Defining Conservatism

This is one of those issues that I've been thinking about most of my adult life. Pulled into the mix are both my personal experiences, a ton of reading from a lot of different sources, media concepts of conservatism, both here in Canada and elsewhere, and a certain degree of randomness as to what I consider to be relevant.

When I boil it all down to basic principles, the one thing that Conservatism means to me is "small government". To put some more meat on the bones, people have created governments to do that which they cannot effectively do individually. Government that limits itself to only those purposes is a small government. Thomas Jefferson once said "That government is best which governs least.", and this, to me, is the best summary of conservatism that I can think of.

So then, what is conservatism not? I'm going to alienate some people who call themselves conservatives here, but so be it.

Social Conservatives
People who call themselves Social Conservatives often try and use the coercive power of the state to impose morality upon their fellow citizens. This has manifested itself in many forms over history: The Inquisition, Puritans in England, the "Religious Right" to name just a few.

It is not the role of government to define morality. Regardless of the majority of the people who hold a moral philosophy, government should never impose that morality upon others, with one provio:

Governments need to regulate the interaction of individual rights. For example, your right to swing your arms about wildly ends when your hand hits my nose.

Let's look at an issue that pops up in the news frequently, that being the posting of the "Ten Commandments" in public places and how my philosophy of conservatism applies. I feel that it is inappropriate for the state to make or fund such displays. On the other hand, they should not restrict private citizens from making, funding, and displaying them in public places.

Conservatives and Business
Contrary to popular belief, my view of conservatism is not pro-business. By contrast, it's not pro-labour, pro-consumer, or pro-anything. Simply put, the government needs to get out of the business of being in business. The free-market is the most powerful regulator that has ever, or will ever, exist.

That's not to say that I support a completely unregulated free-for-all. Governments need to ensure that there is a stable climate for business to operate within. This means that they need to ensure that the rule-of-law exists, contracts and other agreements between business and individuals have appropriate enforcement mechanisms.

In terms of investors, Governments have a legitimate role to play in ensuring that there is consistency among businesses so that investors can appropriately evaluate businesses and direct their investments. That does not mean that investors should be "protected" by governments from losses in financial markets, but they should have confidence that a company reports they had a profit of $x million, that that number can be reasonably compared to another company that reports $y million. I support laws like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that require corporate offices to personally certify financial results, and face personal civil and criminal penalties if those results are falsified.

Conservatives and Wealth Transfer
It is not the role of government to provide for people. There is a legitmate role for the government to provide assistance to those who cannot provide for themselves, not for those who will not.

Looking at the investor portion above, the basic point of government is to provide equality of opportunity, not equality of result. People need to be able to take risks and profit from them. Taking risks also means that you may lose from them, and generally speaking, the greate the potential profit, the greater the potential loss.

Conservatives and Labour
It is my firm opinion that the right of free association is absolutely critical in a free society. With that said, it is the right of employees to band together to bargain collectively through trade and labour unions. It is also the right of individuals to choose to not associate with unions, and it is inappropriate to use the coercive power of the state to force such association. Nobody should be forced to join a union in order to work at a particular job, regardless of the opinion of other employees at that job site.

Conclusion
Conservatives span a wide range of opinions. There are many ways to emphasise the different aspects of what it is to be a Conservative, and this post is my attempt to define my opinion on the subject. I would never seek to impose my opinions on others. We conservatives are not a monolithic group, which has gotten us in trouble in the past, with some "wingnuts" being blown out of proportion by the media. Unlike some other political movements, I believe on of our greatest strengths is out ability to tolerate dissent and grow from it with constructive debate.

I leave you with these words, which I don't have appropriate attribution for (except that they're not my own!):
"Principles cannot be compromised. They can either be adhered to or surrendered. Honesty is surrendered as surely by the theft of a dime as a dollar".