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Ideologies - The liberal tradition - Modern conservatism and its variants

5 important questions on Ideologies - The liberal tradition - Modern conservatism and its variants

The most common version of modern conservatism combines themes of:

- classical liberalism
- arguments about the wisdom of emphasizing tradition, authority and experience in political decision making.

The British political Edmund Burke is often known as 'the father of modern conservatism'. What did he thing about societal reforms?

Engineering social change through politics, even is well intentioned, does not respect the realists of human nature in society. We must hold on to authority and social traditions. Only the most incremental reforms, tested carefully against past practice, can improve society. Society could be governed well only by tried-and-true experience.

Some modern conservatives add a third pillar to their ideology. They emphasize that religious guides their political views and generally defends authority and social tradition. However, this does sometimes not fit perfectly with its other principles, because:

When conservatives ask government to enforce religiously inspired norms, like opposition to abortion, they break with the limited-government spirit of classic liberalism. In this are, they want government to tell people how to behave.

Secular conservatism has become prominent in America in recent years with the rise of the Tea Party (a loosely organized conservative political movement launched in 2009 that focuses largely on cutting government spending.) It included many religious-Right figures, but roughly half of its supporters identify more with libertarianism. This is:

The strand of conservative ideology that remains focused on classical liberal themes of limited government and individual rights.

Another strand of thought that further complicates the terrain of American conservatism today is neoconservatism. This is:

The strand of conservative ideology that emphasizes the use of American military power abroad to promote values of democracy, human rights and markets (the emphasis of active invention to change the world is almost directly the opposite of Burkina skepticism about engineering political change).

The question on the page originate from the summary of the following study material:

Introduction to Political Science | 9780134319193 | Craig Parsons

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Ideologies - The liberal tradition - Modern conservatism and its variants

5 important questions on Ideologies - The liberal tradition - Modern conservatism and its variants

The most common version of modern conservatism combines themes of:

The British political Edmund Burke is often known as 'the father of modern conservatism'. What did he thing about societal reforms?

Some modern conservatives add a third pillar to their ideology. They emphasize that religious guides their political views and generally defends authority and social tradition. However, this does sometimes not fit perfectly with its other principles, because:

Another strand of thought that further complicates the terrain of American conservatism today is neoconservatism. This is:

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