Portal:Conservatism

Introduction

Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation and the particular time period, conservatives seek to promote and preserve a range of institutions, such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, the nation-state, constitution, property rights, rule of law, aristocracy, and monarchy.

The 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman Edmund Burke, who opposed the French Revolution, is credited as one of the forefathers of Western conservative thought in the 1790s along with Savoyard statesman Joseph de Maistre. The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution and establish social order.

Conservatism has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world, each upholding their respective traditions, may disagree on a wide range of issues. One of the three major ideologies along with liberalism and socialism, conservatism is the dominant ideology in many countries across the world, including Hungary, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland, and Russia. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has been used to describe a wide range of views. Conservatism may be either libertarian or authoritarian, populist or elitist, progressive or reactionary, moderate or extreme. (Full article...)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected article

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) was the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989, after having a career as governor of California and in Hollywood.

Early in his presidency, Reagan implemented sweeping new political and economic initiatives. His supply-side economic policies, dubbed "Reaganomics", advocated reducing tax rates to spur economic growth, controlling the money supply to reduce inflation, deregulation of the economy, and reducing government spending. In his first term he survived an assassination attempt, took a hard line stance against labor unions, and ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada. The next year, he was reelected in a landslide. His second term was primarily marked by foreign matters, including the 1986 bombing of Libya, and the revelation of the Iran–Contra affair, and the end of the Cold War.

Archive – Read more...

Selected quote

It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.

— Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1980)

...Archive

More...

Selected image

On August 11, 1984, United States President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, was preparing to make his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio. As a sound check prior to the address, Reagan made the following joke to the radio technicians:

We begin bombing in five minutes

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Though this was not the first time Reagan had joked prior to giving a speech or address, the Soviet official news agency, TASS, condemned the joke, declaring that "USSR condemns this unprecedentedly hostile attack of US President" and that "this kind of behaviour is incompatible with high responsibility the heads of nuclear states are bearing for the destinies of their own people and the mankind".

Archive - Read more...

Did you know...

... that California began celebrating Ronald Reagan Day on February 6, 2011, which would have been Reagan's 100th birthday?

...that the Minute Women of the U.S.A. was a militantly anti-communist organization for American housewives in the 1950s?

... that during World War I, future Norwegian politician and railroad chairman Egil Werner Erichsen was hit by the Spanish flu, but did not spend one day in bed?

Archive – Start a new article

Selected anniversaries in October

1899 – the Thousand Days' War begins when Liberal forces attack Conservatives at Santander, Colombia.

1st

1982 – Helmut Kohl, described as "the greatest European leader of the second half of the 20th century" by George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, is elected Chancellor of Germany.