Conservatism in the USA

Abstract

The problem of defining conservatism in the United States since 1945 is a complex one. The majority of cultural leaders during this time have called themselves liberals but have defined liberalism as the defence of the established institutions in the country. On the other hand, some of the minority who have called themselves conservatives define conservatism as the defence of liberal principles. This strange pattern has its roots in the reform movement of the early twentieth century. At that time, the major presidential leaders of the Republicans and Democrats, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, became spokesmen for a progressivism which rejected the laissez-faire principles of nineteenth-century liberalism in favour of an increasing intrusion of government power into the marketplace to regulate the giant corporations that had come to dominate the economy since the 1890s. Most academic, press, and religious leaders gave their support to the 'new' democracy of Roosevelt and Wilson which promised that greater popular participation in politics could effectively control the concentration of corporate power. These progressives captured the name 'liberal' for themselves and renamed as conservative the minority of intellectuals and business leaders who continued their loyalty to nineteenth-century liberalism.