Week 1 Part A

POT 3203 Fall 2024

Week 4 Module

THEME: Conservatism

DEADLINES:

Quizzes and Part A Questions: exceptionally on  Tuesday 9/17 at 11:30 pm in Webcourses.

 Part B posts: Wednesday 9/18 at 11:30 pm in Yellowdig.

MATERIALS TO READ THIS WEEK:

Ball et al., chapter 4 Conservatism

Peter Wehner: Trump: Not Conservative. (In Files)

NYT, Charles Fried Obituary. (in Files)

PRESENTATION

Last week, students might have become impatient with the many layers of meaning taken on by the label “liberalism.” Layers of complexity do not disappear this week as we scrutinize conservatism.

It is useful to think of broad ideological labels (“liberalism,” “conservatism,” “socialism”) as families or clusters of ideologies. Each cluster regroups various schools of thought sharing some resemblances while also exhibiting some differences just like family members do. (“Little John has his sister’s nose, but not her mouth,” etc.)

This raises two related questions:

• When does a school of thought belong to one ideological family rather than another? To state this question differently: Where are the boundaries of the family resemblance allowing to declare that X belongs in family Z, but Y does not? Do these boundaries meaningfully exist?
• Can a political movement or organization claiming an ideological label evolve (perhaps unconsciously) beyond those ideological boundaries? More specifically and more topically: Has the Republican Party under Trump moved away from conservatism and embraced something altogether different? Does self-identification as “conservative” resolve the question?

Ball et al. argue U.S. conservatism is in disarray under Trump and that he pushes our politics towards “illiberal democracy.” Peter Wehner, an activist with impeccable conservative credentials, argues that Trump is not at his core a conservative. Charles Fred, also a jurist with impeccable conservative credentials, decries the current Supreme Court and its supporters as “reactionary” – not conservative.

I presume this will strike some class participants as strange, if not worse. But patience. Read and ponder their arguments. They are weighty. You will debate the issue in Part B (Yellowdig).

WEEK 4 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, students should be able to:

1. Identify the several varieties of conservatism.
2. Describe the similarities and differences between these variants.
3. Identify and explain the main features of Edmund Burke’s political thought.
4. Explain why conservatism in the United States so often resembles early or classical liberalism.
5. Describe how each variant of conservatism fulfills the four functions of an ideology, as described in Chapter 1.
6. Explain classical conservatism’s ambivalent attitude toward democracy.
7. Describe classical conservatism’s critique of classical liberalism.
8. Explain contemporary conservatives’ critique of welfare or welfare-state liberalism.
9. Compare and contrast the classical and modern conservatives’ conceptions of human nature.
10. Compare and contrast the classical and modern conservatives’ conceptions of freedom or liberty.
11. Compare and contrast classical and modern conservatism’s understandings of democracy.
12. Critically reflect on the boundaries of the family of ideologies called “conservatism” and on whether President Trump may be characterized as a conservative or not.

PART A TASKS in Webcourses

See Tips for Posting in Part A in Files.

Q-0:  Is there an idea or a claim expressed in the readings that you find difficult or confusing or unclear? If so, tell us which idea this is. Cite the document title and page where you encountered this idea. We cannot help you if the description of what is unclear is overly broad. You do not need to answer this question. If everything is clear, there is not point in answering.

Q-1:  According to Ball et al., “The Trump presidency has proved problematic for conservatives of every stripe” (p. 140). Describe what Ball et al. mean when they claim this.

200 words minimum. State your word count.

 NOTE: In answering the question in Part A, you must strive to demonstrate that you reflected on the meaning of the readings and viewing. There is no right or wrong answer. There are only answers demonstrating shallow and perfunctory or serious and deep reflections on the material. We want to see the latter.

Your Part A answer is graded 50% for thoughtful content and 50% for good writing.

PART B TASKS in Yellowdig

See Tips for Posting in Part B in Files.

Answer the question raised by the instructor. This week’s question is:

Is Donald Trump truly a Conservative? 

PREAMBLE: Trump has broken with several core conservative ideas according to Ball et al. This has led them to describe a condition of “disarray” or confusion in contemporary American conservatism. The conservative thinker and activist Peter Wehner and the conservative jurist Charles Fried argue in the same direction as Ball et al. Wehner and Fried argue in different ways that the Republican Party under Trump has moved away from true conservatism. Yet Trump, his media spokespersons and many of his rank-and-file supporters still identify with the label “conservative.”

QUESTION: Is American conservatism then truly in disarray as Ball et al. suggest? Has the Republican Party under Trump abandoned true conservatism as Wehner and Fried argue? Justify your answer by addressing (refuting or endorsing) Ball’s, Wehner’s and Fried’s arguments.

SOURCE: Ball et al. chapter 4, Wehner, and Fried in Files.