Core ideas of conservatism - The economy Flashcards
Capitalism…
Capitalism tends to nurture and widen economic inequalities and to sharpen the distinction between rich and poor. Conservatism, meanwhile, defends inequality and hierarchy. So it is unsurprising that ‘conservative economics’ have a pro-capitalist flavour.
Traditional conservatism’s support for capitalism…
Traditional conservatism’s support for capitalism is nuanced. This is because conservatism worships order, stability and continuity. Yet free-market capitalism promotes risk, innovation and iconoclasm.
Capitalism’s ‘reluctant supporters’…
Traditional conservatives have sometimes been dubbed capitalism’s ‘reluctant supporters’. On the one hand, they recognise that any assault on capitalism is also an assault on property, inequality, hierarchy and the status quo. On the other hand, they are sceptical of the classical or neoliberal belief that markets are at their most effective when left alone by governments. Supporting laissez-faire capitalism, after all, requires an optimistic view of market forces, and is therefore somewhat inconsistent with conservatism’s scepticism and pessimism.
Moderated form of capitalism…
Traditional conservatives have tried to resolve this dilemma by supporting a moderated form of capitalism, in which free markets are tempered by state intervention. Under this conservative model of capitalism - sometimes referred to as protectionism - society and the economy would be insured against the vagaries of markets by state-imposed tariffs and duties.
This ‘protection’ of national producers and consumers was also consistent with traditional conservatism’s emphasis upon national identity and ‘one nation’, offsetting the globalising effects of free-market capitalism. Traditional conservatives in the 20th century were also drawn to Keynesian capitalism, whereby the state ‘managed’ market forces in the interests of full employment.
New Right on free-market economics…
New Right conservatives have generally had a more sympathetic view of free-market economies. Indeed, in the USA during the 1980s, free-market capitalism was often referred to as ‘Reaganomics’. At the same time, the New Right governments of Margaret Thatcher aimed to ‘free’ the UK economy through the privatisation of formerly state-owned industries.
New Right economics complimenting traditional conservatism…
New Right economics still manages to complement traditional conservatism in a number of ways.
First, the New Right argues that by disengaging almost completely from the economy, the state could then focus on its true Hobbesian purpose of order and security.
Second, the New Right believes that a free-market economy will be a prosperous economy. This might promote ‘popular capitalism’ and destroy socialism, but it would also fund greater state spending on the police, armed forces and other agencies vital to the defence of a conservative society.
