The doing of conservatism

Abstract

This article suggests that recent predictions of the death of British conservatism are based upon a misunderstanding of the doctrine. Examination of conservative thinking in the twentieth century indicates that essential to the doctrine is not a Whiggish endorsement of prudent statecraft but a commitment to inequality. However, Conservatives have often drawn a veil over this commitment by depicting the sound polity as one of ordered liberty and by representing their doctrine as a form of naturalism. An understanding of the doctrine suggests that British and American conservatisms are not so far apart as is often claimed, and also that the former is unlikely to have reached its 'endgame'.