US: Conservatism Flashcards
who said, “no state more extensive than the minimal state can be justified”
Robert Nozick
Who said, “the man of conservative temperament knows that a known good is not lightly to be surrendered for an unknown better”
Michael Oakeshott
Who said, “The taxation of earning from labour is on par with forced labour”
Robert Nozick
who wrote, “love the little platoon to which we belong”
Edmund Burke
“The conjunction of ruling and dreaming general tyranny”
Michael Oakeshott
“money is the barometer of a society’s virtue”
Ayn Rand
“Life in the state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short”
Thomas Hobbes
“covenants without swords are just words”
Thomas Hobbes
“society is but a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born”
Edmund Burke
“only the man who does not need it is fit to inherit it, the man who would make his fortune no matter where he started”
Ayn Rand
What does conservatism think about the Economy
- Favour capitalism: widens economic inequality and preserves hierarchy which in turn promotes risk and innovation rather than order and continuity
- Hate lassaiz-faire capitalism due to dim views on human nature: support tariffs and state ensuring full employment
- The New Right: Thatcher’s neo-conservative social and neo-liberal government. Privatises state to “free” economy + more spending on police
- Lower taxes with capitalism, which means you can keep the fruits of your own labour
What does conservatism think about the role of the state?
- Ruling classes are born and trained to rule therefore they are most suitable (Edmund Burke huge advocate for this after French Revolution)
- The principle of paternalism: laws should ensure social cohesion and avoid revolutionary ideas
- Organic origins of state show that it is born from pragmatism rather than ideology (due to the lack of experience)
- Individual rights only stem from the state’s order and authority
- Oakeshott: the state should “prevent the bad rather than create the good”
What does conservatism think about human nature?
- Oakeshott: conservatism is “more psychology than ideology” and that human nature is fallible and can only be benevolent when countered with family and religion and routine
- Burke: human nature is fallible, but not terrible. At core we are a communal species who find comfort in each other
- Hobbes: human nature is the worst, calculating and counter-productive
- Overall: Human nature is a hindrance which is not malleable- needs to be overcome with the state
“Conservatism is a philosophy of imperfection”
What does conservatism think about society?
- Property is inherited or bequeathed, forming ties between living and dead (Burke, “the living, dead and yet to be)
- Localism: society is a collection of communities, local loyalty makes us more committed to status and protection (Burke’s little platoon)
- Organicism: society is unplanned and organic like a plant/OR like an old building which only need constructive maintenance
- Empiricism: preference for evidence rather than speculation
- Judeo-Christian morality, backbone of tradition (the guidebook of society) is religion and thus society
- Hierarchy is a reflection of human weakness, they need leadership
What is One Nation conservatism
Founded by Benjamin Disraeli in the 1870s, it is a paternalistic strand of traditional conservatism. He argued that it was in the interests of the elite to look after the less fortunate- as having a safety net for poverty would make revolution less likely
Summarise The New Right strand of conservatism
- Andy Rand and Robert Nozick are key thinkers during the economic crisis of the 1970s (stagflation, crime and traditions out the window) so they revert to tradition
- Better view of human nature due to failings of the state (supporting laissez-faire, property ownership, small government and social conservatism)
- Rand argues individualism over the government was key to success: Atomism: looking after yourself. She argues liberty is impossible without state order
- Nozick: “tax, for the most part, is theft”. He argued that limited states increase community and paternalism
Summarise traditional early conservatism
- Hobbes, life in the state of nature is “nasty, brutish and short”
- Burke, “little platoons” community to take away human imperfection. Hierarchy based on opulent, wise and strong
- Oakeshott, “a boat trying to stay afloat in choppy waters” we should not overshoot goals just battle troubles
- George Canning, followed Burkian doctrine apart from when he allowed Catholics into Parliament, however, this is still conservative as it prevented civil unrest
Summarise traditional later conservatism
- One-nation conservatism, “The palace is unsafe if the cottage is unhappy”
- “Aristocracy has a duty to elevate the people” Benjamin Disraeli said both these
- Conservatism is opportunistic and pragmatic, changing to suit the needs of the present using empiricism
- “Conservatives conserve no principles” Croyston
What was Robert Nozick’s revolutionary book called
“Anarchy, State and Utopia”
Summarise the thinking of Robert Nozick
- State’s role is purely for defence, police and courts of law
- Other bodies such as schools, hospitals and welfare institutions should be taken over by religious bodies, charities and other private sectors
- Enshrined in the principles of Kant, that human beings have a dignity which cannot be controlled (self-ownership, dating back to Locke, that people should own the fruits of their labours not slaves to the state)
- “Night-watchman state” only looks to protect its citizens not constrain them
- “Tax, for the most part, is theft”
Summarise the thinking of Michael Oakeshott
- “Blueprint theory”, do not try to make neat rules in a messy world and solve problems in a way which reflects a social consensus
- Oakeshott argues human nature differs depending on how you are raised, while Hobbes sees it as rotten to the core (“fallible, but not terrible”)
- Oakeshott doesn’t believe in the same emotional commitment to tradition for the sake of pragmatism as Burke
- “to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried … the actual to the possible”
- prefers civil association to the enterprise association as enterprise reduces citizens to objects (for their own good) while civil allows them to make their own choices
- State’s role is to “Prevent the bad rather than create the good”
Summarise the thinking of Ayn Rand
- humans are “pack animals” who yearn for freedom but need restraints (similar to Hobbes, humans must be constrained to ensure peace and stability)
- extend property owning as property owning is the best way to resist state
- “When the state becomes flabby it becomes feeble” streamline the state
- “Roll back” the frontiers to create a free market economy
- Atomism: society defined by millions of autonomous individuals, each seeking fulfilment
- Social liberty: she defends the right to choose homosexuality and abortion
- Liberty is impossible without the order and security the state can provide
- Does not see money as he root of all evil since its based on the principle of trust
Summarise the thinking of Edmund Burke
- his conservative ideas were a response to the French Revolution
- He stresses mankind’s fallibility and the importance of organicism, tradition, aristocracy and localism
- Critics argue that he was only trying to retain his own aristocratic position
- Change should be based on fact and experience rather than idealism
- Society is more like plant than machine (organicism) therefore, change must be gradual and gentle.
- The ruling classes are obliged to rule in the interests of all, they are born into the position and raised to lead
- Criticised French Republic for their centralised approach rather than “little platoons”
Summarise thinking of Thomas Hobbes
- Linked to the liberal principle of government by consent, taking a skeptical view of human nature
- State of nature, “nasty brutish and short” therefore, state is necessary to provide rights and restrain “ruthless self-interest”
- Society is inevitable, as people recognise the need for protection under their own self-interest: therefore, main purpose of the state is security to “avoid perpetual war of every man against his neighbour”
- Human nature is underpinned by a rationality and self-interest
“People begin hating themselves as the default man within them berates them for being other”
Grayson Perry, The rise and fall of the default man 2014
