Recommended Reading
Revision prompts for A Level Government and Politics Students studying Ideology: Conservatism.
This is a simple approach that you can replicate on index cards or computer. Notice the FOCUS on key words, numbers and letters and plenty of space for additional notes &/pictures etc.
Full sentences are not necessary. The Source is based on Andrew Heywood's Political Ideologies
A.Key/significant beliefs or tenets of traditional conservatism (Andrew Heywood)
1.Tradition
change & security, history & customs, survival of institutions.
2.Human nature
imperfections, security, belonging v. choice & liberty, irrationality, unpredictability, evil (public order & law), intellectual limitations, avoidance of abstract ideas, caution, experience, pragmatism.
3.Organic society
society c.f liberal atomistic - actions of individuals, contractual (self-interest), duty, community, society natural & organic, perseverance & respect.
4.Authority
natural/necessity (parents) c.f. liberals - contract made by free individuals for own benefit - natural structure of society is hierarchical, ‘natural aristocracy’ - state, citizens have duties & responsibilities not just rights, strong state not minimal (Liberal), public order but limited - not change human beings.
5.Property
reflects merit, wealth earned, psychological & social advantages - security, thrift, virtue, respect,order,
not issue for individuals alone but society - balanced, national interest served by government intervention in economy, property not merely creation of present generation, passed down, custodial wealth,
property owning democracy BUT entail obligations.
B.Macmillan’s criticism of Thatcher re privatisation
‘selling off the family silver’.
‘Middle Way’
Post 1945 cons. govts. accepted govt. should provide social welfare & manage economy.
Embraced Keynesianism but for different reasons
Middle way = non ideological between extremes of laissez-faire liberalism & socialist state planning.
Moderation - rampant individualism & overbearing collectivism.
1930s experience - economic policy not just left to market.
Middle Way, 1938 Macmillan (1957-63) advocated planned capitalism - a mixed system - combined state ownership, regulation of certain aspects of economy with initiative of private enterprise.
Both Lab. & Cons. accepted reform = expansion of state intervention into economic life. BUT
Lab. to promote social equality & build socialism.
Cons. on grounds of paternalism - state intervention not seek to abolish hierarchy but to promote values of compassion & obligation (one nation)
C.New Right is mixture of:
Neoliberalism
Classical rather than modern liberalism.
Minimal state.
Private good, public bad.
State is realm of coercion, unfreedom, collectivism restrictions.
Faith in individual & market, anti statist.
Individuals encouraged to be self-reliant.
Neoconservatism
Freedom is market freedom.
Balanced against the need for social order - authority restored in social life.
Thatcherism free economy & strong state.
Reaction to permissiveness of 1960s, collapse of moral standards. c. f. Liberalism - pluralism is healthy v. undermines ethical norms & cohesion of society.
Return to Victorian values (family).
Order & discipline in society.
