To What Extent Do Conservatives Believe in Tradition and Continuity

The other part of item 2B talks about the New Right’s view on social policy. The new right argue that social policies interfere with the family too much, they stop it from being self-reliant. As they argue that the nuclear family is the natural family, supported by the idea of the biological gender division of labour, if the roles of this family type are carried out accordingly, then the family is able to be self-reliant and not need the government to support it. This idea was mainly highlighted by Murray who created to proposals about social policy. The first one is the ‘dependency culture’. This is the idea that social policies are making people assume the state will provide for them, in forms such as providing houses for pregnant teenagers or assuming that the state will look after children. Therefore,

The further development of industrialisation led to social and economic inequality. This led to a revision of classical liberal ideas to prevent the spread of ignorance and poverty. It is suggested that modern liberals have betrayed classical liberal ideas as they embrace collectivism and diverge from classical liberalism on issues such as freedom. However, it can be argued that modern liberals have simply built on classical liberal ideas such as its commitment to the individual.

The biggest difference’s between the set’s of ideologies is that Reform Liberalism believes in equality of opportunity, and that it is ethical to reduce the freedom for some if it means increasing it for others. Classical Liberalist’s believe that the invisible hand will regulate the economy and that any wealth redistribution to the poor would harm them in the long run. They believe that everyone should be completely in control of their own destiny. I think that Classical Liberalism is the superior theory as it sticks to very simple principles, and it hold everyone responsible for their actions.

Typically, liberalism is categorised into two separate components; classical liberalism, which was fashioned during the 19th century as a result of the industrial revolution, and the more recent Modern Liberalism which emerged as industrialisation continued within the UK. Although both divisions of Liberalism unavoidably overlap in attitudes and approaches regarding the theory behind the ideology, I believe, fundamentally, that clear tensions between these aspects of Liberalism are more evident when analysing this ideology.

Looking at traditionalism, they are of the belief that people should adhere to tradition and make very few changes, especially in cultural or religious practice. “Traditionalism is a system holding that all knowledge is derived from original divine revelation and is transmitted by tradition” (Maxwell). In a traditional culture, economic and social elites dominate, and government is designed to serve social elites. Taxes are kept low to help business and economic interests, while education and welfare spending is among the lowest in the country.

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’.

Typically Liberalism can be categorized into two different strands, Classical and Modern (yet some thinkers advocate a third strand that is referred to as Neo-Liberalism), each characterized by their differing and to some extent unavoidably overlapping attitudes regarding the theory behind the ideology and how it should be put into practice. Prior to examining how these relate to one another and before making any comparisons, it is important to give a definition, as best as possible, of Liberalism as a concept.

Established customs and practices are ones that individuals can recognise; they are familiar and reassuring. Tradition thus provides people with a feeling of ‘rootedness’ and belonging. Such an emphasis on tradition has meant that traditional conservatives have usually venerated established institutions and been at least cautious about change. Change is a journey into the unknown: it creates uncertainty and insecurity.

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].

Abbott and Wallace’s critically judge the new right about how women are being exploited in the families and how a lot of frustration and unhappiness is able to be experienced by living in this environment. The new right also disagrees to acknowledge the violence that can be cause in a nuclear family life and the abuse a family can actually suffer from being forced to stay and live with them as it isn’t socially acceptable to be a one parent family. Some of the ideas that Abbott and Wallace criticised are that the new right are opposed to

Firstly, in order to understand the implication of neo-liberals ideals about choices, understanding the concept is essential. Neoliberalism is implemented in majority of contemporary policy reforms in Australian society. It started with labour governments under Hawk’s leadership between 1983-1991, and is presently being implemented by the Howard government (Beder, 2005). Beder (2005) defines Neo-liberalism

To be a conservative in the modern world would consist of me having to spend money a lot less and having more jobs. They think the government should make taxes less. "Less government involvement will drive increased investment and profits from both companies and high-income individuals."(Jeffery Glen) This is the way to budget and the economy will be number one. Liberals always know what is best to control the economy. They know how to keep citizens from spend so much money. I think to be a liberal, we should do more for the lower class and less fortunate. They really to raise taxes so that higher-income earners can pay more.

Tradition is an answer to how peoples live their lives. For many it is a social norm, how they have lived culturally for several generations. Despite the significance of tradition in many societies, it’ can still be very harmful to the people involved. Tradition doesn’t necessarily have to have a positive feature for many folks. In the end tradition could cause more harm than it is meant for good. Thus it is really important to change traditional values of communities to improve the quality of life for many people. In the short stories “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Tellez tradition can be shown to be very submissive, that is stopping people from making any changes in ending harmful traditional

Conservatism is a set of principles that focus on traditional values and moderation. It was a political idea that arose out of international and domestic conflicts that the U.S went through in the 1970s. However, it did not start to fully become prominent until the 1980s with the election of Ronald Reagan. The combination of stagflation, a sequence of failures overseas, and the aftermath of Richard Nixon’s presidency; all led to a rise in “a widespread sense of anxiety among Americans and offered conservatives new political opportunities” (Foner, Give Me Liberty, 1041).

Such an anti-collectivist momentum was plainly noticeable in the New Right’s political agenda. When Margaret Thatcher took up her office as Prime Minister, the situation she had to deal with proved to be more complicated than expected. Furthermore, criticisms of various kinds came from almost every stratum of the society. Firstly, economists claimed not only that the budget intended to cover the welfare state was disproportionately high, but also that the government could have distributed those resources better, for instance, to fund other productive sectors.