II.

Origins

Conservatism received its classic formulation in the works of the British politician and philosopher Edmund Burke, notably in his Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in which he rejected reformers’ resort to first principles during the French Revolution and offered readers an alternative philosophy of society and politics. Burke viewed society as an organic whole, with individuals performing interdependent roles and functions, but with the “little battalions” of families, villages, voluntary societies, and towns having as important a role as the state and as nationality. In Burke’s society, a natural elite—by virtue of birth, inherited wealth, and education—naturally provides the leadership; nature itself, including human nature, is, he noted, a “natural” ally of conservatives, who view things as they are, rather than as they would prefer them to be. The community is held together by venerable customs and traditions. Gradual changes should be made in order to conserve the basic structure of hierarchy and order, but only when new ideas have gained wide acceptance.

Burke rejected outright the principles of equality, representation by election, and popular sovereignty. He also rejected the universal franchise and majority rule (the notion that a numerical majority of the citizenry should be empowered to make decisions for all). He advocated order, balance, and cooperation in society; restraints on government; and, above all, the supremacy of law in all its forms—natural, divine, and customary. Burke did allow for limited governmental controls calculated to avoid malfunctions and frictions among the various groups within a nation, and so to moderate economic strife and competition. He was particularly anxious to avoid wide differences—extreme wealth on the one hand and poverty on the other—since that would in itself lead to irremediable frictions, social tension, and the danger of revolutionary change.