Knowra Paternalistic conservatism Paternalistic conservatism Paternalistic conservatism accepts social hierarchy while holding governing elites responsible for protecting the welfare of disadvantaged people. It favors social obligations and gradual reform over egalitarian upheaval.
Edmund Burke : An Anglo-Irish statesman and political thinker who defended inherited institutions, gradual change, and social obligation. His defense of tradition and ordered change helped shape later conservative thought.
Noblesse oblige : The principle that social privilege carries responsibilities toward people with less power or wealth. It states the moral logic by which elites justify authority through service.
Factory Acts : British laws that regulated working conditions in factories, especially the employment of women and children. They illustrate protective legislation enacted within a society that retained class distinctions.
Classical liberalism : A political tradition emphasizing individual liberty, limited government, private property, and free exchange. Its suspicion of state intervention contrasts with paternalistic support for protective government.
Toryism : A British political tradition associated with monarchy, established institutions, social order, and the Church of England. Paternalistic conservatism developed within a Tory tradition that treated hierarchy as a source of duties.
Social hierarchy : An arrangement in which people or groups hold unequal status, power, or access to resources. Paternalistic conservatism accepts hierarchy but argues that those above owe care to those below.
Public health : Collective action to protect and improve the health of populations. Sanitation and health measures can express government responsibility for poor communities.
Laissez-faire : An economic doctrine favoring minimal government intervention in markets. Paternalistic conservatism permits intervention where laissez-faire would leave welfare chiefly to markets.
Industrial Revolution : The transition to mechanized production and factory-based economies that began in Britain in the eighteenth century. Industrial poverty sharpened the question of whether elites owed protection to workers.
Social contract : A political idea that legitimate authority rests on reciprocal obligations between rulers and the governed. Its language of mutual obligations helps explain the tradition's account of political responsibility.
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