Liberal conservatism is that political ideology that often gets forgotten. To many conservatives, they’re too liberal, whilst to many liberals, they’re far too conservative. As such, these people often influence the outcome of elections.
Despite this fact, the two main candidates- the one from the liberal party and the one from the conservative party, often forget to campaign for their votes. If anything, it’s more an accident than deliberate!
So, who exactly are liberal conservatives and what exactly do they believe?
What is Liberal Conservatism?
Liberal conservatism is a rather liberal type of conservatism, or a rather conservative type of liberalism.
It was initially developed in Europe during the Enlightenment Era by philosophers and writers like Edmund Burke and Alexis de Tocqueville. Here, it was used to counteract the aristocratic conservatism present in Europe at the time.
At the time, European aristocrats believed that God placed them in their positions of power. As such, anyone not placed in these positions of powers was being “punished” by God.
This was reinforced by early merchants and industrial capitalists. Many of them rose up from poverty to create vast empires that gave them great wealth.
They then used this as justification for everything. If they could build this empire from scratch, so could anyone.
Burke and de Tocqueville challenged this idea. They wrote that the revolutions of the past (in particular the ones in 1848) had been caused by this sentiment, causing many of them to loose their power.
They said that if they gave up a little bit of power and money today, it would ensure their money and power for generations to come.
Since then, this has become quite popular all around the world, in particular, during times of great wealth disparities, to try and persuade the rich to lower this wealth gap. This has often been quite successful!
What are Their Beliefs?
As said before, liberal conservatism is a type of conservatism and/or liberalism. As such, their views often differ from other types of liberals and/or conservatives.
Naturally, each individual tends to have slightly differing views, based mostly on their personal experiences. However, most liberal conservatives have five main beliefs, these are:
The Role of Private Property
In general, almost all conservatives are vehement supporters of the right to own private property. Many liberals too believe in the role of private property, to a certain extent.
Liberal conservatives, on the other hand, are much more conservative in their views on private property. The overwhelming majority of them believe that you have the right to private ownership, without any asterixis.
If you buy a house for $100,00, and have worked for that $100,000, you should be able to keep that house. If you buy a house for $1 million, and you have worked for that money, you should be able to keep that house.
With this, they also tend to be quite strong capitalists. They believe that you have the right to do whatever you want- including setting up a future multibillion company if you so desired.
This is for several reasons, many which are specific to each person. The main reasons is mostly that they don’t like the concepts of socialism and communism as they have never worked in the past.
Welfare
For the most part, most liberal conservatives believe in a basic welfare state. For the most part, this welfare state isn’t as comprehensive as what many liberals believe, but it’s more than most conservatives…
Generally, they believe that it is the government’s job to help the most vulnerable citizens. They believe that the government should provide things like unemployment benefits and state-funded pensions.
However, the unemployment benefits should be policed in order to prevent abuse (in particular generations of the same family on unemployment benefits). The pensions should also be in line with the current living wages.
Many of them also believe that during times of uncertainty, such as recessions or depression, the government should intervene. Here, they should expand unemployment benefits and create job schemes to help those out of work.
With that being said, they oppose serious expansion of the welfare state to include things like free university tuition and universal basic incomes. Usually, they cite this as causing issues for future generations (in terms of government debt).
However, as with all things, not all liberal conservatives believe in this. Many of the more socially conservative, liberal conservatives still believe that the government should not do this, as that isn’t the government’s job.
Equality
For the most part, liberal conservatives see the widening of the wealth gap, that’s been happening since the 1980’s. However, unlike many liberals, they don’t believe in wealth taxes or nationalization.
They understand that these things often do more harm that good, even if many people do believe their intentions are noble. In its place, they want politicians to slowly implement policies that help to reduce the wealth inequality we are currently seeing.
If there is no other recourse for these politicians but to implement either a wealth tax or nationalize “too big to fail” companies, they are to do the latter.
Here, shareholders should be paid above market value for their holdings to ensure a smooth transition.
Many of these liberal conservatives, especially those in the United also see that whilst progress has been made, racial tensions are still at an all-time high. They aim to do something about it.
Usually, they want to do this by implementing certain policies that aim to help ethnic minorities. Usually, this is done through implementing policies that help areas with large amounts of minorities.
These are meant to address the issues that cause racial inequality, and make us live in a so-called “colorblind society”. However, some would rather do other things like student grants for minorities, which would have the same effect.
Free Market Economics
Although there is a little bit of debate between liberal conservatives, the overwhelming majority of them believe in free market economics. With this, the markets should be able to function without interference from governments.
Here, the price of goods and services should be totally dependent on the supply of and demand for them. For example, if lots of people want a private jet, but there are only 100 made per year, their price will be very high to accommodate that!
Governments should be left out of this. They shouldn’t try to manipulate or control prices of goods or services, as this creates other issues. However, this is only to an extent.
If a particular company has gotten too big, in particular, if it has become a monopoly, then the government should intervene. In this instance, according to liberal conservatives the government should break up the monopoly or nationalize it.
By the same token, if a company is producing items that are detrimental to people’s health, the government should also intervene. Here, they should ban the good, or raise awareness for its detrimental impact on health.
In line with their other beliefs, many (but not all) liberal conservatives also believe that in economic downturns, the government should step in. Here, they should provide financial incentives, subsidies and loans to prevent companies filing for bankruptcy.
Human Rights
For the most part, liberals and conservatives alike believe in human rights. They believe that regardless of where you live, you should have access to basic needs such as food, water, shelter etc.
Here is where many conservatives stop. The basics, and that is it. Many liberals on the other hand, believe that we should go further, here, we should strive to make it as good as possible, rather than just cover the basics.
In this instance, liberal conservatism teaches something that’s rather in the middle of both liberal and conservative views.
Here, liberal conservatives believe that it is the governments job to uphold and enforce human rights. They also believe that the government should try to implement policies which help human rights, eg. affordable housing or food stamps.
Whilst doing this in their own country, many liberal conservatives believe that it is their job to help internationally as well. They believe that the government should also help other countries that are struggling.
Liberal conservatives see that children in Africa are starving. So the government should send them food. Liberal conservatives see those same children dying from contaminated water. So the government should send water pumps.
Liberal conservatives see people in Latin America without robust housing. So the government should send companies in, to build houses for them, with our government footing the bill.
How Does it Differ Geographically?
Liberal conservatism is indeed its own subsect of both liberalism and conservatism. However, as with just about every other type of conservatism and/or liberalism, their beliefs tend to differ from person to person.
On top of this, their beliefs as a whole are also based largely on geography…
Europe
European conservatism is broken down into two main branches: Western European conservatism and Eastern European conservatism.
For the most part, Eastern European conservatism is still very traditionally conservative. However, in Western Europe, they have become more liberal, establishing a modern form of liberal conservatism over the past twenty years.
The UK is perhaps the best example. In recent years, the British Conservative Party (generally known as the Tories) have implemented a series of socially liberal policies, mostly to attract ethnic minorities.
For example, in 2018 passed a law making hate speech (racism, homophobia etc.) a crime. If used to a police officer, you could receive a fine or imprisonment (or in some cases both!)
The UK also has a long history of giving aid to foreign nations. Since the Tories were elected into office in 2010, they have given billions of dollars in aid to developing nations, in particular, former British colonies.
And the Tories mostly reflect the current status of conservative parties within Europe. Most Western European conservative parties are following the Tories (or vice versa in some cases!)
North America
For the most part, traditional North American liberal conservatism is largely based on European liberal conservatism. In the US in particular, the ideas of Edmund Burke and Alexis de Tocqueville helped to shape conservatism as we know it!
In Canada, which is known for being quite a liberal country, their main conservative party is generally considered to be liberal conservative. In recent years, they’ve shifted their views to be more liberal.
This has likely been done for a number of reasons. However, the main one is likely so that it would be more appealing to younger people and ethnic minorities in Canada.
In the US, the Republican Party is listed as a liberal conservative party, a fact that would probably annoy many Republicans. For the most part, the Republicans are seen as liberal conservatives mostly due to the Rockefeller Republicans.
From the 1930’s until the 1970’s, Nelson Rockefeller (the grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller) led a group of northern Republicans. Here, they ran on a basis of fiscal conservatism, but social liberalism.
Since then, mostly due to the implementation of Reagan, Bush and now Trump conservatism, the Republican Party has become a little less liberal in many regards.
Asia
Asian liberal conservatism is probably the most different from any other form of liberal conservatism.
Much of Asia is either currently communist (such as China, Laos and Vietnam) or formerly communist (such as Cambodia). With this, Asia has developed two differing strands of liberal conservatism.
In Taiwan (that is in a bit of a limbo legally), social conservatism is means anyone who supports Taiwanese nationalism. However, these are people who believe that the government should support its most downtrodden citizens.
For Taiwan, this means keeping its national (universal) healthcare system. On top of this, things like the welfare system should also be preserved, whilst also not relying too much on China for anything.
In formerly communist countries, social conservatism is very similar, but also very different. On the one hand, they vehemently oppose communism, mostly due to it having been a failure in the past.
On the other hand, they also encourage religion and increase the welfare state to the same levels it was under communism. If not better. However, at the same time, they also emphasize international trade, in particular with countries like China.
Islamic World
In the Islamic world, in particular in North Africa, liberal conservatism is generally just referred to as “centrism”. Generally, these parties and politicians are seen as protest votes from the two major parties.
During most elections, these liberal conservative parties attempt to sway voters from both the liberal and conservative parties.
To do this, they often run on being hardline Muslims. Here, they make it clear that if they were to be elected, the status quo for religion would be maintained. If applicable, more holy days would also be granted.
In some instances, these parties have also run on a platform of establishing Sharia law (usually when the conservative party does so!) Or, they run on judicial reform, which looks at implementing what it calls “Compassionate Sharia”.
Naturally, this placates many of the more conservative swing voters. With this, they often run on implementing some form of social security, backing it with some sort of scripture. This, in turn, helps placate many of the liberals.
Generally speaking, these liberal conservative parties are more popular with older young adults on low incomes, who both parties tend to neglect. Hence, these parties are often seen as protest votes.
Is it Truly Liberal or Conservative?
For many liberals, liberal conservatives are just another subsect of conservatism. For many conservatives, liberal conservatives are way too liberal to actually call themselves “conservative” so therefore must be liberals.
In reality, they’re both and neither. From my experience, it is largely based on the person and their individual views (and in part, your own!)
Some hold more conservative views than liberal ones, so therefore are considered more “conservative”. Others, hold more liberal views than conservative ones so can be considered more “liberal”.
However, this also does come down to you. If you hold very strong conservative views, you will probably view them entirely as liberals.
By the same token, if you have strong liberal (or left-wing) views, you will probably view them entirely as conservatives.
However, they aren’t really either, hence the name. Political analysts the world over call them swing voters (and if they all live in a particular state or constituency, these are called “Swing states”!) and these often determine elections.
Prominent Liberal Conservatives
Many of today’s most famous conservatives (and by extension some liberals!) are considered to be liberal conservatives. Perhaps the most famous liberal conservatives are:
- David Cameron
- Alexis de Tocqueville
- Chiang Kai-Shek
- Edmund Burke
- Abraham Lincoln
- Silvio Berlusconi
- Adam Smith
Do you know any liberal conservatives? How do their views differ? Tell me in the comments!
Featured image courtesy of Ben C.K. via Flickr.