CONSERVATISM

Miskelly, Matthew and Noce, Jaime. (2002). Political Theories for

Students: United States of America: The Gale Group, Inc
Edmund Burke (1729–1797) is considered the founder of mod ern
conservative thought. His “Reflections on the Rev olution in France”
(1790) form the basis of conservatism as a distinct political ideology.
Burke’s form, however, has been, and remains, a Western phenomenon,
and con tinues to defend most values of Western society. Thus, over the
years, the United Kingdom and the United States have become the
greatest proponents of conser vatism, and even between these two
great powers, con servative principles have differed substantially.
Edmund Burke
Noted politician, writer, and statesman Edmund Burke was the son of a
Dublin attorney. He abandoned his own law studies in favor of literary
work. After serving briefly as Secretary to the Marquis of Rock ingham in
1765, Burke entered parliament as a Whig, a member of the people’s
party. These were times of great upheaval, marked by coercion of the
American colonies, and accompanying corruption, extravagance, and
reaction. Burke, who greatly respected the wis dom of the ages, fought
for liberty in his writings and speeches. But the key element in his early
and best works was that liberty must relate to order. This re quired a
sound, constitutional, and consistent states manship that enlarged the
bounds of liberty only with caution. To him, a nation was a great living
society, its constitution an exquisite balance of social forces, premised on
complex relations and history interwoven with its institutions. In the mid–
1770s, Burke spoke against proposals to tax the American colonies and to
regulate the gov ernment of Massachusetts. He did not dispute that the
imperial government had the right to take such actions, but he did
question the worthiness of such rights. To make his point, Burke delivered
two impassioned speeches in the House of Commons: one dwelt on the
matter of American taxation by duties and the other urged a
reconciliation between the imperial Parliament and the colonies. When
the American War for Inde pendence did come, Burke opposed it; he
perceived it a danger to the liberties of the colonies and, there fore, of
all English subjects.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was the most conspicuous
development to coincide with Burke’s career. In 1790 he published
Reflections on the French Revolution as a warning to fellow English
subjects and admirers that the loss of monarchy and liberty could also
occur in England, as it had in France, if preventive action was not taken.
This most famous of his works went into an eleventh printing before the
year ended and served to create an English response to the French
Revolution. Burke retired from political life soon after his son Richard died
of consumption (tuberculosis) in August, 1794. In 1796, he opened a
neighborhood school school for foreign and immigrant children who
would not oth erwise have been educated. Early the next year his health
began to decline, and he died on July 9, 1797. Despite a move to have him
interred, with public honors, in Westminster Abbey, Burke’s own will
stipulated he be buried in the yard of the parish church of Beaconsfield.
Because the balance and tranquility of a great na tion took so many years
and so many components to achieve, Burke always argued against hasty
change. He believed that only cautious and delicate adjustment to
accommodate pressing events should be attempted, lest the unraveling
of latent or unknown components that contributed to the whole would
inadvertently cause its demise. Burke’s writings inspired many mon archs
and leaders through their own confrontations with revolution or reform.
His defense of preserving existing institutions and orders became the
foundation for Western conservative thought.
Theory in Depth
True political conservatism argues that the sur vival of any institution
such as marriage, the pledge of allegiance, or free enterprise, means it
has suc cessfully served a need. Accordingly, its continuation is necessary
for that society or government. Conserv ative statesman Benjamin
Disraeli once argued that constant change should at least defer to “the
manners, the customs, the laws, the traditions of the people.” That notion
is at the heart of true conservatism. Con servatism is acutely sensitive to
the cost of radical change or reconstruction; until the full consequences
are understood, such changes may lead to harmful, un intended
consequences or other negative or unantici pated effects. Conservatism
vigorously defends the premise that not all people are equal. It supports
the idea that all people are created equal with regard to personal
free doms and rights. But it argues strongly for the inher ent inequality
in talent and initiative. Conservatism considers it a folly to try to level
society by social en gineering. Accordingly, attempts to distribute wealth
evenly or give equal say to those who have earned no vested interest in a
matter are clearly suspect. Persistent themes of traditional conservatism
in clude a universal moral order sanctioned by organized religion, the
primary role of private property and a de fense of the social order. On
the other end is the crit icism that true conservatism is interested only in
main taining existing inequalities or restoring lost ones.
Essentials of Conservatism
Conservatism endeavors to preserve the existing order or the
continuance of existing institutions, prin ciples, and policies. Its cautious
resistance to change is premised upon the belief that would–be reformers
do not fully comprehend the interrelationship and in terdependency of
their proposed change upon other el ements of the larger system in
which it is a compo nent. English statesman Edmund Burke is most often
credited with inspiring the form of conservatism that has its roots in the
Western Hemisphere. American conservatism, although vacillating on a
continuum, is generally characterized by economic conservatism
(maintenance of a free–enterprise system without gov ernment
interference) and social traditionalism (the upholding of values and
principles as envisioned by the founding fathers).
Theory in Action
Perhaps nowhere has conservatism established deeper political roots
than in the Western Hemisphere. Wherever the politics of tradition,
wealth, and aris tocracy have been a historic force, one will find a strong
conservative presence in government. Exam ples include the Tories or
Conservative Party of Great Britain, the Republican Party of the United
States, the prior Gaullists of France, the largely dominant Liberal
Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan (which, despite its name, is conservative),
and the Swatantra Party of India. Similar polities exist in other countries.
In Italy’s May 2001 general election, the right–of–center al liance known
as the Casa delle Liberta (House of Free dom) prevailed over the center–
left coalition which had ruled the country for the five previous years. In
Switzerland, run for more than a century with the Lib erals governing and
the Conservatives in opposition a four–party coalition known as the
“magic formula” now runs the government. Since the fall of the Soviet
Union in 1991, Russia has created a parliament. Its two main political
forces are the conservative right’s Yabloko and a loose coalition of liberal
parties known as the Union of Rightist Forces (URF). Iran has suf fered
relatively bitter power struggles between con servatives and reformers
since 1989.