conservative 71Simmons, A. J. Tacit Consent and Political Obligations.1976.
Weale, A. “Consent,” Political Studies 26(1978).
conservative
A political viewpoint that sees value in conserving past
TRADITIONS, especially the timeless truths about human
nature and society in the Judeo-CHRISTIANreligion. The
leading modern conservative was Edmund BURKE,an
English philosopher and statesman, who believed that
the perennial truths of Western civilization (from
ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and law, West-
ern Christianity, CLASSICAL literature such as that of
Shakespeare, high art, architecture, and music) reflect
the best things in the world and must be taught to
young people to produce civilized, decent, and moral
human beings and a healthy, orderly society. Burke and
other conservatives do not believe that humans are
naturally good, noble, and perfectible, but rather, from
a Judeo-Christian perspective, see people as fallen, sin-
ful, selfish, and rebellious. So to become as good as
possible, economically and morally, people must be
shaped and disciplined by the best of the past (educa-
tion, art, family, patriotism, LAW, religion, PROPERTY).
This requires AUTHORITYin the family, the church, the
school, and government. So, conservatives want to
“conserve” those aspects of society and culture that
civilize and improve human beings. Like ARISTOTLEand
Christ, they assert that only through virtue can man be
happy.
From this conservative attitude, Burke criticized
LIBERALand RADICALsocial movements, beginning with
the French Revolution of 1789. These “PROGRESSIVE”
social movements are in error in two ways: (1) They
assume that humans are good by nature and only
made bad by their environment, so (2) the way to
improve humanity is to change society radically,
throwing out the past and creating an entirely new
social order. For conservatives, this radical dream of
creating a perfect society (through DEMOCRACY, EQUAL-
ITY, COMMUNISM, FEMINISM, etc.) will end in nightmare
and disaster. The arrogance of any group or generation
to think it knows more than the wisdom of the past
ages will doom it to destruction and misery.
So, all utopian schemes or idealistic reforms, for
conservatives, will lead to chaos and unhappiness.
They are, therefore, to be resisted as a cruel and decep-
tive trick. Any reform group that promises to solve all
human problems is suspect, for conservatives. It is
much better to preserve the best of the past, to be
patient with the world’s wrongs, and to change or
improve social conditions slowly. Stability, order, dig-
nity, respect, authority, religion, property, classical edu-
cation, traditional family, and patriotism are the
conservative values.
This “organic” British conservatism sees the SOCIAL
CONTRACTwith the past and the future—revering the
past traditions and caring for the future world that we
leave our children. Burkean conservatives hate innova-
tion, disrespect ,and change for the sake of change.
They even identify a restless desire for radical change
with mental illness. Most of all, they fear the seductive
quality of radical reformers’ promises of LIBERTYand
prosperity for all because they deceive the ignorant
and destroy the good. Twentieth-century revolutions
(communism in Russia and China) show the disaster
of such radical change; the new regimes are more
oppressive than the ones they overthrow. The Ameri-
can Revolution of 1776 Burke saw as acceptable
because it preservedtraditional British values of mixed
government, property rights, and law. Like the British
Revolution of 1688, the U.S. CONSTITUTIONpreserved
the past rather than discarding it. For conservatives,
civilized society (art, industry, education, order, stable
family, religious traditions) is a fragile structure that
takes generations to build up but that is easily and
quickly ruined by radical reform.
This backward-looking stance of conservatives
gives them a reputation for being reactionary, dull, and
against progress. Burke felt that given human limita-
tions, progress and improvement can occur only very
slowly and gradually; any sudden change for good is
an illusion. So a conservative places importance on
private life: family, church, neighborhood, friendship,
work, where people have close relationships and can
really make a difference in others’ lives. Grand social
movements, for conservatives, do not really touch peo-
ple for good, which require personal contacts.
Contemporary expressions of conservative thought
occur in the U.S. REPUBLICAN PARTY’s probusiness stance
(encouraging private property wealth), Christian con-
servative morality (upholding traditional religious val-
ues), and strong military policies (protecting national
power and independence). Some conservatives split
over Reagan’s free-market economic policy, claiming
that unregulated CAPITALISM is a radical force for
change that upsets traditional standards.
In Western political thought, conservatism, or
“RIGHTwing,” politics take various forms. In France,