Conservatism: Traditional Conservatism

Conservatism: Traditional Conservatism

What is Conservatism?

Conservatism is an ideology that emphasises tradition, order, hierarchy, and pragmatism. Unlike liberalism and socialism, conservatism does not begin from abstract principles about human nature or ideal societies. Instead, it starts from a scepticism about human reason and a respect for what has evolved over time.

Conservatism is often described as a disposition rather than an ideology — a preference for the familiar over the unknown, the tried over the untried, the actual over the possible.

Core Principles of Traditional Conservatism

1. Tradition

• Institutions and practices that have survived over centuries embody the accumulated wisdom of past generations
• Tradition provides stability, continuity, and identity
• Reform should build on what exists, not destroy it to start from scratch
• Burke: society is a "partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born" — we are custodians of inherited wisdom, not its owners

2. Human Imperfection

Conservatives hold a pessimistic view of human nature:

• Humans are morally imperfect: prone to selfishness, cruelty, and short-sightedness
• Humans are intellectually limited: no individual or group can fully understand the complexity of society
• Utopian schemes inevitably fail because they overestimate human goodness and rationality
• This stands in contrast to the liberal belief in reason and the socialist belief in human perfectibility

3. Organic Society

• Society is not a machine that can be redesigned; it is a living organism that has grown naturally over time
• Individuals are not isolated atoms but are embedded in families, communities, churches, and nations
• These institutions give life meaning, identity, and security
• The state should support and protect these organic institutions, not replace them

4. Hierarchy and Authority

• Natural inequality is inevitable: people differ in talent, intelligence, effort, and character
• Hierarchy provides order and stability; it is natural, not oppressive
• Authority (parents, teachers, the law, the state) is necessary to maintain social order and protect against chaos
• Paternalism: those at the top of the hierarchy have a duty of care (noblesse oblige) toward those below

5. Property

• Private property provides security, independence, and a stake in the social order
• Property ownership encourages responsibility and respect for law
• Burke defended property rights as essential to civilisation
• Conservatives do not see property as theft (Marx) but as the foundation of a stable society

6. Pragmatism

• Politics should be guided by practical experience, not abstract ideology or theory
• "What works" matters more than "what ought to be"
• This distinguishes conservatism from the ideological rigidity of both liberalism and socialism
• Oakeshott: political activity should be like navigating a ship — responding to winds and currents, not following a predetermined chart

Key Thinkers

Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Burke is the founding father of conservatism. An Irish-born Whig MP, he wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) in horror at the French Revolution's attempt to destroy tradition and rebuild society from scratch.

Key ideas:

• Change should be cautious and evolutionary: "A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation." Burke was not opposed to all change — he supported the American Revolution — but he insisted change must be gradual and rooted in existing practice, not revolutionary
• Tradition embodies wisdom: institutions like the monarchy, the Church, and Parliament have survived because they work. They contain the prejudice (not a negative term for Burke) — the accumulated practical wisdom — of countless generations. To destroy them in favour of abstract "rights" is reckless.
• The social contract: Burke rejected Locke's idea of a voluntary contract between individuals. For Burke, the social contract is between the living, the dead, and the unborn — we inherit obligations and must preserve what we have been given.
• "The little platoons": society is made up of small, organic communities (families, parishes, local associations) that give life meaning and bind people together. The state should not try to replace these with centralised planning.
• Critique of the French Revolution: Burke predicted (accurately) that the Revolution would lead to tyranny, terror, and dictatorship. He argued that destroying all traditional institutions left society vulnerable to a power vacuum filled by despotism (Napoleon proved him right).

Key work: Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990)

Oakeshott was the most important British conservative philosopher of the 20th century. His conservatism is characterised by philosophical scepticism and a profound distrust of ideological politics.

Key ideas:

• "To be conservative is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible" — conservatism is a disposition, not a creed. It is about how you approach the world, not a checklist of policies.
• Critique of rationalism: in Rationalism in Politics (1962), Oakeshott attacked the belief that politics can be guided by abstract principles or "books of rules." He distinguished between technical knowledge (which can be written down) and practical knowledge (which can only be acquired through experience and tradition). Rationalists try to reduce all knowledge to the technical — and this is their fatal error.
• Politics as conversation: politics should be a civil conversation between different traditions and perspectives, not a war between ideological systems. There is no "correct" political answer waiting to be discovered.
• "The politics of scepticism": Oakeshott contrasted two political styles — the politics of faith (belief that government can perfect society) and the politics of scepticism (awareness of government's limitations). He championed scepticism.
• The state as civil association: the state should be like a set of rules of the road — it creates order without prescribing where people should drive. It should not be an "enterprise association" with a specific purpose or goal.

Key work: Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962)

Traditional Conservatism and Change

Traditional conservatives are not opposed to all change — this is a common misconception. They oppose:

• Revolutionary change: sudden, radical transformation (French Revolution, Russian Revolution)
• Ideological change: reform driven by abstract principles rather than practical experience
• Unnecessary change: changing things that work for the sake of theory or fashion

They support:

• Organic change: gradual evolution responding to genuine needs (Burke's "reform in order to conserve")
• Pragmatic adaptation: adjusting to new circumstances to preserve stability
• Restoration: returning to proven practices when experiments fail

Traditional Conservatism vs Liberalism

	Traditional Conservatism	Liberalism
Human nature	Imperfect, needing authority	Rational, capable of self-governance
Society	Organic, hierarchical	Collection of free individuals
Change	Cautious, evolutionary	Progressive, reform-oriented
Tradition	Repository of wisdom	Potential obstacle to progress
Equality	Natural inequality; hierarchy is beneficial	Foundational equality of rights
The state	Paternalistic authority	Limited, constitutional government
Knowledge	Practical, experiential	Rational, scientific

Evaluation

Strengths of traditional conservatism:

• The critique of revolutionary politics has been vindicated by the horrors of the French, Russian, and Chinese revolutions
• Emphasis on the limits of human reason is supported by the failures of central planning
• Defence of community and belonging addresses the atomisation and loneliness of modern liberal societies
• Pragmatism avoids the rigidity of ideological politics

Criticisms:

• "Tradition" has often been used to defend injustice (slavery, the subjection of women, aristocratic privilege)
• The emphasis on hierarchy and authority can justify inequality and resist necessary reform
• Pragmatism can become an excuse for inaction in the face of genuine suffering
• Burke's conservatism was shaped by the specific context of the French Revolution — its applicability to modern politics is debatable
• Oakeshott's scepticism offers no guidance for positive political action — it tells us what not to do but not what to do

Exam Tips

• Burke and Oakeshott are the two essential thinkers for traditional conservatism — know their ideas in detail
• Be clear that conservatism is not opposed to all change — it favours gradual, organic change
• Use the French Revolution as a key case study for Burke's arguments
• Be able to contrast traditional conservatism with both liberalism and socialism
• The concept of the organic society is central — it distinguishes conservatism from liberalism's individualism