Conservatism short answers

Question 1

On what grounds have Conservatives justified private property?

Answer 1

1. Source of protection and security to the individual. Uncertain and unpredictable world it offers people a sense of confidence and assurance- something to fall back on. Attached to property.
2. Promotes wide range of social values. Those who own property are more likely to respect other people’s property. Property must be safeguarded from disorder and lawlessness. Property owners have a stake in society- interested in maintaining law and order. Promotes key Conservative values of respect for law, authority and social order.
3. Extension of the individual’s personality- people start to see themselves in what they own. Possessions are not simply external objects- rather they reflect something of the owners character.
   Conservatives see burglary as an unpleasant crime- not only suffer loss and damage, personally violated.
   Home is most personal and intimate of the possessions, designed and organised to needs of individual.
4. Important to society- seen through social bonds that cut across generations. Not only the creation of the present generation- property is passed down.
   Macmillan- present generation- “custodians of the wealth of the nation” duty to preserve and protect it for future generations.

Question 2

Why have Conservatives supported One Nation Principles?

Answer 2

One Nation tradition- justification for limited social and economic intervention, particularly welfare provision. Principles include, paternalism, moral responsibility, social cohesion.

1. Moral grounds. Disraeli- society is naturally hierarchical. But inequalities in wealth gives rise to inequalities in responsibilities. Wealthy must shoulder social responsibility in return for social privilege.
   Based on feudal principle- noblesse oblige- landed nobility claimed to exercise a paternal responsibility for their peasants.
   Disraeli- these should not be abandoned- manifested through social reform
2. Pragmatic grounds. One Nation principles serves in the long term interest for the wealthy. Helps to neutralise political discontent amongst working class.
   Teresa May- “new and radical programme of social reform”
   Purpose of one nationism is to consolidate hierarchy rather than remove it. Desire to support less well off is limited by desire to ensure poor no longer pose a threat to order.
3. Public’s desire for a strong state. People fear isolation and instability because psychologically drawn to security of ‘knowing their place. One Nation principles offer people security because welfare to fall back on.
4. Way of developing a non-ideological middle way between extremes of laissez-faire liberalism and socialist state planning. Way of moderation and sought to draw a balance between rampant individualism and overbearing collectivism. High point- 1950s- UK and elsewhere came to practice a version of Keynesian social democracy.
   MacMilian advocated “state capitalism” - mixed system which combines state ownership and regulation of certain aspects of economic activity with the drive of private enterprise.

Question 3

Explain the implications of the Conservative belief in an ‘organic society’

Answer 3

Burke views society as organic by saying “the nature of man is intricate; the objects of society are of the greatest complexity”. Society as a living thing, an organism whose parts work together. Within this- the whole is more than a collection of parts- the whole is sustained by fragile set of relationships between its parts. Society cannot be stripped down and reassembled. Organism shaped by natural factors rather than human ingenuity- organic society is fashioned by natural necessity.

1. Implies that change is undesirable. Organicism has shaped our attitudes towards particular institutions - Burke “change in order to conserve”
   Society’s parts have proved their value- preserved for present and future generations. Support tradition- tradition constitutes the accumulated wisdom of the past.
2. Supports a ‘communitarian’ tendency within trad Conservatism that stresses importance of each individual’s social duty.
   Disraeli- One Nation Conservatism- due to organic society he emphasised the principle of social obligation because he was concerned about Britain being divided into 2 nations- rich and poor.
   Natural necessity that rich have responsibility to help the poor- dated back to noblesse oblige
3. Delicate fabric should be preserved and respected by individuals who live within it because if society is organic its structures have been shaped by forces beyond human control.
   As a result Conservatives support a variety of policies and practices- focus on strengthening authority and social discipline by having a tough justice system because it acts as a deterrent.
   Strong govt needed to protect the delicate fabric of an organic society.

Question 4

Why have Conservatives supported tradition and continuity?

Answer 4

1. reflects the accumulated wisdom of the past. Burke describes society as a “partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those yet to be born”. Institutions are tested by time, preserved for benefit of future generations .
   Darwinian belief- only survived because they have found worth.
2. Religious grounds. If world thought to have been fashioned by God, traditional practices and customs regarded as God given.
   Burke- society shaped by natural law, if human tamper with the world they are challenging the will of God.
   Human affairs kept alive by modern fundamentalists who believe that God’s wishes have been revealed to humankind in literal truth of religious texts.

3.Psychologically reassuring because it generates for society and the individual a sense of belonging and identity. Established customs and practices are one’s individuals can recognise, they are familiar and reassuring. Generates social cohesion by linking people to the past and collective sense of who they are.

Question 5

How do traditional Conservatives and the New Right differ on their view of society?

Answer 5

1. Trad- Burke- organic society- institutions and how society functions shaped by forces beyond human control. Organicism shaped attitudes towards institutions- Burke “change in order to conserve”
   New Right- mechanistic- Thatcher “no such thing as society, only individuals and their families” Individuals more important than society.
   Individuals rights and freedoms are a priority over social duties.
   Social institutions are merely instrumental in that they are created through contractual agreements to satisfy mutual interests.
2. Market= different.
   Trad- planned capitalism. Macmillan favoured nationalised industry. Critical of privatisation of the New Right- “selling off the family silver”
   Keynesian economics- welfare state to support less well off.
   New Right- free market economics- oppose any form of collective running of the economy- nationalisation- sold off assets- council houses - nation of property owners,
3. Trad- strong state. New Right- minimal state.
   Strong state-uphold key principles of ideology - authority, tradition, organic nature of society.
   New Right- minimal. Economic theorist- Friedman, state is coercive, particularly in the economic realm.
   State intervention only needed on issues such as law and order. Thatcher “rolling back the frontiers of the state”
4. Neo Con and trad- much in common.
   Strong state- Thatcher “right govt , right places” state tough on law and order. 1980 and 1990s increased police powers due to Criminal Justice act- stop and search powers, removed right to remain silent.