Book Review: Conservatism: The fight for a tradition

Conservatism has frequently seemed elusive as a political ideology. It is widely acknowledged that there is no universally accepted definition of conservatism. Nor, as the author of this wide-ranging study puts it, ‘no Decalogue, no College for the Propagation of the Faith, no founding Declaration of Independence, and no doctrinal compendium to match the Marx-Engels Standard Edition.’ Moreover, there is little agreement about any common philosophical tenets or coherent political principles which characterise conservatism. Although there are a large number of writers whose work has been thought to be influential in conservative thinking, their contributions often appear of limited relevance to those seeking insights on contemporary conservative preoccupations.

The elusiveness is not perhaps surprising. Many self-proclaimed conservatives have frequently railed against abstract, utopian and ideological thinking, preferring instead to emphasise the lessons of experience and to pursue the more limited agenda of attending to the needs of the political community in the present. The variability of conservative appeals from country to country and the pragmatic adaptability of many conservative parties inevitably makes difficult the identification of fundamental continuities in conservatism.

That adaptability is of course one reason why parties of the right appear dominant in today’s democracies, although not often bearing the label “conservative”. Yet there remains a thirst to strengthen the theoretical underpinnings of conservative parties especially at periods of intense internal and external disagreement or trauma when ideas may seem important instruments in political warfare. Such an engagement occurred relatively recently of course in the United Kingdom as Margaret Thatcher promoted her version of neo-liberalism and selectively championed the arguments of Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman among others. Her synthesis of free-market philosophy and a strengthened nation state steered the British Conservative Party in a new direction and injected it, at least temporarily, with a powerful sense of conviction and purpose. For conservative critics of Thatcher, this ideological drive was a dangerous departure from traditional values and a style of politics which had allowed the Party to maintain its position in a democratic era - a tradition which emphasised pragmatism and accommodation not dogma and divisiveness.

Edmund Fawcett’s wide-ranging exploration of the conservative tradition is not motivated by the desire to promote conservative values for, as he stresses, he is a left-wing liberal. Rather, his concern is to clarify the different elements in the conservative tradition in order to facilitate a proper understanding of its character. Such knowledge is essential because, in his view, the very survival of liberal democracy demands the right’s support. But he sees the contemporary right as having profound internal conflicts; and he fears the effects of the tension between that part of it which has blended with liberal democratic values and the element which is an illogical and frightening mixture of global free market neo-liberalism and populism, an ‘illiberal hard right claiming to speak for the people’.

Fawcett’s extensive and wide-ranging exploration of the many different strands in the conservative tradition (which he rather oddly calls an essay despite its length and ambition) is thus constructed with at least a dual purpose. It aims to chart the evolution of conservative politics, political mobilisation and conservative intellectual endeavours over the period since the French revolution in four countries (the UK, the USA, France and Germany) in order to tease out its different dimensions. But it is also an urgent call to re-assert commitment to liberal democratic values and to reject any anti-democratic tendencies on the contemporary right, particularly populist and hard right appeals.

Fawcett’s choice of countries to focus on doubtless reflects his own familiarity with the contemporary intellectual debates in France and Germany as a result of his journalistic experience in Europe. It is certainly useful to have the analysis taken beyond the Anglosphere to explore the thought of contemporary controversial intellectuals such as Alain Finkielkraut in France and Peter Sloterdijk as well as earlier writers such as Charles Maurras and Arnold Gehlen. The organization of his material separates it into four main periods (1830–1880, 1880–1945, 1945–1980, and 1980 to the present) for each country after a discussion of the forerunners of the years 1789–1830 shaped by reaction to the French revolution. Within each period Fawcett distinguishes between the explicitly political narrative of parties and politicians and the intellectual arguments that swirled around them not just in the political arena but in literature, the arts and philosophy.

His canvas is, therefore, vast and coverage of so many diverse figures sometimes threatens to overwhelm the key arguments. Indeed, it has to be said that the book is not always easy reading: there is a lot of allusive writing and some assertions which need further explanation. For example, when (p. 292) discussing the way Southern California and the South West of the United States nourished a new style of American conservatism from the 1950s, Fawcett comments that the religious right “used local television to grow its churches”…..and that “Law schools taught counter liberal ways to read the law.” Both points are of crucial significance for the emerging conservative movement in the United States and it would have been enlightening to have them fully developed. In some cases, a stronger editorial hand would have been useful also to avoid potential misunderstanding. Thus on page 293 discussion of the Republican contests of 1960 and 1964 is so compressed as to be confusing and it would surely have been helpful to have named the “the Boston Brahmin” who was Nixon’s 1960 running mate as Henry Cabot Lodge.

The last portions of the book are, in many ways, the most interesting because they bring the study towards today’ s tensions within conservatism and to the spectre of populism. Here the contrast between the United Kingdom and the United States could have been brought out more starkly. In relation to the USA Fawcett takes the analysis through the Republican revival from the 1970s and the Reagan presidency into the Trump era - a saga which inevitably provokes pessimism about the fragility of its democratic culture. The blending of white Christian nationalism not just with the regular Republican Party but also with far-right militia groups, the polarization of American politics and the spread of an anti-scientific mind set on the right have all contributed to a style of politics in which the rational political discourse and the civility necessary for democratic political exchange are endangered.

Although the situation in the United Kingdom may seem to have features conducive to populist appeals, the picture is much less frightening. Enoch Powell, whom Fawcett sees as a harbinger of the hard right, for all his eloquence ultimately became a marginalised figure. While it is true that the Brexit campaign tapped a range of anti-government sentiments, Boris Johnson himself has libertarian instincts. The Covid crisis has pushed the Conservative Party to extensive governmental intervention, not least in terms of financial support for those whose livelihoods have been affected by the pandemic. The likely trajectory of the Johnson government seems in substance and presentation to be moving towards the British Conservative Party’s traditional territory of the centre ground.

If Fawcett’s ambitious book ultimately appears too pessimistic in relation to the United Kingdom, the events in the aftermath of the US presidential election, the rise of the AfD in Germany and growth of the Front National/National Rally in France would seem to justify his fears for the future of liberal democracy. Fawcett’s rich compendium should serve as an invaluable source for understanding the variety of themes espoused by conservative critics and the resilience of a tradition which is likely to remain a major competitive force in democratic political life.