Liberal-conservative Research Articles

From liberal interventionism to liberal conservatism: The short road in foreign policy from Blair to Cameron

This article focuses on foreign policy during the Premierships of Gordon Brown and David Cameron, with a particular emphasis on the legacy bequeathed by Tony Blair. It is often assumed that the foreign policy landscape was fundamentally altered by Blair, and that his successors have followed his path, due perhaps to a lack of other options. The article will argue that the Blair doctrine of Liberal interventionism and the emphasis placed on the ‘ethical dimensions’ to foreign policy was largely a marketing exercise and changed very little in practical terms. The article will consider Blair’s approach to foreign policy before assessing whether his successors have genuinely pursued an ethically driven foreign policy or whether they have simply justified their actions in ‘ethical’ terms while continuing a more pragmatic, self-interested foreign policy. Did they learn the lessons of Blair or have they simply been forced to clear up the mess he left behind? Overall, this article will argue that the pragmatic style of foreign policymaking, which existed before Blair continued during his time as Prime Minister and has subsequently been adopted by his successors, with any changes in foreign policy being largely presentational rather than representing any type of meaningful change.

If Liberals Knew Themselves Better, Conservatives Might Like Them Better

The standard liberal positions on free speech, religious neutrality, and atheism all reflect their religious origins. Because American secular liberalism and American religious conservatism have a common ancestor, it is possible for liberals to describe aspirations that have more in common with the religious, and thus more rhetorical power, than the arguments that they now tend to offer.

Prejudice or Principled Conservatism? Racial Resentment and White Opinion toward Paying College Athletes

Despite its widespread use in studies of race and ethnic politics, there exists a long-standing debate about whether racial resentment primarily measures antiblack prejudice or ideological conservatism. In this paper, we attempt to resolve this debate by examining racial resentment’s role in shaping white opinion on a “racialized” policy issue that involves no federal action and no government redistribution of resources: “pay for play” in college athletics. Using cross-sectional and experimental data from the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, we find evidence not only that racial resentment items tap racial predispositions but also that whites rely on these predispositions when forming and expressing their views on paying college athletes. More specifically, we demonstrate that racially resentful whites who were subtly primed to think about African Americans are more likely to express opposition to paying college athletes when compared with similarly resentful whites who were primed to think about whites. Because free-market conservatism, resistance to changes in the status quo, opposition to expanding federal power, and reluctance to endorse government redistributive policies cannot possibly explain these results, we conclude that racial resentment is a valid measure of antiblack prejudice.

Политические истоки либерального консерватизма в России

Политические истоки либерального консерватизма в России

Рецензия на монографию Курилова С. Н. «Концепция консервативного либерализма в социальной философии С. Л. Франка». М.: Библио-Глобус, 2016. – 154 с.

Рецензия на монографию Курилова С. Н. «Концепция консервативного либерализма в социальной философии С. Л. Франка». М.: Библио-Глобус, 2016. – 154 с.

The Career of a Mediator. Manuel Joël, Conservative Liberal

Abstract This essay focuses upon Rabbi Manuel Joël, stressing for the first time his unusual position between the Positive-Historical and the Liberal movements within German Judaism. His stance produced controversy both with the Liberal Rabbi Abraham Geiger, his predecessor in the Breslau rabbinate, and Heinrich Graetz, his teacher at the Positive-Historical Breslau Theological Seminary. Points of dispute included Joël’s prayer book and his participation in the Liberal Leipzig Synod of 1869. Yet controversy eventually gave way to reconciliation and Joël could ultimately enjoy the respect of both factions.

Roger Scruton's Conservatism: Between Xenophobia and Oikophobia

ABSTRACTThe English philosopher Roger Scruton calls himself a functional anthropologist. That means he defends the lifeworld—the relational, moral world in which we all must live—against the educated derision of the monstrous entity often called the self-conscious intellectual or elitist cosmopolitan. My focus here is to examine Scruton's defense of the nation—as the civilized mean between xenophobia and oikophobia—and religion as indispensable forms of social belonging. I conclude by offering the beginnings of an American and Catholic correction to his British form of liberal conservatism.

Western modernization and Marxist political theory: an alternative to lib-eralism Modernização ocidental e teoria política marxista: uma alternativa ao liberalismo

Starting from a critic to Conservative liberalism’s and to new left’s notion of the Western modernization as systemic institutional self-differentiation, self-referentiality and self-subsistence, I argue that such model of systemic theory regarding to the modernization leads both to the systemic institutional autonomy and closure in relation to a direct political praxis and to a binding notion of social normativity, and to the strong institutionalism in political economy and in political institutional praxis . Modernization from a systemic institutional perspective means that each social system has very proper and particular logic and dynamic, which are non-political and non-normative, just technical. So, systemic institutions become depoliticized, delegitimizing a model of radical democratic political praxis which can frame the social systems from an inclusive democratic participation based on a conception of social normativity. As consequence, systemic institutions centralize and monopolize the constitution, the legitimation and the evolution of their own field of social reproduction, closing and autonomizing it regarding the democratic political praxis and the social normativity. I argue that such conservative understanding of the Western modernization can be substituted by the Marxist understanding of the Western modernization, which is based on the comprehension of the society as a totality imbricated in its parts, i.e. the intersection between infrastructure and superstructure as the epistemological-political starting point both to a critical social theory and to a democratic political praxis . Such Marxist theoretical-political starting point enables a critical social theory and a leftist political praxis founded on the politicization of the social systems and their profound linking and rooting in the social world and as a political-normative dynamic.

Философия консервативного либерализма как учение о единстве социокультурных традиций и творчества личности

Философия консервативного либерализма как учение о единстве социокультурных традиций и творчества личности

The 2015 Newfoundland and Labrador Election: Liberals Have a Ball as PC Party Suffers from Post-Williams Hangover

From 2003 to 2010, Premier Danny Williams maintained a tight grip on the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party of Newfoundland and Labrador and the provincial government. His chosen successor Kathy Dunderdale carried the party to a third consecutive majority government in 2011. But the new energy of her leadership masked serious cracks in the PC Party foundation. Barely two years into her mandate, Premier Dunderdale resigned, setting in motion further political instability as the party fumbled to replace her. All the while, Dwight Ball and the Liberal Party won by-election after by-election, public opinion poll after poll. That the Liberals would form the government after the 2015 general election was a certainty; that the opposition won so many seats in a smaller legislature was the surprise. Early in his tenure, Premier Williams often remarked that he was responsible for cleaning up the economic mess left by the previous administration. With growing budget deficits stemming from overspending, coupled with declining offshore oil revenues, the economic problems and difficult decisions awaiting Premier Ball and the Liberal government are just as ominous.

The Sympraxis of Philosophy and Politics from the Spirit of Liberal-Conservative Scepticism. On Odo Marquard, Hans Blumenberg and The New Left, or, Briefly and Clearly: Where Odo is Spoken about, Hans Must Be Mentioned

Příspěvek vychází z autorova disertačního projektu, který mapuje myšlenkovou spřízněnost mezi Hansem Blumenbergem a jednotlivými filosofy tzv. Ritterovy školy, tedy Odo Marquardem, Hermannem Lübbem, Robertem Spaemannem a Martinem Krielem. Autor předkládá obecnou charakteristiku Ritterovy školy a „skeptické generace“ (H. Schelsky), hledá argumenty, které by osvětlily, proč bývá zdůrazňována spřízněnost mezi Blumenbergem a „Ritterovci“, a poukazuje na její filosofické konvergence v oblasti praktické filosofie. V analýze vychází z několika nesporných afinit mezi Marquardovým a Blumenbergovým myšlenkovým světem: z návaznosti na gehlenovské pojetí člověka jako deficitní (a kompenzující) bytosti, z oslavy polyteismu, ze společných obtíží s filosofií dějin, které je vedou ke kritice diskurzivní etiky (v duchu Nové levice). Předkládá a zdůvodňuje tezi, podle níž se zmínění Ritterovi žáci přiblížili k sobě navzájem – a současně i k Blumenbergovi – nejvíce poté, co byli nuceni reagovat nejen na studentské hnutí druhé poloviny 60. let, jež zpochybnilo demokratické struktury Spolkové republiky, ale i na neomarxismus, o nějž se studentské hnutí opíralo. Druhou část studie tvoří analýza liberálně konzervativní kritiky diskurzivní etiky, jejíž jádro představuje překvapivé Marquardovo čtení Descarta: Descartes dočasné a provizorní morálky je zde postaven proti Descartovi nepochybnému metodicky zajištěnému.

Resistance to Secularism: The Reproduction of Privilege and Dominance in Fundamentalist School Texts

ABSTRACTThis study is an analysis of A Beka textbooks, a leading fundamentalist Christian curriculum in the United States and the ways that it reproduces the concept of Christian privilege and dominance in its discourse. Data is presented that illustrate underlying themes and the implications of the findings are discussed for their contribution to diversity tensions among conservative Christians and liberals. Using a critical lens, the study unveils significant themes in the textbooks that serve to marginalize those living outside its dominant parameters and reinforce preconceived notions of privilege and dominance. Finally, in countering the reproductive process, a reflective approach to the curriculum is urged which facilitates educational critique and a dialogue of inquiry.

Constructing a ‘great’ role for Britain in an age of austerity: Interpreting coalition foreign policy, 2010–2015

This article interprets the ideational underpinnings of the British Conservative–Liberal coalition government’s foreign policy from 2010 to 2015. It uses qualitative discourse analysis of speeches, statements and policy documents to unpack the traditions of foreign policy thought which informed some of the key foreign policy practices of the coalition government. The analysis centres on the British identity constructed by liberal Conservatives, and the values and interests flowing from this baseline identity that the government’s foreign policy sought to express through its foreign policy. Liberal Conservative foreign policy is argued to have been an attempt to come to terms with the limits on Britain’s international agency in the face of three major foreign policy dilemmas: the legacy of the New Labour years, dramatically reduced economic resources in the ‘age of austerity’ and an increasingly restricted capacity for Britain to exercise ideational entrepreneurship in the international community. The article substantiates the claim in the extant literature that liberal Conservatism significantly adapted but did not restructure an established British foreign policy tradition of merging values and interests in complex ways.

Философия охранительного либерализма как кредо русского патриота

Философия охранительного либерализма как кредо русского патриота

‘The Door Creaked Shut’

In 2014 Queensland's conservative Liberal National Party government made a number of amendments to the Youth Justice Act 1992 (Qld) ('YJA'). Of critical importance is the new breach of bail offence (s 59A) and the reverse onus provision (s 59B). The effect of these changes was compounded by the removal of the sentencing principle of 'detention as a last resort' (s 150(5)). Cumulatively, these three amendments increase the likelihood of entrenching young people within the criminal justice system. Previously, where a young person committed an offence while on bail, it had been treated 'as an aggravating circumstance on the sentence for that offence'. Under the amendments, a child who is found guilty of a 'subsequent offence' (defined in s 59AA) committed while on bail, now faces two additional penalties, those being the sentence for the new or 'subsequent offence' and in addition a separate charge (and sentence) for breaching bail (s 59(2)). According to the section, the maximum penalty for the breach of bail offence is stated to be 20 penalty units or imprisonment for one year.

Queer Provisionality: Mapping the Generative Failures of the Transborder Immigrant Tool

Alison Reed investigates the border- and boundary-crossing performance of Electronic Disturbance Theater 2.0’sTransBorder Immigrant Tool (TBT), an incomplete cell phone program that offers GPS, guidance, and poetry to those attempting to cross into the United States across the Mexico/US border. Reed suggests a provocation-based performance of “queer provisionality,” revealing the aesthetics of oppressive power structures by juxtaposing them to social utopias. Interrogating the national neoliberal project of both US liberalism and US conservatism, Reed’s essay is also a transcription of the performances launched around TBT, the social and political machinery set into motion by Electronic Disturbance Theater’s failed utopian project.

Conservative Liberalism in Russia the Post-reform Period: The History of a Failure

Conservative Liberalism in Russia the Post-reform Period: The History of a Failure

“The Philosophy of Inequality” by N. Berdyaev - the Manifesto of Liberal Conservatism

“The Philosophy of Inequality” by N. Berdyaev - the Manifesto of Liberal Conservatism

The Problem of Sovereignty in the Liberal Conservatism of Frannois Guizot

The problem of sovereignty is one of the key issues of political philosophy as it prompts a key political question: “Who has the supreme state power?” Who is sovereign: the people, the representation, the monarch or God? The research of this topic was one of the most popular and fruitful areas in political philosophy of the 19 th century. In his meditations on sovereignty Francois Guizot was seeking answers to specific questions, such as the causes of decline of the Revolution and the fall of the Napoleonic Empire, the fate of the Bourbon dynasty and vitality of the 1814 Charter. An examination of Guizot’s sovereignty conception would help to reconstruct an important part of political theory of this thinker, shed light on the philosophical roots of French liberalism, demonstrate the ideology’s relation to democratic tradition and reveal complex thinking concerning the status of the sovereignty problem in political practice.

The ‘datafication’ of early years pedagogy: ‘if the teaching is good, the data should be good and if there’s bad teaching, there is bad data’

Following the election of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat UK coalition Government in 2010, there has been an urgent intensification and focus upon early years numeracy and literacy and promoting systematic synthetic phonics. This paper argues that the current narrowing of early years assessment, along with increased inspection and surveillance, operates as a policy technology leading to an intensification of ‘school readiness’ pressures upon the earliest stage of education. The paper suggests that this governance has encouraged a functional ‘datafication’ of early years pedagogy so that early years teacher’s work is increasingly constrained by performativity demands to produce ‘appropriate’ data. The article argues that early years high-stakes national assessments act as a ‘meta-policy’, ‘steering’ early years pedagogy ‘from a distance’ and have the power to challenge, disrupt and constrain early years teacher’s deeply held child-centred pedagogical values.