Lakewood The Thinking City
August 7, 2002
Conservativism. There are two
sorts of conservatives:
Economic
conservatives:
Most basic and important (salient) beliefs:
A free market is the most efficient
form of economy and will provide a just and
adequate living to everyone who will work.
Big business is (therefore) good, and deserves to be helped
and rewarded.
Taxation and regulation restrict business unduly, preventing them from being as
productive as they should be.
Further beliefs (generally following from
the most important beliefs):
Poverty is due to the failure of individuals to make the
right choices and/or to work,
and/or to social programs which prevent free enterprise from
flourishing and
providing
jobs. The responsibility for making an adequate living falls completely on the
individual. Those who are poor or
powerless are definitely not victims.
Individuals
have the right to be secure and to enjoy some degree of equality of
opportunity. They do
not have the right to any material benefit from the
government. Therefore, any government benefit programs
should be for the purpose of social insurance, not redistribution.
Big government and big labor unions
(or labor unions generally) are of course bad.
Generally, state and local government is preferred over the national government, as being easier to control and less able to interfere with business.
Government is seen as serving the entire community (and if it favors business, that is because business serves the entire community, and deserves to be favored.)
Change is distrusted, because it generally threatens the favored position of business. However, it is not absolutely opposed.
There is no basic stance on the question of instinctual expression/suppression. Temperamentally, most economic conservatives seem to be on the side of suppression. However, corporate profits are often served by catering to instinctual expression (e.g. sex and violence selling TV time).
There is no definite stance on the question of majority will. Either majority will or absolute rights might be appealed to, depending on which protects business in the specific case.
Free trade is favored in general (although exceptions are made by those whose businesses would be threatened by lower tariffs). Otherwise, there is no definite stance on foreign policy, though temperamentally most economic conservatives seem to favor an aggressive policy.
Social
Conservatives:
Most basic and important (salient) beliefs:
There is an absolute morality, to be found in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The government should enforce this morality as much as feasible.
As prescribed by this morality, instinctual expression is to be curbed except in certain sanctioned situations (e.g. sex in marriage).
Each person should be held responsible for their own fortune or misfortune in life, and a person’s achievements or lack of them are due largely to the choices they have made and the fortitude with which they have pursued them. Thus, the poor and the powerless are not victims.
Other beliefs:
The free market economy is generally approved, as being an expression of personal responsibility. Accordingly, taxation and regulation are disapproved. Labor unions and government are disapproved of insofar as they hamper business. Local government is favored as being more expressive of the majority moral viewpoint.
Likewise, social insurance is favored over redistribution.
The individual has the right to be protected from physical harm, etc. However, the individual does not have the right to practices contrary to Judeo-Christian morality, even when these harm no one. On the contrary, parents have the right to be free of government influence in teaching values to their children.
Individuals don’t have the right to material benefits insofar as these contradict personal responsibility.
Majority will is favored, simply because it is on the side of most conservative moral beliefs. However, if majority will swung to the other side, social conservatives in all probability would proclaim inherent rights against that majority (and they tend to express their views in terms of rights, e.g. “the right to have prayers in school.”)
Foreign policy tends to be absolutist, but otherwise there are no strong foreign policy positions. However, in specific cases – e.g. Israel – there may be strong positions arising from Christian doctrine.
Change isn’t favored or disfavored for its own sake. However, there is some nostalgia for a past where morality allegedly gained more respect.
The common root of these two versions of conservatism is a basic respect for authority, authority structures, and power relations, and for obedience to authority. In the case of economic conservatism, the authority/power relations are those that arise naturally from business – the relation of obedience of inferior to superior, and of those without money to those with. In the case of social conservatism, the source of authority is an objective moral code and the supremacy of parents over children.
From these two different sources, conservative beliefs run pretty much along parallel paths, largely coinciding on particular issues, as seen from the above. Their possible point of conflict is in the fact that the economic well-being of business may lead to a violation of those moral codes that social conservatives hold dear (again, sex and violence on television).
Liberalism. Unlike
conservatism, liberalism does not seem to come in two varieties. Rather I see a more traditional liberalism –
economic or “lunchbox” liberalism – which has been augmented by a social
liberalism that extends to further dimensions.
Economic
liberalism:
Most basic and important (salient) beliefs:
Every person has the right not only to be protected, but to enjoy equality of opportunity as well as some material benefits. (There is no definite idea as to what these material benefits should be, however.)
A free-market economy does not offer everyone the opportunity
to make a decent living. Some people
are left out, and government has the obligation to provide what the free market
cannot. (However, liberals are not in
favor of a planned economy.)
Therefore, redistribution is necessary, not merely social
insurance.
Taxation is a beneficial aspect of government policy. Regulation is necessary to avoid businesses
from taking advantage of their situations, e.g. monopoly.
Big business is looked on with distrust. Big government is necessary to secure what
people deserve. Big labor unions are
necessary to counteract big business.
The federal government is favored over state and local governments
because it is less likely to be controlled by business and other special
interests (though this has been changing recently).
Other beliefs:
Change is welcomed, since it usually
goes in the right direction.
Poverty is largely the result of the
economic environment.
Government is an instrument – the most important instrument – for carrying out the wishes and obligations of society at large. It can be perverted to serve other ends (e.g. as a servant of the wealthy), and it is up to the people to prevent this from happening.
In general, the will of the majority
should not override the rights of the people
(though in some cases, material benefits can only be
dispensed by majority
decision.)
Regarding foreign policy, there are no definite
implications, though liberals tend to favor multilateralism and negotiated
approaches.
Social liberalism. As mentioned, social liberalism agrees with
most of the tenets of economic liberalism, but adds new viewpoints, in new
dimensions, or extends some of the viewpoints of an economic liberal to greater
extremes.
Most
basic and important (salient) beliefs:
Authority, authority structures, and obedience are disapproved except as they are directly necessary to keep the public order and prevent harm.
Everyone has the right to be free from interference as long as they are not directly harming others.
There is not standard of morality the government ought to enforce, except for that which is needed to prevent one person’s harming another.
Instinctual expression, as such, is good, and repression is
bad (insofar as no one is harmed).
Other beliefs:
Individuals are
not expected to assume absolute responsibility for their welfare.
The poor and the
powerless are to some extent assumed to be victims.
Sometimes this is extended to criminals. (Hence the charge of being “soft on
crime.”)
The
common root of these two versions of liberalism is a belief in equality and the
belief that human beings should be able to express themselves in their own
ways. However, this latter belief is
taken further in social liberalism, and that may be the cause of conflict
between the two viewpoints. The more
traditional economic liberals may believe in strict moral obligations toward
fellow human beings; social liberals in some cases seem to deny strict moral
obligation in favor of individual choice and self-expression.