ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the different kinds of conservatism. It deals with a point on which the house of conservatism was built and upon which it stands—a shared conception of human nature. The word “conservative” is often applied to anyone who resists change. If conservatism is a distinctive political position it must entail more than the simple desire to resist change. There must be some underlying principles or ideals that conservatives share—some general agreement on what is worth preserving. Conservatism is a house of many mansions—and a house often divided against itself. Conservatives are skeptical of the ideological claims—so skeptical, indeed, that conservatism has been called an “anti-ideology.” Like many conservatives, Edmund Burke believed that democracy would seriously threaten the health of representative government. In general, Burke’s took inequality in private property to be natural, and to act as a stabilizing and conservative force in society.
