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The Conservatism series,
part of the Politics series
Schools
Cultural conservatism
Liberal conservatism
Social conservatism
National conservatism
Neoconservatism
Paleoconservatism
Libertarian conservatism
Ideas
Fiscal frugality
Private property
Rule of law
Social order
Traditional society
Organizations
Conservative parties
Int'l Democrat Union
European Democrats
National Variants
Australia
Canada
Colombia
Germany
United States
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Social conservatism generally refers to a political ideology or personal belief system that advocates the conservation or resurrection of what one, or one's community, considers to be traditional morality and social structure. However, the accepted meaning of traditional morality often differs from group to group within social conservatism. Thus, there are really no policies or positions that could be considered universal among social conservatives. There are, however, a number of principles to which at least a majority of social conservatives adhere.

A second meaning of the term has developed in the Nordic countries Denmark and Norway as a translation of socialkonservatisme. Here it refers to pro-welfare liberal conservatives.

Definition and Core Principles

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There are two main principles which drive Social Conservatism:

Limit the definition of family. Social Conservatism opposes divorce except for infidelity, sex outside of marriage, commercialization of sex, sequential monogamy, domestic partnerships, and same-sex marriage. However this is a generalization, since not all social conservatives agree with each other on these principles: for instance, Roman Catholic social conservatives do not believe in divorce for any reason, while other social conservatives accept divorce for any number of reasons. Roman Catholic social conservatives would also add "opposes contraception in any form" and "opposes in vitro fertilization" to the above list. Many social conservatives — for instance Dick and Lynne Cheney — accept and actively support family members who enter into domestic partnerships or who are part of gay families. Groups who consider themselves social conservatives hold a wide range of views on issues related to the family.

Sanctity of human life. Social Conservatism is often believed to generally reject abortion, euthanasia, and embryonic stem cell research. Socially conservative Quakers, Mennonites, and Amish maintain that their respect for the sanctity of human life requires of them a pacifist view of war. But social conservatism, like social progressivism, also embraces human rights and the dignity of the individual in societies where these values have a long history of popular support. (In societies with no standing tradition of respecting human rights or individual liberties, these values are considered liberal or even radical.) As with matters related to the family, social conservatives do not generally agree among themselves about even these issues. Many social conservatives reach the conclusion that their respect for traditional notions of individual autonomy, limited governmental power, and privacy require them to support a pro-choice policy on abortion (as explained in "Bearing Right" by William Saletan, former U.S. President Bill Clinton and U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are well-known advocates of this viewpoint.) Prominent social conservatives such as Nancy Reagan are vocal supporters of stem cell medical research. Social conservatives who oppose the death penalty are a distinct minority, as most social conservatives support the death penalty because it is either a retributive or traditional form of punishment.

Social Conservatives believe that their personal views are inalienable and ought to be protected by other laws and policies developed by governments, and taught in school, or the view points at least discussed in schools.

The opposite of Social Conservatism is Social Progressivism.

Social Conservatism is almost universal among the Christian Right. The basic principles are believed to derive from Natural Law — that is, the system of social norms that may appear to arise naturally in human societies through time and across cultures — rather than being a construct specific to one culture or time.

Therefore, the way Social Conservatism plays out in practice varies between locations, depending on the social, religious and national traditions of a particular place. However, they all have in common the idea of protecting or enhancing their respective understanding of what constitutes "family" in relation to that of the State.

Social vs. Other Conservatisms

There is no necessary link between Social and Economic or Fiscal Conservatism. In fact, some Social Conservatives are otherwise apolitical or even left-wing on fiscal issues. For example, Social Conservatives may also support a degree of government intervention in economic life for what they feel is to the benefit of the community, and as such will tend to support the concept of a social market economy to further this aim. This concern for material welfare, like advocacy of traditional mores, will often have a basis in the religion of the Social Conservatives in question. Examples of such Social Conservatives include the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the Family First and Democratic Labor Party of Australia,the so-called red tory movement in Canada, and possibly the Communitarian movement in the United States.

There is more overlap between Social Conservatism and Paleoconservatism in that they both have respect for traditional social forms. However, Paleoconservatism has a strong Cultural Conservative strain which Social Conservatism, in and of itself, is not necessarily allied with. For example, John Burger, writing in Crisis Magazine in 2005 said:
"The presence of a significant population of culturally Catholic immigrants offers hope that their culture will permeate a decadent American society and contribute to the re-evangelization of native-born Catholics. . . Abortion is still illegal in most Latin American countries. And in most areas, it’s not even part of a person’s consciousness." [1]

Social Conservative Political Parties

A few examples only. Many Christian Democratic Parties around the world are Socially Conservative.

Canada Australia Germany United States Ireland Nigeria Sweden Japan United Kingdom

Resources

Books
  • Carlson, Alan, The Family in America: Searching for Social Harmony in the Industrial Age (2003) ISBN 0-7658-0536-7
  • Carlson, Alan, Family Questions: Reflections on the American Social Crisis (1991) ISBN 1-56000-555-6
  • Fleming, Thomas, The Politics of Human Nature, (1988) ISBN 1-56000-693-5
  • Gallagher, Maggie, The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love (1996) ISBN 0-89526-46 4-1
  • Himmelfarb, Gertrude, The De-moralization Of Society (1996) ISBN 0-679-76490-9
  • Hitchens, Peter, The Abolition of Britain. (1999) ISBN 0-7043-8117-6
  • Jones, E. Michael, Degenerate Moderns: Modernity As Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior. (1993) ISBN 0-89870-447-2
  • Kirk, Russell, The Conservative Mind, 7th Ed. (2001) ISBN 0-89526-171-5
  • Magnet, Myron, Modern Sex: Liberation and Its Discontents (2001) ISBN 1-56663-384-2
  • Medved, Diane and Dan Quayle, The American Family: Discovering the Values That Make Us Strong (1997) ISBN 0-06-092810-7
  • Sobran, Joseph, Single Issues: Essays on the Crucial Social Questions (1983) ISBN 1-199-24333-7.
Social Conservative Groups in Canada Social Conservative Groups in USA Social Conservative News Services

See also

Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs.
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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Cultural conservatism is conservatism with respect to culture. This term is increasingly used in political debate, but is rather ill-defined. It is often confused with social conservatism, which is a school of thought that may overlap to a degree as far as its adherents
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Liberal conservatism is a political philosophy which generally means combining elements of "conservatism" with elements of "liberalism". As these latter two terms have had different meanings over time and across countries, liberal conservatism also has a wide variety of
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National conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism, while not being nationalism or a far-right approach.[1].
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Neoconservatism is the political philosophy that emerged in the United States from the rejection of liberalism and the New Left counter-culture of the 1960s. It was formulated in the 1950s, achieved its first victory in Barry Goldwater's nomination as the Republican presidential
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Paleoconservatism (sometimes shortened to paleo or paleocon when the context is clear) is a term for an anti-communist and anti-authoritarian[1]
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Libertarianism

Schools of thought
Agorism
Anarcho-capitalism
Geolibertarianism
Green libertarianism
Right-libertarianism
Left-libertarianism
Minarchism
Neolibertarianism
Paleolibertarianism
Progressive libertarianism


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Fiscal conservatism is a political phrase term used in the United States to attack government spending and advocate instead lower spending and a lower federal debt; it may also include higher taxes in order to lower the debt.
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Property law
Part of the common law series
Acquisition of property
Gift  · Adverse possession  · Deed
Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property
Alienation  · Bailment  · License
Estates in land
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This article or section may contain original research or unverified claims.
Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the for details.
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conservative parties even if not explicitly named so. Those parties are listed below, many of which are members of the International Democrat Union.
  • Australia: Liberal Party of Australia, National Party of Australia
  • Austria: Austrian People's Party

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The International Democrat Union (IDU) is an of classical liberal, conservative, nationalist, anti-Communist and some Christian democratic political parties.

Formed in 1983, the IDU provides a forum in which political parties holding similar beliefs can come together and
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The European Democrats (ED) are a conservative party grouping with seats in the European Parliament as part of the larger EPP-ED group.

History

 The ED subgroup can trace its history back to the originally-standalone
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In Australia, political conservatism is primarily represented by the Liberal Party of Australia, the Country Liberal Party, the National Party, and minor parties the Christian Democratic Party, the Family First Party and the Democratic Labour Party.
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Bolivar is the image in which conservatism in Colombia creates its ideologies: the ideals of this great character were used by many years on the different conservative movements.
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Conservatism in Germany encompasses a large number of strains of the past three hundred years.

While many of the conservative theorists are labelled "political romantics" (most notably by Carl Schmitt, himself conservative), at least four strains can be
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''For related and other uses, see Conservatism (disambiguation)
 Conservatism in the United States comprises a constellation of political ideologies including fiscal conservatism, free market or economic liberalism, social conservatism,[1]
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Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favor tradition and gradual change, where tradition refers to religious, cultural, or nationally defined beliefs and customs.
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The word tradition comes from the Latin word traditio which means "to hand down" or "to hand over." It is used in a number of ways in the English language:
  1. Beliefs or customs taught by one generation to the next, often orally.

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Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behaviour") has three principal meanings. In its first descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong,
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Nordic countries make up a region in Northern Europe, sometimes called the Nordic region, consisting of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden and their associated territories which include the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Åland.
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Liberal conservatism is a political philosophy which generally means combining elements of "conservatism" with elements of "liberalism". As these latter two terms have had different meanings over time and across countries, liberal conservatism also has a wide variety of
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Lynne Ann Vincent Cheney (born August 14 1941) , is a novelist, conservative scholar, and former talk-show host who is the wife of Vice President Dick Cheney. She is currently the Second Lady of the United States.
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Mary Claire Cheney (born March 14, 1969) is the second daughter of Dick Cheney, the Vice President of the United States, and his wife, Second Lady Lynne Cheney.

Early life

Cheney is the daughter of current Vice President Dick Cheney and Second Lady Lynne.
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gay usually describes a person's sexual orientation, being the standard term for homosexual. In earlier usage, the word meant "carefree", "happy", or "bright and showy", though this usage is infrequent today.
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Religious Society of Friends, whose members are commonly known as Quakers was founded in England in the 17th century as a Christian religious denomination by people who were dissatisfied with the existing denominations and sects of Christianity.
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Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
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