Running Head: TERM 1 SEMINAR PAPER

Term 1 Seminar Paper

[Name of Writer]
[Name of Institution]
 1

Term 1 Seminar Paper

Question
Compare and contrast the central features of liberalism and conservatism.

Introduction
Liberalism and conservatism are basically seen as important social and political frameworks.
These doctrines basically help in the governance of society. Views under both liberalism and
conservatism have developed with the passage of time. Despite prominent differences in its
approach and views, both liberalism and conservatism work with a major goal of betterment
of the society. There would not be any exaggeration if it is claimed that both liberalism and
conservatism works for the attainment of a similar objective, but their implementation plans
and strategies are different. The purpose of this paper is to identify and highlight major
similarities and differences between the ideologies of liberalism and conservatism. The
political and social views of liberalism and conservatism will be assessed in this paper in
terms of how these selected doctrines view the individuals, state, economy, property, and
other important societal and governmental aspects.

Liberalism and Conservatism

Liberalism is defined as one of the most important political philosophies that encourage the
ideas of liberty and equality. Various views are adopted by liberals related to the promotion
of liberty and equality in society. For instance, liberalism creates programs to support integral
ideas of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, democratic society, gender equality and even
secular government. The history of liberalism can be easily traced back to the times of Age of
Enlightenment (Gray, 2014). This was the time when liberalism became popular after
rejecting the existing social and political norms of hereditary privileges. Absolute monarchy
was also questioned by liberalism. It is important to note that John Locke, a famous
philosopher of 17th century is known as the founder of liberalism concepts (Etzioni, 2013).
John Locke was of the opinion that each and every individual on this earth possess a natural
right to life, liberty, and even property.
 2

On the other hand, conservatism is seen as an important political and social philosophy that
encourage preserving the traditional social institutions. As suggested by its name,
conservatism totally revolves around maintaining the existing culture and civilizations by
continuing with the traditional forms of government and hierarchies (Baradat & Phillips,
2016). While attempting to preserve the traditional institutions, conservatism often promote
aspects like slavery, racism, monarchy, and social hierarchies. This is mainly due to the fact
that conservatism believes that society needs to be stable and maintain continuity for its
betterment. It can be easily suggested that conservatism remains a total opposite of liberalism
as far as the political views and doctrines are concerned. The history of conservatism can be
traced back to 1818 when the policies of French Revolution were again implemented during
the period of Bourbon restoration (Etzioni, 2013). Conservatism is practices in a lot of
different countries across the globe with minor changes in its policies.
The concept of liberalism is assumed to promote freedom and supremacy of individuals
living in any society. Liberalism claims that human beings are good by nature and therefore,
they have a right of freedom and supremacy in the society. According to Harrison and Boyd
(2003), the ideology of liberalism essentially revolves around making human beings superior.
There would not be any exaggeration if it is claimed that liberalism seems to consider
pluralism an important phenomenon in which human beings having diverse beliefs and ethics
tend to compete for good reasons. This aspect remains essentially contrasting to the views of
conservatism (Baradat & Phillips, 2016). Conservatism remains uneasy with pluralism as it
believes in social hierarchies and even supports monarch system. Conservatism also holds an
opinion that societies are largely imperfect and faulty by nature and thus, they should not be
claimed as good. According to conservatism ideas, human beings are psychologically and
emotionally weak; therefore, they are dependent on each other.
Baradat and Phillips (2016) claimed that liberals are of the opinion that human beings are
naturally good and therefore, they can be responsible for their actions and behaviours. In
contrast, the conservatism doctrine seems to mistrust the individuals. This mistrust is the
biggest reason due to which conservatism supports authoritarian government and command
over human beings. The doctrine of liberalism about the view of state, especially, the
classical liberalism remains totally contrasting from the view of conservatism (Baradat &
Phillips, 2016). Classical liberalism promotes the ideas of minimal state being restricted to
the protection of individuals. However, it is important to depict that modern liberalism is
essentially different from that of classical concepts. Modern liberalism does not advocate the
subscription of minimal state as it realises the fact that assistance of state remains entirely
 3

unavoidable. On the other hand, conservatism supports the strong states for maintaining law
and discipline in the country.
The doctrine of conservatism is totally against the redistribution of wealth from the rich to
poor. In simple words, it can be suggested that liberalism mainly focuses over the welfare of
human being. According to O’Neill (2016), liberals consider the value of human being above
state and every other thing whereas conservatism supports the idea of suppressing poor and
promoting rich to manage the societal affairs. As far as the concept of equality is concerned,
conservatism claims that societies are ought to be unequal naturally. Conservatives believe
that nature has divided the society into two parts. One part is meant to lead the society
whereas the other part is born to be led. Conservatives suggest that when nature has divided
the society in two clear parts, the distinction must exist and respected by everyone. They also
claim that there is no need to redistribute the wealth from rich to poor as nothing will change
in the long run.
This view of liberalism on equality is entirely contrasting to that of conservatism. According
to liberals, equality is a prominent right of every human being. Liberals claim that all human
beings are born equal and divisions are made by the society. It is important to note that
liberals see equality as a right rather than a privilege. Equality must be prominent throughout
the society despite the differences of class, creed, race or religion (Harrison & Boyd, 2003).
There is no point of making one section of the society superior to the others. Economic
viewpoints of liberalism and conservatism are also important to discuss. Conservatism
believes that private sector must be encouraged to offer services more efficiently than the
government. Also, they claim that government regulations are not good for businesses and
therefore, the interference of government needs to be least in private economic affairs of
citizens.
In contrast, liberalism is again focused over the welfare of human beings. Liberalism believes
that it is an essential duty of the ruling class or government to offer effective services to its
citizens. For instance, healthcare, infrastructure, unemployment coverage, and education are
basic rights of human beings which must be taken care by the governments. The role of
Edmund Burke cannot be denied as a major proponent of the modern conservative thoughts.
There is no doubt about the fact that liberalism sounds a promising doctrine of governance
and is usually liked by human beings across the globe. However, the liberalism framework
has attracted both extreme criticism and support throughout the history from all ideological
and philosophical groups. According to O’Neill (2016), a variety of movements in both
liberalism and conservatism are prominent. With the passage of time and increasing
 4

globalisation, liberalism is now seen as the only prominent and hopeful vision of managing
the worldly affairs.
It is important to note that there is no particular set of policies that can be universally seen as
liberal or conservative. According to Hibbing, Smith, and Alford (2013), there are a lot of
debates going over the pros and cons of both liberalism and conservatism. While comparing
and contrasting the central features of both ideologies, it become prominent that both
liberalism and conservatism differ almost on all important grounds like state, economy,
equality, and others. In simple words, it can be claimed that monarchy and hierarchies are
prominent features of conservatism whereas pluralism and welfare of human being and
overall society are central features of liberalism.

Conclusion
To conclude, it can be easily suggested that liberalism is focused towards the supremacy of
human beings and the goodness of human nature. This view of liberalism is entirely
contrasting to the view of conservatism. Conservatism criticise human beings for being
defective and flawed to the core. The approach of conservatism towards the state is different
from that of liberalism. Also, conservatism does not respect the human equality. Both
liberalism and conservatism adhere to the capitalist economic system while referring to the
economic aspect of the society. Despite all the differences in its approaches and
implementation concepts, the main objective of both liberalism and conservatism relates to
leading the society for the betterment. The meanings of both liberalism and conservatism are
clearly depicted in their names. Liberals are modern and emphasize over the goodness for
everyone whereas conservatism promotes traditional hierarchies and class systems claiming
that human beings need to be governed.
 5

References

Baradat, L. P., & Phillips, J. A. (2016). Political ideologies: Their origins and impact. Taylor
& Francis.
Etzioni, A. (2013). The bankruptcy of liberalism and conservatism. Political Science
Quarterly, 128(1), 39-66.
Gray, J. (2014). Post-liberalism: Studies in political thought. Routledge.
Harrison, K. & Boyd, T., 2003. Understanding political ideas and movements. Manchester:
Manchester University press.
Hibbing, J. R., Smith, K. B., & Alford, J. R. (2013). Predisposed: Liberals, conservatives,
and the biology of political differences. Routledge.
O'Neill, D. I. (2016). Political ideologies and the democratic ideal. Taylor & Francis.