On conservatism

On Conservatism

It could be told that the Conservatism has no status as a program, ideology or political philosophy. Sometimes even its status as a political condition, stand is interrogated.
From Huntington's point of view "the ideology is a system of ideas regarding the distribution of political and social values according to a significant social group". According to Huntington, there are three large conceptions of the Conservatism which are in conflict.
The first one is the "aristocratic theory" which defines the conservatism as an Ideology of the historical movement which is unique and specific to a moment in time. It is the reaction of the feudal-aristocratic and agrarian social classes to the French Revolution, the Liberalism and the progress of the "bourgeoisie" at the end of the XVIII th century and at the beginning of the first half of the XIX th century.
Karl Mennheim describes the modern conservatism as a "function of a particular historical and sociological situation"

The liberalism is the ideology of the middle classes; the socialism and the Marxism are ideologies of the proletarian and the conservatism the ideology of aristocracy.
The Conservatism becomes in an indissoluble manner associated with the feudalism and the "Ancien Regime", the medieval period and the nobility. It is opposed to the middle classes, the work, the trade and the industrialization but also to the democracy, the liberalism and the individualism, as Huntington observes. According to Louis Hartz, the United States don't have a feudal tradition, and the efforts of the intellectuals of spreading the conservative ideas through the middle classes are doomed to fail.
The second theory is the "autonomous" one. In which the conservatism is not necessarily related to the interests of a particular group or dependent of a historical specific configuration of the social forces. "Conservatism is an autonomous system of ideas which are generally valid"

It is defined in terms of universal values as the justice, the order, the balance and moderation. The conservatism as Russell Kirk argues is simply a problem of "will and intelligence". The principles of the conservatism are not reduced to a one and only class of interests. According to this theory, the conservatives may appear from different classes and occupations. This theory is popular in the Neo-conservative class.
The third theory is based on the circumstantial definition. It defines the conservatism as an ideology which appears from the distinction of a recurrent type of historical situation in which the major challenge is addressed to the established institutions, and of which supporters use the conservative ideology for defending those institutions. "The conservatism is that system of values used to justify any social established order, anywhere and anytime it may exist, against the fundamental challenges of its nature"

Huntington also argues that the essence of the conservatism is "the passionate affirmation of the values of the existing institutions". This doesn't mean that it is opposed to all the changes. But for preserving the social fundamental values it may be necessary to put the changes on a second plan. To be a conservative you must be happy with the existent order and to be willing to fight against a serious challenge.
The difference between the three theories is closely related to the relation between the conservative ideology and the historical process. The aristocratic definition reduces the conservative ideology to a particular social class in a particular type of society. The autonomous theory, allows the appearance of the conservatism in any moment of the history. The circumstantial theory argues that the conservatives appear when social groups oppose themselves to the challenges and defend their status in relation with other social groups.
A common point between the three theories is that they agree on the content of the conservative ideology: the substance of the values and the ideas in which the conservatives believe.

One of the most important representative figures of the Conservatism is Edmund Burke. In his work we can find the structure of the conservative thinking.