Public ideas
What is a conservative?
A lead from Nicholas Gruen put me on to an article on the Journal of the History Ideas blog, Edmund Burke, the last conservative, by Samuel Harrison of the University of Cambridge.
Why does he call Burke the last conservative? Aren’t there still plenty of “conservatives” hanging around?
He explains his claim in terms of the difference between Burkean conservatism and the values and behaviour of those who are labelled as conservatives today:
… it is difficult to find much in common between Burke’s thought and the positions taken by modern conservatives of all stripes. Burke insisted that all change must be measured, necessary, and organic, building on the past instead of sweeping it away. In economic matters, modern conservatives have embraced the ideology of “move fast and break things.”
Applying such a classification would surely label the Albanese cabinet as “conservative”: many would say they are too conservative.
Burke would probably find much in common with the Teals and some other independent politicians. As Harrison points out, Burke would not have welcomed the rush of neoliberalism we experienced in the 1980s as politicians moved fast and broke many things, including our universities and successful government business enterprises such as our electricity utilities and the Commonwealth Bank.
How might a Burkean conservative describe those who stand in the way of change as a default stance – those whose response to any change is “no”? How might a Burkean describe those who foment social division in order to block change? How might a Burkean describe those who want to hold on to an anachronistic allegiance to a foreign monarch? How might a Burkean describe a prime minister who wanted to take our country back to the imagined order of a pre-Reformation England?
If we see conservatism in its Burkean tradition we might be able to understand why people no longer turn to the Coalition as they age – a finding well publicized by researchers at the ANU Social Research Centre. In fact there is no break with the established pattern: as we age we generally become more conservative. That conservatism involves a respect for established institutions and practices – parliament, the rule of law, the resolution of political differences through reason and the use of evidence. Ageing voters don’t find this respect in the Coalition.