Traditional Conservatives have seemed to avoid creating any fixed principles and have opposed political parties and movements that have done so. Conservatism has often been described as pragmatic in that it changes its appearance and stance according to the dominant political opinion at that time. In the nineteenth century, when it was opposing the views of liberalism, it adopted the idea of an organic society. This is where society is described as organ, with all parts of society connected and working together, rather than merely a collection of free individuals. They expected people to have a sense of responsibility towards each other. However, when socialism became more popular in the twentieth century, the conservatives changed ideas and began to emphasise the importance of the free market and individualism, as they were opposed to the idea of collectivism.
However, again the New Right has had a different idea to that of traditional conservatism. It has adopted some fixed ideas that could be seen as ideological. In particular, monetarism became a very important part of their political thinking (which is based upon controlling interest rates). They believed the state should less control over the economy and confine itself to regulating the currency and public finances. They also were unchanging on their disapproval of taxation and welfare, as they believed they were preventing economic growth. Their strong beliefs on these areas of policy could be described as an anti-state ideological position. This would be that society could only flourish if it was free of government regulation.
Conservatives are also usually empiricists. This means that they judge current actions against the experiences of the past. The conservative respect for tradition, pragmatism and suspicion of the new and untried are all aspects of this approach. They suggest the wise politician builds on the wisdom of the past and is informed by that past. This is preference for the known of the past over the unknown of the future. This respects Burke’s idea that current cannot believe they are better than the generations before them. Critics say that conservatives are always looking backwards and so cannot be said to have an ideology, as this does not show how society should be run.
There is also the fact that Conservatives themselves have sometimes suggested their ideas are not an ideology but are a frame of mind based upon common sense and pragmatism. They have a fear of ideology and believe that basing too much importance on ideological opinions can cause more harm than not. Conservatives actually tend to be sceptical of fixed political principles. They believe that this is artificial; it ignores two of their core beliefs, those of the importance of tradition and the need for social stability. They do not believe social progress will be made in this way. They do believe in social improvement but think it should be in accordance with the emotions and traditions of the people and not abstract principles. Michael Portillo said:
“If there were no political nostrums, there would be no need for conservatism”.
So they see themselves as a contrast to need for set political beliefs. Conservatives are also suspicious of the general activity of politics. They think political activity should be limited as they doubt that it can be very effective or whether it is necessary. Lord Hailsham said:
“The man who puts politics before his family is not fit to be called a civilised human being”
They are very scathing of the direct importance of political philosophy in society and for many traditional conservatives, they see the main role of their philosophy as expressing reservations and doubts about any political movements.
Another way that conservatives have shown their distaste for ideology is through their contempt of radical change. Since they emerged as a counter to the French Revolution, they have always opposed the idea of sudden ideological change. They have resisted rapid forms of social revolution or transformation. They do believe in reforms when necessary, but they must be carried out gently and with continuity. They also think that holding onto ideologies may lead a country into tyranny for two reasons. Firstly, ideological leaders tend to be totalitarian in their regimes as they try to pursue political goals. They have observed this happening to movements such as fascism, communism and radical feminism. The ideas themselves can be tyrannical as shown by the Jacobeans in the French Revolution. An example of Jacobinism today in the views of the conservatives is the “political correctness” proposed by militant feminists. Secondly, ideologies often result in revolutionary change which can sweep away all the traditional authority and stability. This with then result in disorder or at worst anarchy.
The final reason that conservatives argue they do not believe in ideologies is due to their opinion of human nature. They believe that human nature is flawed: fickle, non-rational and changeable. Therefore, they do not believe they can have any fixed political ideas as they will be fundamentally flawed. Ideas that are attempted to be imposed on human nature by ideologies are not natural to human nature and so cannot endure. It was said by Francis Pym in “The Politics of Consent” that:
“If the main strength of conservatism is adaptability, its main enemy is ideology.”
The difficulty is that, although the traditional conservative belief has been to be wary of ideology and overt political movement, there have been changes in the views of the Conservative party in Britain, based upon the political climate in which we now find ourselves. In this climate, there is now a necessity for Conservatives to have some fixed principles as this is the expectation of the public. After the “Winter of Discontent” under James Callaghan, it was necessary for Margaret Thatcher to show some sort of political agenda to improve the country and prevent this amount of unrest from occurring again. It was also important to show how she was going to get the economy to improve. For this reason, it was not possible for her to continue along the Conservative path of pragmatism and no fixed principles.
Therefore, from the evidence suggested above, it seems that, while traditional conservatism is a state of mind, with a broad and flexible philosophy, the more modern forms of conservatism have become ideological. The state of mind key to traditional conservatism is to prefer order over liberty, to be suspicious of radical change and to prefer the past to the future. The New Right, however, has been a radical movement whose leaders have been prepared to reject the past in favour of new doctrines and fixed principles. Although the conservatives of the past had limited belief in ideology and their values did not follow the traditional definition of an ideology, the newer factions of the conservative party have become much more ideological and this can partly be explained due to the public’s expectations of a political party.
