Introduction
Conservatism Essay Plans All conservatives favour private enterprise but their views on the economy vary. One nation conservatives endorse a limited economic management
tecnhiques to maintain high empliyment levels, a mixed economy of private and public ownership, and state welfare programmes. Traditional
conservatives pursue pure laissez-faire capitalism, which is outlined by Thomas Hobbes' concept of homo oeconomicus, the businessman. The New Right
The economy call for a reduction of the state's role in the economy. Neo-liberals in particular, call for a free-market economy on the ground that it is the best mechanism
to meet consumer demand, maximise the use of resources and generate prosperity.
Agreements over the economy
Point: All conservatives believe that capitalism is the best economic system. Most conservatives support Point: The New Right is internally coherent on the economy.
limited state intervention in the economy. Traditional and the New Right agree that the state should
fundamentally play a reduced role. This has led to the endorsement of laissez-faire capitalism as the best Evidence: Both components of the New Right agree on the necessity of reducing the state's role in the
economy system. economy. Neo-liberalism, promoted by the works of economists such as Milton Friedman and Friedrich
Hayek, principally champions the free-market economy. It sees the free market as the only mechanism
Evidence: Laissez-faire capitalism isan economic system in which transactions between privategroups that can achieve the greatest overall prosperity. Thus, they argue that government intervention cannot
of peopleare free from any form of economic interventionism. Within the New Right, neo-liberalism can solve economic problems, such as staglfation in the 1970s, or properly allocate resources within a
be seen to take the lead in case against government intervention. They believe that state planning and developed economy. They believe government involvement merely causes these problems or
high taxation lead to economic inefficiency and lack of incentive. Due to their belief in atomistic exacerbates them. Under Margaret Thatcher, the New Right governments pursued an extensive policy of
individualism, which is the belief that individuals are rational, self-interested and self-sufficient, privatisation of state-controlled industries, such as gas, electricity and water, and the promotion of the
neo-liberals, such as Ayn Rand and Robert Nozick, believe individual freedom can only be safeguarded free market through policies of deregulation affecting London's financial sector, coined the Big Bang in
by the 'rolling back of thestate', to release human potential. 1986.
Development: Similarly, traditional conservatives also believe in individualism in the economy. Thomas Development: Furthermore, both sub-strands of the New Right believe that state welfare provision
Hobbes in Leviathan (1651), presented the concept of the ideology of homo oeconomicus, the expands, irrespective of demand, due to the vested interests of professionals concerned and political
businessman. Its most distinctive characteristic was individualism, and every constitutive element of the parties. Robert Nozick also rejects state welfare provision on the grounds that taxation to fund these
capitalist system can befound in Hobbes' writings. This has led traditional conservatives to endorse the programmes is a form of slavery. He argues that, in effect, the state gives others an entitlement to part of
lasissez-faire capitalist system as the best economic system. Hobbes furthers this by arguing that the the rewards of an individual's labour. In this way, self-ownership is undermined. Similarly, anything
primary role of the state should be to guarantee order and security, as 'constructive and enduring more extensive than than the minimal state also compromises self-ownership. This shows that the New
economic activity would be impossible without a state guarenteeing order and security'. Right is internally coherent on the economy as they believe that the state's role should be reduced.
Disagreements over the economy
Point: Conservatives disagree over how the state should be managd. The New Right disagrees with one Point: Conservatives disagree over how human nature affects the economy. Traditional and one nation
nation conservatives over state intervention in the economy conservatives argue that humans are morally, psychologically and intellectually limited. Neo-liberals on
the other hand, such as Ayn Rand, believe humans to be rational self-interested beings who are capable
Evidence: One nation conservatism endorses a limited keynesian economic management techniques, of self-sufficiency.
which is an economic system that requires government involvement to stimulate the economy to achieve
full employment and price stability, and a mixed economy of private and public ownership. The New Evidence: Traditional and one nation conservatives' belief on the economy is derived from their view on
Right is acomplete constrast to one nation thinking in this regard. Neo-liberals have a rational, principled human nature. They believe humans are psychologically, morally and intellectually imperfect because
faith in the freemarket and lasissez-faire economics. Neo-liberal economists like Milton Friedman and a they are limited and dependent. As such, Michael Oakeshott argued that humans lack the metal faculties
key thinker in the development of the New Right ideology, Robert Nozick, are opposed to government to make sense of a complex modern world. Such a view places a premium on social order rather than
intervention. Nozick, in Anarchy, Stateand Utopia (1974) argued for a rights-based libertarian system liberty in the economy because order provides humans with much needed security, predictibility and
and a minimal state. His beliefs are based on Hayek Kant's moral principle that humans should be stability. In contrast, liberty raises the unsettling prospect of choice, change and uncertainty. For this
treated 'always as an end and never as a means only'. From this, Nozick came to the conclusion that reason, conservatives have requently endorsed Thomas Hobbes' argument that social order has to come
taxes levied for state welfare programmes are immoral because they treat individuals as a means. before economic liberty.
Development: One nation conservatism does not support this pure liberal approach. In the high point of Development: Neo-liberals reject this argument that humans are limited and therfore cannot be
one nation conservatism under the Conservative governments of 1951-1964, the government used comptatibel with the complexities of the free market. As a self-proclaimed 'radical for capitalism', Rand
keynesian economics to maintain high employment, accepting a mixed economy and supporting a argued that the unrestricted expression of human rationality was entirely compatible woth the free
welfare state. The middleway approach, described by Conservative prime minister Harold Macmillan, market. In her novels The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957) she called for 'free, pure,
was a 'middleway' approach between unrestrained liberalism (individualism and the free market) and unregulated, uncontrolled laissez-faire' economy. She argued that this was compatibel with human nature
socialists collectivism (extensivestate control and planning). The New Right did not accept this state as it fully respects the individual's rational self-interest and is fully compatible with the non-agression
intervention approach as they believed that interventionist policies of Western governments failed to principle, which is the opposition to external coercion'. For these reaasons, libertarian conservatives
combat stagflation. 'must fight for capitalism, not as a practical issue, but as a moral issue'.
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