CONSERVATISM

Is Conservatism an Ideology in its own right, or a Reaction to other Ideologies?



Abstract

Conservatism is one of the major political currents, the 18th since the Century have emerged in Europe. At its core, it is a political doctrine of order, which in ancient and medieval ideas, as in the Christian world of ideas rooted. It assumes that there is a human reason given political order, the main lines is expressed primarily in the idea of an eternal, divine guaranteed and inviolable law (natural law). The principle of radical innovation and revolution, the idea of a peaceful evolution toward scale political and spiritual continuity and a focus on proven, historically developed tradition is compared. The term first arose around 1800 in England and France and was adopted since the early 1830s. The thrust of conservatism now directed against the various forms of revolutionary political theory and practice, which was regarded as not only the representatives of radical democracy and socialism, but also of liberalism and constitutionalism.

Is Conservatism an Ideology in its own right, or a Reaction to other Ideologies?

Introduction

The purpose of this discussion is to exercise a critical approach towards conservatism and to investigate the fundamentals of conservatism. The idea is to generate an understanding of conservatism with regard to the degree to which conservatism stands as an actual ideology. Conservatism is considered to be a reaction to other ideologies. Conservatism is generally considered to be a stand against most modern ideologies (Hsu, O'Hanlon & Peasnell, 2012; Wen-Hsin Hsu, O'Hanlon & Peasnell, 2011). Therefore, at any given time, there will always be modern ideologies present alongside outdated ones. Traditions continue to change with the passage of time (Jackson & Liu, 2010; Zafirovski, 2010). Each new generation continues to contribute to the development of perceptions and this constant evolution allows tradition to evolve considerably over time. Ideas develop over time and perceptions take influence from events that may not always be predictable; therefore perceptions that may prevail cannot always be forecasted (Plazek, 2012; Zumbrunnen & Gangl, 2008). Today's traditional values pertaining to any given element may be in sharp contrast to

Discussion & Analyses

Conservatism is essentially dynamic. It cannot possibly ever static. An example of this constant evolution can be found in the fact that conservatives in the twenty first century will support twentieth century traditions in the same way in which conservatives in the twentieth century will support nineteenth century traditions (Patatoukas & Thomas, 2011; Hefeker & Zimmer, 2011). As a result, it is fair to assert that there is no specific doctrine to which conservatives subscribe. In fact, conservatives from two differing time frames can be expected to have completely differing perceptions regarding the same subject (Wen-Hsin Hsu, O'Hanlon & Peasnell, 2011; Jackson & Liu, 2010). In this light, it is fair to surmise that there is no essential set of principles that are followed by conservatives. In fact, perhaps the only element that conservatives share is the approach that they choose to exercise towards presently prevailing ideologies (Zafirovski, 2010; ...