One-Nation Conservatism Flashcards
Explain key concepts of One-Nation Conservativism
1) Threat of Disorder
- Emerged from the threat to the order of state and society from socialism, class conflict and the effects/consequences of free-market capitalism
- With these fears present, one nation thought looked to update traditional conservatism’s ideas to deal with this threat
- (Primarily through a focus on paternalistic values)
- One nation conservatives were aware that to ensure social cohesion and orderly change (traditional values), new themes were needed to offset the class-consciousness politics encouraged by early socialists
- (For conservatism and traditional institutions to survive, it was impossible to fight socialism, conservatism needed to ‘change to conserve’)
– “Supporting the working people” - Cameron
– Cameron: extending Right to Buy, increase NMW,
– Disraeli: Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act, Housing Act
2) One Nation
- In an attempt to lessen the threat of disorder, one nation conservatism looked to emphasise national unity, in particular focus on the bonds of affection and trust that holds society together as part of a nation
- In regard to unity, Disraeli and Bismarck argued that a society’s classes were, in fact, all members of the same national ‘family’ (similar to nationhood) and that revolutionary politics represented an attack on the nation itself
- In particular, for Disraeli, the nation was not an alternative to the status quo but the essence of the status quo
- This promoted the idea that the existing nation-state should be something all classes had a vested and shared interest in defending
– (A form of ‘necessary unity’)
– Disraeli’s views of one nation and society align with Burke’s ideas of an organic society
- He outlined that all classes and groups in society are a part of this one nation as society is organic
- If one part of society were to become damaged or distressed the whole of society would become damaged
– Benjamin Disraeli = “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy”
– May tried to unite Brexiters and Remainers
– Thatcher tried to unite One-Nation cons with Thatcherites
3) Paternalism
- Disraeli also offered an update to Burke’s notion of an organic relation between a nation’s richer and poorer classes, outlining that the nation’s aristocracy had a paternalistic duty to “elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
- (Those with the means should support those without)
- Once this obligation was recognised by all classes, Disraeli and Bismarck argued that social and political progress could be achieved harmoniously and without the horrors of class war and revolution
- With this clear bond between groups, it is clear that the wealthy have a responsibility to the less well-off
- For this to work, the state would need to intervene in the free-market economy and society to ensure social stability
- (Conservative values – Order, peace and stability is more important than individualism/freedom and liberty)
– ‘The noblesse oblige’ – French for ‘Nobel obligation’
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Cameron = “security at every stage of life”
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
Also change to conserve – Macmillan - Life Peerages Act (1958)
Explain real world examples of One-Nation Conservatism
1) Disraeli
* Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvements Act 1875 = This involved allowing local councils to buy up areas of slum dwelling in order to clear it and then rebuild. This was an attempt to elevate the working class by redeveloping the housing that they resided in.
* Housing Act
= This act allowed landlords to raise rents only after improving their properties
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”
– “The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.”
– “I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few”
2) MacMillan
* Life Peerages Act 1958
= An Act to make provision for the creation of life peerages carrying the right to sit and vote in the House of Lords
- Prior to the Life Peerages Act 1958, only males sat in House of Lords, with nearly all members having a hereditary title
- As well as allowing those not born into peerage to receive membership in the House of Lords, the Act also made it possible for women to sit in Parliament.
* The creation of 300,000 homes every year for five years
= following WW2, the housing minister in Winston Churchill’s government
* State Managed Economic Policies
= This PM championed a conservatism that steered a course between traditional laissez-faire economic and the socialist collectivism of state planning
- He shared the view of Burke’s belief that preserving society was of paramount importance and he viewed the debilitating effects of unemployment as a terrible threat to stability
- This PM rejected empiricism and chose rationalistic ideas of economist John Maynard Keynes to combat this threat
- His governments attempted to manage the economy in a different way, a ‘middle way’
– “There are three bodies no sensible man directly challenges: the Roman Catholic Church, the Brigade of Guards and the National Union of Mineworkers”
– “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter”
3) Cameron
* Opposition of ID Cards
= Following Labour’s proposal to introduce ID Cards nationwide, the conservatives quickly quashed this policy proposal when entering office.
* Troubled Families Initiative 2011
= The Troubled Families programme is a UK Government scheme under the Department for Communities and Local Government with the stated aim of helping troubled families turn their lives around and integrate within society.
* Big Society Initiative 2011
- This initiative designed to encourage local organisations and volunteers to provide services and improve neighbourhoods.
* Extending the Right to Buy
- Allowed the promotion of a property-owning democracy.
* Every child should have a great education (Such as turning failing schools into academies)
- Paternalism as it bridges the gap between the poor and wealthy within society.
* Increasing National minimum wage
- Paternalism as it ensures those with lesser means ae supported adequately through the state, funded by the elite
– “Security at every stage of life”
– “Britain living within its means”
– “Supporting the working people”
Explain views on human nature in one-nation Conservatism
Pessimism
– Hobbes = Human life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
– ‘Envy, hatred and war’
- Need institution and the state to enforce law and order
– Burke - can’t create utopian society
– They look at what humanity is, rather than what it could or should be
- Organic society examples
Original sin revised (moderate ‘philosophy of imperfection’)
- Progression towards change to conserve values with an enhanced modernity
- They opt for a more moderate version of ‘human imperfection’ outlined by Disraeli where there remains a need for an element of control and order to reduce the impacts of said imperfection
– Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
Paternalism
- This control should come from elite helping less
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” - Disraeli
- Need paternalism to preserve the ‘one nation’
– Nation’s aristocracy - duty - “elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– Disraeli and Bismarck - don’t need revolution to achieve social harmony
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Cameron = “security at every stage of life”
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron - turn failing schools into academies
– Subsidies for private housing after WW2
Explain views on society in one-nation Conservatism
Hierarchy
- Without hierarchy, there would be chaos
- Before state, state of chaos - life “solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”
- Hierarchy needed even at most basic level
– Burke = we should “love the little platoon in society to which we belong”
- Facilitates an organic society
- Although basis of hierarchy is subject to change, there’s a tendency for society to reach a state of equilibrium
- Historically - shifted feudalism –> capitalism
- Concept of hierarchy remained - changed from the circumstances of our birth towards how successful we are at acquiring wealth and property
- ‘evolution … not revolution’
- Ruling class possessed cumulative wisdom from past generations = “no generation should ever be so rash as to consider itself superior to its predecessors” (Burke)
– “as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts and feelings as if they were … inhabitants of different planets”
Paternalism
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” - Disraeli
– Nation’s aristocracy - duty - “elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– Disraeli and Bismarck - don’t need revolution to achieve social harmony
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Cameron = “security at every stage of life”
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
- Need paternalism to preserve the ‘one nation’
– Cameron - turn failing schools into academies
– Subsidies for private housing after WW2
Economy- welfare
– Macmillan’s ‘Middle Way’
– Build 300,000 homes every year for 5 years after WW2
– Artisans and Laboureres Dwellings Improvement Act
– Housing Act - Disraeli
– Cameron - extend right to buy
– Big Society Intiative 2011
Explain views on the state in one-nation Conservatism
Individual liberty
- opposed to the state dictating the lives of its citizens and endorse a more moderate form of individualism
- Yet it must never seek to supress the individual
- To do so would be contrary against everything the ‘nation’ stands for
- From this, one-nation conservatives can be seen to support an enhanced freedom of the individual
– Modern one-nation think tanks like the Tory Reform Group favour the defence of individual liberty
- During WW2, Winston Churchill opposed introduction of ID cards, when they were introduced, he sought to scrap them to “set the people free”
– Tory-Lib Dem coalition (2010-2015) - scrapped ID cards
- Some conservatives reject vaccine passports
– “The Tory party, unless it is a national party, is nothing” – Sybil (The Two Nations) 1845
Change to conserve
– “I am a Conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order, and I equally decry the appeal to the passions of the many or the prejudices of the few”
– Macmillan Life peerages Act (1958) - reform HOL rather than abolishing it
– Burke: “a state without the means of change is without the means of its conservation”
Strong state
- State must be strong enough to deliver the smack of firm govt
– Sir Robert Peel = advocating strong law enforcement
– Macmillan = “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter”
Explain views on the economy in one-nation Conservatism
Threat of disorder
- From unemployment
- Capitalism - growing industrialisation
– “as ignorant of each other’s habits, thoughts and feelings as if they were … inhabitants of different planets” – Disraeli
- Britain being divided into ‘2 nations: the rich and the poor’
- Revolution
- ‘Evolution…not revolution’
Tory welfarism
- Middle ground - laissez-faire and welfare
- Harold Macmillan’s Middle Way - ‘planned capitalism’ - state ownership + private business growth
– High point - 1950s/60s - using Keynesian economics
- Balance individualism with collectivism
- Butskellism was used (Butler was a prominent one-nation Tory whereas Gaitskell was a social democrat - so similar)
Paternalism
– Nation’s aristocracy - duty - “elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– Disraeli and Bismarck - don’t need revolution to achieve social harmony
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Cameron = “security at every stage of life”
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron: failing schools into academies
– Big Society Initiative 2011
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” - Disraeli
- Need paternalism to preserve the ‘one nation’
