Burke
Edmund Burke (1729–97) was a politically controversial writer, a journalist
and pamphleteer as well as a member of the British Parliament, from an Irish
background, who more than anyone of his generation, and possibly of any
other, set the philosophical background for modern Britishconservatism.
Two events stimulated him to write brilliant and caustic pieces which are still
widely read today. One was the French Revolution. His tract on this,
Reflections on the Revolution in France,set forth principles of the value of slow
and natural political evolution, and the duty to conserve the best (hence
Conservatism), along with a deep distrust of the capacity of ordinary human
intelligence to plan and construct an ideal society. Of his other writings the
most important is probably his tract decrying the British war against the
American Colonists, for Burke saw a great injustice in the rule of a colony
which was denied effective representation. One further work of his is often
quoted in modern political theory, a speech, published widely, to the voters in
his own constituency of Bristol. This outlined his own views of the duties and
rights of an elected representative to parliament. He argued that voters should
pick the best candidate available, and then leave them alone. What the
representative owes to constituents, according to Burke, is their best judge-
ment, not their obedience. It is, thus, an argument of considerable power
against the principal alternative version ofrepresentative democracy—the
idea ofdelegation.
Butskellism
Butskellism was a term coined by British political commentators during the
first Conservative government (1951–55) after the Second World War; it
merged the names of the previous Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, Hugh
Gaitskell, and that of the Conservative Chancellor, R. A. Butler. The term was
intended to indicate the apparent similarity between their attitudes towards
economic management and Treasury operations. Until this period it had not
been fully apparent that a high degree of consensus existed between the two
major parties on the all-important question of economic policy. This had in
fact been foreshadowed by the common agreement during the 1939–45
coalition government on post-war economic goals and methods, and was a
result of the final conversion of political leaders in all parties toKeynesian
economic theory. However, ‘Butskellism’ was a term of abuse for many of the
politically engaged, since the ‘mixed economy’, with government intervention
through taxation and manipulation of interest rates, and (on the part of Labour)
an acceptance of limited nationalization, was only approved of by the ‘mod-
erate’ wings of the parties. This was especially true of theLabour Party, many
of whose members believed Gaitskell had ‘sold out’ by not relying much more
Burke