Editing Conservatism (section)

==Beliefs and principles==
[[File:Kirk 1962.jpg|thumb|[[Russell Kirk]], whose 1953 book ''[[The Conservative Mind]]'' identified five canons of conservatism]]
Scholars have tried to define conservatism as a set of beliefs or principles. Political scientist [[Andrew Heywood]] argues that the five central beliefs of conservatism are tradition, human imperfection, organic society, authority/hierarchy, and property.{{sfn|Heywood|2017|pp=65–73}} Historian [[Russell Kirk]] developed five canons of conservatism in ''[[The Conservative Mind]]'', published in 1953, which include:
* A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, [[divine revelation]], or [[natural law]];
* An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
* A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize natural distinctions;
* A belief that [[property]] and [[freedom]] are closely linked;
* A faith in custom, [[Convention (norm)|convention]], and prescription, and a recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of [[prudence]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Conservatism: Ideas in Profile |author-last=Scruton |author-first=Roger |year=2017 |isbn=9781782833109 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UwH0DQAAQBAJ |publisher=Profile |pages=137–138}}</ref>

Some political scientists, such as [[Samuel P. Huntington]], a government professor at [[Harvard University]], have seen conservatism as situational. Under this definition, conservatives are seen as defending the established institutions of their time.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Winthrop |author-first=Norman |title=Liberal Democratic Theory and Its Critics |publisher=Croom Helm |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-7099-2766-2 |pages=163–166}}</ref> According to [[Quintin Hogg, Baron Hailsham of St Marylebone|Quintin Hogg]], the chairman of the British [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]] in 1959: "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."<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Hogg Baron Hailsham of St. Marylebone |author-first=Quintin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKjpjgEACAAJ |title=The Conservative Case |publisher=Penguin Books |year=1959}}</ref> Conservatism is often used as a generic term to describe a "right-wing viewpoint occupying the political spectrum between [classical] [[liberalism]] and [[fascism]]".<ref name=":1" />

Conservatism has been called a "philosophy of human imperfection" by political scientist [[Noël O'Sullivan]], reflecting among its adherents a negative view of [[human nature]] and pessimism of the potential to improve it through 'utopian' schemes.{{sfn|Heywood|2017|p=67}} [[Thomas Hobbes]], the "intellectual godfather of the realist right", argued that the [[state of nature]] for humans was "poor, nasty, brutish, and short", requiring centralized authority with royal [[sovereignty]] to guarantee [[Law and order (politics)|law and order]].{{sfn|Fawcett|2020|p=48}} [[Edmund Burke]], often called the father of modern conservatism, believed that human beings are steeped in [[original sin]] and that society therefore needs traditional institutions, such as an [[established church]] and a landed [[aristocracy]], in order to function.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica}}

===Tradition===
Despite the lack of a universal definition, certain themes can be recognized as common across conservative thought. According to [[Michael Oakeshott]]:

{{blockquote|To be conservative […] is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.{{sfn|Heywood|2004|p=346}}}}

Such traditionalism may be a reflection of trust in time-tested methods of social organization, giving 'votes to the dead'.{{sfn|Heywood|2017|p=66}} Traditions may also be steeped in a sense of [[Identity (social science)|identity]].{{sfn|Heywood|2017|p=66}}

=== Hierarchy===
In contrast to the tradition-based definition of conservatism, some left-wing political theorists like [[Corey Robin]] define conservatism primarily in terms of a general defense of [[Social inequality|social]] and [[economic inequality]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Robin |first=Corey |date=January 8, 2012 |title=The Conservative Reaction |newspaper=The Chronicle of Higher Education |url=http://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Conservative-Mind/130199/ |access-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref> From this perspective, conservatism is less an attempt to uphold old institutions and more "a meditation on—and theoretical rendition of—the felt experience of having power, seeing it threatened, and trying to win it back".<ref>{{cite journal |author-last=Finseraas |author-first=Henning |title=What if Robin Hood is a social conservative? : How the political response to increasing inequality depends on party polarization |journal=Socio-Economic Review |volume=8 |issue=2 |year=2010 |pages=283–306 |doi=10.1093/ser/mwp012 |issn=1475-1461}}</ref> On another occasion, Robin argues for a more complex relation:

{{blockquote|Conservatism is a defense of established hierarchies, but it is also fearful of those established hierarchies. It sees in their assuredness of power the source of corruption, decadence and decline. Ruling regimes require some kind of irritant, a grain of sand in the oyster, to reactivate their latent powers, to exercise their atrophied muscles, to make their pearls.<ref>{{cite news |last=Farrell |first=Henry |date=February 1, 2018 |title=Trump is a typical conservative |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/02/01/trump-is-a-typical-conservative-that-says-a-lot-about-the-conservative-tradition/ |access-date=August 29, 2023}}</ref>}}

In ''[[Conservatism: A Rediscovery]]'' (2022), political philosopher [[Yoram Hazony]] argues that, in a traditional conservative community, members have importance and influence to the degree they are [[honor]]ed within the social hierarchy, which includes factors such as age, experience, and wisdom.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Hazony |author-first=Yoram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Uhx1EAAAQBAJ |title=Conservatism: A Rediscovery |publisher=Swift |year=2022 |pages=125–133 |isbn=9781800752344}}</ref> Conservatives often glorify hierarchies, as demonstrated in an aphorism by conservative philosopher [[Nicolás Gómez Dávila]]: "Hierarchies are celestial. In hell all are equal."<ref>{{cite web |title=Escolios a un Texto Implicito |author-last=Gómez Dávila |author-first=Nicolás |year=2004 |orig-date=1977 |url=http://mgilleland.com/ngd.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117093720/http://mgilleland.com/ngd.htm |archive-date=November 17, 2006}}</ref> The word hierarchy has religious roots and translates to 'rule of a high priest.'<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/hierarchy |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |title=hierarchy}}</ref>

=== Authority ===
Authority is a core tenet of conservatism.{{sfn|Giubilei|2019|pp=18–19}}<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Ashford |editor1-first=Nigel |editor2-last=Davies |editor2-first=Stephen |title=A Dictionary of Conservative and Libertarian Thought |date=2011 |isbn=978-0-415-67046-3 |pages=14–17 |publisher=Routledge}}</ref>{{sfn|Heywood|2017|p=72}} More specifically, conservatives tend to believe in [[traditional authority]]. According to sociologist [[Max Weber]], this form of authority is "resting on an established belief in the [[Sacredness|sanctity]] of immemorial traditions and the legitimacy of those exercising authority under them".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weber |first1=Max |title=[[Economy and Society]] |date=1922 |pages=215}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author-last=Reinhard |author-first=Bendix |title=Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait |publisher=University of California Press |year=1977 |page=295 |isbn=978-0-520-03194-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65IUL-VaFGsC}}</ref> Philosopher [[Alexandre Kojève]] distinguishes between two different forms of traditional authority:

* The Authority of the Father—represented by actual fathers as well as conceptual fathers such as priests and monarchs.
* The Authority of the Master—represented by aristocrats and military commanders.{{sfn|Kojève|2020|pp=14–28}}

Sociologist [[Robert Nisbet]] acknowledges that the decline of traditional authority in the modern world is partly linked with the retreat of old institutions such as [[guild]], [[Fraternal order|order]], [[parish]], and [[family]]—institutions that formerly acted as intermediaries between the state and the individual.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nisbet |first=Robert A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RwjesgEACAAJ |title=The Sociological Tradition |date=1993 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-56000-667-1 |location=New York |orig-date=1966}}</ref>{{sfn|Kojève|2020|p=xvii}} Philosopher [[Hannah Arendt]] argues that the modern world suffers an existential crisis with a "dramatic breakdown of all traditional authorities," which are needed for the continuity of an established civilization.<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Arendt |author-first=Hannah |title=Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political Thought |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RPw6VjmddrkC |year=1954 |publisher=Viking |pages=91–92}}</ref>{{sfn|Kojève|2020|pp=xviii–xix}}