Nature of conservatism

    Conservatism is a political doctrine which maintains that government should restrict intervention into the private lives of citizens. Thus, conservatives believe that basic economic organization is best left up to the market because the more people do for themselves, in a capitalistic framework, the better. If people want good health care, they should work hard to get it. The same is true for all other goods, except those people cannot reasonably get for themselves, like police and fire protection. Conservatives believe that the state does more harm than good by providing long-term basic welfare, environmental regulation, business regulation, and so on, even when all is done out of the best motivations (which they believe is often not the case). Furthermore, the governmental structures required to do what liberals want is unresponsive, bureaucratically organized, and power-prone; it serves selected interests, from big business to big labor, better than it serves the needs of the average individual. Because it has much power, government stands as a constant real and potential threat to the interests and well-being of all individuals.
    Conservatives believe that government should only do for individuals what they cannot do for themselves or through private market structures; government should provide transportation networks, regulate some monopolies, and supply police and military protection. A legal structure is needed to regulate harmful actions, ensure that contracts will be kept, and see to it that disputes can be settled by an impartial legal system.     Top

Conservatism and traditional values

    Traditional "liberals," those that held that only minimal government is acceptable, also supported most of what was mentioned in the previous paragraph. However, contemporary conservatives accept a much greater role for government than did traditional liberals. Contemporary conservatives recognize that people are increasingly interdependent, and do accept wide-ranging social programs -- such as the social security system in the United States -- as essential. But another dimension of contemporary conservative thinking addresses the issue of pluralism.   Conservatives believe that some standards, even those that appear to involve private behavior, cannot be left up to the individual. For example, contemporary conservatives consider sexual morality a fundamental part of social life. The public has an interest, they believe, in careful regulation of marriage, suggestive public sexuality, homosexuality, and sexually provocative language. Furthermore, conservatives tend to encourage the adoption of common values: a traditional family structure, and respect for God and for the flag.
    Unlike liberals, conservatives are not tolerant of plurality of certain private values. They believe instead that some apparently private values are crucial to a common social structure. Once certain basic values are protected, a plurality of values is not offensive; indeed, conservatives believe that their approach will support a greater variety of lifestyles by relieving people of the repressive weight of big government, which, they believe, hampers private enterprise. Many conservatives also believe the repressive weight of socially harmful moral values can be reduced through, for example, government censorship.     Top

Conservatism and governmental enforcement of values

    After this brief examination of conservatism, we can bring into focus a real problem for moral theory: the need for governmental control over the lives of private individuals. Both liberals and conservatives see the need for control and intervention; they refuse to leave all moral issues up to individuals. But in each view the need for control, whether through moral values or through state intervention, is often directed to a different aspect of life. Each sees social impact from a different perspective, and each view has some plausibility. The debate over the ways government should try to control behavior is complex. Unfortunately, moral theorists have not been especially effective at presenting and defending ways to resolve such controversies.     Top

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