What is conservatism? History, ideology and party
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Authors
Publication Date
2018-10Journal Title
European Journal of Political Theory
ISSN
1474-8851
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Volume
17
Issue
4
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
AM
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Bourke, R. (2018). What is conservatism? History, ideology and party. European Journal of Political Theory, 17 (4) https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885118782384
Abstract
<jats:p> Is there a political philosophy of conservatism? A history of the phenomenon written along sceptical lines casts doubt on the existence of a transhistorical doctrine, or even an enduring conservative outlook. The main typologies of conservatism uniformly trace its origins to opposition to the French Revolution. Accordingly, Edmund Burke is standardly singled out as the ‘father’ of this style of politics. Yet Burke was de facto an opposition Whig who devoted his career to assorted programmes of reform. In restoring Burke to his original milieu, the argument presented here takes issue with 20th-century accounts of conservative ideology developed by such figures as Karl Mannheim, Klaus Epstein and Samuel Huntington. It argues that the idea of a conservative tradition is best seen as a belated construction, and that the notion of a univocal philosophy of conservatism is basically misconceived. </jats:p>
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1474885118782384
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/287222
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