Is there a distinctive Conservative ideology?

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British Politics and Current Affairs

Is there a distinctive Conservative ideology?

Matthew Woodward

Journalism and Contemporary History

JO1106 – BPCA

16 November 2009

Word Count: 1465

The first Conservative ideas appeared late in the 18th century and early 19th century as a consequence of the rapid political and economical ongoing change represented mainly by the French Revolution. However the first oppositions in conservative thought were seen throughout the world, as European Conservatism refused any theories regarding social or political reform whereas American and British Conservatism carefully adapted to the ideas of ‘natural change’ and adopted ‘change in order to conserve.’ Conversely, gradual Conservative acceptance of social change/reform through paternalism became apparent towards the end of the 19th century with the development of the New Right, inspired by Ronald Reagan, James Wilson (Reagan’s advisor), John Redwood (Conservative MP) and Margaret Thatcher, as the ideas of ‘social reform’ were disapproved of and the promotion of a ‘two-adult family caring for their children’ became popular. Philip Norton exemplify says that “the (conservative) party is a corporate body which encompasses many themes and many interpretations of them” which perfectly demonstrates the ideological variation within the political party. Throughout this essay I shall attempt to reveal whether there ever was an ideological guideline to Conservative politics and shall demonstrate whether or not the term ‘ideology’ is suitable to conservatives as it can be argued that their political party was merely an adaptation of the political needs of the time.

The development of Conservatism is thought to have derived from the Anglo-Irish political theorist and organist Edmund Burke, as the tradition of Conservative ideas claim to originate from three fundamental principles: Firstly, traditionalism as it is the key ideology that conservatives base themselves upon. They are wary of large-scaled rapid change, as they ‘love the familiar and fear the unknown’. However progress is inevitable without change but conservatives prefer calculated and steady change, with each step fully revised and contained. Conservatives do not like to disassemble parts of society that are already established, as they firmly believe in gradual growth and not doing anything too variably different that what has already been instituted. Secondly, political order and conventional law are idolized as they represent social order and disfavor utopia and socialism. Thirdly, they believe an organic society relates all human beings and that we do not positively grow without the interaction of others. Furthermore, society is a fundamental principle for traditional conservatives, as they believe that each member has responsibilities to adhere to.

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Moreover, these three bases are the elemental beliefs of conservatives. However Conservatism doesn’t like to associate itself with theory, as theory has a precise set of principles which are applied to most (if not all) of their political policies. This is not the case for conservatives, as they portray a pragmatic self-image and emphasize that practical lessons are to be learnt from all previous human error.

Whereas other political ideologies support unfeasible methods of social development, Conservatism prefers to study the past for gradual future improvement. Nevertheless, conservatism eliminates the possibility of ever having a perfect society as they believe ...

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