Conservatism

Conservatism is a political philosophy supporting traditional social order and opposing sudden radical changes to established government and social systems. The governments of many countries around the world can be described as conservative, but the political ideology of conservatism is used most often in the context of Western nations. Here, conservative, right-wing political parties advocate for a variety of policies that can include limited government; the preservation of traditional, typically Christian, social norms such as opposite-sex marriage; strong national defense; and resistance to progressive policies that compromise any of these institutions. Well-known conservative political parties in the twenty-first century include the Republican Party (United States), the Conservative Party (United Kingdom), the Christian Democratic Union (Germany), the Republicans (France), the Freedom Party of Austria, and Forza Italia (Italy).

Background

The term conservatism as it is used in the modern era refers to a set of beliefs that arose in the post-Enlightenment period of the late eighteenth century and early nineteenth century. The Enlightenment was an era lasting from approximately the late seventeenth century to the late eighteenth century in which Europeans considerably advanced their knowledge of science, philosophy, and politics. The Enlightenment was a momentous event in the development of Western civilization. The thinkers of the era rejected the monarchies and religious authority of the medieval period and instead promoted human rights, logical reasoning, and freedom for all people.

Enlightenment thought was highly influential in Western Europe and in Great Britain's North American colonies. Its ideas fueled the American Revolution (1775–1783), in which the American colonies won their independence from Britain, and the French Revolution (1789–1799), in which the French people violently overthrew the French monarchy. Both of these revolutions sought to establish democratic forms of government that protected and advanced human rights.

Historians point to the Enlightenment and the French Revolution as the primary drivers of the early conservative movement in Europe. The Irish statesman Edmund Burke is regarded as a notable conservative of the late eighteenth century. He strongly opposed the French Revolution, not because he disapproved of the Enlightenment values upon which it was founded, but rather because he did not trust the a priori reasoning that had led to the sudden dramatic change in France's government and overall society.

A priori reasoning is derived from theories and logical deductions rather than from experience. Burke believed human institutions held wisdom that people could learn only through the passage of time and the handing down of tradition. To him, it was impossible to express this kind of wisdom through theorizing and argumentation, as advocated by the Enlightenment thinkers. Burke felt it was dangerous to build a human society only on abstractions such as philosophy and political theory while ignoring tradition entirely, for tradition is experience that teaches people how to implement political policies. Liberals—or those who supported the progressive views of the Enlightenment thinkers—disagreed with conservatives on the role of tradition in modern society and argued that it was worth keeping only if it stood up to rational inquiry.

French supporters of Burke's ideas were the first to use the word conservative (conservateur in French). Use of the word spread into Great Britain, where it was eventually applied pejoratively to Tories, members of the British Parliament who supported established political and religious orders. The Tories had adopted the conservative moniker by the 1830s and became the Conservative Party, an organization critics believed was opposed to social progress. Conservatism spread elsewhere in Europe and around the world over the next few centuries.

Overview

The conservatism that took hold in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century was the British version of the concept, that of opposing radical political and social change in favor of tradition. The US Democratic Party initially supported this philosophy, while the Republican Party favored social progress. The parties gradually switched platforms in the first few decades of the twentieth century, as Democrats began proposing that the US federal government use its power to advance social justice.

The Republican Party adopted a new model of American conservatism in the 1930s to oppose President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal programs, which Republicans claimed expanded government power. The Republican Party's association with American conservatism was solidified over the next few decades. In the twenty-first century, the Republican Party promoted what they considered traditional Christian values, such as opposition to same-sex marriage and close family relationships, in addition to policies such as low taxes, small government, and non-intervention in foreign conflicts. At times, the Republican Party took a more interventionist approach to foreign policy, notably during the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan and 2003 invasion of Iraq, which were in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The term neoconservative has been used to describe this interventionist approach to foreign policy.

The Republic Party remained strongly associated with conservatism during the first decades of the twenty-first century, but the nature of this conservatism shifted somewhat during the 2010s and early 2020s following the election of Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016. Some Republicans, in particular many Republican voters, shifted away from the neoconservatism of George W. Bush's presidency, which lasted from 2000 to 2008, and back toward isolationism. Meanwhile, the outspoken rhetoric of Trump on issues such as immigration helped pave the way for some Republicans to express more openly nationalistic and at times xenophobic views. Despite these shifts, small government remained, at least in theory, a core Republican belief. The party has also retained its commitment to what it views as Christian values, maintaining a view of tradition marriage and opposing gender affirming care and transgender rights.

Other conservative parties around the world shared many of the same beliefs at that time. The Conservative Party of Canada, for example, supported Christian values from the time of its founding in 2003. One example of this was its definition of marriage, which it described in its official party policy as a union between one man and one woman. In 2016, however, Conservative Party delegates voted overwhelmingly in favor of eliminating the position from the organization's official policy. The party instead took no position on marriage. The alteration divided Canadian conservatives, with some praising the action as a victory for civil rights and others criticizing it as a betrayal of conservative values.

Another notable conservative party in the twenty-first century is the Freedom Party of Austria, founded in 1956 as a proponent of Nazi policies. Over the rest of the twentieth century, the party abandoned its Nazi leanings and instead became a far-right organization, dedicated to nationalism, or extreme devotion to one's own country, and Euroscepticism, the belief that European countries should not integrate in the European Union but should instead remain independent of one another.

The Freedom Party of Austria also became highly anti-immigration and Islamophobic. Freedom Party candidate Norbert Hofer nearly won the presidency of Austria in several rounds of voting in the 2016 election. While the party had declined in popularity by the early 2020s, it remained the third-largest party in the Austrian National Council in 2021. The party celebrated a major victory in 2024 when it won 28.9 percent of the vote in 2024, three points ahead of the conservative People’s Party. It was the party’s first major victory since World War II. The party ran on isolationist ideas, nicknamed “Fortress Austria,” which focused on limiting immigration and asylum seekers. While the party was short of a majority government, the party celebrated its success and its leader, Karl Nehammer, took over as Chancellor of Austria.

A similar conservative party in the same region of Europe is the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany. The party emphasized Christian values as beneficial to German society. The CDU supported German membership in the European Union but claimed Germans should still maintain a strong national identity and a sense of patriotism. The CDU presented Germany as a country open to immigrants, but it opposed all forms of religious extremism and vowed to expel from the country any immigrants who did not adhere to German laws and social norms.

In Germany a new conservative party rose in 2013 called the Alternative for Germany (AfD). The far-right party embraced policies of nationalism and used the 2024 election to focus on anti-Islamic and anti-immigration messaging. The party was criticized for its echoes of Nazi rhetoric and was even fined for using a Nazi slogan. Nevertheless, the party rose in prominence in the early 2020s and celebrated a huge victory in the 2021 election in the Eastern part of the country in the state of Thuringia.

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