Conservatism

Nomos der Merde

by Jean-Pierre Couture

MERDE, Cahiers de l'idiotie, no 5, 2012, p. 295-311.

Cet examen comportera trois niveaux discontinus qui interrogent la civilisation moderne, l'ingénierie sanitaire et le... more Cet examen comportera trois niveaux discontinus qui interrogent la civilisation moderne, l'ingénierie sanitaire et le cabinet quotidien.

Straddling the Divide: Mainstream Populism & Conservatism

by Benjamin Moffitt

Co-authored with Dave Snow, University of Calgary. To be published in upcoming issue of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.

This article builds on the insights of Sawer & Laycock (2009) to explore similarities in the use of populist... more This article builds on the insights of Sawer & Laycock (2009) to explore similarities in the use of populist discourse by former Australian Prime John Howard and current Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. While Sawer and Laycock label this discourse ‘market populism’ and focus on economic issues, we argue that Howard and Harper’s populism is better understood as ‘mainstream populism’ due to the equal importance of sociocultural issues in their discourses. To demonstrate, we consider the treatment of issues such as immigration, multiculturalism, the culture wars, criminal justice, and childcare. We further suggest that such populist policies were used to satisfy rival wings of their respective parties – neoliberals and social conservatives – that do not always share the same priorities.

The Social Psychology of the Ergenekon Case: The Collapse of the Official Narrative in Turkey

by Serdar Kaya

Kaya, Serdar. 2012. Middle East Critique 21(2)

This paper examines the developments before and after the Ergenekon case in regard to the alternative retrospective... more This paper examines the developments before and after the Ergenekon case in regard to the alternative retrospective that the emerging counter-narrative has introduced to the recent Turkish history. This retrospective is diametrically opposed to the perspective of the official narrative, especially in terms of the way it interprets the landmark historical events and primary actors. This paper thus argues that recent developments in Turkey since 2002, and then the Ergenekon case, have constituted a "meaning threat" for those who subscribe to the official narrative. As some of the recent works in the social psychology literature demonstrate, meaning threats occur when people apprehend new experiences that are at odds with the frameworks through which they give meaning to and view their outer worlds. According to that argument, people feel more comfortable when they experience an event that supports their cultural worldviews, because such an experience either helps them feel less uncertain about themselves or makes it easier to tolerate uncertainty. For the same reason, experiences that conflict with people's worldviews cause negative reactions. Applying to the Turkish case the insights offered by these works, this paper argues that, in the Turkish case, those who experience meaning threats take resort in political conservatism, which, in the political context of the country, corresponds to paternalist authoritarianism and assertive ethnic nationalism.

Issues with Feminism; The Fallacy of Connell et. al

by Mark Bound

James Eastland: The Shadow of Southern Democrats, 1928-1966

by Maarten Zwiers

PhD dissertation, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
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During the civil rights era in the United States, the South was often considered a country of intransigent racism,... more During the civil rights era in the United States, the South was often considered a country of intransigent racism, gothic politics and hooded terrorism. Mississippi in particular was singled out as “the South’s South,” a state where a totalitarian system of white supremacy reigned supreme. Its political establishment, represented by James O. Eastland in the U.S. Senate, accentuated the state’s devotion to segregation in its rhetoric and actions.

Undoubtedly, this image of the Magnolia State and of its political representatives was not solely based on myth. White on black violence reached unimaginable proportions in Mississippi during the 1960s. The state’s leadership did very little to stop this aggression and oftentimes even encouraged it. And white Mississippians offered stiff resistance to the attempts of the federal government to implement civil rights legislation.

This image, however, tells only part of the story about the reality of Mississippi politics. When the theory of interposition and the organizing principle of white massive resistance proved to be impracticable, southern politicians and their constituents had to find methods to accommodate to new social relations without losing too much of the old ways.

My research focuses on this particular subject, and how it developed on the federal and state level. Through the study of the career of James Eastland, I will investigate how this politician responded to the failure of massive resistance, how he adjusted his segregationist views to new realities, and how he used his position of power to defend the white southern way of life.

Eastland operated within the framework of the Democratic Party, which started to lose its status as the party of the South when it embraced a liberal ideology of racial equality. His close relationship with politicians such as John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson complicated his image as defender of the Old South even further. Yet he understood that his political influence in Washington was largely based on his connections with the administration and on his membership of the Democratic Party. As such, the story of James Eastland is a story of conflict and compromise with the federal government, the Democrats, and the agenda of the civil rights movement.

‘Scholar as Sitting Duck’: The Cronon Affair and the Buffer Zone in American Public Debate

by Tom Medvetz

Boosting Implicit Self-Esteem Precipitates Liberal Shift

by Aleksandra Cichocka

Co-authored with John Jost, in press in Psychological Science

It has been claimed often that political ideology reflects unconscious motives and that insecure self-esteem underlies... more It has been claimed often that political ideology reflects unconscious motives and that insecure self-esteem underlies conservative orientation, but these claims have never received direct experimental test. Adopting a motivated social cognition perspective, we hypothesized that boosting implicit self-esteem would strengthen the psychological attractiveness of liberal ideology. Two experimental studies employing an evaluative-conditioning procedure corroborated this prediction. Increasing implicit (but not explicit) self-esteem produced more liberal self-identification and preferences for more liberal policy outcomes. In leveraging the distinction between implicit and explicit self-esteem, this research helps to clarify the nature of the relationship between self-esteem and political orientation and the unconscious motivational basis of ideological preferences more generally.

Les temps impolitiques. Réflexions arendtiennes autour d'une absence

by Jean-Pierre Couture

paru dans Une pensée libérale, critique ou conservatrice?, Beaudry, L et Chevrier, M (dir), Québec, PUL, 2007, 57-77

Edmund Burke's Moral Traditionalism

by Markus Haller

Конец метафизики и темпоральность истины

by Boroday Sergey

"The end of the metaphysics and temporality of truth" [in Russian]
Тезисы к докладу на Первой... more "The end of the metaphysics and temporality of truth" [in Russian]
Тезисы к докладу на Первой международной конференции по традиционализму

Review of Karl Rove, Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative (2011)

by Laurence Raw

Originally published in JOURNAL OF AMERICAN CULTURE 34, no. 4 (2011): 413-4

A review of the political aide's autobiography, written from an unashamedly conservative perspective. A review of the political aide's autobiography, written from an unashamedly conservative perspective.

The Triptych of Realism, Elitism, and Conservatism

by Piki Ish-Shalom

International Studies Review, 8, No. 3 (September 2006): 441-468.

This essay examines the interconnectedness among realism, elitism, and conservatism, claiming that realism cannot be... more This essay examines the interconnectedness among realism, elitism, and conservatism, claiming that realism cannot be understood in isolation from conservative skepticism regarding human nature and the possibility of change. Just as conservatism constitutes the foundation of realism, so it also constitutes the foundation of elitist and structural theories of democracy, thereby establishing an inherent interconnection among the three. Such interconnectedness lies at the root of the antagonism that realists display toward policies that aim to promote democracy. Contrary to the common wisdom among international relations scholars, it also implies a strong link between international relations and political science. Moreover, this interconnectedness discredits the positivist philosophy of the social sciences, calling instead for a normative philosophy of the social sciences.

Review of Conservatism for our Time by torbjörn tännsjö

by Kevin Magill

Published in The Philosophical Quarterly, Vol. 41, No. 164, Jul., 1991

Review of Ted Honderich, Conservatism

by Kevin Magill

Scroll to p.43 in pdf. Published in Radical Philosophy, 59, Autumn 1991. Got it completely wrong in relation to where the Tory Party was headed vis-a-vis the EU, and a few other things. Reply by Honderich in RP 61 ('Conservatism, Ideology, Rationale, and a Red Light').

"Burning Up a Candle: Religion and the Transformation of the Urban Space in Istanbul" Volkan Aytar & Ayşe Çavdar, Published in Italian as: “Accendendo una candela: Religione e trasformazione dello spazio urbana a Istanbul,” Dialoghi Internazionali-Città nel Mondo, No: 11. Milano: Bruno Mondadori (July 2009).

by Volkan Aytar

"Burning Up a Candle: Religion and the Transformation of the Urban Space in Istanbul" Volkan Aytar & Ayşe Çavdar, Published in Italian as: “Accendendo una candela: Religione e trasformazione dello spazio urbana a Istanbul,” Dialoghi Internazionali-Città nel Mondo, No: 11. Milano: Bruno Mondadori (July 2009).

Allegations of ‘communitarian pressures’ remain to be at the center of social, political and cultural debates in... more Allegations of ‘communitarian pressures’ remain to be at the center of social, political and cultural debates in Turkey. Such debates particularly increased after the rise to power of the AKP in 2002. Seminal sociologist Şerif Mardin argued that such communitarian pressures, dubbed as the “neighborhood pressure” (mahalle baskısı) constitute one of the dominant characteristics of the Turkish social texture whereby social difference is scrutinized by moralistic and watchful eyes of (Islamic) conservatism. While the neo-liberal ‘global city’ passionately promoted by the AKP increasingly strangles the ‘neighborhood,’ this latter at once seem to exert an intolerant oppression on social difference and multiculturalism, thus further eroding the bases of multi-confessional co-existence. As Istanbul gets ready to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010, it remains to be seen whether multiculturalism and multi-confessionality would only serve as rhetorical advertisement slogans to sell the city to a global clientele or could be revitalized as the bases of religious harmony, cross-borrowings and learning from one another. Perhaps, both the "neoliberal global city" and the "intolerant, repressive neighborhood" have a lot to learn from the Muslim women on headscarves visiting the First Tuesday Greek Orthodox Church in Kuzguncuk.

Werte ohne Hüter

by Volker Weiss

In German, published in Jungle World 38/2009

About the dilemma of Germany's contemporary conservatism About the dilemma of Germany's contemporary conservatism

Peak coal and other bottleneck worries 1789-1834

by Fredrik Albritton Jonsson

A talk at the NACBS conference in Denver 2011

Book Review: Patrick Allitt, "The Conservatives: Ideas & Personalities Throughout American History," 49th Parallel: An Interdisciplinary Journal of North American Studies, Vol. 26 (Autumn 2011)

by Allen Mendenhall

Patrick Allitt’s The Conservatives is an ambitious and concise book that earned backcover blurbs from all the “right”... more Patrick Allitt’s The Conservatives is an ambitious and concise book that earned backcover blurbs from all the “right” people, including George Nash, an icon of conservative intellectualism, who remarks that “Patrick Allitt has written a perceptive, rigorously balanced, and richly panoramic account of conservative ideas and thinkers in American politics and culture since 1787.”

On the face of it, a title like The Conservatives raises more questions than it answers. “The conservatives” implies that there is a definite, nameable group of people who share a common vocabulary and worldview. But “conservative” is a fluid signifier as demonstrated by the sheer number and variety of people promoting conservatism while championing disparate and even incompatible beliefs. Trying to situate this term historically only multiplies its complexity.

The End of the Solidly Democratic South: The Impressionable‐Years Hypothesis

by Danny Osborne

The partisan realignment of the White South, which transformed this region from being solidly Democratic to being the... more The partisan realignment of the White South, which transformed this region from being solidly Democratic to being the base of the Republican Party, has been the focus of much scholarship. Exactly how it occurred is unclear. Widespread individual-level attitude changes would be contrary to the well-known within-person stability of party identification. However, according to the impressionable-years hypothesis, events that occur during adolescence and early adulthood may have a lasting impact on later political attitudes. This would suggest that cohort replacement may be driving partisan realignment. We test this possibility using data from the American National Election Studies from 1960 to 2008. Consistent with the impressionable-years hypothesis, Southern Whites from the pre-Civil Rights cohort (born before 1936) maintained their Democratic Party identification longer than their younger counterparts. However, all cohorts in the South have changed their partisan attitudes at comparable rates over time, contrary to the impressionable-years hypothesis. These data suggest that the partisan realignment of the South was driven by both cohort replacement and within-cohort attitude change. More targeted case studies of older cohorts living through the civil rights era, and of younger cohorts in the post-Reagan era, yield results generally consistent with the impressionable-years hypothesis. More generally, our findings suggest that very large scale events are required to disrupt the normal continuity of party identification across the life span.

"Authorizing The Baviad: William Gifford and The Satires of Juvenal." European Romantic Review 12 (2001), 206-15.

by Michael Gamer