To what extent are Conservatives united in their views on the State? (24)

Agree: State must provide order & security

• Core belief: State’s main role = maintain order & protect citizens, not pursue progressive goals.

• Reasoning: Humans are imperfect → need authority to prevent conflict.

  • Hobbes (Leviathan): Without the state, life = “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Individuals cede rights for security; sovereign cannot be opposed.

• Traditional Conservatives: Strong, paternalistic state ensures stability, protects social norms, values, and property.

  • Example: Peel (1829) → Metropolitan Police Service for law & order in industrialising cities.

• New Right: Despite economic libertarianism, support a strong state for security & order → enables freedom, market innovation, and individual liberties.

  • Rand: “Only proper purpose of government is to protect man’s rights… from physical violence.”

  • Thatcher: Prioritised defence & law enforcement even during public sector cuts.

• Conclusion: Across conservative strands, a strong state for security and order is universally supported.

Disagree: State Intervention & Paternalism

• One-Nation Conservatives: Support paternalistic state intervention to protect welfare, maintain social hierarchy, and prevent unrest (“changing to conserve”).

  • Rooted in noblesse oblige → privileged have duty to help less fortunate.

  • Disraeli: Public Health Act 1875, Factory Act 1874; “The palace is not safe when the cottage is not happy.”

  • Intervention = pragmatic, stabilising society, not ideological.

• New Right: Reject paternalism; support libertarianism & minimal state intervention.

  • Economy = laissez-faire; welfare & taxation seen as curtailing freedom.

  • Nozick: Taxation = “forced labour.”

  • Rand: Altruism creates dependency → “The man who attempts to live for others is a dependent…”

  • Thatcher: Privatised industries, cut taxes, reduced welfare.

• Key split: One-Nation = pragmatic, paternalistic intervention; New Right = ideological, minimal state, individual freedom.

Disagree: Pragmatism & Tradition & Ideology

• Traditional & One-Nation Conservatives:

  • State should act pragmatically and respect tradition.

  • Decisions = flexible, based on what works; gradual reform preferred.

  • Society = organic, complex; cannot be perfectly designed.

  • Oakeshott: Politics = “steering a ship on a vast sea,” careful adjustments over radical change.

  • One-Nation: Pragmatic state reforms (e.g., post-industrialisation) maintain social cohesion, prevent unrest, and conserve hierarchy.

• New Right:

  • Reject pragmatism and tradition as guides for state action.

  • Driven by ideology & negative freedom → libertarian, emphasising individual rights and autonomy.

  • Nozick: Individuals own their bodies/labour; taxation = “forced labour.”

  • State’s role = protect from force, theft, fraud; no wealth redistribution or social engineering.

  • Pragmatic state intervention = capitulation to socialism.

• Key split: Pragmatism & tradition vs. ideological commitment to individual freedom.

.

.