Conservatism facts for kids

Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values.

In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of social institutions such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, property rights, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favor institutions and practices that guarantee stability and evolved gradually. Adherents of conservatism often oppose certain aspects of modernity (for example mass culture and secularism) and seek a return to traditional values, though different groups of conservatives may choose different traditional values to preserve.

The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has since been used to describe a wide range of views. There is no single set of policies regarded as conservative because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time.

Conservative thought has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures. For example, some conservatives advocate for greater economic intervention, while others advocate for a more laissez faire free-market economic system. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a wide range of issues. Edmund Burke, an 18th-century politician who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the main theorists of conservatism in the 1790s.

Themes

Some political scientists such as Samuel P. Huntington, have seen conservatism as situational. Under this definition, conservatives are seen as defending the established institutions of their time. According to Quintin Hogg, the chairman of the British Conservative Party in 1959: "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself". Conservatism is often used as a generic term to describe a "right-wing viewpoint occupying the political spectrum between liberalism and fascism".

Tradition

Despite the lack of a universal definition, certain themes can be recognised as common across conservative thought. According to Michael Oakeshott, "To be conservative ... is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss." Such traditionalism may be a reflection of trust in time-tested methods of social organisation, giving 'votes to the dead'. Traditions may also be steeped in a sense of identity.

Hierarchy

In contrast to the tradition-based definition of conservatism, some left-wing political theorists such as Corey Robin define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of social and economic inequality. In that way right-wing politics supports the view that certain social orders and hierarchies are inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, or tradition. From this perspective, conservatism is less an attempt to uphold old institutions and more "a meditation on—and theoretical rendition of—the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back".

Conversely, some conservatives may argue that they are seeking less to protect their own power than they are seeking to protect "inalienable rights" and promote norms and rules that they believe should stand timeless and eternal, applying to each citizen.

Political theorist Yoram Hazony argues that, in a traditional conservative society, members have importance and influence to the degree they are honored within the social hierarchy, which includes factors such as age, experience, and wisdom. The word hierarchy has religious roots and translates to 'rule of a high priest'.

Realism

Conservatism has been called a "philosophy of human imperfection" by Noël O'Sullivan, reflecting among its adherents a negative view of human nature and pessimism of the potential to improve it through 'utopian' schemes. The "intellectual godfather of the realist right", Thomas Hobbes, argued that the state of nature for humans was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short", requiring centralised authority.

Reactionism

Reactionism is a tradition in right-wing politics that opposes policies for the social transformation of society. In popular usage, reactionary refers to a strong traditionalist conservative political perspective of a person opposed to social, political, and economic change. Some scholars, such as Corey Robin, treat the words reactionary and conservative as synonyms. Others, such as Mark Lilla, argue that reactionism and conservatism are distinct worldviews.

A reactionary is a person who holds political views that favor a return to the status quo ante, the previous political state of society, which that person believes possessed positive characteristics absent from contemporary society. In political discourse, being a reactionary is generally regarded as negative; Peter King observed that it is "an unsought-for label, used as a torment rather than a badge of honor." Despite this, the descriptor "political reactionary" has been adopted by writers such as the Austrian monarchist Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, the Colombian political theologian Nicolás Gómez Dávila, and the American historian John Lukacs.

Related pages

• Conservative
• Political economy
• Constitutional economics
• Liberalism
• Libertarianism

Images for kids

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  2009 Taxpayer March on Washington as conservative protesters walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C.

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  Gianfranco Fini, former President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, in 2004

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  2012 March for Life in Paris, France

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  Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France (2007–2012)

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  Robert Peel (1788–1850)

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  Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013), under whose leadership the Conservative Party has shifted their economic policies to the right as well as Thatcherism

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  Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021

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  President of the United States Ronald Reagan (1981–1989), whose Reagan Doctrine has reshaped the Republican Party

See also

In Spanish: Conservadurismo para niños