conservatism state Flashcards
What is primacy of order?
-The main goal of the state is to provide order, security, and authority.
-Oakeshott stated they must “prevent the bad rather than create the good.”
-Hobbes thought that safety & security was impossible without strict law & order, and the state must provide this.
-Authority provided by the state therefore predates society.
-Burke states that “society requires that… the inclinations of men should be frequently thwarted, their will controlled, and their passions brought into subjection.”
What do they think about the state?
-Retaining order is its most important role.
-There should be limited hierarchy.
-Empiricism, experience, and consensus
What is limited hierarchy?
-Hobbes, Burke, and Oakeshott were openly hierarchical & elitist. He argued for concentrated state power & a “Leviathan.”
-If power were dispersed the divisions that had made the state necessary would simply be reopened.
-An aristocratic ruling class, limited by formal rules, were necessary. A natural ruling class was born & bred to rule the state. Burke recognised that they must be limited by a constitution.
-Burke’s little platoons would create a confident, strong society.
What were views of empiricism, experience, and consensus?
-They emphasise a preference for “what is known rather than envisaged.” The state should not be guided by normative views or doctrine, but by empiricism.
-Oakeshott compared the state to a ship that has “no agreed port of destination” but whose aim is to stay afloat by charting whichever course seems safest. He saw the state as a vessel that saves individuals from the anarchy of the open waters, “avoid the tempestuous seas.”
-Experience is the most important thing, and humans have a “love of the familiar.”
What is the New Right Perspective?
-Nozick criticised Oakeshott, saying his views were too passive & accomodating, leasing to a state that was easily blown off course by the enemies to conservatism.
-They are less likely to accept empiricism & its rigidity.
-Thatcher exemplified this, claiming to be “a conviction politician not a consensus politician.” She called for a resolute approach, that rejects “u-turns” by its readiness to confront ‘enemies within’.
-They think you strengthen the state by shrinking it, “small state is a strong state.”
-“Roll back the frontiers of the state” by radical policies of privatisation & deregulation.
