Textbook Conservatism Flashcards
(82 cards)
2 key paradoxes within conservatism?
- Conservatism IS a form of change, but managed change
- Conservatism is not equanimous with the UK Conservative Party, nor of any other party
What is the phrase “reactionary politics” useful to describe?
The popular misconception of conservatism many people hold - that conservatism is about stasis or turning back the clock
What is the key conservative attitude to change? KEY QUOTE?
Change is ESSENTIAL, but that it must take place IN A CERTAIN WAY that draws upon tradition, experience and continuity to avoid danger.
“A state without the means of change… is without the means of its conservation”
How did Oakeshott describe conservative attitudes to change?
A “doctrine of maintenance” which rejects iconoclasm as well as stagnation
Conservative attitudes to change are often encapsulated as…
“Changing to conserve”
Key Oakeshott quote about changing to conserve?
“preservation… will not be achieved through inaction and inertia… preservation demands constant attention, harnessed to a keen awareness of what has gone before”
2 reasons to think conservative is as often a “tendency” as it is an ideology?
- Opposition to globalisation and development often comes from the hardest left parties e.g. PASOK in Greece
- In opposition to Brexit, many politicians outside the Conservative Party described the actions as reckless, a threat to stability and unprecedented. Such concerns base their semantics in conservative thought, even though they were aired by some liberal and socialist politicians
Where does conservatism originate and why does this need to be acknowledged?
WITHIN the Enlightenment, and not against it
The tendency of liberal and socialist thinkers to label conservatism as anti-Enlightenment has been damaging
Evidence Hobbes was not anti-Enlightenment?
- Early career had been dedicated towards applying Enlightenment principles to maths and science
- Hobbes believed in “government by consent” and detested the DRoK
Key quote that suggests Burke was not a reactionary?
“Man is by nature reasonable”
Where did Hobbes fundamentally break from the proto-liberals and optimists of his day?
He believed that the first duty of the state was to maintain order, without which there could be no notion of the things which liberals claimed to aspire to
Why did Burke support the American Revolution but not the French? How can this help us identify the most important thing in Burke’s thought?
The American Revolution obeyed a form of tradition which had developed organically, the result of American colonial culture which had developed on the continent. The French Revolution was explicitly theoretical
What did Burke say that the French Revolution would lead to and why?
“fearsome darkness” - change pursued not on the basis of experience but of experiment
Evidence Burke and Hobbes didn’t fully agree?
- Burke was contemptuous of the concentrated power advocated by Hobbes, citing centralised power as a key problem of the French revolutionary government
- Burke was more readily attached to the idea of a natural ruling class - Hobbes believed that whilst a powerful ruling elite was necessary, they would nevertheless not emerge via hereditary descent or from an entrenched elite class
Was the Burke/Hobbes split the only split in conservatism? What does it show?
No. In the 1970s there was a split between US New Right conservatism and UK Oakeshottian Butskellite conservatism
That conservatism itself changes whilst respecting its own tradition
Is conservatism trying to “stop” the Enlightenment, or historical progress more generally?
No. Rather, conservatism tries to direct it away from danger
How did Hobbes actually somewhat foreshadow liberal thought about human nature in his Leviathan?
Theorised that individuals were driven by unflinching self-interest. The difference is that for Hobbes, this was a mutually destructive rather than mutually beneficial state since men were not rational enough to have the foresight not to harm others
Why could there only be ONE source of moral authority in Hobbes’ world? Which other conservative thinker does this clash with?
As long as there are multiple, the multiple different interpretations will clash
Nozick and the idea of multiple maximin states competing
Were Nozick and Hobbes broadly agreed on competition?
No. Nozick thought competition was generally mutually beneficial, whereas Hobbes identified it as a destructive force
But did Hobbes think people were fundamentally irrational? Evidence?
No
They would eventually yield power to a Leviathan
Were there natural rights in Hobbes’ post-Leviathan state?
No - the sovereign would do whatever was necessary, given unlimited power, to ensure order was maintained
Principle reason for the state in Hobbes’ eyes?
Creating and upholding law and order
Which party did Burke represent in Parliament?
Whig
When was Reflections on the Revolution in France written?
1790, 1 year after the Revolution
