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 removing human error from society would be part of a utopia based ideology and unrealistic, therefore conservatively impossible to achieve. In contrast, conservatives generally have a good understanding of human behavior due to their practical approach to the past. They understand that human beings can make mistakes and it is from not recommitting these mistakes that they can gradually progress. This is the reason for which conservatives are anti-reformists, as they do not believe that an abrupt change in society (i.e. Socialism/Communism) can ever work seen as though their society would be untested and have no backbone to it. This is why after Lenin proclaimed revolution in Russia in the name of Karl Marx, he had to invent socialism from scratch as no one knew (including Marx himself) what it was to become, just the fact that it needed to happen.
Conservatives believe in the maintenance of status-quo and social stability but do not have a concrete code to which they must abide by and apply their policies to. Ideology-analyst Robert Eccleshaw states that Conservatism “is to be understood not as the expression of recurring habits and instincts, but as a distinctive perceptive on society shaped by the political and class divisions of the post-medieval state” eventually suggesting that Conservatism is more of a mindset or a belief than a set of codified theories. Traditional Conservatism believed in the futility thesis, which claims that social class is necessary in order for society to function and no matter the amount of change, you will never be able to entirely get rid of wealth and power. After the French Revolution, American political philosophers John Adams and Alexander Hamilton supported the idea of ‘natural aristocracy’ of wealth and moral leadership as a means of giving stability of a semi-feudal state such as Britain.
The conception of a conservative ideology became more relevant through Margaret Thatcher as she proclaimed that the Labour party had an ideology and that they needed one too; she encouraged groups such as the Conservative Philosophy Group and the Adam Smith Institute to study and formulate a distinct conservative ideology. However this ‘formulated conservative ideology’ was more of a revelation to most of the cabinet members than an actual distinction of what Conservatism was actually about. In 1975 a conservative member, Sir Keith Joseph, said that “it was only in April 1974 that I was converted to. I had thought that I was a conservative, but now I see that I was not one at all.” As you can imagine, created a large rising up-roar in Westminster, as the man who had followed Conservative politics all his life had just claimed that he was not a conservative only until he had discovered the true definition of Conservatism.
Finally, it was after sixty-eight years of political domination in Britain that the ‘Conservative century’ came to an end. It was toward the beginning of the 21st century that political scientists and philosophers began to question validity of Conservative ideology, debating whether or not the conservative party had a distinguishing way of finding solutions to problems that were distinctively Conservative. We can conclude that conservatives do not have a distinct ideology of their own, as they are influenced by many different ideologies and beliefs. However, this is not seen as a downside to their party seen as though they dominated Downing Street for the majority of the 20th century, therefore proving that what they were building in Britain was promising and correct as they constantly kept winning the elections (on the other hand, it could be argued that their political success was due to other party’s failure (i.e. Labour party)). However it is the political discourse of the party which is notably more important and not the concreteness of their ideology. The conservative party has a varied ideological background, whereas it is its great ability to adapt to the needs of the country that plays an essential part of its success. On a final note ideology is an aspect of politics which is important as it is, in most cases, the essential guide to the policies that they propose. Furthermore, we could suggest that the conservative party looks to supply the needs of the country by analyzing the current present and not committing the same mistakes of the past.
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