Pragmatism & Tradition

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Pragmatism

Pragmatism is a way of making decisions and policies, and approaching society and politics with the attitude of “what matters is what works”.

Pragmatism

To be pragmatic is to reject ideology and dogma - and instead accept that the best route to solving a problem is not necessarily what one’s own ideological belief says.

One-nation and New Right

One-nation conservatism is a highly pragmatic way of governing.
New Right conservatism is much more ideological and requires a firm leadership to steer the government and the country into neo-liberalism.

Examples of pragmatism: Major

Some argue that conservatism rejects ideology because of its pragmatic nature.
There is evidence for this in the policy of several Conservative Party prime ministers.
- Under Margaret Thatcher, the Conservatives proposed a poll tax - something that John Major (a more one-nation conservative) saw as being not a pragmatic decision and was replaced with the Council Tax.

Examples of pragmatism: Cameron

David Cameron’s Conservative Party changed its policies based on coalition compromises between 2010 and 2015.
- This can be argued to be because the party changed its ideas to the most electorally and socially pragmatic policies.

Tradition

Conservatives respect tradition. This means respecting history, ideas and systems of the past, and relating it to today’s society to help make decisions.

Tradition

Conservatives believe that events in the past hold knowledge for people in the present.
Tradition, paternalism and hierarchy are closely linked - the people in history who have ruled (who are often of a higher class/income than others) know what is best for the people they are ruling.
New Right conservatism rejected lots of ideas of tradition, however.

Edmund Burke

Edmund Burke supported ideas of tradition - he wrote after the 1789 French Revolution about the dangers of rejecting the ideas of the past.
- Because of human imperfection, we cannot just create a new society - we should listen to the lessons and teachings of the past and society should evolve organically to meet current needs.

Organic change

Organic change is the idea that social change should not be radical, or mechanistic (a liberal idea, where the interactions of rational individuals change the way society works).
Instead, society evolves through an organic process, and political processes and leaders emerge as a result of this organic process.
The society itself is more important than the individual parts within it.
Organic change is gradual rather than revolutionary and is supported by conservatives who wish to preserve order in society.

Revolutionary change

Conservatives believe that revolutionary change disrupts order and hierarchy and so is dangerous to law and order and private property.
Society is constantly evolving, and revolution does not solve society’s problems.
Society functions better and is safer if the change is gradual.