Liberalism Vs. Conservatism: Comparing And Contrasting The Ideologies

Liberalism and conservatism, the two major players in the international democratic spheres of the west. Both of these ideologies seek to do the same as most ideologies, answer how we live our lives. How should politics be organised and managed, how do humans behave and how we should be handled, how should we organise the economy and what role must the government play in all of these? During this essay I will discuss the viewpoints and direction of the two beliefs as well as the different views on the role of the government in the economy and management of people therein.

Before we talk about these ideologies individually, we must first talk about what ideologies are. The word ideology quite literally means the science of ideas. The term ideology was coined by Destutt de Tracey during the French revolution. During this time, he helped to institute a program of national education that would seek to transform France into a rational and scientific society. This approach to society was a mix of individual freedoms granted and extensive state involvement and planning. This approach then became the approach became the basis for what the French government of the revolution, “the directory”, would go onto adopt. In modern times, Ideology has been defined by the likes of T. Ball and R dagger as “a fairly consistent set of beliefs about man’s nature, the economy and the government”. According to the definition of these two, an ideology must also perform the following, It must clarify social conditions, evaluate social conditions, orient people in society and provide a plan of social and political action.

Liberalism

Liberalism is dated back to the first half of the 17th century and is attributed to the intellectual and academic John Locke. John Locke developed a theory of political authority based on the “natural” individual rights of the government. It is a strong belief of the liberal system that humans are very rational creatures and don’t operate on instinct, but rather are capable of making calculated decisions. This is known as the rationalist way of thinking and it leads to the notion that individuals are more than capable of shaping their own lives. The liberal theorist J.S Mill believed that humans were free thinking and argued that if guided by reason, humans would be more than able to seek satisfaction and self-awareness. He was also an advocate for equal voting rights on the grounds that all humans are rational and therefore women should be able to exercise political power as much as men. Liberals very much promoted the merits of providing as much economic freedom as possible to the person.

Conservatism

Much like Liberalism, conservatism has a major influence on American development and culture. Some actually have questioned whether or not conservatism is an actual ideology. For the sake of this essay it will be assumed that it is an ideology. The first known expressions of this ideology can be dated back to Edmund Burkes book “reflections of the revolutions in France (1779)”. The book goes on to talk about the concerns around the radicalism and change and highlighting the advantages of the inequality in societies. His view of humans was far less optimistic than that of the libers, preferring rather to see the flaws in humans. Typically, the conservative does not oppose reason, but that being said they do not hold as central to their belief as the liberal.

Conservatives are far less likely to give pride of place to reason like the liberal view, due to their pessimistic view of humans. Where the liberals believe whole heartedly in the individual freedoms of man and have faith in their individual merit and reason, the conservative believes in the power and value of a community and in past traditions and ways of living. While they do still believe in small individual freedoms, they do not believe that the pursuit if self-interests and freedom can be one that disregards virtue. E. Burke says that men do not have the right “to what is not for their benefit”. This suggests that there is some standard beyond self interest and reason that would deny the classical liberal what he feels he is due. In layman’s, Burke believes that freedom cannot be the freedom to be immoral.

Conservatives follow the functionalist view of society, believing that society is the amalgamation of a number of different institutes, such as the church and the family that function as the leadership and discipline in society. Unlike the liberal, they do not see society as being made up of a group of free-thinking individuals, but a society of organically arranged, functional institutes that operate as one large organism. Just like a natural organism in the wold, changes within must be slow and incremental fi they are to be helpful. Immediate and revolutionary changes are likely to be more harmful than good due to their haste. It is the traditions, customs and values of the conservatism society that prevent the breaking down of order.

The conservatives view on government is, again different to the liberal view in that the conservatives have a very traditional view of government. The governments purpose in society is to enforce laws and punish those who do not follow them. The conservative is more likely to treat authority as a given when establishing a society. For the liberal, the government was only created in a rational act in order to better look after their liberties than what could naturally be provided. As for the primary role of the government, it is to enforce the laws whether they be of the land or the government and punish those who do not abide by them. While liberals do believe in the punishment of wrongdoers, they are more likely to emphasize a citizen rights and push the revolution against infringement of those rights. For a Burkean conservative, upholding the importance of punishment of violators is more important than securing rights.

So far, I have detailed many areas where the two ideologies clash, I will now discuss on where they are in timid agreement. This is the approach to the way the economy should be handled. Both ideologies have great faith in the price mechanism where in you pay for goods as it is currently the best way of allocating resources efficiently. They both also see the benefits in a system of competitiveness, a system that rewards good management, education and handwork. The differences however are in that liberals take the idea of free market economy and run away with it. They believe in a firm zero state interference in economy matters other than in extremely dire times, similar in other areas such as welfare allocations and groups like trade unions. Conservatives however recognise the value in market intervention and the organisation and bigger picture that comes with government involvement. They also believe in more strict welfare values so as to avoid “handouts” and the kind.

Change

Societal and social changes are again an area where the two ideologies differ substantially. Liberals are firm believes in change believing it is the best way for and that the total liberation of the markets from any restrictions of the state or other organisation. They are also believers that change should societies perception of what individual achievement is. They suggest that there should be greater focus on the individual initiative and punishment for individual wrongdoings. Conservatives however generally regard change as something that is potentially dangerous and preferred to stick with what is known and what works rather than putting all their faith in something untested and potentially detrimental. Conservatives believe that continuity is extremely important, and that strong leadership and management should oversee any changes. This is very similar to their view on revolutions. Revolutions to conservatives means throwing away the old and replacing it with something new and untried. Society is too complex to predict the success of a new system, and that the people would be better to stick with what works.

Comparisons

Conservatives explain things like poor level of education as being founded in the breakdown of social institutions. It is argued that the breakdown of things like the family unit that children will not be equipped with the correct values and social skills in order to gain the most from their respect education systems. This argument is supported in studies of the educational attainment of the students of West Indian origin. They average the least qualification whilst also maintaining the highest rate of single parent families. Whilst this is only a statistic pulled to make a case, it does still back up their claim.

Liberals however would argue that the levels of poor education are because there are not enough rewards for individual attainment resulting in student not caring enough to work hard. They would argue that government interference is to blame because state education is a state funded industry.

Crime and disorder is another topic of contention between the two. Conservatives view crime and similar activities to be inevitable due to the nature of humans. This view is often seen to be pessimistic view of human nature and shows little empathy for people who try to explain crime as being a consequence of social standing or economic status. All crime is seen to be just a natural human activity due to our corrupted core, showing the deep religious roots of the ideology. Conservative tradition states that a criminal is just a morally bad person and should be treated as such. A conservative response to a nation with high crime would be to react to the crime and punish the end state rather than look for the root cause as all crimes root is just in human nature. Conservative thinker Thomas Hobbes believed that humans were driven by their corrupted desires to exercise power over another. This view lead Hobbes to recommend a strong, well equipped autocratic government be required to keep people in line and prevent a descent into chaos.

Liberals have a more optimistic view of humans and tend to see individuals as being rations beings but recognise the fact that it is within humans to be self-centred and therefore are prone to exploiting others. This promotes the view that we are free to choose our own path in life despite what the societal norms may be. This is based on the assumption that our behaviour is determined by a rationality rather than emotions and prejudice. This however leads to a lot of division amongst group who all believe that they have the correct way of living and that because they are free to determine their own path that their path is the only.

When there are societal issues and breakdown, there are traditionally two schools of though used. Conservative school of though find that the breakdown of tradition, institutes and family values are quite often accountable. They believe in the preservation of what currently is, and that if change must occur it happen slowly and carefully. As such a lot of issue in society conservatives often blames on society as if it is not a conservative society it is view as reckless, irrational and revolutionary. whilst the liberal school of though places most if not all responsibility on the state and other government bodies interfering in social life. They believe that people if left alone to their own devices cannot go wrong as it is in everyone best interest to serve the market system, so if there is an issue it must come from the institutionalised government systems that intrude on their lives and influence the market.

Poverty also brings up more division within the two ideologies. Liberals argue that poverty and other related problems like unemployment are obstacles that impede a free market from performing at its best. There are of the belief that the market is the best way to manage and allocate resources and when the government intervenes it only causes problems. Equally when other groups whether they be government or not intervene in the market it also has adverse effects on its performance. So as to mitigate the impoverished and unemployed impact on the market, they are very pro welfare and believe in the socialist aspect of spread of wealth in the belief that these rational being once given funds will become contributing members to the free market.

Many other political ideologies tend to believe that poverty is mostly caused by a failure of the market. In contrast to this, liberalism believes that is a condition mainly brought on by self-choice. Traditionally liberal theorists have emphasised that individuals are capable of making choices for themselves, and that the result of these choices is theirs to own. Choices such as personal use of income, time and resources. So ironically the liberalist view still does not agree with government intervention in times of hardship as they believe that you will then be allowing others to make choices you should be making.

Conservatives argue that unemployment suggests that a cause of poverty might be partly explained by the failure of the market system, this contrasts to the liberal view of the supremacy of the system. Also, in contrast, conservatives see poverty as both a societal and economic issue due to their holistic organic view of society. Conservatives believe that the state has a duty to the poor to alleviate their current condition so that they can contribute to the society as a whole.

Through comparing these two ideologies and their philosophies and views on current issues it’s possible to draw some conclusions. It can be said that despite the media of today telling us how different they are and how their roots differ, the two ideologies actually share some similar traits. They have completely opposing views on human nature but suggest similar fixes. Both traditions have little commitment to social responsibility, and this is their main area of agreement. They both believe in the superiority of the market’s allocation of resources. They both share extremely different views on society however, one believes that society is this organic whole that relies on each of its organisms to function perfectly, where the other believes that society is a collection of free thinking, free acting people who through their own individual enterprises will contribute to the whole. The liberals believe people to be rational, good hearted and motivated individuals, where the conservatives are more pessimistic believes that the human is a self-interested being with little to no regard for the whole unless they are a part of it. Yet it is through these two ideologies that most of the western world runs today, in somewhat functional harmony, the calls for freedom clashing with the calls for authority, resulting is them meeting somewhere in the middle. Is it perfect? Far from it, but it’s the best we’ve got.

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