Social Conservatism

Lecture 5

May 22

Deals with Moral Order

Right and Wrong

Moral and Immoral

True and False

Moral Order is related to Culture:

Identities

Behaviors

Ideas/ Beliefs

Institutions

Mechanisms to define Culture

• Religion (Tradition)

• Science (Reason)

• Myths (Intuition, Superstition)

Religion, science and myths are the major sources of understanding of the world and the moral order. These “ways of knowing” draw the boundaries that isolate unacceptable people, ideas or actions. (Leege et al. 2003)

Conservatives and the Moral Order

The moral order is unchanging and objective.

Unchanging- it does not change through time.

Objective- relevant and true for all times, situations and individuals.

Conservatives and the Moral Order

Tradition is the most important authoritative sources of knowledge of the moral order according to conservatives.

Meaning of Tradition

“by trial, by error, by revelation, by the insights of men of genius, mankind has acquired, slowly and painfully, over thousands of years, a knowledge of human nature and of the social order which no one individual can supplant by private rationality.” (Kirk)

Why Tradition?Tradition can reveal some of the Truth.

Reason is insufficient. Therefore, we must “employ reason in the context of continuing tradition.” (Frank S. Meyer)

Tradition does not claim to have a predetermined answer for all problems in all circumstances.

Tradition in America

Religion:Judeo-Christian and Puritan

Philosophy Greco-Roman

Problem Modern Liberalism

• Espouses secularism: threat to Religion

• Reason (Science): threat to Tradition.

• Advances the idea of Moral Relativism: threat to the idea that the moral order is objective and unchangeable.

• Different notion of Human Nature.

How Cultural Issues Become Political?

Cultural conflict emerges when two “ways of knowing” create different senses of moral order about what people, ideas and actions are acceptable.

How Cultural Issues Become Political?

Cultural differences become political when people expect citizens and government to serve as mechanisms to further their moral order.

Important Distinction

• Individual Conservatism

• Social Conservatism

What characterizes cultural conflict?

Leege et al. (2003) argue that what defines cultural politics is not a set of issues, but the style of argumentation about fundamental social values and group differences. Issues of moral order deal with ends rather than means.

The Issues:

AbortionPremarital SexProstitutionEuthanasiaSame-Sex MarriageEqual RightsPornographySecularization Public SphereCensorship Temperance

Why social conservatism?

Provides explanation and understanding of social problems.

Such explanation allows us to associate them with certain ideas, identities and behaviors.

Tradition provides a response to social problems.

Table 1: Homicide Rate Since 1950

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

19

50

19

54

19

58

19

62

19

66

19

70

19

74

19

78

19

82

19

86

19

90

19

94

19

98

20

02

Ra

te Homicide Rate

Choose a Social Problem

Find an explanation:

Lack of Rule of Law

Lenient Laws

Dysfunctional Families

Natural Instincts

Add some findings:

• All but three of 23 recent studies found some family structure effect on crime or delinquency. Seven of the eight studies that used nationally representative data, for example, found that children in single-parent or other non-intact family structures were at greater risk of committing criminal or delinquent acts. (Todd, Michael, Franke 2000)

Make Sense of the Environment: Identities:

Criminal (Race or Ethnicity)Single-Mother

Behaviors:Alcoholism/Laziness/Violence

Divorce/ Parenting/ Sex/ Work EthicIdeas and Institutions:

Protections and RightsPoverty Justifies certain ActionsWelfare State

Take Action:

Create,

- Marital Counseling

Reform

- Supportive Services, Judicial System

Outlaw (or disincentive)

- Cohabitation

or Dismantle Institutions

- Welfare State