Authors: Kuper & Kuper
Summary: Conservatism is a term with many meanings. The entry defines it as the doctrine that the best understanding and legitimation of a society is to be found in its history. Conservatism emerged in the 1790s, in reaction to the rationalist projects of the French revolutionaries. Its classic statement is to be found in Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Conservatism opposes the revolutionary transformation of society. Along with liberalism and constitutional socialism, conservatism may plausibly claim centrality in the European political tradition.
Conservatism can be understood as a political application of the skeptical legal maxim that hard cases make bad law. But it is a mistake to think of conservatism as mere hostility to change. Rather, conservatism presents its own answer to the question of how change should originate. It is characteristic of the conservative temperament to value established identities, to praise custom, and to respect prejudice (in the root sense of the word). While radicalism is often associated with youth, conservatism is a disposition that has tended to be found among those who have lived long enough to discover what it is in life they most value.