Conservative school

In the United States, conservatism is a term that combines many political ideologies, including economic conservatism, economic liberalism, social conservatism and religious conservatism. At the same time, it supports the maintenance of a strong army and advocates the rights of local States. Modern American conservatism was combined into a political ideology in the second half of the 20th century to cope with many social and political changes caused by the great economic panic since the beginning of the 20th century. During the Cold War, American conservatism emphasized the confrontation with the Soviet Union and capitalism, and launched a series of laissez-faire policies to relax economic control in the late 1970s and early 1980s, opposing Roosevelt's New Deal. For 200 years, American politics has basically been a two-party politics. Although the two political parties have some basic ideologies and values, there are also many differences, especially in the face of change, just one political party supports change relatively, that is, the so-called left wing; And a political party that is relatively opposed to change, also known as the right wing. The former is the Democratic Party, and the latter is the * * * and the Party. The American * * * Peace Party is not 18 and 19 century British Tories. The Conservative Party advocates strengthening the royal power and increasing the power of the government. On the contrary, the United States opposes the big government, the government's intervention in the market, and the damage caused by excessive government power to citizens. Although the American Republican Party is called a conservative party, it is still different from classical conservatism. This also proves why conservatism has different meanings in different historical stages and different regions. Although conservatism once existed in a certain number of factions of the two major parties, today, the conservative department in the Democratic Party has long since disappeared, and almost all conservatives consider themselves supporters of the party. In 2000 and 2004, about 80% self-proclaimed conservatives voted for * * * and the party. The political and theoretical basis of modern American political parties can be traced back to several famous classical liberal thinkers and economists in the 20th century, such as Hayek and Friedman. Hayek claimed to be an old Whig. It is only relative to the liberal socialist trend of thought in modern western countries that they adhere to the liberal tradition of19th century and oppose socialism, so they are called conservatism. In America, the word "liberalism" has changed its original meaning. Hayek believed that the change of meaning began during Roosevelt's term. Roosevelt's New Deal was labeled as socialism and left wing at that time. Due to the negative influence of these labels, Roosevelt changed himself and called himself a liberal. Since then, the meaning of the word "liberalism" has changed in the United States, which is completely different from the original liberalism in 18 and 19 century. Hayek argued that he was not a so-called conservative, but a real liberal, and those neoliberals were just pretenders, so he refused to give up the title. American conservatism has many different definitions, and the word conservatism can also be applied to all kinds of thoughts or ideologies.

A. Classical conservatism

Or traditional conservatism and classical conservatism: opposing radical changes in the government and social system. This form of conservatism is actually anti-ideological, because it emphasizes procedure (stable but not impatient reform) rather than concrete results (any form of ideal government). As far as classical conservatism is concerned, as long as the change is through proper legal procedures, rather than revolution or sudden change, it is justified whether the final government belongs to the right or the left.

B. Ideological conservatism

Also known as right-wing conservatism: Compared with anti-ideological classical conservatism, right-wing conservatism, as its name implies, supports a specific ideology. Its ideology can usually be divided into the above-mentioned social conservatism, fiscal conservatism and economic conservatism. These sub-ideologies include conservative supporters in many English-speaking countries, who are often absorbed into other political positions individually.

C. Neoconservatism

It is a kind of neoconservatism in the United States, and it is called "neoconservatism" because it is different from the traditional conservatism and the party in the United States. Neo-conservatism is mainly transformed from liberalism. Some left-wing liberals opposed the radical changes of liberalism in the 1960s and tended to be conservative, thus forming neoconservatism. Their ideological roots are different from traditional conservatism, whose philosophical basis is Burke's thought.

D. Ancient conservatism

In the1980s, it opposed neoconservatism and emphasized tradition, civil society, classical federalism and Christian tradition. They believe that the ideology of social democracy and nationalism is an evil act of trying to transform human nature. Ancient conservatives believe that the mainstream political forces in western society have abandoned the traditions and values that created and shaped their civilization, so they believe that conservatives must oppose the status quo. Politically, they strongly oppose centralization, emphasizing decentralization, local autonomy, private property and minimizing bureaucracy. In society, they advocate traditionalism, support Christian moral order, and claim that the small family is the axis of human civilization. They believe that a multicultural, multi-ethnic and egalitarian society will never be stable in essence. They also oppose American intervention in other countries' wars. In continental Europe, the mainstream of conservatism is usually represented by the Christian Democratic Party. These political parties form the European People's Party, which is one of the main political party coalitions in the European Parliament. These political parties are usually Catholic parties that originated from the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, and support the social concept of Catholicism. With the development of time, conservatism has gradually become their main political ideology, and the Catholic color has gradually faded. Germany's Christian Democratic Party and its coalition party, Bourne Christian Social Union, are both Protestant-Catholic parties. In northern Europe, conservatism is usually represented by liberal conservative parties, such as Sweden's moderate party and Denmark's conservative People's Party. In domestic policies, these political parties usually support market-oriented policies, which are generally supported by business groups and white-collar workers. Internationally, they will support the EU and the importance of national defense. Generally speaking, European conservatives will adopt a more moderate attitude than American conservatives on many social and economic issues. They are not too opposed to the goal of welfare state policy, although they will also care about the development of business environment. However, some groups adopted a further laissez-faire policy, especially because of the influence of Thatcherism. Conservative groups in Europe usually emphasize caution and gentleness in politics, advocate that we should pay attention to what has been practiced and oppose radicalism and unrealistic social experiments. Support for advanced culture and established political systems, such as monarchy, is also quite common among European conservatives. Mainstream conservative groups usually also strongly support the EU.