What is conservatism? Some signposts in the wilderness

Mendilow, Jonathan

doi:10.1080/13569319608420739

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…It blocks from view how the politics of political parties and movements outside of this family might also revolve around a conservative political logic (or ideology). 20 It has also proven challenging to cover the variation between what are in fact commonly considered members of the conservative party family. Ideological definitions have usually been based on key philosophers who are considered to represent conservatism in its purest form -with Edmund Burke as the most prominent name 21 -and/or on 'typical' forms of conservative politics -with the conservative reaction against the French Revolution as the most common definitional basis.…”

Section: The Variety Of Conservative Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But there is considerable work on the concept of conservatism as well -including a number of contributions in this journal. 2 Vincent distinguishes between five types of definitions of conservatism. 3 These are closely related and overlapping, and much usage of the term conservatism combines elements of several definitions.…”

Section: Introduction: a Discourse-theoretical Perspective On Conservatismmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The conservative political logic: a discourse-theoretical perspective

Cleen

2017

Journal of Political Ideologies

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In contrast to other core constituents of modern politics, conservatism has not been the object of much discursive-constructivist rethinking. Inspired by Laclau's work and by Glynos and Howarth's discourse-theoretical development of the notion of logics, this article sets out to identify the conservative political logic. Conservative politics, it argues, articulate demands as conservation, envisaged as a process of ensuring the desirable continuity of the social order between past, present, and future, in opposition to a (demand for) change that is argued to constitute a dislocatory threat to the continuity of the social order. The conservative political logic interpellates citizens as members of that threatened social order, and presents conservative politics as the way to protect this threatened social order. Building on a critical discussion of dominant approaches to conservatism, the article proposes to identify the more formal logic that structures conservative rhetoric as an alternative for a substance-based ideological definition of conservatism. The distinctiveness of the discourse-theoretical perspective on conservative politics becomes more pronounced as the article moves on to argue that conservatism discursively constructs changes as threats to the social order, and, finally, shows how conservative politics discursively construct and reproduce the social order they (cl)aim to conserve.1 I would like to thank Nico Carpentier, Yannis Stavrakakis, Torgeir Uberg Naerland, Leen Van Brussel, and Jan Zienkowski and the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this text.

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Section: The Variety Of Conservative Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: a Discourse-theoretical Perspective On Conservatismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The conservative political logic: a discourse-theoretical perspective

Cleen

2017

Journal of Political Ideologies

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‘For We Shall Prejudice Nothing’: Middle Way Conservatism and the Defence of Inequality, 1945–1979

Blackburn

2015

Political Studies

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Recent descriptions of British Conservatism have often identified the defence of inequality as one of its core ideological features. By drawing upon Michael Freeden's morphological conception of ideologies, this article will challenge such descriptions. Drawing upon the discourses of a particular formation of postwar Conservative thought, it will suggest that because Conservatives adhered to a particular set of epistemological and ontological beliefs, the defence of inequality could only obtain a subordinate status within their thought. And it will, in turn, critique dominant understandings of postwar party competition.

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What is conservatism? Some signposts in the wilderness

Cited by 2 publications

References 6 publications

The conservative political logic: a discourse-theoretical perspective

The conservative political logic: a discourse-theoretical perspective

‘For We Shall Prejudice Nothing’: Middle Way Conservatism and the Defence of Inequality, 1945–1979

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