners have a ‘stake’ in society – maintaining law and order – promotes conservative values. Deeper reason – property can be an extension of an individual’s personality.

Question 11

Conservative view of Human Nature

Answer 11

• Human Imperfection- all humans are psychologically flawed and imperfect
• pessimistic view of human nature
• conservatives also believe that we are driven by base instincts rather than higher reasoning

Question 12

Conservative view of Society

Answer 12

• They view society as an organism that emerges and evolves gradually over time in order to meet the needs of its members.
• For instance, society must develop institutions and mechanisms that protect us from harm (such as the armed forces). EG Robert Peel
• A cohesive society also requires a degree of hierarchy, and a sense of deference towards authority figures. - eg PATERNALISM

Question 13

Conservative view of the Economy

Answer 13

• A laissez-faire system is an economic system in which the government tries to avoid interfering in the economy
• it is closely associated with capitalism. Conservatives argue that a system based upon private ownership (namely capitalism) is superior to the statist alternative for a number of reasons

Question 14

What is traditional conservatism?

Answer 14

• commitment to hierarchic and paternalistic values
• emphasises the need for the principles of a transcendent moral order, manifested through certain natural laws to which society ought to conform in a prudent manner

Question 15

What is one-nation conservatism?

Answer 15

-updating of traditional conservatism in response to the emergence of capitalism

Question 16

What is one-nation conservatism?

Answer 16

• updating of traditional conservatism in response to the emergence of capitalism
• It advocates the preservation of established institutions and traditional principles within a political democracy, in combination with social and economic programmes designed to benefit the ordinary person.

Question 17

What is new right conservatism? (it contains neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism)

Answer 17

• includes neo-liberal: principally concerned with free-market economics and atomistic individualism
• neo-conservative: concerned with law and order and public morality.
• In the United Kingdom, the term New Right more specifically refers to a strand of Conservatism that the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan influenced. …
• They were ideologically committed to economic liberalism as well as being socially conservative.

Question 18

Explain one nation conservatism.

Answer 18

-One-nation conservatism, also known as one-nationism or Tory democracy, is a paternalistic form of British political conservatism. According to this political philosophy, society should be allowed to develop in an organic way, rather than being engineered.
-proposed by Benjamin Disraeli
-He emphasised the importance of social obligation rather than individualism
-The phrase was coined because Disraeli feared a Britain divided into two nations, one of the rich and one of the poor, as a result of increased industrialisation and inequality
-society as naturally hierarchical and emphasised the obligations of those at the top to those below. This was a continuation of the feudal concept of noblesse oblige which asserted that the aristocracy had an obligation to be generous and honourable.
-

Question 19

What is Paternalism in conservatism?

Answer 19

Paternalism has be defined as “benign power exerted from above by the state, which governs in the interests of the people.”

Question 20

What is Noblesse Oblige? and which stand of conservatism is it in?

Answer 20

Disraeli (so one nationism) justified his ideas by his belief in an organic society in which the different classes have natural obligations to one another.
- continuation of the feudal concept of noblesse oblige which asserted that the aristocracy had an obligation to be generous and honourable.

Question 21

For the new right was is Libertarianism?

Answer 21

Libertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism or conservatarianism, is a political philosophy that combines conservatism and libertarianism, representing the libertarian wing of conservatism and vice versa.

Question 22

What is neo liberalism? (new right)

Answer 22

Neoliberalism is essentially an intentionally imprecise stand-in term for free market economics, for economic sciences in general, for conservatism.

Question 23

What is neo conservatism? (new right)

Answer 23

a political ideology characterized by an emphasis on free-market capitalism and an interventionist foreign policy.

Question 24

What is atomism? (new right)

Answer 24

Atomism is a belief that society is made up of self-sufficient individuals who are motivated by self-interest.

Question 25

What is anti permissiveness? (new right)

Answer 25

Anti-permissiveness is a rejection of the “permissive society”. A permissive society is one in which there are few moral or legal codes of behaviour and in which social norms become increasingly liberal.

Question 26

What is Laissez faire? (new right)

Answer 26

A laissez-faire system is an economic system in which the government tries to avoid interfering in the economy; it is closely associated with capitalism. Conservatives argue that a system based upon private ownership (namely capitalism) is superior to the statist alternative for a number of reasons.

Question 27

What is meritocracy? (new right)

Answer 27

Meritocracy is a social system in which success and status in life depend primarily on individual talents, abilities, and effort. It is a social system in which people advance on the basis of their merits.

Question 28

Who was Thomas Hobbes? (order and human nature)

Answer 28

5 April 1588 – 4 December 1679) was an English philosopher, considered to be one of the founders of modern political philosophy.

Question 29

What was his most important work? and how did he contribute to conservatism?

Answer 29

Leviathan ORDER AND HUMAN NATURE- The work concerns the structure of society and legitimate government, and is regarded as one of the earliest and most influential examples of social contract theory.
-Written during the English Civil War (1642–1651), it argues for a social contract and rule by an absolute sovereign. Hobbes wrote that civil war and the brute situation of a state of nature (“the war of all against all”) could be avoided only by strong, undivided government.

Question 30

Who was Edmund Burke? (change, traditionism and empiricism)

Answer 30

Edmund Burke (12 January 1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Irish statesman and philosopher. Born in Dublin, Burke served as a member of parliament (MP) between 1766 and 1794 in the House of Commons of Great Britain with the Whig Party after moving to London in 1750.

Question 31

What was Burke’s most important work? and how did it contribute to conservatism?

Answer 31

Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections is a defining tract of modern conservatism as well as an important contribution to international theory. Above all else, it has been one of the defining efforts of Edmund Burke’s transformation of “traditionalism into a self-conscious and fully conceived political philosophy of conservatism”.

Question 32

Who was Michael Oakeshott? (pragmatism rather than ideology)

Answer 32

Michael Joseph Oakeshott FBA (11 December 1901 – 19 December 1990) was an English philosopher and political theorist who wrote about philosophy of history, philosophy of religion, aesthetics, philosophy of education, and philosophy of law.

Question 33

What was Oakeshott’s most important work? and how did he contribute to conservatism?

Answer 33

During this period, Oakeshott published what became his best known work during his lifetime, the collection entitled Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962). Some of the polemics against the direction that Britain was taking, in particular the acceptance of socialism, gained Oakeshott a reputation as a conservative seeking to uphold the importance of tradition, and sceptical about rationalism and fixed ideologies. Bernard Crick described him as a “lonely nihilist”.

Question 34

Who was Ayn Rand? (Own happiness the main aim, purpose and productiveness)

Answer 34

February 2,1905 – March 6, 1982) was a Russian-American writer and philosopher.

Question 35

What was Rand’s most important work? and how did she contribute to conservatism?

Answer 35

Atlas Shrugged- was her key work that contributed the the key principles of Objectivism, which are:
Reality is an absolute, reason is man’s only means of knowledge, man has free will (the choice to think or not), self-interest is moral, individual rights are absolute, capitalism is moral, and good art is crucial to good living.

Question 36

Who was Robert Nozick? (Libertarianism and self-ownership)

Answer 36

November 16, 1938 – January 23, 2002) was an American philosopher. He held the Joseph Pellegrino University Professorship at Harvard University, and was president of the American Philosophical Association. He is best known for his books Philosophical Explanations (1981)

Question 37

What was Nozick’s most important work? and what did he contribute to conservatism?

Answer 37

and Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), a libertarian answer to John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971), in which Nozick also presented his own theory of utopia as one in which people can freely choose the rules of the society they enter into.

Question 38

What is Thatcherism?

Answer 38

Summed up as ‘rugged individualism’
Thatcher – ‘no such thing as society’
Only families and individuals
Belief in a ‘minimal state’
Only maintains domestic order
Protects against external attack
All other matters left in hands of individual

Question 39

What are the key values of social Thatcherism?

Answer 39

1. Tough law and order
   Maintain public order through fear – prison works
   More jail sentences, longer prison terms, tougher prison regimes
2. Traditional values
   Enemy was ‘permissive values’
   Allowing people to make own moral choices (1960s)
   Solution – return to traditional values
   - Christian, family values defended

Question 40

What are the key values of economic Thatcherism?

Answer 40

3. National Patriotism
National identity became a cornerstone
Showed political strength and stability
‘Euroscepticism’ - opposition to European integration
Defence of national sovereignty

Question 41

What happened in post Thatcherism?

Answer 41

Lost power in 1997 to New Labour
Conflict over ideological direction
Some Cons felt it went too far right – need to ‘modernise’
2007: revived interest in ‘Thatcherite’ ideas because:
Party unity – many still right wing
Poll lead over Labour – no more modernising
Belief in smaller state held by key players:
- Cameron and Osborne