Intro:

·        The essence of conservatism is the preservation of traditions and existing social orders.

·        Preserving traditions – Burke

·        Opposing non-vital change

·        Agreeing with vital change

·        hierarchy

Body:

PRESERVING TRADITIONS

·        Conservatives believe that traditions are inherited wisdom and shared experiences of past generations.

·        So, existing social and political forms have a special virtue as they are refined and sanctified by tradition.

·        They believe that history acts as a filter, which has removed bad practices, and left a perfect and clear present.

·        So time is seen as the greatest tester of naturally evolved institutions.

·        Conservative theorist Burke believes that traditions are natural, and should act as our faithful guardians when leading our lives.

·        However, conservatives seem to handpick traditions worthy of preserving according to their own self-interests. i.e. prostitution? Suppression of women? Unequal civil rights for ethnic minorities?

CONSERVATIVES OPPOSE NON-VITAL CHANGE

·        The knowable past and present is immune from the uncertainties that derive from revolutionary change as argued by Marxists. ‘If it aint broke, don’t fix it’.

·        So, the House of Lords should be maintained, not only because it is a Great British tradition, but also because democratizing it, as called for by popular political figures such as Jeremy Paxman, would yield unpredictable political outcomes. Why risk compromising executive-legislative relations, and therefore political stability?

·        Society is like an organic body. If change is too severe, i.e. a revolution, or an organ (tradition) is taken out of it, then it will at best become disfigured, and at worst, collapse and die.

·        Thus the changes witnessed in the UK and US since the 1970s are acceptable. Both Thatcher and Reagan turned to neoliberal economics, which was for the conservatives, the best means of sustaining the state’s hegemony and internal traditions.

HIERARCHY

·        Burke believes that there exists a natural inequality between individuals, where some are innately superior and should take superior positions in society.

·        A hierarchy and class structure is therefore both necessary and natural.

·        This hierarchy formed from history – and so therefore is natural.

·        This hierarchy is fundamental to conservative belief and therefore conservatives would oppose any issue that suggested this change.

CONSERVATIVES AGREEING WITH VITAL CHANGE

·        However, Burke agrees that ‘a state without the means of some change, is without the means of its conservation’.

·        Hence when a state comes under threat, it may have to change its system in order to prevent its collapse.