Conservatism Flashcards
Explain views of Neo-Conservatism
Protect public morality
Law and order
Anti-permissiveness + Judeo-Christian morality
Free market + limited govt intervention
Explain views of Libertarianism
To what extent is Conservatism compatible with the free market?
YES:
✓ Inequality
✓ Private ownership / property
✓ Limited role of state
or rational selfishness
NO:
☓ Human nature
☓ Immigration
☓ Paternalism
Inequality
- Free market system exacerbates inequality - Traditional + Neo-Cons especially tolerant of inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
- Even one-nation cons agree inequality is natural (‘little platoons’), they just favour paternalism to justify it:
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” = Disraeli
– “elevate the condition of the people” = Disraeli
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” = Disraeli
– “Security at every stage of life” = Cameron
– “The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own” = Disraeli
Private ownership
- Allows people to get their own property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
Limited role of the state
- Free market allows the state to be ‘rolled-back’
- Most efficient mechanism
– Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - “We are led by the invisible hand to promote an end that was by no means our intention”
– Schumpter’s ‘Creative Destruction’
– “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” = Friedman
– “We haven’t got a trillion-dollar debt because we don’t tax enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much” = Reagan
– “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government” = Friedman
- But one-nation favours state intervention more than traditional + neo-cons:
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
Human nature
- Free market - implies that people are rational individuals capable of expressing their happiness and self-interest through a free market - goes against cons thinking
- Think people are deeply flawed - ‘philosophy of imperfection’, need authority → not really granted in a free market
– “Solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”, “hatred, envy and war” = Hobbes
– Hobbes + Burke saw state as necessary body of authority that had to oversee every aspect of our lives to ensure order and stability
- But Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
– Also to a certain extent goes against inequality because it assumes anyone can be successful and gain economic wealth through the workings of the free market - whereas traditional cons favour hereditary, generational wealth
- Hobbes believed that a truly free market was impossible to achieve as people couldn’t be trusted to operate in such a manner without abusing their freedom
- But Rand’s idea of ‘rational selfishness’ in New Right Conservatism
Immigration
- Immigration is a consequence of a free market - having a free movement of people
- Neo-conservatives especially are against immigration - anti-permissiveness, authority, national identity, Judeo-Christian morality, don’t like multiculturalism
– “Swamped by people of a different culture” = Thatcher
– “There will be no further large-scale permanent immigration” = Cons manifesto 1970
– “We believe in holding out the clear prospect of an end to immigration” = Thatcher
– John Stokes = “The Tory party must be seen as the defender and preserver of our way of life”
– Ronald Bell = “There is no law which says we have to admit unlimited numbers of ex-Imperial subjects”
– UK - ‘euroscepticism’, USA - neo-cons. attitudes after 9/11 → Iraq, Afghanistan - ‘regime change’
- But paternalistic conservatism - more tolerant - need to ‘change to conserve’ so need to integrate immigrants for society to evolve and flourish
– Malcolm Turnbull = Disraeli Award = non-discriminatory Australian immigration system
– “These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life” = Senator Jeff Flake (ex-rep sen)
Uncertainty
- Free market - uncertain - goes against Cons ideology
- e.g. Wall Street Crash, 2008 Housing Market Crash
??
To what extent are Conservatives pragmatic?
(pragmatism - decisions based on practicality, being flexible (of what works))
(opposite to ideological approach - based on beliefs / values)
YES:
✓ Human nature
✓ Change to conserve
✓ Paternalism
NO:
☓ Reject mixed economy (NR)
☓ Rational selfishness
☓ Social attitudes
Human nature
- Philosophy of imperfection
- Pragmatism stems from phil of imp - idea there isn’t a utopian society, humans should be judged based on what they are + society on what it is
Paternalism
- When the cottage is not happy, must adapt, must support lower classes
Reject mixed economy
- Mixed economy can be seen as pragmatic because govt intervention is used when its needed
- But New Right reject this
– Thatcher - dependency culture - 20 mines, 20,000
– Sunak - “bleed to death”
– Reaganomics
– Reagan quote
– Friedman quotes
Rational selfishness
- Ideological idea that people are rational so should be free to live their lives without govt interference, express happiness through free market + meritocracy
– Ayn Rand quotes
Social attitudes
- Trad + one nation + neo-cons typically support the state in promoting family, marriage, traditional values, public morality etc. - this is arguably more ideological than pragmatic as the cons can be seen to be reluctant to embrace a changing society + different family structures and makeups, co-habitation > marriage etc.
- Link to anti-permissiveness
To what extent do Conservatives agree on the role of the state?
YES:
✓ Law and Order
✓ Tradition
✓ Minimal state
(+promote free market)
NO:
☓ Social attitudes (marriage, family, religion)
☓ Immigration?
☓ Paternalism
Law and order
– Hobbes = “it is not wisdom, but authority that makes law”
– Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) = “end justify the means”
– Hobbes - law and order can only be provided by the state
– Rand = “When the state becomes flabby, it also becomes feeble”
– “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter” - Macmillan
- Trump = “I am the law and order candidate”
- NSA’s surveillance
- Turkey + Russia - laws targeting journalists + activists
- NIXON = “You can’t have progress without order, because when you have disorder, and revolution, you destroy all of the progress you have”
Tradition
- Burke: “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”
- G.K. Chesterton = “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead”
– “Just as a plant’s new leaves are connected and dependent on the roots, so a society’s present direction stems from its past development” = Oakeshott
– Churchill = the further into the past you look, the clearer the future becomes
– Monarchy = historical wisdom, beyond party politics, national loyalty
– House of Lords
– Year 0 = Khmer Rouge
–French Rev
– Disraeli = “England cannot begin again!”
Limited state
– Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - “We are led by the invisible hand to promote an end that was by no means our intention”
– Schumpter’s ‘Creative Destruction’
– “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” = Friedman
– “We haven’t got a trillion-dollar debt because we don’t tax enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much” = Reagan
– “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government” = Friedman
- But one-nation favours state intervention more than traditional + neo-cons:
State spending (tory welfarism v just defence)
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
Individual liberty
- Promote authority, family, public morality v liberty
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
Paternalism
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” = Disraeli
– “elevate the condition of the people” = Disraeli
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” = Disraeli
– “Security at every stage of life” = Cameron
– “The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own” = Disraeli
To what extent is the New Right internally coherent?
YES:
✓ Limited state + free market
✓ Inequality
✓ Property
NO:
☓ Role of state (rolling back v promoting family marriage etc)
☓ Human nature
☓ Immigration
Equality
Limited state + free market
- Free market allows the state to be ‘rolled-back’
- Most efficient mechanism
– Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - “We are led by the invisible hand to promote an end that was by no means our intention”
– Schumpter’s ‘Creative Destruction’
– “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” = Friedman
– “We haven’t got a trillion-dollar debt because we don’t tax enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much” = Reagan
– “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government” = Friedman
Inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
- Burke = ‘little platoons’
Property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
Role of state (rolling back v promoting family marriage etc)
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– Poland: tax deductions for families, family 500+ program, National Family Council (2007)
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
Human nature
- Cons philosophy of imperfection
- Neoconservatives = anti-social behaviour caused by decline in respect for authority = liberal individualism
- Anti-permissiveness
- Hard paternalism
- Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
- Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
- Rand = “man must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others not sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life”
– Nozick = more optimistic = all individuals have self-ownership - owners of their own body, mind and abilities
Immigration
– “Swamped by people of a different culture” = Thatcher
– “There will be no further large-scale permanent immigration” = Cons manifesto 1970
– “We believe in holding out the clear prospect of an end to immigration” = Thatcher
– John Stokes = “The Tory party must be seen as the defender and preserver of our way of life”
– Ronald Bell = “There is no law which says we ha
– Malcolm Turnbull = Disraeli Award = non-discriminatory Australian immigration system
– “These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life” = Senator Jeff Flake (ex-rep sen)
- Neo-lib - skilled migrants
– Skilled occupations list (identifies jobs in high demand, Australia)
– Howard government = 457 Visa Program (1996) - employers to sponsor skilled workers from overseas to work in Australia for up to 4 years
To what extent do Conservatives agree on paternalism?
YES:
✓ Inequality
✓ Change to conserve / tradition
✓ Human nature (trad + one-nation +neo-cons)
NO:
☓ Rational selfishness
☓ Soft v Hard Paternalism
☓ Limited state
Natural aristocracy
– Cameron personally supporting gay marriage
- Notion of a Big Society (help society regenerate itself by giving citizens the means to look after their communities)
- Post-war consensus (1945-79) = paternalism + Keynesian econ –> Butskellism was used (Butler was a prominent one-nation Tory whereas Gaitskell was a social democrat - so similar)
Tradition
- Burke: “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”
- G.K. Chesterton = “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead”
– “Just as a plant’s new leaves are connected and dependent on the roots, so a society’s present direction stems from its past development” = Oakeshott
– Churchill = the further into the past you look, the clearer the future becomes
– Monarchy = historical wisdom, beyond party politics, national loyalty
– House of Lords
– Year 0 = Khmer Rouge
–French Rev
– Disraeli = “England cannot begin again!”
Justify inequality
– Nixon = you can’t have progress without order, because with disorder, and with revolution, you lose all the progress you have”
– Disraeli = “so ignorant of each other’s thoughts, feelings and habits as if they were inhabitants of different planets”
– “I am a conservative to preserve all that is good in our constitution, a Radical to remove all that is bad. I seek to preserve property and to respect order” = Disraeli
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
Dependency culture (NR)
Soft v Hard Paternalism
- Hard = force choices on people
- Soft = try and influence behaviour
– Mill = “those who…require being taken care of by others, must be protected against their own actions”
– Mill = “despotism is a legitimate mode of government in dealing with barbarians”
– The Patriot Act (2001) = detain individuals suspected of terrorism without trial
– 20th C - Ford Motor Company used to access employees’ bank accounts, church attendance, and family life to promote clean & sober lifestyles
– COVID
– Employers and Workmen Act of 1875 (equal protection to employers + employees)
– 1971 - UK govt added ‘Warning by HM Government: Cigarettes Can Damage Your Health’ to cigarette packets
– Cigarette gradual ban from 2027
Duty of Care
To what extent does New Right Conservatism deviate from Traditional Conservatism?
YES:
✓ Human nature
✓ Social attitudes
✓ Immigration
✓ Paternalism (Filby = “by destroying paternalism, Thatcher created a nation more sharply divided into winners and losers”)
NO:
☓ Inequality
☓ Free markets + limited state
☓ Property
Human nature
“Solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”, “hatred, envy and war” = Hobbes
– Hobbes + Burke saw state as necessary body of authority that had to oversee every aspect of our lives to ensure order and stability
- But Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
- Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
- Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
- Rand = “man must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others not sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life”
– Nozick = more optimistic = all individuals have self-ownership - owners of their own body, mind and abilities
Role of state (ind lib v judaeo-christian, public moral)
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
Paternalism
– Thatcher = “More than they wanted freedom, the Athenians wanted security. Yet they lost everything because they wanted not to give to society, but for society to give to them”
–Thatcher = “In the modern world, we should recall the Athenians’ dire fate whenever we confront demands for increased state paternalism”
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
Inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
Free market + limited state
- Free market allows the state to be ‘rolled-back’
- Most efficient mechanism
– Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - “We are led by the invisible hand to promote an end that was by no means our intention”
– Schumpter’s ‘Creative Destruction’
– “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” = Friedman
– “We haven’t got a trillion-dollar debt because we don’t tax enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much” = Reagan
– “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government” = Friedman
- But one-nation favours state intervention more than traditional + neo-cons:
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
Property
- Allows people to get their own property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
To what extent does One Nation Conservatism deviate from Traditional Conservatism?
YES:
✓ State spending
✓ Rejection of localism to a degree- see society as a whole rather than small areas- Burke vs Disraeli
✓ Immigration (trad-accept inferiority, on- integrate)
NO:
☓ Property
☓ Paternalism
☓ Human nature- hierarchy/tradition/authority
State spending
- State may need to spend more to adopt paternalism + bridge inequality gap
– HS2
- Post-war consensus (1945-79) = paternalism + Keynesian econ –> Butskellism was used (Butler was a prominent one-nation Tory whereas Gaitskell was a social democrat - so similar)
– The creation of 300,000 homes every year for five years following WW2
– The Troubled Families programme
– Every child should have a great education (Such as turning failing schools into academies)
Immigration
– “Swamped by people of a different culture” = Thatcher
– “There will be no further large-scale permanent immigration” = Cons manifesto 1970
– “We believe in holding out the clear prospect of an end to immigration” = Thatcher
– John Stokes = “The Tory party must be seen as the defender and preserver of our way of life”
– Ronald Bell = “There is no law which says we ha
– One Nation MP Sarah Game (Australia) = immigration has “enriched” the nation’s culture and skill base
– “The Conservative Party, unless it is a national party, is nothing” = Disraeli
– Malcolm Turnbull = Disraeli Award = non-discriminatory Australian immigration system
– “These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life” = Senator Jeff Flake (ex-rep sen)
Property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Artisans Labourers and Dwellings Improvement Act
– Subsidies after WW2 for housing
Paternalism
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” = Disraeli
– “elevate the condition of the people” = Disraeli
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” = Disraeli
– “Security at every stage of life” = Cameron
– “The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own” = Disraeli
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
Human nature
– “Solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”, “hatred, envy and war” = Hobbes
– Hobbes + Burke saw state as necessary body of authority that had to oversee every aspect of our lives to ensure order and stability
- But Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
– Also to a certain extent goes against inequality because it assumes anyone can be successful and gain economic wealth through the workings of the free market - whereas traditional cons favour hereditary, generational wealth
- Hobbes believed that a truly free market was impossible to achieve as people couldn’t be trusted to operate in such a manner without abusing their freedom
‘Conservatism merely reflects the interests of the privileged and prosperous’. Discuss.
YES:
✓ Inequality
✓ Tradition
✓ Property
NO:
☓ Paternalism
☓ ‘Tory welfarism’
☓ Free market
Inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
– Burke = ‘little platoons’
Free market / capitalism
– Smith = :The real tragedy of the poor is the poverty of their aspirations”
– Samuel Smiles = self-help
Property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
Paternalism
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
‘Tory welfarism’
- Harold Macmillan’s Middle Way
– High point - 1950s/60s - using Keynesian economics
- Butskellism was used (Butler was a prominent one-nation Tory whereas Gaitskell was a social democrat - so similar)
– Building 300,000 homes in 5 years after WW2
– Subsidies for housing after WW2
– George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme
Collectivism
To what extent is conservatism a philosophy of imperfection?
YES:
✓ Human nature
✓ Authority + role of state
✓ Inequality
NO:
☓ Capitalism’s reluctant supporters
☓ Paternalism
☓ Rational selfishness (NR-rational)
Human nature
– “Solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”, “hatred, envy and war” = Hobbes
– Hobbes + Burke saw state as necessary body of authority that had to oversee every aspect of our lives to ensure order and stability
- But Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
Authority + role of state
– Hobbes - law and order can only be provided by the state
– Rand = “When the state becomes flabby, it also becomes feeble”
– “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter” - Macmillan
- Trump = “I am the law and order candidate”
- NSA’s surveillance
- Turkey + Russia - laws targeting journalists + activists
- NIXON = “You can’t have progress without order, because when you have disorder, and revolution, you destroy all of the progress you have”
– Hobbes = “it is not wisdom, but authority that makes law”
– Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) = “end justify the means”
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
Inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
– Burke = ‘little platoons’
Capitalism’s reluctant supporters
-free market examples
Paternalism
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy”
Rational selfishness (NR-rational)
- Rand = “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me”
- Rand = “Learn to value yourself, which means: to fight for your happiness”
- Rand = “man must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others not sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life”
– Nozick = more optimistic = all individuals have self-ownership - owners of their own body, mind and abilities
To what extent is conservatism a coherent ideology?
YES:
✓ Human nature
✓ Property + property + tradition
✓ Free markets + limited state
NO:
☓ Economy - state intervention + paternalism
☓ Role of state (anti-permissiveness etc)
☓ Immigration (on-unite, neo-lib-don’t mind-consequence of fm)
or
YES:
- Law and order
- Inequality + property
- Limited state
NO
- Tradition v change to conserve
- Authority v liberty
- Free market v human nature
Human nature
– “Solitary, nasty, poor, brutish and short”, “hatred, envy and war” = Hobbes
– Hobbes + Burke saw state as necessary body of authority that had to oversee every aspect of our lives to ensure order and stability
- But Oakeshott = human nature was “fragile and fallible”, yet it was also “benign and benevolent”,”fallible but not terrible”, “imperfect but not immoral”
– Oakeshott = “not so much nasty, brutish and short…as noisy, foolish and flawed”
Property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
Tradition
- Burke: “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”
- G.K. Chesterton = “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead”
– “Just as a plant’s new leaves are connected and dependent on the roots, so a society’s present direction stems from its past development” = Oakeshott
– Churchill = the further into the past you look, the clearer the future becomes
– Monarchy = historical wisdom, beyond party politics, national loyalty
– House of Lords
– Year 0 = Khmer Rouge
–French Rev
– Disraeli = “England cannot begin again!”
Economy (paternalism)
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy”
Role of the state (promote marriage, public morality v individual liberty)
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
Immigration
– “Swamped by people of a different culture” = Thatcher
– “There will be no further large-scale permanent immigration” = Cons manifesto 1970
– “We believe in holding out the clear prospect of an end to immigration” = Thatcher
– John Stokes = “The Tory party must be seen as the defender and preserver of our way of life”
– Ronald Bell = “There is no law which says we ha
– One Nation MP Sarah Game (Australia) = immigration has “enriched” the nation’s culture and skill base
– “The Conservative Party, unless it is a national party, is nothing” = Disraeli
– Malcolm Turnbull = Disraeli Award = non-discriminatory Australian immigration system
– “These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life” = Senator Jeff Flake (ex-rep sen)
To what extent do Conservatives agree on society?
YES:
✓ Inequality
✓ Law and order
✓ Organicism + tradition
or property
NO:
☓ Paternalism
☓ Immigration
☓ Judaeo-Christian morality (1 nation more liberal)
Inequality
– “The tory must defend the right to be unequal” = John Biggs-Davidson
– “For I agree with you there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talent” = Jefferson
– People with status getting more important jobs → Edward Earl of Derby - PM 3x - longest-serving Tory leader, Lord Salisbury - PM 3x over 13 years
– 2019 study: Britain’s most influential people 5x more likely to be from a private school
– Burke = ‘little platoons’
Law and order
– Hobbes - law and order can only be provided by the state
– Rand = “When the state becomes flabby, it also becomes feeble”
– “It is the duty of Her Majesty’s government neither to flap nor to falter” - Macmillan
- Trump = “I am the law and order candidate”
- NSA’s surveillance
- Turkey + Russia - laws targeting journalists + activists
- NIXON = “You can’t have progress without order, because when you have disorder, and revolution, you destroy all of the progress you have”
– Hobbes = “it is not wisdom, but authority that makes law”
– Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532) = “end justify the means”
Organicism + tradition
- Burke: “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born”
- G.K. Chesterton = “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead”
– “Just as a plant’s new leaves are connected and dependent on the roots, so a society’s present direction stems from its past development” = Oakeshott
– Churchill = the further into the past you look, the clearer the future becomes
– Monarchy = historical wisdom, beyond party politics, national loyalty
– House of Lords
– Year 0 = Khmer Rouge
–French Rev
– Disraeli = “England cannot begin again!”
Paternalism
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” = Disraeli
Immigration
– “Swamped by people of a different culture” = Thatcher
– “There will be no further large-scale permanent immigration” = Cons manifesto 1970
– “We believe in holding out the clear prospect of an end to immigration” = Thatcher
– John Stokes = “The Tory party must be seen as the defender and preserver of our way of life”
– Ronald Bell = “There is no law which says we ha
– One Nation MP Sarah Game (Australia) = immigration has “enriched” the nation’s culture and skill base
– “The Conservative Party, unless it is a national party, is nothing” = Disraeli
– Malcolm Turnbull = Disraeli Award = non-discriminatory Australian immigration system
– “These are people who wanted to provide for their family and wanted a better life” = Senator Jeff Flake (ex-rep sen)
Judaeo-Christian morality (1 nation more liberal)
– 80% of American conservatives believe marriage is needed to create strong families
– 58% say society is better off if people make marriage and children a priority
– Thatcher (1988) - family = “a nursery, a school, a hospital, a leisure place, a place of refuge and a place of rest” and “the building block of society”
– The Children Act 1989 = outlined rights of children
– The Child Support Agency (1993) = established to ensure absent fathers paid maintenance for the upbringing of their children
– Married Couples Allowance = transfer some of personal allowance to encourage marriage over co-habitation
– John Major urged a “back to basics” approach - promoted traditional family values
– The Video Recording Act 1984
– No civil rights leg under Reagan
– Reagan signed Comprehensive Crime Control Act (1984)
– Article 9 ECHR - right to freedom of religion
- 1962 Sup Court ruling - prohibited teachers in public schools forcing kids to say morning prayers
- Bill to deestablish Church of England (sep of Church and state) introduced by Lib Dem peer Paul Scriven
To what extent do Conservatives agree on the economy?
YES:
✓ Property
✓ Free market (+free trade)
✓ Limited state
NO:
☓ Paternalism
☓ Tory Welfarism
☓ Immigration
Property
– “Freedom to use the resources we possess” = Friedman
– “Man’s absolute need of private property” = Roger Scruton
– Embodiment of my will in an object = Hegel
- Oppose inheritance tax
– “The preservation of property” = Locke
– “‘A partnership between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born” = Burke
– Rand & Nozick = those with prop more able to protect themselves against govt infringements on their liberty
– U.S Constitution = no quartering of soldiers = 3rd amendment
-Thatcher’s Right to Buy
- Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Improvement Act
Free market (+free trade)
- Free market allows the state to be ‘rolled-back’
- Most efficient mechanism
– Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations - “We are led by the invisible hand to promote an end that was by no means our intention”
– Schumpter’s ‘Creative Destruction’
- NAFTA
Limited state
– “If you put the government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand” = Friedman
– “We haven’t got a trillion-dollar debt because we don’t tax enough, we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much” = Reagan
– “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer against the government” = Friedman
– Thatcher letting 20 mines close - 20,000 jobs
– Sunak - “leaving business bleed to death” as Chancellor
Tory welfarism
- Harold Macmillan’s Middle Way
– High point - 1950s/60s - using Keynesian economics
– Butskellism was used (Butler was a prominent one-nation Tory whereas Gaitskell was a social democrat - so similar)
– Building 300,000 homes in 5 years after WW2
– Subsidies for housing after WW2
– George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme
Paternalism
– “Security at every stage of life”, “Supporting the working class” = Cameron
– Artisan’s and Labourers’ Dwellings Improvement Act = Disraeli
– “Elevate the condition of the people” (Disraeli)
– “I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?” - Disraeli
– Disraeli = “the greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but reveal to him his own”
– Cameron = Britain had a moral obligation to help developing countries
– Cameron = “Supporting the working people”
– “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy” = Disraeli
To what extent do Conservatives agree on the importance of tradition?
YES:
✓ Organic society
✓ Property
✓ Inequality
NO:
☓ Change to conserve
☓ Immigration
☓ Social attitudes
Create community (one nation the nation new right anti-permissiveness traditional little platoons)
Organism + Empiricism
Noblesse oblige + paternalism
Paternalism (NR)
