Conservatism: One Nation & the New Right

Conservatism: One Nation & the New Right

One Nation Conservatism

Origins: Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

One Nation conservatism originates with Benjamin Disraeli, Conservative Prime Minister in 1868 and 1874-1880. In his novel Sybil, or The Two Nations (1845), Disraeli described Britain as divided into two nations — the rich and the poor — "between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy; who are as ignorant of each other's habits, thoughts, and feelings, as if they were dwellers in different zones."

Key ideas:

• Noblesse oblige: the privileged have a duty of care toward the less fortunate. This is not charity — it is an obligation arising from the organic nature of society.
• Social reform from above: the ruling class should enact reforms to improve conditions for the working class, thereby preserving social harmony and preventing revolution.
• One nation: the goal is a unified society where all classes feel they belong. This requires the state to address extreme poverty and inequality.
• Paternalism: the state acts as a benevolent parent, guiding and protecting citizens who may not always know what is best for them.
• Disraeli's government passed significant social legislation: the Public Health Act (1875), the Artisans' Dwellings Act (1875), and the Factory Act (1874).

One Nation Conservatism in the 20th Century

One Nation thinking dominated the Conservative Party from 1945 to 1975, when the party accepted the post-war consensus:

• Harold Macmillan (PM 1957-1963): accepted the welfare state, Keynesian economics, and the mixed economy; famously told voters "you've never had it so good" (1957); published The Middle Way (1938), arguing for a path between laissez-faire and socialism
• R.A. Butler: as Education Secretary, created the tripartite school system (1944); as Chancellor, continued Keynesian demand management, leading commentators to coin "Butskellism" (Butler + Labour's Hugh Gaitskell) to describe the policy consensus
• Edward Heath (PM 1970-1974): initially pursued free-market policies but performed a famous "U-turn" to interventionism (nationalising Rolls-Royce, imposing price and income controls)
• Ian Gilmour, Inside Right (1977): defended One Nation conservatism as the authentic conservative tradition, arguing that Thatcherism was a liberal deviation

Core One Nation principles:

• Acceptance of the welfare state and the NHS as part of the national fabric
• Mixed economy: private enterprise alongside state ownership of key industries
• Keynesian demand management to maintain full employment
• Pragmatic approach to governance — ideology is dangerous
• Social cohesion over individual self-interest

The New Right

The New Right emerged in the 1970s as a reaction against the post-war consensus, which was seen as having produced economic decline, inflation, trade union militancy, and national weakness. It combines two distinct (and sometimes contradictory) strands: neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.

Neo-Liberalism

Neo-liberalism revives classical liberal economics within a conservative political framework.

Key ideas:

• Free-market economics: the market, not the state, is the most efficient mechanism for allocating resources. Government intervention distorts prices, creates inefficiency, and limits freedom.
• Privatisation: state-owned industries should be sold to the private sector (Thatcher privatised BT, British Gas, British Airways, British Steel, water, electricity)
• Deregulation: reducing government rules on business
• Low taxation: to incentivise enterprise and reduce the state's share of GDP
• Monetarism: controlling the money supply to reduce inflation (influenced by Milton Friedman)
• Rolling back the state: reducing the welfare state, which creates a "dependency culture" that saps individual initiative
• Trade union reform: unions distort the labour market and hold the economy to ransom; Thatcher's laws (1980, 1982, 1984) restricted strikes, secondary picketing, and the closed shop

Key thinker: Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)

Hayek is the intellectual godfather of neo-liberalism:

• The Road to Serfdom (1944): any move toward state planning inevitably leads toward totalitarianism. Central planning concentrates power and destroys individual freedom.
• The price mechanism in a free market conveys information that no central planner can replicate. Markets are superior to planning because they harness dispersed knowledge.
• Spontaneous order: social institutions (markets, language, law) evolve naturally through human action but not human design. Attempts to consciously redesign them are doomed.
• Hayek was not a conservative (he wrote an essay titled "Why I Am Not a Conservative") — he was a classical liberal. But his ideas were adopted by the conservative New Right.

Key thinker: Robert Nozick (1938-2002)

Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) provides a libertarian philosophical framework:

• Self-ownership: individuals own themselves and the products of their labour
• Minimal state: the only legitimate state is a "night-watchman" state that protects against force, theft, and fraud. Anything more violates individual rights.
• Taxation is forced labour: compelling people to pay for others' welfare is morally equivalent to forced labour — it appropriates the fruits of someone's work without consent
• Critique of Rawls: the difference principle requires ongoing redistribution, which constantly violates individuals' entitlements to their justly acquired property
• Entitlement theory of justice: distribution is just if it arises from just acquisition and voluntary transfer, regardless of the pattern of outcomes

Neo-Conservatism

Neo-conservatism emphasises a strong state in matters of morality, law and order, and national defence:

• Traditional values: support for the traditional family, marriage, religion, and established national identity
• Law and order: tough sentencing, strong policing, zero tolerance of crime
• National sovereignty: Euroscepticism, control over borders, strong defence and military
• Social authoritarianism: the state should uphold moral standards and resist social permissiveness
• Patriotism and national identity: opposition to multiculturalism as fragmenting social cohesion

Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013)

Thatcher, PM 1979-1990, combined neo-liberal economics with neo-conservative social values:

Neo-liberal dimension:

• Privatised major industries (revenues: £29 billion)
• Defeated the NUM in the 1984-85 miners' strike
• Cut top rate of income tax from 83% to 40%
• Reduced trade union power through six major Acts
• Declared "there is no such thing as society" (though she later clarified she meant individuals and families should take responsibility, not rely on an abstract "society")

Neo-conservative dimension:

• Falklands War (1982): decisive military action to defend British sovereignty
• Section 28 (1988): prohibited local authorities from "promoting" homosexuality
• Emphasised patriotism, "Victorian values," and the traditional family
• Eurosceptic: "No, no, no" to further EU integration (Bruges speech, 1988)
• Tough on crime: increased police funding, longer sentences

The New Right Tension

The New Right contains a fundamental contradiction:

• Neo-liberalism wants to shrink the state (individual freedom, free markets, minimal government)
• Neo-conservatism wants to strengthen the state (law and order, traditional values, military power, border control)

These two impulses can conflict: a truly free market undermines traditional communities (creative destruction); social conservatism requires state interference in personal life that libertarians oppose.

One Nation vs New Right: Key Comparisons

Issue	One Nation	New Right
Economy	Mixed economy, Keynesian	Free market, monetarist
Welfare	Accept and manage the welfare state	Roll it back — creates dependency
State	Pragmatic, interventionist when needed	Minimal (neo-lib) / strong (neo-con)
Society	Organic, paternalistic	Individualist (neo-lib) / traditional (neo-con)
Change	Gradual, preserving stability	Radical market reform (Thatcher)
Key figures	Disraeli, Macmillan, Heath	Thatcher, Hayek, Nozick
EU	Broadly pro-European	Eurosceptic

Evaluation

Is Thatcherism truly conservative?

• No: it is a radical, ideological project to reshape society according to free-market principles — Burke and Oakeshott would recognise it as rationalism, not conservatism
• Yes: it restored traditional values, national pride, and individual responsibility; it was a pragmatic response to the failures of the post-war consensus

Exam Tips

• Know the distinction between neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism and the tension between them
• Be able to compare One Nation and New Right conservatism with specific examples
• Use Hayek (spontaneous order, Road to Serfdom) and Nozick (minimal state, self-ownership) as key thinkers
• Thatcher is essential — know her policies and be able to classify them as neo-liberal or neo-conservative
• Consider whether the New Right is a form of conservatism or a radical liberal project wearing conservative clothing