The Case for Conservatism by Francis Graham Wilson

Author:Francis Graham Wilson [Wilson, Francis Graham]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, History & Theory, Political Ideologies, Conservatism & Liberalism
ISBN: 9780887383229
Google: e-F1nQEACAAJ
Goodreads: 3935072
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 1969-11-13T00:00:00+00:00

III

Students of politics have long observed the so-called “law of the pendulum” in politics. This proposition says that there is a secular swing in public appreciation, especially in democracies, between the conservative and liberal spirits of politics. We have here another way of stating the continuous disintegration and reintegration of the force of political symbols. Movements are seldom static in their persuasive force. Liberals like to point to the disintegration of conservative thought, demonstrated by the more trivial of political changes, while conservatives are convinced, in general, of the law of the disintegration of liberalism. Such a conservative position arises from a study of the disappearance of idealism in a movement as it comes closer to the inner circle of power. As T. V. Smith has argued, the greater the element of compromise, that is, effectiveness, in political decision the less becomes the element of ideality. “Quantity and quality of ideality for action are incompatible and so vary inversely,” he has declared.

Now the appeal of the liberal is, according to conservative thought, his support of the ideal solution, or the absolutely just situation. But as the liberal comes close to power, the necessities of decision constantly force him away from the lofty nature of his principle. Thus, inevitably as liberalism and revolutionism approach effective organization, its élan vital tends to be dissipated in the practicalities of day-to-day politics. Conservatism is, in this theory, never dead, but its vitality tends to be coincident with the operation of the law of the disintegration of liberalism.

On the other hand, as conservative vitality emerges from liberal disintegration there must logically be a period when, as both types of movement are in transition, their ideality and their appeal to the aspirations of men stand in balance, just as their adjustments to the facts of political life stand in adjustment or balance. It would seem that it is at this point that the greatest migration of techniques takes place, and the political devices of one movement may become in measure the devices of the other. The conservatism of transition, in contrast to its historical statements of policy, balances the liberalism of disintegration. The perennial rebirth of conservation becomes apparent as liberalism disintegrates through the falsification of its own revolution.

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