Political ideologies - Conservativism Flashcards
What is pragmatism?
To be pragmatic is to reject ideology and dogma - and instead accept that the best route to solving a problem is not necessarily what one’s own ideological belief says.
Pragmatism and one-nation and New Right conservatism.
One-nation conservatism is a highly pragmatic way of governing.
New Right conservatism is much more ideological and requires a firm leadership to steer the government and the country into neo-liberalism.
Two examples of PMs being pragmatic with their policies.
There is evidence for this in the policy of several Conservative Party prime ministers.
Under Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives proposed a poll tax - something that John Major (a more one-nation conservative) saw as being not a pragmatic decision and was replaced with the Council Tax.
David Cameron’s Conservative Party changed its policies based on coalition compromises.
This is because the party changed its ideas to the most electorally and socially pragmatic policies.
What do conservatives believe about tradition?
Conservatives believe that events in the past hold knowledge for people in the present can use.
Tradition, paternalism and hierarchy are closely linked - the people in history who have ruled (who are often of a higher class/income than others) know what is best for the people they are ruling.
New Right conservatism rejected lots of ideas of tradition but not all of it.
Edmund Burke and tradition.
Edmund Burke supported ideas of tradition - he wrote after the 1789 French Revolution about the dangers of rejecting the ideas of the past.
Because of human imperfection, we cannot just create a new society - we should listen to the lessons and teachings of the past and society should evolve organically to meet current needs.
What is organic change?
Organic change is the idea that social change should not be radical, or mechanistic (a liberal idea, where the interactions of rational individuals change the way society works).
Instead, society evolves through an organic process, and political processes and leaders emerge as a result of this organic process.
The society itself is more important than the individual parts within it.
Organic change is gradual rather than revolutionary and is supported by conservatives who wish to preserve order in society.
What is revolutionary change and what do conservatives think about it?
Conservatives believe that revolutionary change disrupts order and hierarchy and so is dangerous to law and order and private property.
Society is constantly evolving, and revolution does not solve society’s problems.
Society functions better and is safer if the change is gradual.
What do conservatives think about human imperfection?
Conservatives reject ideas from the enlightenment about trying to improve human nature, arguing that human nature cannot be perfected.
Human imperfection goes against the liberal idea of human rationality, that humans are rational creatures that can become more fulfilled when given the freedom to make their own choices. Because humans are imperfect, they are unable to make good decisions for themselves. Humans are attracted to safety, comfort and order, rather than radical ideas and change.
So, order and hierarchy in society should be preserved.
Institutions that protect order and hierarchy should be preserved.
Moral imperfection.
Humans have flawed characters and therefore cannot always act rationally or perfectly.
This leads to a conservative view of crime as being a result of a flawed moral characteristic, rather than inequalities in the world.
Conservatives believe in behaviour regulation through the law (anti-permissiveness) as a result of moral imperfection.
Intellectual imperfection.
Human rationality is imperfect and unreliable, and humans are intellectually imperfect.
The world around us is more complicated than our intellects are able to comprehend.
This disagrees with the liberal view that humans can create a free society through their rationality.
Instead, we are unable to fully understand the society around us, and to try and completely overhaul what already exists would not be successful.
Organic society/state
and what that means for conservatives
Society develops as an organism, rather than as a man-made device, and is therefore constantly changing.
Conservatives support gradual change, and believe that society will evolve to fit the needs of the present.
The idea of the organic state links to the conservative beliefs in authority, because those in authority are there because they are society’s natural leaders.
The idea of the organic state links to a cohesive society because it suggests state unity is more important than disagreements between the state’s individual parts.
