A Brief History of Conservatism
Conservatism is a general state of mind that is averse to radical change and strives for balance and order. Originally conservatism arose as a reaction against the Age of Enlightenment (see Age of Enlightenment). Conservatives advocated belief in faith over reason, tradition over free inquiry, hierarchy over equality, collective values over individualism, and divine or natural law over secular law. At a given time in a given society, conservatism emphasizes the merits of the status quo and endorses the prevailing distribution of power, wealth, and social standing. Political conservative thought, however, has reconciled itself with constitutional democracy and individual rights as well as with prudent and orderly social and economic change.Origins of Conservatism
Conservatism received its classic formulation in the works of the British statesman Edmund Burke, notably his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in which he rejected the principles of the French Revolution and presented a comprehensive philosophy of society and politics. Burke viewed society as an organic whole, with individuals performing various roles and functions. In this society a natural elite-by virtue of birth, wealth, and education-is supposed to provide the leadership. The community is held together by venerable customs and traditions; gradual changes can be made, but only when they have gained wide acceptance.Burke rejected the principles of equality, popular representation, and popular sovereignty. He also rejected the universal franchise and majority rule (the notion that a numerical majority of the citizenry should be empowered to make decisions). He advocated order, balance, and cooperation in society; restraints on government; and, above all, the supremacy of law-natural, divine, and customary. Burke did allow for limited governmental controls calculated to avoid malfunctions and frictions among the various groups and to moderate economic strife and competition. He was particularly anxious to avoid wide differences-extreme wealth on the one hand and poverty on the other.
The Conservative Party in Great Britain
British conservative doctrine and the Conservative Party that evolved after the mid-19th century remained attached to parliamentary and constitutional democracy. Gradual extension of the franchise, social legislation, and better cooperation between the poor and the rich became part of the conservative tradition.In the 20th century the Conservative Party accepted and even initiated economic controls by the state and broadened the social responsibility of the state in matters of health, education, and economic security. After World War II the Conservatives went so far as to accept the nationalization of key industries that had been instituted by the Labour (Socialist) Party and to endorse fully the tenets of the welfare state. Only after 1979 did the Conservative Party begin to reconsider the practices of state controls, welfare measures, and nationalization.
Conservatism in Europe
Many conservative movements and groups have flourished in continental Europe, but no conservative parties similar to the British model in organization, doctrine, mass membership, and attachment to parliamentary democracy have ever developed. European conservatives, until the end of the 19th century, rejected democratic principles and institutions, including, in some cases, participation in elections and the universal franchise. They opted instead for monarchies (as in France from 1814 to 1848) or for authoritarian government (as with Bonapartism between 1799 and 1814 and between 1851 and 1870). Some of the Continental conservative movements ultimately gave their support to authoritarian and totalitarian movements-for example, fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany-in the years between 1920 and the end of World War II (1945). Authoritarian government existed in Spain virtually until 1975.A dominant conservative doctrine in many European countries, notably in France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, has been corporatism. This was inspired by the social doctrines of the Roman Catholic church expressed in two encyclicals, Rerum novarum (1891) and Quadragesimo anno (1931). In the name of social justice and order, corporatism advocates a close collaboration between employers and workers under the direction of the state in all matters regarding conditions of work, wages, prices, production, and exchange. Its aim is to substitute "corporate" (that is, collective) considerations for the free play of the market and for competition. After World War I corporatism was institutionalized in various forms in Spain, Italy, and Portugal.
The American Conservative Movement
Unlike England and the European continent, the main currents of American political thought converged throughout the 19th century into a broad consensus that incorporated economic individualism and constitutional democracy with powerful restraints on the government. This had little in common with the conservative doctrines of Edmund Burke; it was in fact closer to liberalism, with the principles of individual freedom and equality taken as self-evident. Thus, the major characteristics of American conservatism emerged as economic individualism, social Darwinism, and nationalism.Economic individualism accepted the free play of the market and extolled individual acquisitiveness. Individual freedoms and property rights were identified with moral, religious, political, and civil rights. It was assumed that growth, change, and progress derived mainly from individual effort and competition. Wealth was considered proof of a person's natural superiority; poverty connoted moral inadequacy and lack of resourcefulness. What was advocated, then, was capitalism-free of federal controls. Since the "best government" was the one that "governed the least," a great emphasis was placed on separation of powers, judicial review, and states' rights as opposed to federal power. Social Darwinism transposed Darwin's theory of the "survival of the fittest" from nature to society. Competition for goods, services, wealth, and power was considered natural and therefore necessary. Those who succeeded were supposed to be the fittest. Social Darwinism was also used to justify distinctions among races and among nations as well; some were deemed superior and others inferior.
In the 19th century, American nationalism claimed to have a "manifest destiny" to guide and educate "lesser" peoples in the world. Many conservative intellectuals and political leaders, therefore, favored a colonial policy for the United States.
With the Great Depression of the 1930s and the New Deal introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, American conservatism became a distinct political movement. Many Americans applauded the New Deal legislation that introduced serious constraints on free-market activities and allowed for the growth of the federal government, heavy taxation, and governmental intervention in and regulation of the economy. The conservatives disapproved of the New Deal and restated the fundamental premises of a free-market economy. The most forthright rejection of the New Deal appeared in a book by the Austrian-born economist Friedrich A. von Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (1944), in which he argued against governmental economic controls and planning. Conservatives continued to insist on a return to the free-market economy and on a retrenchment of the federal government and its bureaucracy. In 1962 a Conservative Party devoted to these principles was founded.
Conservatives gradually made important inroads among Republicans and even among Democrats. Eventually the liberal consensus that had been originally established around the New Deal welfare philosophy was seriously challenged. In 1980 renewed support for religious and national values as well as strong opposition to high taxes, government controls, and federal spending accounted for the ascendancy of the conservatives within the Republican Party. This led to the defeat of many liberal senators and representatives in the 1980 national election and the victory of the Republican presidential candidate, Ronald Reagan.
Current Trends
For most of the 1980s, conservative parties held power in both Great Britain and West Germany (now part of the united Federal Republic of Germany). In France a Gaullist movement combining selective state controls, economic planning, and welfare measures with political liberalism has been influential since 1958. In some other European countries, especially Spain and Portugal, conservative forces are caught between left-wing and authoritarian movements. Corporatism continues to call for the cooperation of labor, business, and consumer interests under the control and the coordination of the state. It remains in Europe and in Latin America a dominant form of conservatism.The most notable phenomenon of the 1980s, however, was the conservative movement in the U.S. After World War II an entire generation lived under a liberal consensus, based on expanding government controls and welfare measures, that crystallized into a dogma and was taken for granted. The conservatives as a whole and their most vocal wing-called the New Right-challenged liberalism vigorously, calling for a return to basic individualistic values in the economy and society. They successfully urged more limited growth of domestic spending, a strong defense posture, and a more explicitly anti-Communist foreign policy. Although they met with less success in efforts to outlaw abortion, legalize prayer in public schools, and enact New Right positions on other social, religious, and family issues, they continued their efforts in these directions throughout the 1980s.
