Conservatism

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes

• Wrote “Leviathan” (1651)

• Sceptical of human nature, humans are selfish

• Life was “nasty, brutish and short” before the state emerged

• Formal authority needed to define right and wrong

• Contract between people and state: would give up sovereignty for order and security

• Even the economy requires law and order to operate

Edmund Burke

• Wrote “Reflections on the Revolution in France” (1790), believed the revolution was destroying the traditional institutions of state and society, and condemned the persecution of the Catholic Church that resulted from it

• Supported free-market economist Adam Smith

• Human imperfection, empiricism (basing ideas on pragmatics not ideologies)

• Dismissed the idea of equality but believed the elites were responsible for looking after those below in society

Michael Oakeshott

• Wrote “On Being Conservative”  (1962)

• Human nature “fallible not terrible” (disagreed with Hobbes)

• Humanity was incapable of creating a perfect society, ideologies were harmful as they oversimplified human nature

• Should embrace knowledge, culture and tradition, key One-Nation Conservative

• Stated being a conservative was preferring the known to the unknown, underpinned the core of conservatism

• Said politics should be “a conversation, not an argument” therefore rejecting the idea of absolutes

Ayn Rand

• Wrote “The Virtue of Selfishness” (1964)

• Believed talented individuals were key to society’s success, not the government or state

• Objectivism: people should be guided by self interest

• Society does not exist/ it is atomised (ie split up into millions of individuals)

• Argued for rolling back of state, tax cuts

  • Individuals should ‘ask nothing, expect nothing, depend on nothing’.

• Was a libertarian both on economic issues and on social issues (eg abortion)

• Very small but strong state (ie believed in law and order)

Robert Nozick

• Wrote “Anarchy, State and Utopia” (1974)

• Key thinker for the New Right

• Humans are driven by a quest for “self ownership” so they can reach their full potential

• Thought the growth of the state was the greatest threat to individual freedom, welfare state lead to dependency culture

• Libertarian: state should leave people alone economically and socially

• Described tax as theft

• Not an anarchist- some degree of formal authority