The Importance Of Social Criticism

As liberalism ideology evolved and championed by the economic leaders, it pose a threat to the existing social settings such as the presence of the nobility, and the church. The attempt to defend existing social arrangement is what brought about conservatism. Conservatives stood against the ideas of liberals in a rational for maintaining existing traditional political structures and the centralization of power. They stood against transferring political responsibility to the common people under the disguise of equality (Shively, 2014).

This means that essentially they crave social order ahead of liberty. This way of prioritising social order over liberty is a view also taken by Thomas Hobbes in his work Leviathan, in which he talks of the sacrifice of but a few rights for the assurance of protection from the government. In this way, human imperfection can be seen to link to the other conservative concepts of Hierarchy and Authority – because of the fact that humans are inherently imperfect, they need a structured hierarchy to protect them and keep them in line. Conservatives, in this way believe in strong punishment as it can act as a deterrent to others doing the same crime. A structured hierarchy, protecting citizens and individuals lower down the chain link to the conservative theory of the ‘noblesse oblige’ which is where the rich or those higher up have a social obligation to help the less well off. Similarly Conservatives also believe that some are natural leaders, like those in positions of power, and some are inferior as a result of their imperfect qualities and are therefore not worthy of being a leader.

(Davies, 1997) Conservatives are mostly for preserving the society instead of a takeover, which emphasizes stability.(McLean and McMillan, 2009) Viscourt Hailsham a former chairman of the British Conservative Party described conservatism. "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself."(Hailsham, 1959)

Another thing that shows that the conservative party has stuck to its traditional principles is the fact that the party is still very traditionalist. The conservative party has always been very traditionalist in its views and in many ways it still is today, little or no comment is made on social issues such as gay adoption, the party

Conservatism as a Tension between Paternalism and Libertarianism There are many different strands of conservatism within the ideology, the most significant of which in modern terms are paternalism and libertarianism. This conflict can be illustrated by the rival traditions of one-nation conservatism and New Right, or in particular neoliberal, conservatism. The basic idea of paternalism is to have authority over people for their own good. Whereas continental conservatives in the nineteenth century opposed any change, an Anglo-American tradition began with Edmund Burke which was more cautious, modest and pragmatic - these type of conservatives were willing to ‘change in order to conserve’.

Traditional conservatives adopt an organic view of society. This implies that society works like a living thing, an organism, which is sustained by a fragile set of relationships between and amongst its parts. The whole is therefore more than just its individual parts. This implies that the individual cannot be separated from society, but is part of the social groups that nurture him or her, reflecting the dependent and security-seeking tendencies within human nature. Organic societies are fashioned ultimately by natural necessity, and therefore cannot be ‘improved’ by reform or revolution. Indeed, reform or revolution is likely to destroy the

Classical liberalism allow an individual to use primary social value of liberty in the political culture that extent until liberties of the others disturbed. Classical liberal ideas often form the basis for opposition to the use of government to attain social and personal objectives. They stress reliance on private the free market to determine the best outcomes rather than the private initiatives [1].

What is conservatism? Conservatism are views that are against the ideas of liberalism and socialism. A conservative person believes in independence, a free market government and they believe in taking responsibility for your own success. About 40 % of American

Both liberal and conservative perspectives believe in the idea that management of capital, as well as the economic system, should be handled by a group of leaders in the public and private world. This is a shared belief between these two

It is worth noting that is so as long as the liberties of others are not restricted. It is from this perspective that the basis for opposition is viable as opposed to the use of government to attain social objectives. Classical liberalism focuses on private initiatives or the free market to guide and foster the best outcomes. From history, classical liberalism has fueled support for religious and civil liberties. Classical liberalism can be rather viewed as an embrace of an individual’s right to do his or her own thing.

Prior to the 1980s, conservatives remained a divided group. These divisions within the conservative party, primarily those between economic and traditional conservatives, left the party disembodied. Economic conservatives supported a laissez-faire economic policy while traditional conservatives believed in the Christian moral order and were both socially and culturally conservative. The revival of controversial issues with a strong emphasis on morals, prompted the reworking of conservatism to appeal to the masses.

For liberals, people want changes, they want to be able to express themselves and more than anything else, they want their freedom. Yet, in many ways, conservatism is the barrier to that kind of life. Moreover, is it the governments place to dedicate morality? This is a transgression on the boundary, which is church and state. Sex education is an attempt to educate teens about sexuality in order to help them make better, more pragmatic, and mature decisions regarding their sexuality. Where is the logic in denying that teens need sex education? In addition, the conservative view of the market having more power than the government is a means to exploit the less wealthy, regular, tax-paying citizens of this country. E.J. Dionne Jr. argues against this saying, ?In a society characterized by growing economic inequality, the dangers of making the marketplace the sole arbiter of the basic elements of a decent life are especially large? (P.260). Doing so could put

This essay will assess the relationship between liberalism and conservatism by exploring the differences in ideological beliefs of these two ideologies. Ideology can be defined as “set of interrelated and more or less coherent ideas” that constitutes of both “descriptive and normative element” on how a society works (Heywood, 2007, pp. 6-7). One of the most popular ideology in contemporary politics is liberalism which accord individual liberty and free market as its primary priority. On the other hand, conservatism is generally known for advocating tradition, societal state and authority. Firstly, we will look at theories developed by liberalism and conservatism on creation of state. It would then be followed by liberalism’s notion of individuality and individual liberty versus conservatism’s emphasis on individual imperfectionism and need for society. Thereafter, we will observe liberalism and conservatism as political ideology and how it has evolved over time. The essay will be summed up by a conclusion in the end. The terms, liberalism and conservatism mentioned in this essay are intended to be synonymous to their traditional or classical thoughts and beliefs. Every argument presented in this essay are intended to support the claim that liberalism and conservatism are not compatible ideologies. By compatible, I meant being consistent without any disagreements.

Americans have embraced debate since before we were a country. The idea that we would provide reasoned support for any position that we took is what made us different from the English king. Our love of debate came from the old country, and embedded itself in our culture as a defining value. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the affinity for debate is still strong, and finds itself as a regular feature of the mainstream media. However, if Deborah Tannen of the New York Times is correct, our understanding of what it means to argue may be very different from what it once was; a “culture of critique” has developed within our media, and it relies on the exclusive opposition of two conflicting positions (Tannen). In her 1994 editorial,

2. Classical liberalism says that the state should only take over an institution to ensure that citizens can freely benefit from that particular institution’s services. Classical liberalism does not require the thorough enforcing of law and order to reach economic progress and equality.