Conservatism is difficult to define as it can refer to desires to conserve different traditions or institutions. Classical conservatives sought to preserve aristocratic hierarchy and social order through strong government restraint, while modern conservatives like Thatcher and Reagan advocated for smaller government and free market capitalism. Edmund Burke is seen as the founder of conservatism, emphasizing that institutions and traditions evolve gradually over time through trial and error rather than being designed through human reason, and should change slowly to avoid chaos. Burke believed revolutions tend to end badly and society cannot be instantly redesigned.

1. Conservatism

2. Easy to define
• share a desire to conserve or preserve something
• the traditional or customary way of life of their
societies----- vary from one society to another
• different conservatives----- different ideas
• want to conserve something------but not all want
to conserve the same things
• so difficult to define

3. • difficulty is in two ways
• First, the word "conservative" is often applied
to anyone who resists change
• free-market economy
• the old-line communist in Russia
• the diehard anti-communist in the US

4. • If it is a distinctive political position, it must
entail more than the simple desire to resist
change
Secondly
• the contrast b/w the early conservatives &
self-proclaimed conservatives of recent years

5. classical conservatives
• trying to preserve or restore an aristocratic
society
• defended the traditional social hierarchy
• insisted on the need for a government strong
enough to restrain the passions of the people
• skeptical of attempts to promote individual
freedom & equality of opportunity in a
competitive society

6. Conservatives of the late twentieth century
• former British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher & former US President Ronald
Reagan ------- individualist conservatives
• advocated reducing the size & scope of
government
• to free individuals to compete for profits
• enthusiasm for laissez-faire capitalism
• similar to classical and neoliberalism

7. • the true founder of conservatism was Edmund
Burke (1729-1797)
• diverges in many ways from modern
conservatism
• objected to the way liberal ideas in France
• liberalism turned into radicalism
• An ideology devised in one place became
warped when applied to different
circumstances

8. • Easy to apply liberalism in America without
resistance
• in France, a large aristocratic class and a state-
supported Roman Catholic Church had a lot to
lose
• revolutionaries tried to solve the problem
with the guillotine
• swept away all established institutions

9. • Liberal place too much confidence in human
reason
• only partly rational------ wildly irrational
passions
• society ------evolved traditions, institutions,
and standards of morality
• Burke----man's irrational impulses will lead to
chaos------ end in tyranny------ predicted that
France would fall under the rule of a military
dictator

10. • Institutions and traditions ------ can't be all bad,
• the products of hundreds of years of trial and
error
• should be preserved or "conserve“
• not a matter if they aren't perfect; they work
• not to say that things should never change
• should change, but only gradually, giving people
time to adjust
• no "stand-patter", a point some current
conservatives fail to grasp
• Burke ------ " A state without the means of some
change is without the means of its conservation"

11. • discover the irrational in human behavior
• institutions are like living things, they grow and adapt
over time
• revolutions tend to end badly
• society cannot be instantly remade according to the
dictates of human reason
• Burke's ideas------- an anti-ideology, they have
considerable staying power
• emphasis on religion, traditions, and morality strikes a
modern conservative's heart.
• applying reason to solve social problems were echoed
by Jeane Kirkpatrick, President Reagan's UN
ambassador and political scientist
• leftists are always imagining
• classic conservatism is still alive in modern thought