Conservatism

Question 1

Pragmatism examples

Answer 1

• Under Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives proposed a poll tax - something that John Major (a more one-nation conservative) saw as being not a pragmatic decision and was replaced with the Council Tax.
• David Cameron’s Conservative Party changed its policies based on coalition compromises between 2010 and 2015. (Gay Marriage, Equality Act 2010)
• Furlough 2020

Question 2

Burke on tradition

Answer 2

Because of human imperfection, we cannot just create a new society - we should listen to the lessons and teachings of the past and society should evolve organically to meet current needs.

Question 3

Psychological imperfection

Answer 3

Humans are not necessarily rational, instead, we behave in ways that are familiar and comforting, rather than things that may be better for us.

Question 4

Moral imperfection

Answer 4

Humans have flawed characters and therefore cannot always act rationally or perfectly.

Question 5

Intellectual imperfection

Answer 5

Human rationality is imperfect and unreliable, and the world around us is more complicated than our intellects are able to comprehend.

Question 6

Change to conserve examples

Answer 6

• Furlough 2020
• Gay marriage 2010
• Energy bill support and 30hrs free childcare 2023

Question 7

Succession laws + change to conserve

Answer 7

In the 21st century, David Cameron changed succession rules to the throne, allowing female heirs to be recognised for the first time.
This reflects present-day attitudes to gender but also meant that the institution of the monarchy remained important in British life.

Question 8

Hierarchy

Answer 8

Society is based on fixed tiers, not on
individual ability

Question 9

Authority

Answer 9

Those in higher positions are best
placed to make decisions

Question 10

Change to conserve

Answer 10

Authorities should adapt, rather
than risk revolution

Question 11

Atomism

Answer 11

Society is made up of self-interest
and self-sufficient individuals

Question 12

Noblesse Oblige

Answer 12

Duty of the wealthy to look after
those less fortunate

Question 13

Anti-permissiveness

Answer 13

People make their own choices,
there is no objective right or wrong

Question 14

Radical

Answer 14

Belief whose ideas favour drastic
change

Question 15

Laissez-faire

Answer 15

Minimal government involvement in
the economy and state

Question 16

empiricism

Answer 16

Change from experience and
evidence (do what already works)

Question 17

gradualism

Answer 17

Change should happen over time
and slowly develop

Question 18

libertarianism

Answer 18

An extension of laissez-faire where
there are as few regulations as
possible

Question 19

Egotistical individualism

Answer 19

Individual freedom is based in
self-interest

Question 20

Dependency culture

Answer 20

Too generous benefits will become
a disincentive to work

Question 21

One-nation conservatism

Answer 21

People should encourage cohesion
and unity in the country. State takes a paternal role.

Question 22

New Right

Answer 22

neo-liberal: principally concerned with
free-market economics and atomistic individualism and neo-conservative: principally concerned with the fear of social fragmentation, tough on law and order and public morality.

Question 23

Oakeshott (state)

Answer 23

“To be conservative is to prefer the tried to the untried, the familiar to the unknown” (Fixed state)

“In a kitchen, cookbooks are only useful after experience of preparing the meal” (Fixed state)

Rather than brutish and short, our lives in the state of nature would be “noisy, foolish and flawed”

“Men sail on a boundless and bottomless sea” state keeps them afloat and does not reach a specific destination. (Flexible state)

Question 24

Hobbes - fixed state

Answer 24

“Life in the state of nature would be nasty, brutish and short”

Question 25

Burke (state)

Answer 25

“Your representatives owes you their judgement not their efforts. They should not sacrifice this to your opinion”

“No state or society should be based on ‘philosophical abstractions’” (flexible)

“The state is without the means to change is without the means of its conservation” (flexible)

Question 26

Nosick (society)

Answer 26

Victimless crimes such as drug taking should be decriminalised. It is the individual’s responsibility not the states to legislate against them doing it

Question 27

Rand (society)

Answer 27

money is the barometer of a society’s virtue

Question 28

Hobbes (society)

Answer 28

“Government is necessary, not because men are bad, but because they care more for their individualistic needs more than society”

Question 29

Burke (society)

Answer 29

Society is but a contract between the living, the dead and those yet to be born

We love the little platoon to which we belong

Question 30

John Maynard Keynes

Answer 30

Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of reasons will work for the benefit of us

Question 31

Nosick (economy)

Answer 31

“Taxation is legalised theft”

Question 32

Rand (economy)

Answer 32

The people fit to inherit wealth are those with the ability to make their fortune no matter where they started

Question 33

Hobbes (Human nature)

Answer 33

The condition of man (…) is a condition of war of everyone against everyone”

Question 34

Nosick (Human nature)

Answer 34

Even the most enterprising individuals are still freedom loving pack animals

Question 35

Rand (Human Nature)

Answer 35

If civilisation is to survive it is the morality of altruism we need to reject and the morality of rational self interest we need to accept

Question 36

Adam Smith

Answer 36

Trickle down economics