Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Conservatism has been one of the principal ideologies of the modern era. It was first articulated in its contemporary form in opposition to liberalism and specifically to the cataclysm of the French Revolution, which challenged the principles and values of the old order, and the authority of monarchs and priests. The deep-seated crisis of the European ancien régime , and the sudden appearance of revolutionaries prepared to act out utopian fantasies and inaugurate an entirely new kind of society, prompted a profound intellectual and political response, and laid the foundation for the modern conservative outlook. Conservatism was part of the more general intellectual movement of the Counter-Enlightenment which challenged many of the ideas of liberalism, in particular its abstract individualism, its universalism, and its demands for equality. Conservatives stressed the importance of history and tradition, the particular and the local. First used as a party label in England in the 1830s, conservatism gradually spread elsewhere, but conservatives tended to regard it not as an overarching doctrine or transnational movement, but as composed of several distinct national traditions, Reflecting this, conservative thinkers have been highly diverse, ranging from Edmund Burke to Joseph de Maistre, and from Michael Oakeshott to Leo Strauss. Because conservatives are so averse to rationalism ... log in or subscribe to read full text