Modern Conservatism

Willetts discusses the two strands to modern Conservatism. On the one hand there is the commitment to the free market--with its appeals to the individual, to initiative, to enterprise and to freedom. On the other hand there is the trust in community, with its appeals to deference, to convention and to authority. He says that some commentators believe that these represent two fundamentally incompatible views of the world, and that free-market arrivistes have taken over the party of deference and authority. In reality, both approaches can be traced right back to the origins of Conservatism. The political cutting edge of Conservatism is its commitment to the free market. That has provided the hard intellectual core of modern Conservatism. It has given the Conservative party its drive and purpose. And it has played a large part in the Conservatives' recent political success: the slogans of freedom, choice, opportunity, ownership meet the mood of the times and the mood of the electorate.