6.3 Conservative thinkers

Question 1

6

Which branch do each of the key conservative thinkers belong to?

Answer 1

• Thomas Hobbes - traditional
• Edmund Burke - traditional
• Michael Oakeshott - traditional
• Ayn Rand - New Right (neo liberal)
• Robert Nozick - New Right (neo-liberal)

Yet ideas of traditional thinkers influenced other branches e.g. Hobbes - neo-con; Burke/Oakeshott - ON

Question 2

5

Describe Hobbes’ order

Answer 2

• Society is hierarchal ordered by rank and influence
• Absolute monarchy governs the ‘commonwealth’
• Strong authoritative government in organic framework guarantees equilibrium between order and freedom
• Social contract to prevent ‘state of nature’
• organic society

Question 3

7

Describe Hobbes’ human nature

Answer 3

• Pessimistic view
• Humans are irrational
• Cannot understand complexities of modern political systems
• Require practical strategies (e.g. social hierarchy) rather than abstract ideas (e.g. classless society)
• informs trustee model of representation
• Driven by individualistic ‘desire of power’, not communal
• ‘state of nature’

Question 4

4

Describe Hobbes’ views on the social contract

Answer 4

• Order only achieved by social contract where individuals cede freedoms to all-powerful sovereign in return for legal and physical protection
• This grants sovereign legitimacy to pass legislation and determine rights of individuals
• Therefore society cannot pre-exist state
• State resulted from social contract - no historical event which created this contract

Question 5

4

Describe Hobbes’ acceptance of a corrupt sovereign

Answer 5

• Sovereign not bound by social contract or law
• Recieve obedience of people who cede autonomy in hope that sovereign will maintain order
• Accepts sovereign may behave in corrupt manner
• Yet insists such behaviour is unwise as the removal of individual safety could deprive sovereign of power

Question 6

3

Describe Hobbes’ views on absolute government and sovereign

Answer 6

• Best way to avoid disorder in society
• Sovereign controlled all aspects of society (law, religion and parliament) and economy (private property and taxation)
• Sovereign was personification (representation) of state

Question 7

3

Describe Hobbes’ ‘state of nature’

Answer 7

• Hypothetical scenario with no authority and security
• Would create perpetual conflict where individuals only cared about self-interest
• In the ‘natural condition of mankind’, humans hold equal ability to kill eachother

Question 8

4

List Hobbes’ key quotes on order

Answer 8

• Society without order and sovereign would be a ‘perpetual and restless desire for power’
• ‘a war of all against all’ in the ‘state of nature’
• life without order would be ‘nasty, brutish and short’
• ‘commonwealth’

Question 9

2

List Hobbes’ key quotes on human imperfection

Answer 9

• ‘natural condition of mankind’
• Selfish desires of humankind ‘more potent than reason’

Question 10

4

Describe Burke’s organic society

Answer 10

• Society not static, but often has to ‘change to conserve’
• Change should be slow and evolutionary
• ‘little platoons’ enable organic change
• noblesse oblige to protect social order

Question 11

2

Describe Burke’s ‘little platoons’

Answer 11

• Small communities that retain their own identity
• Bind to enable wider integration into ‘the nation’

Question 12

6

Describe Burke’s tradition

Answer 12

• Represents culminated wisdom of past generations and should be respected
• Society is contract between ‘the dead, the living and those yet to be born’ - breaking from Hobbesian social contract
• Consequently, change should be slow and cautious
• Society/state emerges organically and matures into traditions and customs
• Prefers constitutional monarchy, against Hobbes’ preference for absolute monarchy
• Did not support democracy, yet beleived it was unwise to resist it if it was necessary to preserve vital institutions

Question 13

4

Describe Burke’s empiricism

Answer 13

• Change should be made on practical experience from past
• Political change should be organic, rather than via revolution
• There is an inherent virtue in common-sense values i.e. the ‘wisdom of unlettered men’
• Trustee model of representation

Question 14

5

Describe the Burkean trustee model of representation

Answer 14

• Representatives should make own judgements based on knowledge and experience (empiricism)
• In that way serve best interests of public
• Opposed delegate model
• Opposed referendums
• Tradition of trustees preferable to technocrats

Question 15

5

Describe Burke’s views on noblesse oblige and social order

Answer 15

• Society naturally unequal and hierarchal
• Aristocracy should lead social order
• Held paternalistic responsibility to solve weaker elements of society
• Thus maintain equilibrium between order and freedom
• However opposed extension of franchise, fearing mob rule

Question 16

3

Describe Burke’s views on human imperfection

Answer 16

• Scope of human reason and understanding is limited, so are more likely to fail than succeed when following rationalistic thoughts
• Therefore change should be gradual and careful
• Yet argues that human nature is more communal (‘little platoons’) and individuals seek happiness, differing from Hobbes

Question 17

4

List Burke’s key quotes on organic change

Answer 17

• ‘Change to conserve’
• ‘little platoons’
• Politics should be adjusted to ‘human nature’ and not to ‘human reason’
• a state without some change is ‘without the means of its conservation’

Question 18

2

List Burke’s key quotes on tradition and empiricism

Answer 18

• ‘the wisdom of unlettered men’
• ‘society is a contract between the dead, the living and those yet to be born’

Question 19

2

List Burke’s key quotes on hierarchy

Answer 19

• ‘true natural aristocracy’
• ‘all men have equal rights, but not to equal things’

Question 20

7

Describe Oakeshott’s human imperfection

Answer 20

• Modern society is unpredictable and multifaceted
• Faith in rationalism is therefore misplaced as theories oversimplify complex situations
• Beyond ability of humans to understand true nature of reality
• Utopias unattainable as perfection cannot be created by imperfect societies
• Critical of ON state intervention
• Critical of leader acting on the ‘authority of his own reason’ rather than experience
• ‘Politics of faith’ - decision-making grounded in empiricism and pragmatism, not rationality

Question 21

4

Describe Oakeshott’s ‘politics of scepticism’

Answer 21

• Implementation of abstract ideas often leads to unintended negative consequences
• Rationalists underestimate complexity of reality
• Don’t understand that in attempting to imrpove society or economy, they worsen the situation
• Therefore change should be empiricial and cautious - ‘cure is not worse than the disease’

Question 22

2

How do Oakeshott and Hobbes differ on human imperfection?

Answer 22

• Oakeshott argues that humans are ‘fragile and fallible’ but capable of benevolence
• Therefore holds less destructive view than Hobbes

Question 23

3

Describe Oakeshott’s pragmatism

Answer 23

• Government making decisions rooted on empricism is best placed to serve interests of people
• ‘Politics of scepticism’ - place faith on long-standing traditions and customs
• Politics should not have rigid direction or fixed goal - should be guided by pragmatism

Question 24

2

Describe Oakeshott’s views on organic change

Answer 24

• Prefers status quo more than Burke
• Yet accepts needed for change rooted in empricism and pragmatism to maintain tradition

Question 25

# 3 Describe Oakeshott's views on tradition

Answer 25

* Secularisation leading to adoption of rationalistic ideas as sort of ‘intellectual replacement’ * Supports institutions like HoL and monarchy to provide societal stability * Change should avoid unproven societies

Question 26

# 5 List Oakeshott's key quotes

Answer 26

* 'cure is not worse than the disease' * 'intellectual replacement' * humans are ‘fragile’ and 'fallible’ * ‘what has stood the test of time is good’ * ‘prefer the tried to untried’

Question 27

# 2 Describe Rand's rejection of human imperfection

Answer 27

* Individuals are rational - against Trad Con/ON * Thought religion was deeply irrational

Question 28

# 5 Describe Rand's objectivism

Answer 28

* Reason forms central basis of human nature, which can be used to gain objective knowledge * Ethical codes that contradict reality do not exist * **Individuals who experience negative freedom are best able to comprehend reality** * therefore can independently achieve self-realisation and self-fulfilment * Highest moral purpose is to achieve personal happiness

Question 29

# 2 What did Rand advocate as a result of objectivism

Answer 29

* **atomistic** society * Laissez-faire free-market

Question 30

# 4 Describe Rand's freedom

Answer 30

* Advocated laissez-faire economy * Roll back state economically and socially * Indivduals have right to maintain property and income without being taxed * Includes support of same-sex relationships and abortion

Question 31

# 3 Describe Rand's views on an 'atomistic' society

Answer 31

* Loathed organic society because obligations it demanded from individuals eroded individual freedoms, equating it with collectivism * Individuals must maintain lives through own efforts * Indivdiual hard work is the only method to achieve purpose and productivity

Question 32

# 3 Describe Rand's opposition to state-sponsored welfarism

Answer 32

* State interference a result of a flawed understanding of altruism * This altruism is evil as it is incompatible with individual freedom and capitalism * Advocated voluntarism

Question 33

# 2 Describe Rand's views on the state

Answer 33

* Only moral purpose of state and society is to protect individual rights * State should be minimal to enforce law and order and contracts

Question 34

# 4 List Rand's key quotes

Answer 34

* 'virtue of selfishness' * altruism is 'the basic evil' * ‘atomistic individualism’ * ‘man must be the beneficiary of his own actions’

Question 35

# 4 Describe Nozick's libertarianism

Answer 35

* Individuals in society cannot be treated as a resource against their will * State focibly taxing rich violated their intrinsic freedom * Government had no right to encroach upon rights of individuals by transferring income to others * Led to 2 broad conclusions

Question 36

# 2 What concusions did Nozick make on the back of his libertarian beleifs

Answer 36

* ‘**minarchist**’ government - minimal interference in lives of individuals makes for the best society * state’s primary function is to protect individual human rights

Question 37

# 3 Outline Nozick's minarchist government

Answer 37

* Very little taxation, no welfare, essentially no laws on human behaviour * State solely focussed on defence and law and order - limited to 'narrow functions of force, theft and enforcement’ * State-funded welfare system is ‘legalised theft’ of taxation

Question 38

# 4 Describe Nozick's rejection of the social contract

Answer 38

* Disagreed with Trad Cons that state held legitimacy to interfere based on hierarchical social contract * State interference restricted individual freedoms, rather than reinforcing them * Proposed rights-based libertarian system * Did not address hierarchal social order, but beleifs suggest preference for social order based on voluntary interactions rather than paternalistic top-down system

Question 39

# 4 Describe Nozick's self-ownership

Answer 39

* Accepted individual rationalism * Individuals own their bodies, talents, abilities and labour * Makes people self-serving in best interests * Suported legalisation of drugs

Question 40

# 3 Describe Nozick's minarchist society

Answer 40

* Akin to Rand's atomistic society * Communities granted freedom to practise their own particular moral codes * Rather than have political or religious values imposed upon them by the state (assimilation)

Question 41

# 3 List Nozick's key quotes

Answer 41

* Taxation is 'legalised theft' * ‘narrow functions’ of 'force, theft, enforcement and so on’ * ‘there are only individual people… with their own lives’