Core themes

Question 1

What are the core themes of conservatism?

Answer 1

Tradition
Human imperfection
Organic society
Hierarchy and Authority
Property

Question 2

What is the definition of tradition?

Answer 2

Values, practices or institutions that have endured through time and, in particular, been passed down from one generation to the next.

Question 3

Examples of traditional institutions

Answer 3

Monarchy, established Church and political constitution.

Question 4

Examples of traditional values

Answer 4

Preservation of marriage, importance of the nuclear family, religion and established morality.

Question 5

What was the greatest crime of the French revolutionaries, according to Burke and how did he summarise it?

Answer 5

It was to abandon traditional forms of authority that had stood the test of time.
“No generation should ever be so rash as to consider itself superior to its predecessors”

Question 6

To conservatives, what does the fact that values and institutions survived over a period of time?

Answer 6

It is a testament to their quality.

Question 7

What did the 19th century poet and philosopher G.K. Chesterton call tradition and why?

Answer 7

“Democracy of the dead”

Because it allows the wisdom of previous generations to be involved in the activities of current society.

Question 8

What is the conservative argument for the preservation of the monarchy?

Answer 8

Elected governments, political ideologies and social change may come and go, but if the monarchy endures in its traditional form the people will retain a sense of security and continuity amid the turmoil.
Conservatives in the UK also argue that it embodies historical wisdom and experience. The crown has provided the UK with a focus of national loyalty and respect ‘above’ politics; quite simply, it has worked.

Question 9

What has been the modern British conservative attitude to tradition?

Answer 9

It has largely ignored the importance of tradition, especially since the 1980’s.

Question 10

Which traditional institutions have modern British conservatives attacked?

Answer 10

Civil service, the Church of England, the legal establishment and the long-standing practices of the financial centre in London.

Question 11

There is evidence of strong support for traditional institutions and values in which two countries types of conservatism?

Answer 11

US and French conservatism.

Question 12

Burke believed that society was shaped by what?

Answer 12

“The law of our Creator” or what he also called “natural law”

Question 13

Burke described society as a partnership between who?

Answer 13

“Those who are living, those who are dead and those who are to be born”

Question 14

What is the almost Darwinian belief that conservatives hold regarding institutions and values?

Answer 14

That they have only survived because they have worked and been found to be of values.

Question 15

According to Conservatives, what does tradition generate for both society and the individual?

Answer 15

A sense of identity

Question 16

The values of individualism is now shared by what groups?

Answer 16

Liberals, most European democratic parties, both Republicans and Democrats in the USA and the British Labour Party.

Question 17

What are the two main elements of conservative individualism?

Answer 17

Each individual and household should be presented with the widest possible range of choice and opportunities.
Individualism implies a sense of privacy.

Question 18

What should be the states role regarding choices and opportunities?

Answer 18

Restrict them as little as possible but also enhance and facilitate choice and opportunity. The state can play a positive rather than a negative role.

Question 19

What is the conservative view of the state regarding private life?

Answer 19

Private life is not a concern of the state

Question 20

To conservatives, there should be a strong barrier between which spheres?

Answer 20

Public and private spheres.

Question 21

For conservatives, individualism can best flourish in what environment?

Answer 21

Stable social, moral and economic environment.

Question 22

Excessive exercise of what threatens individualism, according to conservatives?

Answer 22

Individual liberty

Question 23

How does Michael Oakeshott describe a society where people enjoy shared morality, values and beliefs, this creative fertile ground for individualism?

Answer 23

Nomocratic

Question 24

What is a nomocratic society?

Answer 24

A society where people enjoy shared morality, values and beliefs, this creative fertile ground for individualism

Question 25

What is a teleocratic society?

Answer 25

A restless society which is always pursuing utopian goals.

Question 26

What type of society does Oakeshott refer to and find it undesirable because it is a restless society which is always pursuing utopian goals.

Answer 26

Teleocratic society

Question 27

What is the analogy that Oakeshott used in relation to individualism?

Answer 27

A ship adrift in an open sea. The ship had no port of departure and no destination, but was constantly faces by crises and dangers which had to be dealt with by its officers.

Question 28

What phrase by Oakeshott sums up why order is so vital for conservatives?

Answer 28

“The mutual frustration of a collision”

Question 29

What was conservatism, at least in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, was associate with?

Answer 29

Class interest

Question 30

During the industrial revolution, which classes found their position increasingly threatened and at the expense of which class?

Answer 30

The landed classes at the expense of the growing economic power of the new capitalist middle class.

Question 31

What was Disraeli’s theory of class known as?

Answer 31

Neo-feudalism

Question 32

What was neo-feudalism?

Answer 32

Since the original feudal system had maintained an ordered society for centuries, it was therefore logical that a modern structural class system could continue to maintain that sense of order.

Question 33

According to Disraeli in the 1860’s, what were the three great classes?

Answer 33

The working class
The capitalist and commercial class
The landed and aristocratic class

Question 34

In Disraeli’s observation in 1860’s, what did the working class consist of?

Answer 34

Mainly of producers. They could not be expected to exercise power directly, although certainly their interests had to expressed and represented.

Question 35

In Disraeli’s observation in 1860’s, what did the capitalist and commercial class consist of?

Answer 35

They were the main wealth creators. They could not be trusted with power since they were self-interested and could not be relied upon to consider the national interest.

Question 36

In Disraeli’s observation in 1860’s, what did the the landed and aristocratic class consist class consist of?

Answer 36

It was a special case. It enjoyed great privileges and it always had done. However, its position now had to be justified; it could not simply rule because it had always done so. It had to accept the responsibility if it were to enjoy privileges.

Question 37

The principle that responsibility comes with power became known as what?

Answer 37

Noblesse oblige.

Question 38

Who is the great ‘father’ of English conservatism?

Answer 38

Edmund Burke

Question 39

Edmund Burke argued that the power of the ruling class could be justified on what grounds?

Answer 39

1. The traditional ruling class enjoyed great wealth and had no pressing need to toil for a living, so it could govern the country in a disinterested way.
2. Having governed the country for centuries, the landed class of gentry and aristocracy had accumulated the wisdom of the past.
3. In a spiritual way, the rulling class was seen by conservatives as superior to all others. Its wisdom would enable it to understand best how to preserve and increase the wealth of people.

Question 40

In the UK, which class has been traditionally conservative?

Answer 40

The middle class, especially those engaged in private enterprise. They hold an interest on the maintenance of order and oppose any ideological change, such as socialism, which would threaten their position in society and politics.

Question 41

Deepest conservatives take the Roman Catholic view that humans are born with what?

Answer 41

Original sin and must therefore remain severely flowed in character. However much individuals try, they will never be able to achieve perfection.

Question 42

According to conservatives, individuals are not driven by reason, but by what?

Answer 42

Basic appetite. These include the desire for physical prosperity, for property, for power and to avoid deprivation. The implication is that individual cannot be trusted in government because they are self interested.

Question 43

On what grounds did Karl Popper criticise all ideologies?

Answer 43

They have been based on a fixed view of human nature.

Question 44

It is conservative tradition to see people as, on the whole, as what?

Answer 44

Untrustworthy, self-seeking and generally feckless. Leads to an assumption that humankind is in need of a firm government.

Question 45

What was Margaret Thatcher’s quote about individuals and family?

Answer 45

“There are individuals and there are families. There is no such thing as society”

Question 46

What is the conservative view of representation?

Answer 46

Governments should not slavishly followe the fluctuating desires and demands of the people, but should use their wise judgement to secure the best interest of the whole country.

Question 47

In what three ways are humans flawed?

Answer 47

Morally, psychologically and intellectually.