Approved

Political Ideas

Conservatism

Strands: Traditional, One-nation, New Right: neo-liberal, New Right: neo-conservative.

Assessed in

Paper 1, Section B

Specification sections

Key terms

Set thinkers

Origin: AI draft (Claude)Human review: EditorFacts checked: 6 November 2026 (automated source check during drafting)Next review due: 4 May 2027

Introduction and overview

Conservatism is one of the three core political ideas in Component 1. It is best understood not as a fixed programme but as a set of attitudes towards human nature, change and authority, which different conservatives have developed in strikingly different directions.

Studying conservatism means explaining both what holds the tradition together and why its strands disagree. The central theme is the tension between the cautious, pragmatic conservatism associated with Burke and Oakeshott and the free-market radicalism of the neo-liberal New Right.

New to this topic?Start with one question: why might someone want to keep things roughly as they are? Conservatives answer that human beings are imperfect, that society is too complex to redesign from a blueprint, and that institutions which have lasted carry wisdom no single generation could work out for itself. Every strand starts from some version of that answer, then disagrees about what follows.

How it is assessed

Paper 1, Section B (Core Political Ideas): one 24-mark question from a choice of two.

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Specification requirements

Core ideas and principlesSpecification requirement
- •Pragmatism: decisions based on what works in practice, linked to traditional and one-nation conservatism
- •Tradition: accumulated wisdom that links generations and provides stability and organic change
- •Human imperfection: humans are psychologically, morally and intellectually imperfect
- •Organic society and state: society matters more than any individual part, supporting authority, hierarchy and cohesion
- •Paternalism: power exercised from above in the people’s interests, read differently by traditional, one-nation and New Right conservatives
- •Libertarianism (neo-liberalism): liberty, autonomy and free choice, especially in the economy
- •Each core idea related to human nature, the state, society and the economy
Differing views and tensionsSpecification requirement
- •Traditional conservatism: commitment to hierarchical and paternalistic values
- •One-nation conservatism: an updating of traditional conservatism in response to capitalism
- •The New Right: neo-liberal (free-market economics, atomistic individualism) and neo-conservative (fear of social fragmentation, law and order, public morality)
Conservative thinkers and their ideasSpecification requirement
- •Thomas Hobbes: order; human nature
- •Edmund Burke: change; tradition and empiricism
- •Michael Oakeshott: human imperfection; pragmatism
- •Ayn Rand: objectivism; freedom
- •Robert Nozick: libertarianism; self-ownership

Source to checkParaphrased from Pearson’s A level Politics specification, Issue 4 (first teaching September 2026, first assessment June 2028). Requirement detail is entered as each topic is developed.

Key political concepts

Human imperfectionThe belief that humans are psychologically, morally and intellectually flawed.Spec key term

Explanation: It is not a claim that people are evil. Its most distinctive part is intellectual imperfection: reason is too limited to understand or redesign a complex society.
Relevance: The foundation for tradition, pragmatism and the conservative distrust of radical change.
Illustration: Hobbes’s account of human nature as needy and fearful, and Oakeshott’s case against rationalism in politics.

Change to conserveThe idea that gradual reform is sometimes needed in order to preserve what is valuable.Spec key term

Explanation: Conservatives are not opposed to all change. They oppose sudden change based on abstract principles, but accept reform that adapts existing institutions to new circumstances.
Relevance: Explains how conservatism can adapt without abandoning its principles, and why one-nation conservatives accepted reform.
Illustration: Burke argued that a state unable to change would be unable to preserve itself.

EmpiricismThe view that knowledge comes from experience and observation rather than from abstract reasoning.Spec key term

Explanation: Conservatives use it to argue that tried and tested practices are a better guide to good government than theoretical models.
Relevance: Connects tradition and pragmatism, and underpins Burke’s respect for inherited institutions.
Illustration: Burke’s criticism of the French revolutionaries for rebuilding society on abstract principles of reason.

HierarchyAn ordering of society in which people occupy different positions, with different levels of authority and responsibility.Spec key term

Explanation: Traditional conservatives see hierarchy as natural and necessary in an organic society, because people have different abilities and roles.
Relevance: Linked to authority, paternalism and the organic view of society.
Illustration: The traditional conservative defence of established institutions such as the monarchy and the Church.

AuthorityThe right to exercise power, which others accept as legitimate.Spec key term

Explanation: For conservatives, authority comes from above and from tradition rather than from a contract between individuals. It provides the order that imperfect humans need.
Relevance: Central to traditional and neo-conservative views of the state.
Illustration: Hobbes argued that only a sovereign with absolute authority could prevent conflict.

Noblesse obligeThe duty of the privileged to act responsibly and to help those less fortunate.Spec key term

Explanation: It turns paternalism into a social obligation: the better-off should improve conditions for others, partly from duty and partly to preserve social stability.
Relevance: The defining principle of one-nation conservatism.
Illustration: The one-nation concern, traced to Disraeli, that inequality could divide the country into “two nations”.

AtomismThe view that society is a collection of self-interested, largely self-sufficient individuals rather than an organic whole.Spec key term

Explanation: Associated with the neo-liberal New Right, and criticised by traditional and one-nation conservatives, who see it as undermining community and obligation.
Relevance: Marks one of the sharpest disagreements within conservatism.
Illustration: Rand’s defence of rational self-interest as the basis of morality.

Laissez-faireAn economic approach in which the state leaves markets to operate with as little intervention as possible.Spec key term

Explanation: Neo-liberals see free markets as the most efficient way to create wealth and the best protection of individual freedom.
Relevance: Distinguishes the neo-liberal New Right from one-nation conservatism, and links conservatism to classical liberalism.
Illustration: Rand’s argument that pure laissez-faire capitalism is the only moral economic system.

Anti-permissivenessOpposition to the relaxation of traditional moral and social standards.Spec key term

Explanation: Neo-conservatives argue that permissiveness weakens shared values and leads to social fragmentation, so the state should uphold public morality.
Relevance: The core of the neo-conservative strand, and a point of tension with neo-liberal individual freedom.
Illustration: The neo-conservative call for a strong state to defend traditional values and order.

RadicalSeeking fundamental change rather than gradual reform.Spec key term

Explanation: Radicalism seems to contradict conservatism, but the neo-liberal New Right sought radical change to restore free markets after decades of state intervention.
Relevance: Central to the debate about whether the New Right is genuinely conservative.
Illustration: The contrast between Burke’s gradualism and the neo-liberal aim of rolling back the state.

Select a term to open its glossary entry. Expand a row for its explanation, relevance and a contemporary illustration.

Strands

1Traditional

2One-nation

3New Right: neo-liberal

4New Right: neo-conservative

Theme	Traditional	One-nation	New Right: neo-liberal	New Right: neo-conservative
Human nature	Imperfect and limited in reason; people need order, guidance and the security of familiar institutions.	Imperfect but social; the better-off owe duties to those below them.	Individuals are rational and self-interested, and able to make their own choices.	Morally imperfect; prone to disorder without discipline and shared values.
The state	An organic, hierarchical authority that keeps order, exercising power paternalistically from above.	An active state that reduces social division in order to preserve cohesion and prevent unrest.	Minimal in the economy: roll back the state through lower taxes, deregulation and privatisation.	Strong in law and order, national security and the defence of public morality.
Society	An organic whole bound by tradition, duty and hierarchy, more important than any individual.	Organic and united; deep inequality risks splitting it into “two nations”.	Atomistic: a collection of self-reliant individuals rather than an organic whole.	Organic, but threatened by permissiveness and the decline of traditional values.
The economy	Private property gives security and continuity; economic change should be gradual.	Pragmatic acceptance of markets alongside welfare and, historically, a mixed economy.	Laissez-faire free markets as the best route to prosperity and liberty.	Broadly accepts the free market, but treats social order as the priority.
Core principles stressed	Tradition, hierarchy, authority, organic change, paternalism (authoritarian).	Noblesse oblige, pragmatism, change to conserve.	Libertarianism, atomism, rejection of paternalism, radical change.	Authority, anti-permissiveness, tradition, order.
Associated set thinkers	Burke; Oakeshott on imperfection and pragmatism; Hobbes on order.	No set thinker; draws on Burke’s pragmatism and caution.	Rand (objectivism, laissez-faire); Nozick (self-ownership, minimal state).	No single set thinker; echoes Hobbes’s emphasis on order.

Where the strands agree

All strands defend private property, though for different reasons: traditional conservatives value it as a source of security and continuity, neo-liberals as an expression of liberty and self-ownership.
All are sceptical of state planning on a large scale. Traditional conservatives distrust abstract reasoning; neo-liberals distrust the state’s ability to run the economy.
Traditional, one-nation and neo-conservative strands share an organic view of society and a commitment to order and authority.

Where the strands disagree

The role of the state in the economy: one-nation conservatives accept intervention to keep society together; neo-liberals want it rolled back.
Paternalism: accepted in different forms by traditional and one-nation conservatives, but rejected by neo-liberals as an intrusion on individual choice.
The nature of society: organic for traditional, one-nation and neo-conservatives; atomistic for neo-liberals.
The pace of change: traditional and one-nation conservatives prefer cautious change to conserve; the New Right was prepared to pursue radical change.
Within the New Right, neo-liberal individual freedom sits uneasily with the neo-conservative strong state and moral authority.

Rand and Nozick were libertarian philosophers rather than conservatives in the traditional sense; they appear in the specification because their ideas shaped the neo-liberal New Right. Hobbes wrote before conservatism existed as a named ideology, and is studied for his views on order and human nature.

Essential knowledge

Core ideas and principles

Specification requirement

Pragmatism. Conservatives prefer to judge policies by what works in practice rather than by how well they fit an abstract theory. Pragmatism allows conservatives to accept change when circumstances require it, which helps explain how conservatism has adapted over time. The specification links it particularly to traditional and one-nation conservatism.

Specification requirement

Tradition. Customs and institutions that have survived over generations are seen as stores of accumulated wisdom. Tradition gives people a sense of belonging and stability, and links past, present and future generations. It also explains the conservative preference for organic change: reform that grows out of existing practice rather than replacing it.

Specification requirement

Human imperfection. Conservatives argue that humans are imperfect in three ways. Psychologically, people need security and familiar surroundings. Morally, they are capable of selfishness and wrongdoing. Intellectually, their reason is too limited to understand a complex society fully. This last point is why conservatives distrust grand plans to remake society.

Specification requirement

Organic society and state. Society is compared to a living organism: a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, and whose parts depend on one another. On this view society comes before the individual, and authority and hierarchy are natural features that hold it together.

Specification requirement

Paternalism. Power is exercised from above, in the interests of those below. The specification stresses that strands read this differently. Traditional conservatives take an authoritarian view, in which those with authority know best. One-nation conservatives see a duty on the better-off to look after others. The New Right rejects paternalism as an intrusion on individual choice.

Specification requirement

Libertarianism. Associated with the neo-liberal New Right, libertarianism values individual liberty, autonomy and free choice, above all in the economy. It sits uneasily with paternalism and with the organic view of society, which is one of the main tensions within conservatism.

ExplanationConservatism is not the Conservative PartyThe ideology and the party overlap but are not the same. The Conservative Party has drawn on different strands at different times, and some conservative ideas are found in other parties. Answers should discuss conservative ideas and thinkers, using party history only as illustration.

Core ideas and principles

How the core ideas fit together

Explanation

The core ideas are connected. Because human reason is limited, no individual or generation can design a better society from first principles. That is why conservatives value tradition, which preserves what has been learned through experience, and pragmatism, which tests ideas against reality rather than theory.

Explanation

Because humans are morally and psychologically imperfect, they need order and the security of belonging. An organic society, held together by authority and hierarchy, provides this. Paternalism follows as the way those with authority meet their responsibilities. Libertarianism is the exception: it starts from the individual rather than from society, which is why the New Right is the most contested strand.

Differing views and tensions

Specification requirement

Traditional conservatism is committed to hierarchy, authority and paternalism. It grew up as a reaction against the French Revolution and the rationalist idea that society could be rebuilt on abstract principles. Change should be cautious and organic.

Specification requirement

One-nation conservatism updates traditional conservatism in response to industrial capitalism. It argues that deep inequality divides society into hostile groups, sometimes described as “two nations”, and threatens social order. The better-off have a duty, noblesse oblige, to improve conditions for others, so that society holds together. Historically this strand accepted welfare provision and, after 1945, a mixed economy.

Specification requirement

The New Right combines two different strands. Neo-liberals favour free-market economics, lower taxes, deregulation and a smaller state, and they hold an atomistic view of society as a collection of self-reliant individuals. Neo-conservatives fear social fragmentation and the decline of traditional values, and they want a strong state that upholds law and order, national security and public morality.

EnrichmentGoing further: “the free economy and the strong state”The political scientist Andrew Gamble described the New Right as combining a free economy with a strong state. The phrase captures the internal tension: neo-liberals want the state to withdraw from the economy, while neo-conservatives want it to be more assertive in maintaining order and morality.

Explanation

The main tensions. The strands disagree about the role of the state in the economy, about whether society is organic or atomistic, about paternalism and about the pace of change. A strong answer explains each disagreement and then asks whether the shared foundations, such as human imperfection and the defence of private property, matter more than the differences.

Key thinkers

Thomas Hobbes

1588–1679 · Leviathan (1651)

OrderAn ordered society must balance the human desire for freedom against the need for authority.

Human natureHumans are needy, vulnerable and easily led astray.

Central beliefs: Without government, people would live in a “state of nature”: a war of all against all in which life would be “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. Rational people would therefore agree to obey a sovereign with absolute authority in return for security.
Human nature: Self-interested, fearful and driven above all by the desire for self-preservation.
Society: Without a sovereign there is no settled social life: order is what makes society possible.
The state: An absolute sovereign, justified by the order and security it provides.
The economy: Property, trade and prosperity all depend on the security that only a strong sovereign can provide.
Agrees and disagrees with: Shares the conservative view of human imperfection and influences the neo-conservative emphasis on order. But his social contract is a rational argument of exactly the kind Burke and Oakeshott distrusted.

Edmund Burke

1729–1797 · Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

ChangePolitical change should be cautious, incremental and organic.

Tradition and empiricismInstitutions and practices that have stood the test of time should be respected.

Central beliefs: Opposed the French Revolution as an attempt to rebuild society from abstract principles. Society is a partnership between those who are living, those who are dead and those yet to be born. Reform is legitimate when gradual: “A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.”
Human nature: Human reason is limited, so inherited customs and institutions are a better guide than individual theorising.
Society: An organic partnership across generations, built on family, community and local attachments: his “little platoons”.
The state: An organic and hierarchical inheritance to be reformed carefully, never redesigned. As an MP he argued that representatives should use their own judgement rather than simply follow instructions.
The economy: Private property is a foundation of social stability and continuity, which the state should protect.
Agrees and disagrees with: The founding figure of traditional and one-nation conservatism, close to Oakeshott on tradition and pragmatism. His respect for inherited institutions stands in sharp contrast to Rand’s and Nozick’s individualism.

Michael Oakeshott

1901–1990 · Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962), including “On Being Conservative”

Human imperfectionSociety is complex and unpredictable, and humans are imperfect.

PragmatismConservatism is essentially pragmatic.

Central beliefs: Criticised “rationalism”: the attempt to run politics by applying abstract theories. Political knowledge is practical and learned through experience. Being conservative is a disposition rather than a doctrine: a preference for the familiar and tested over the unknown and untried.
Human nature: Intellectually imperfect; no one has enough knowledge to plan society as a whole.
Society: Too complex and unpredictable for any blueprint, whether of the left or the right.
The state: Government’s role is limited: to maintain the rules within which people pursue their own activities, not to steer society towards a grand goal.
The economy: Economic planning is another form of rationalism; government should provide stable rules rather than direct economic life.
Agrees and disagrees with: Close to Burke on tradition and caution. His suspicion of all ideological programmes puts him at odds with doctrinaire versions of the New Right as well as with socialism.

Ayn Rand

1905–1982 · Atlas Shrugged (1957); The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

ObjectivismRational self-interest is a virtue.

FreedomOnly pure laissez-faire capitalism respects individual freedom.

Central beliefs: Her philosophy of objectivism holds that reason is the only guide to knowledge and that each person should pursue their own rational self-interest. Requiring people to sacrifice themselves for others, whether through morality or the state, is a moral wrong.
Human nature: Rational, capable and self-reliant.
Society: A collection of individuals dealing with each other by voluntary agreement; society has no claims of its own over the individual.
The state: Minimal: limited to protecting individual rights through the police, the courts and defence.
The economy: Pure laissez-faire capitalism is the only moral economic system, because it rests on voluntary exchange.
Agrees and disagrees with: A major influence on the neo-liberal New Right. Her atheism and rejection of tradition and paternalism put her in conflict with traditional conservatives and neo-conservatives.

Robert Nozick

1938–2002 · Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974)

LibertarianismDrawing on Kant, individuals must never be treated as a resource to be used for others’ ends.

Self-ownershipIndividuals own their bodies, talents, skills and labour.

Central beliefs: Only a minimal state, limited to protecting people against force, theft and fraud, can be justified; any more extensive state violates individual rights. Redistributive taxation forces some people to work for the benefit of others, which treats them as means rather than ends.
Human nature: Individuals are self-owning bearers of rights.
Society: Individuals are separate persons with their own lives; no social goal justifies sacrificing one for another.
The state: A minimal, “night-watchman” state.
The economy: A distribution of property is just if it arises from voluntary exchange, whatever pattern results; redistributive taxation is unjust.
Agrees and disagrees with: Directly opposed to one-nation paternalism and redistribution. He wrote partly in reply to John Rawls, one of the set liberal thinkers.

Current affairs

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Political debates

Each debate asks how far conservatives are united on one of the themes or core principles in the specification. Use the strands to structure your answer and the key thinkers as evidence.

To what extent are conservatives united on human nature?

United: humans are imperfect

PointTraditional conservatives stress limited reason

EvidenceBurke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), warned against making men ‘live and trade each on his own private stock of reason’, preferring the inherited wisdom of prejudice.

PointHobbes and neo-conservatives stress moral and psychological weakness

EvidenceHobbes, Leviathan (1651), described ‘a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death’ as a general inclination of all mankind.

PointOne-nation conservatives share the pessimism

EvidenceDisraeli’s 1872 Crystal Palace speech, reported by The Spectator, argued that working people needed ‘social and not political reform’, casting the governing class as responsible for their welfare.

Divided: the neo-liberal view is far more optimistic

PointNeo-liberals see individuals as rational and capable

EvidenceRand, The Virtue of Selfishness (1964), held that ‘the actor must always be the beneficiary of his action’, treating rational self-interest as the basis of morality.

PointNozick starts from rights, not imperfection

EvidenceNozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), treats individual rights as side-constraints on what others may do, drawing on Kant’s principle that persons are ends, not merely means.

PointThe difference shapes everything else

EvidenceRand rejected paternalism outright, writing in The Ayn Rand Column: ‘I will not run anyone’s life — nor let anyone run mine.’

Wider significance. Human nature is the deepest divide in conservatism, because the neo-liberal strand rests on a view of the individual that traditional conservatives reject.

Opportunities for evaluation. Decide whether the neo-liberal view is a different account of human nature or a difference of emphasis, and weigh the shared pessimism of three strands against the optimism of one.

To what extent are conservatives united on society?

United: society is organic

PointTraditional conservatives see society as a living whole

EvidenceBurke, Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), called society ‘a partnership not only between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born’.

PointOne-nation conservatives want society held together

EvidenceDisraeli’s novel Sybil (1845) warned that Britain had become ‘Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy’ – the rich and the poor.

PointNeo-conservatives defend shared values

EvidenceThatcher told the Sunday Times (3 May 1981): ‘Economics are the method; the object is to change the heart and soul’, attacking drift ‘towards the collectivist society’.

Divided: neo-liberals take an atomistic view

PointSociety as a collection of individuals

EvidenceRand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966), insisted ‘Mankind is not an entity, not an organism, or a coral bush’, directly rejecting the organic view of society.

PointDifferent threats to society

EvidenceMacmillan’s The Middle Way (1938) aimed ‘to provide a minimum standard of life’, seeing poverty and insecurity as the main threat to social stability.

PointFree markets can disrupt communities

EvidenceThe 2017 Conservative manifesto stated ‘We do not believe in untrammelled free markets. We reject the cult of selfish individualism’, distancing the party from Thatcherite neo-liberalism.

Wider significance. Three strands share an organic view; the neo-liberal exception is what makes the New Right contested.

Opportunities for evaluation. Ask whether three strands sharing an organic view outweighs the neo-liberal exception, and whether disagreements about the threats to society are about ends or means.

To what extent are conservatives united on the state?

United: the state must keep order

PointAll strands want a state strong enough to maintain order

EvidenceHobbes, Leviathan (1651), argued that ‘without a common power to keep them all in awe’, life is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’.

PointAll reject socialist state control

EvidenceThe 1979 Conservative manifesto declared ‘The State takes too much of the nation’s income; its share must be steadily reduced.’

PointAll value authority

EvidenceRand, though hostile to state power, held that government’s proper role is to protect individual rights to life, liberty and property.

Divided: on how large and active the state should be

PointOne-nation conservatives accept an active state

EvidenceThe Spectator’s 1938 review of Macmillan’s The Middle Way noted that ‘genuine though restricted planning is the kernel of his scheme’.

PointNeo-liberals want a minimal state

EvidenceNozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), argued that only a minimal state can be morally justified, and that any more extensive state violates individual rights.

PointThe New Right is divided internally

EvidenceThatcher’s 1980 conference speech argued that ‘The State drains society, not only of its wealth but of initiative, of energy’, a neo-liberal case for retreat.

Wider significance. Agreement on order masks sharp disagreement about the size and purpose of the state, including within the New Right itself.

Opportunities for evaluation. Distinguish agreement on the purpose of the state, order, from disagreement about its size. Consider whether the tension within the New Right is greater than the tension between strands.

To what extent are conservatives united on the economy?

United: property and capitalism

PointAll defend private property

EvidenceHobbes, Leviathan (1651), argued that without a sovereign ‘there be no propriety, no dominion, no mine and thine distinct’, making secure property a product of state order.

PointAll accept capitalism

EvidenceRand’s Objectivism holds that capitalism is the only just social and economic system, because it alone respects individual rights.

PointAll distrust central planning

EvidenceOakeshott, ‘On Being Conservative’ (1956), warned that ‘the conjunction of dreaming and ruling generates tyranny’, rejecting governments that impose grand plans on society.

Divided: on how far markets should be left alone

PointNeo-liberals favour laissez-faire

EvidenceRand’s Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (1966) defends a system in which ‘there exists absolutely no government intervention in the economy’, as the Ayn Rand Institute summarises it.

PointOne-nation conservatives accept intervention

EvidenceDisraeli’s Public Health Act 1875 required provision of sanitation such as running water and refuse disposal, an early example of Conservative state intervention.

PointTraditional conservatives prefer gradual change

EvidenceOakeshott, ‘On Being Conservative’ (1956), argued that ‘innovation entails certain loss and possible gain’, so the burden of proof lies on those proposing change.

Wider significance. Conservatives agree on what to defend (property and the market) but not on how much the state should shape the economy.

Opportunities for evaluation. Judge whether shared support for property and markets matters more than disagreement about intervention, and whether one-nation acceptance of a mixed economy was principled or pragmatic.

To what extent are conservatives united on pragmatism?

United: pragmatism defines traditional and one-nation thought

PointOakeshott saw conservatism as essentially pragmatic

EvidenceOakeshott, ‘On Being Conservative’ (1956): ‘To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery’.

PointBurke judged institutions by experience

EvidenceBurke, Reflections (1790): ‘The science of constructing a commonwealth, or renovating it, or reforming it, is, like every other experimental science, not to be taught a priori.’

PointPragmatism explains one-nation adaptation

EvidencePeel’s Tamworth Manifesto (1834) accepted the Great Reform Act as ‘a final and irrevocable settlement’ and backed ‘the correction of proved abuses and the redress of real grievances’.

Divided: the New Right was more doctrinaire

PointNeo-liberalism follows a clear theory

EvidenceOakeshott said of Hayek’s Road to Serfdom: ‘A plan to resist all planning may be better than its opposite, but it belongs to the same style of politics.’

PointRand built a complete philosophy

EvidenceRand set out Objectivism as a complete system: ‘Metaphysics: Objective Reality’, ‘Epistemology: Reason’, ‘Ethics: Self-interest’, ‘Politics: Capitalism’ (Atlas Shrugged, 1957, appendix).

PointNeo-conservatives hold firm moral positions

EvidenceSection 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 barred local authorities from intentionally promoting homosexuality; it was repealed in 2000 in Scotland and 2003 in England and Wales.

Wider significance. Pragmatism separates the older strands from the New Right more clearly than almost any other principle.

Opportunities for evaluation. Consider whether the New Right abandoned pragmatism or applied it to new circumstances, weighing Oakeshott’s account of conservatism against the doctrinaire character of neo-liberalism.

To what extent are conservatives united on tradition?

United: tradition carries accumulated wisdom

PointBurke’s defence of inherited institutions

EvidenceIn Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), Burke wrote that ‘we are afraid to put men to live and trade each on his own private stock of reason’, preferring inherited wisdom.

PointOne-nation conservatives value continuity

EvidenceBurke argued in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) that ‘A state without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.’

PointNeo-conservatives defend traditional values

EvidenceJohn Major told the 1993 Conservative conference it was ‘time to get back to basics, to self-discipline and respect for the law, to consideration for others’.

Divided: neo-liberals give tradition little weight

PointRand rejected tradition as a guide

EvidenceRand defined rationality as ‘the recognition and acceptance of reason as one’s only source of knowledge … and one’s only guide to action’ (‘The Objectivist Ethics’, 1961).

PointMarkets disrupt traditional ways of life

EvidenceThe 1984–85 miners’ strike followed the National Coal Board’s closure announcement of 6 March 1984, as miners fought to keep collieries that were often their community’s only employer.

PointRadical reform breaks with tradition

EvidenceOakeshott’s ‘On Being Conservative’ (1956) warned that ‘innovation entails certain loss and possible gain’, preferring ‘small and slow changes’ to ‘large and sudden’ ones, unlike Thatcherite economic transformation.

Wider significance. Tradition unites three strands; neo-liberal individualism is again the exception.

Opportunities for evaluation. Ask whether neo-liberals reject tradition outright or simply rank it below individual freedom, and whether the neo-conservative defence of tradition holds the New Right together.

To what extent are conservatives united on human imperfection?

United: imperfection is a shared starting point

PointPsychological imperfection

EvidenceOakeshott wrote in ‘On Being Conservative’ (1956) that ‘To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried’.

PointMoral imperfection

EvidenceIn Leviathan (1651, ch. 11), Hobbes identified in all mankind ‘a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death’.

PointIntellectual imperfection

EvidenceOakeshott’s Rationalism in Politics (1962) criticised the tendency to value formal theory above practical knowledge, rejecting politics designed from abstract principles.

Divided: on what imperfection implies

PointNeo-liberals accept limits on the state’s knowledge, not the individual’s

EvidenceIn ‘Conservatism: An Obituary’ (1960), Rand mocked defending capitalism on the grounds that ‘men are weak, fallible, non-omniscient and innately depraved’.

PointDifferent remedies

EvidenceDisraeli’s government answered urban poverty with welfare reform, such as the Artisans’ Dwellings Act 1875, which ‘enabled local authorities to embark upon schemes of slum clearance’.

PointNozick sidesteps the question

EvidenceNozick opened Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) with a claim about rights, not human nature: ‘Individuals have rights and there are things no person or group may do to them’.

Wider significance. Imperfection is the closest thing to a common foundation, but strands draw different conclusions from it.

Opportunities for evaluation. Decide whether agreeing on imperfection while disagreeing about its consequences counts as unity or division.

To what extent are conservatives united on the organic society and state?

United: society and the state grow naturally

PointTraditional conservatives see the state as an inheritance

EvidenceBurke described society in Reflections (1790) as a partnership ‘between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born’.

PointOne-nation conservatives want an organic, united nation

EvidenceDisraeli’s novel Sybil (1845) warned of ‘Two nations; between whom there is no intercourse and no sympathy’ – ‘THE RICH AND THE POOR’.

PointNeo-conservatives defend the organic community

EvidenceThatcher told the 1987 Conservative conference that ‘the family is in the first place where we learn those habits of mutual love, tolerance and service’.

Divided: neo-liberals reject the organic view

PointAtomism replaces organicism

EvidenceThatcher told Woman’s Own (published 31 October 1987): ‘who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families’.

PointThe state as a protector of rights

EvidenceNozick’s Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) justified only ‘a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts’.

PointHobbes’s state is constructed, not organic

EvidenceHobbes’s sovereign is created by covenant, each person saying ‘I authorise and give up my right of governing myself to this man’ (Leviathan, 1651, ch. 17).

Wider significance. This principle divides not only strands but thinkers: Hobbes and Nozick both explain the state by reasoning rather than by organic growth.

Opportunities for evaluation. Consider whether the organic view is essential to conservatism; if it is, the neo-liberal strand looks less conservative.

To what extent are conservatives united on paternalism?

United: most strands accept some paternalism

PointTraditional conservatives take an authoritarian view

EvidenceHobbes held it ‘annexed to the sovereignty to be judge of what opinions and doctrines are averse, and what conducing to peace’ (Leviathan, 1651, ch. 18).

PointOne-nation conservatives see a duty of care

EvidenceThe Spectator (29 June 1872) reported that Disraeli’s Crystal Palace speech stressed a ‘policy of sewage’ to help poor families whose children were ill with fever.

PointNeo-conservatives accept moral paternalism

EvidenceThatcher told the 1987 Conservative conference that ‘Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values’ were instead being taught ‘an inalienable right to be gay’.

Divided: neo-liberals reject it, and supporters disagree

PointNeo-liberals see paternalism as an intrusion

EvidenceNozick argued in Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974, p. 169) that ‘Taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.’

PointRand rejected altruism as a duty

EvidenceRand attacked altruism, whose ‘basic principle’ she said ‘is that man has no right to exist for his own sake’ (Philosophy: Who Needs It, 1982).

PointAuthoritarian and duty-based paternalism differ

EvidenceHobbes’s paternalism is command: no sovereign ‘can justly be put to death, or otherwise in any manner by his subjects punished’ (Leviathan, 1651, ch. 18), unlike Disraelian duty.

Wider significance. The specification stresses that paternalism is read three different ways, so a strong answer distinguishes them.

Opportunities for evaluation. Distinguish the three readings of paternalism before judging: agreement on the word can hide disagreement about its meaning.

To what extent are conservatives united on libertarianism?

United: economic freedom is widely valued

PointNeo-liberals champion liberty in the economy

EvidenceRand held that ‘The only proper purpose of a government is to protect man’s rights, which means: to protect him from physical violence’ (For the New Intellectual, 1961).

PointAll strands defend property

EvidenceThatcher’s Housing Act 1980 gave council tenants the ‘right to buy’, stating ‘A secure tenant has the right’ to acquire the freehold of their house.

PointAll oppose socialist control

EvidenceThatcher’s governments sold state industries to private shareholders, privatising British Telecom in 1984 and British Gas in 1986.

Divided: most strands limit liberty for the sake of order

PointTraditional conservatives put order first

EvidenceBurke wrote in Reflections (1790) that ‘the restraints on men, as well as their liberties, are to be reckoned among their rights’.

PointOne-nation conservatives limit liberty for cohesion

EvidenceMacmillan’s The Middle Way (1938) proposed state planning and measures such as a minimum wage to secure ‘Economic and Social Progress in a Free and Democratic Society’.

PointNeo-conservatives limit moral liberty

EvidenceSection 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 barred councils from promoting ‘the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship’ in schools.

Wider significance. Libertarianism is the principle most likely to be described as a liberal influence on conservatism rather than part of its core.

Opportunities for evaluation. Judge whether libertarianism is part of conservatism or a liberal influence on it, and how far the other strands limit liberty for the sake of order.

Evidencemarks a point supported by a source or set text.Interpretationmarks an interpretation: a reasoned argument, not a fact.

Common misconceptions

Conservatives oppose all change.

They accept gradual change to conserve; what they oppose is sudden change based on abstract principles.

Conservatism is the same as the Conservative Party.

The party has drawn on different strands at different times; answers should focus on ideas and thinkers.

Hobbes was a conservative politician.

He wrote in 1651, before conservatism existed as a named ideology. He is studied for his ideas on order and human nature.

The New Right is only about free markets.

It also includes neo-conservatives, who want a strong state to uphold order and morality.

Paternalism means supporting a welfare state.

Traditional paternalism is authoritarian, one-nation paternalism is a duty of the better-off, and the New Right rejects paternalism.

Human imperfection means conservatives think people are evil.

It covers psychological, moral and intellectual limits; the intellectual limit on reason is the most distinctive.

Sources

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Every fact on this page has been checked against original sources.