Conservatism

Conservatism is a major political philosophy supporting traditional values or an established social order. Etymologically, the word conservatism implies that conservatives seek to conserve the existing social order or to reinstate an ideal social order now in decline. This can take a peaceful democratic form or violent radical form, and there are historical examples of both.

Burkean conservatism as non-ideological

Conservatism is generally seen as an ideology, in the sense of a coherent and comprehensive political programme, based on a view of the world, and especially on specific values. In practice, all western conservative movements, and certainly all Conservative parties, operate on the basis of a formal written programme or policy statement. However, the classical conservative tradition in English-speaking countries, which usually regards Edmund Burke as its intellectual source, often insists that it is not an ideology. That is often intended in the sense of a utopian ideology, with some form of plan for society. Burkean conservatives claim to be pragmatic, and to avoid a formal set of principles.

Related Topics:
Ideology - Values - Edmund Burke - Utopian - Pragmatic

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Edmund Burke developed his ideas in reaction to the Enlightenment, and the idea of a society guided by abstract "Reason." Although he did not use the term, he anticipated the critique of modernism, a term first used at the end of the 19th century by the Dutch religious reactionary Abraham Kuyper. Burke was troubled by the Enlightenment and argued, instead, for the value of tradition.

Related Topics:
Enlightenment - Modernism - Abraham Kuyper

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Some men, argued Burke, have more reason than others, and thus some men will make worse governments if they rely upon reason than others. To Burke, the proper formulation of government came not from abstractions such as "Reason," but from time-honoured development of the state and of other important societal institutions such as the family and the Church.

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"We are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason, because we suspect that this stock in each man is small, and that the individuals would do better to avail themselves of the general bank and capital of nations and ages. Many of our men of speculation, instead of exploding general prejudices, employ their sagacity to discover the latent wisdom which prevails in them. If they find what they seek, and they seldom fail, they think it more wise to continue the prejudice, with the reason involved, than to cast away the coat of prejudice, and to leave nothing but naked reason; because prejudice, with its reason, has a motive to give action to that reason, and an affection which will give it permanence."

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Burke argued that tradition is a much sounder foundation than "reason". The conservative paradigm he established emphasises the futility of attempting to ground human society based on pure abstractions (such as "reason," "equality," or, more recently, "diversity"), and the necessity of humility in the face of the unknowable. Existing institutions have virtues that cannot be fully grasped by any single person or interest group or, in Burke's view, even any single generation: in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke wrote of the living

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"the temporary possessors and life-renters... (of)... the commonwealth and laws... should not think it among their rights to cut off the entail, or commit waste on the inheritance, by destroying at their pleasure the whole original fabric of their society."http://www.users.bigpond.com/smartboard/burke/church.htm

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Tradition draws on the wisdom of many generations and the tests of time, while "reason" may be a mask for the preferences of one man, and at best represents only the untested wisdom of one generation. In the conservative view, an attempt to modify the complex web of human interactions that form human society for the sake of some doctrine or theory runs the risk of running afoul of the iron law of unintended consequences. Burke advocates vigilance against the possibility of moral hazards. For Burkean conservatives, human society is something rooted and organic; to try to prune and shape it according to the plans of an ideologue is to invite unforeseen disaster.

Related Topics:
Unintended consequence - Moral hazard

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Burkean conservatives are inherently skeptical of plans to re-model human society after an ideological model. They emphasise continuity with tradition, which does exclude changes within the framework of that tradition. They insist that political change should come about through legitimate political process, and oppose interference with that process, including extra-constitutional reactionary changes. So long as rule of law is upheld, and so long as change is effected gradually and constitutionally rather than revolution, they are, in theory, content. Burkean conservatism is in principle neither revolutionary nor counter-revolutionary.

Related Topics:
Reactionary - Revolutionary

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In terms of classification, Burke?s conservatism was traditionalist. Whether that is ideological or non-ideological is disputed. Most societies contain both traditional and non-traditional elements, and removing all the non-traditional elements might mean a radical restructuring of society. Even 'anti-ideological' classical conservatives have political preferences, and a conservative political party must have some form of programme.

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Some classical conservatives prefer to define non-ideological in a more liberal sense, as concerned with means rather than with ends - process over outcome, in liberal terminology. They would emphasise the philosophical distinction between deontological and consequentialist positions.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Deontological - Consequentialist

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