Liberal Conservatism - Classical Conservatism and Economic Liberalism

Classical Conservatism and Economic Liberalism

Historically, in the 18th and 19th centuries, conservatism comprised a set of principles based on concern for established tradition, respect for authority, and religious values. This form of classical conservatism is often considered to be exemplified by the writings of Joseph de Maistre and the post-Enlightenment Popes. Contemporaneous liberalism – now called classical liberalism – advocated both political freedom for individuals and a free market in the economic sphere. Ideas of this sort were promulgated by John Locke, Montesquieu, Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill.

The maxim of liberal conservatism, according to scholar Andrew Vincent, is "economics is prior to politics", while others emphasize elements such as the openness of historical progress and a suspicion of tyrannical majorities behind the hailing of individual liberties and traditional virtues by authors such as Tocqueville and Burke and as the basis of current liberal conservatism as seen both in the works of Raymond Aron and Michael Oakeshott and the ideological outlook of right-of-center parties. There is general agreement however, that the original "liberal conservatives" were those who combined conservative social attitudes with a classical-liberal economic outlook, adapting a previous aristocratic understanding of natural inequalities between men to the rule of meritocracy – without, however, directly criticizing privileges of birth as long as individual liberties were guaranteed. Over time, the majority of conservatives in the Western world came to adopt free-market economic ideas as the industrial revolution progressed and the aristocracy lost its power, to the extent that such ideas are now generally considered as part of conservatism. Nonetheless, in most countries the term "liberal" is used to describe those with free-market economic views. This is the case, for example, in mainland Europe and Latin America.

A common principle for most liberal conservatives of Burkean extraction is a theory of collective human intellect. Over time, the argument goes, civilizations and groups develop a set of traditions, practices or customs that grow to solve certain problems of human existence. Conservatives argue that people should have a presumption in favour of such institutions, rather than changes to them. Institutions reflect the wisdom of the collective human intellect, whereas changes reflect reasoning or deduction by individuals or groups who are only exposed to contemporary problems. When individuals reason out new institutions from a set of first principles, a process conservatives called 'social engineering', they will rarely best an institution that has grown from the collective intellect. Conservatives believe that institutions based on the collective human intellect, experience and wisdom of many generations are more reliable. As a result, liberal conservatives often assume that collective traditions, practices or customs are crucial to a moral life. Institutions are a set of rules guidelines, heuristics—a sort of script—for the leading a moral life.