 |
Business | Industries | Finance | Tax |
| Index: > A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
|
|||||
| First Prev [ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ] Next Last |
Although often conjoined to social or classical conservatism, fiscal conservatism is less of a broad political philosophy and is simply the principle that it is not prudent for governments to take on debts they cannot easily pay back or that will cause an undue burden of taxation.
Burke, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France, articulated the principles of fiscal conservatism:
...[I]t is to the property of the citizen, and not to the demands of the creditor of the state, that the first and original faith of civil society is pledged. The claim of the citizen is prior in time, paramount in title, superior in equity. The fortunes of individuals, whether possessed by acquisition or by descent or in virtue of a participation in the goods of some community, were no part of the creditor's security, expressed or implied...[T]he public, whether represented by a monarch or by a senate, can pledge nothing but the public estate; and it can have no public estate except in what it derives from a just and proportioned imposition upon the citizens at large.
In other words, a government doesn't have the right to run up large debts and then throw the burden on the taxpayer; the taxpayers' right not to be taxed oppressively takes precedence even over paying back debts a government may have imprudently undertaken.
Fiscal conservatives tend to be conservative in their entire outlook as are most otherwise defined conservatives, but necessarily, conservative goals at times prohibit certain fiscal conservative goals, vide the Reagan Administration due to Cold War expenses. Correspondingly, a nonconservative entity, which holds the notion of fiscal conservatism in low, or, rather, in lower regard than most other considerations may achieve said goals, vide the Clinton Administration, though arguably and most probably due to the fiscally conservative Republican majority in the Congress. Regardless, having a balanced budget or, more generally, reducing nondefense discretionary spending is a "conservative" principle, but, as discussed below, there is much more to a broader economic conservatism.
Economic conservatism can go well beyond fiscal conservatism's concern for fiscal prudence, to a belief or principle that it is not prudent for governments to intervene in markets. It is also, sometimes, extended to a broader " small government" philosophy. Economic conservatism is associated with free-market, or laissez-faire economics.
Economic conservatism, insofar as it is ideological, owes its creation to the " classical liberal" tradition, in the vein of Adam Smith, Friedrich A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, and Ludwig von Mises.
Yet classical conservatism supports free market policies as well, which raises the question: why the agreement between the classical liberals and conservatives? Part of the confusion is semantic, while "liberal" and "conservative" are regarded in some contexts as antagonistic many "liberal" and "conservative" principles are drawn from the same body of thought, and based on a fundamental agreement about the importance of such concepts as "the rule of law" and the importance of individual liberties.
Simply, while the results are the same, the arguments are different. Classical liberals and libertarians support free markets on moral, ideological grounds: principles of individual liberty morally dictate support for free markets. Supporters of the moral grounds for free markets include Ayn Rand and Ludwig von Mises. The liberal tradition is suspicious of government authority, and prefers individual choice, and hence tends to see capitalist economics as the preferable means of achieving economic ends.
Classical conservatives, on the other hand, derive support for free markets from practical grounds. Free markets, they argue, are the most productive markets. Thus the classical conservative supports free markets not out of necessity, but out of expedience. The support is not moral or ideological, but driven on the Burkean notion of prescription: what works best is what is right.
It must be noted that while classical liberals and classical conservatives reached free markets through different means historically, to-date the lines have blurred. Rarely will a politician claim that free markets are "simply more productive" or "simply the right thing to do" but a combination of both. This blurring is very much a product of the merging of the classical liberal and conservative positions under the "umbrella" of the conservative movement.
The archetypal free-market conservative administrations of the late 20th century -- the Margaret Thatcher government in the UK and the Ronald Reagan government in the U.S. -- both held the unfettered operation of the market to be the cornerstone of contemporary economic conservatism. To that end, Thatcher privatized British Airways, with remarkable success, and British Rail, with rather more mixed results; both Reagan and Thatcher cut taxes (especially on the upper income brackets) and slowed governmental growth. Proponents of economic conservatism attribute the unparalleled economic boom of the early 1980s to the late 1990s to these policies.
Yet economic conservatism is not simply capitalism. The free-market, to the conservative, begs for regulation, but only insofar as accountability must be maintained. Antitrust laws were championed in the early 1900s by noted conservative William Howard Taft, who also championed his political mentor (and, later, rival) Theodore Roosevelt's policy of creating National Parks.
The interests of capitalism, fiscal and economic conservatism, and free-market economy do not necessarily coincide with those of social conservatism. At times, aspects of capitalism and free markets have been profoundly subversive of the existing social order, as in the enclosure movement and other changes that have replaced a traditional agrarian society with agribusiness, or of traditional attitudes toward the proper position of sex in society, as in the now near-universal availability of pornography. To that end, on issues at the intersection of economic and social policy, conservatives of one school or another are often at odds.
| Politics | Business | Finance |
 |
 |
 |