CONSERVATISM: IDEOLOGY, PRINCIPLES AND REPRESENTATIVES - HISTORY - 2025

The conservatism is an ideology that advocates maintaining traditions, opposes liberalism and advocates the ideas of right and center. He is against radical changes, he is nationalist and defends the prevailing system of moral, family and religious values ​​in society.

The origins of conservatism are found in the work Reflections on the French Revolution, written by the British politician and philosopher Edmund Burke. Conservative thinking is characterized by preferring the established order in society and traditions, as they represent the basis of governance and nationalism.

Edmund Burke, forerunner of conservatism

Conservative ideas flourished in Mexico with the independence and First Empire of Agustín de Iturbide. Then it was extended with the creation of the Conservative Party, in 1849. At present, the Mexican conservative expressions are the National Alliance Party (PAN) and the Solidarity Party, among other organizations.

Conservative ideology

Conservative ideology in politics is a set of doctrines and currents of thought that is expressed in opinions and positions. It is linked to the ideas of the right and center-right, which oppose radical changes in the political, social, cultural and economic.

Conservatism is in favor of the strengthening of social and religious values, and family traditions.

Relationship with the market

On the economic level, due to its nationalist thinking, conservatism historically defended market protectionism. However, this thinking changed radically in the 20th century, after the fusion of some conservative parties with liberalism.

Then the liberal thought of the free market was adopted, which is now paradoxically considered conservative. Conservatism defends capitalism as a production system in opposition to the socialist and / or communist system.

Heterogeneous current

Currently, political conservatism is not homogeneous. On the contrary, there are different currents with different positions on the market economy and on the political sphere.

The fusion of conservative and liberal thought is known as conservative liberalism.

Beginning

- God is the center of the universe.

- There is an order and a natural law for humanity.

- Private property is inherent to man, it is a natural right and also fulfills a social function.

- There is a universal moral and certain cultural ethical values.

- To achieve social stability a strong authority and legality are necessary.

- The person has dignity and this must be respected.

- The great teachers of people are civilization, tradition and culture.

- The deconcentration of power and local autonomy contribute to the maintenance of tradition and order.

- Man has free will to do good or evil.

- Human reason has limits.

- Social justice and equity are a faithful reflection of the solidarity and love for others that Christianity teaches.

- It is oriented socially towards organicist or naturalistic conceptions of individuals and society. That is, the law and natural law are principles of life.

- Considers religion as an element of social cohesion, as it helps to cement and strengthen family and social values.

- It is inclined towards the preservation of the status quo or the established social order, both socially and legally.

- Prefers and advocates maintaining traditions as the basis of governance. It promotes national values ​​(nationalism) and patriotism.

- Feel mistrust of the metaphysical theories of society.

- In the economic field, defends private initiative as the guiding principle of the economy.

- Accepts economic interventionism whenever it is in the national interest.

Historical representatives of conservatism

Representatives in Europe

Edmund burke

Conservatism was born in England with the ideas put forward by the British philosopher and politician Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797) about the French Revolution. Burke opposed the proposed profound changes in political, economic, and social structures.

Burke, also a writer, defends the value of family and religion, the rural and natural world as opposed to industrialism. This initial thought of conservatism soon evolves and ends up admitting the existence of the new bourgeois order.

Luis de Bonald

In 1796 Louis de Bonald defined the principles of conservatism in his Theory of Political and Religious Power. He describes them as "absolute monarchy, hereditary aristocracy, patriarchal authority in the family." And he adds: "the religious and moral sovereignty of the popes over all the kings of Christendom."

Joseph-Marie

Another French thinker like Joseph-Marie, Count of Maistre, develops his thesis on "religious authoritarianism". He opposes what he calls the "theophobia of modern thought," which downplays divine providence to explain the phenomena of nature and of society itself.

Carl Schmitt

Another of the most prominent ideologues and representatives of international conservatism will be the German philosopher Carl Schmitt (1888 - 1985). He was a harsh critic of the bourgeoisie, due to its permissiveness and also its passivity to face the advance of socialism in the world.

Failing that, it proposed to restrict the system of freedoms and democracy itself through the establishment of authoritarian governments or states.

Francisco Tadeo Calomarde

In Spain one of its highest representatives was Francisco Tadeo Calomarde (1773 - 1842), Spanish politician and minister of Fernando VII.

Antonio Cánovas del Castillo

Antonio Cánovas del Castillo lived between 1828 and 1897. Also Spanish, he was one of the founders of the Spanish conservative party.

Other authors

Other German philosophers and statesmen, such as Hegel and Otto von Bismarck, also enter the conservative doctrines. Hegel's ideas about historical materialism sparked a revolution in the field of social science.

Representatives in the United States

George Washington and John Adams

In America, with George Washington and John Adams, American conservatism was very peculiar, just as it was in Latin America.

Instead of supporting the monarchy, he advocated the preservation of nascent republican institutions and the maintenance of the existing social order.

Mexican representatives

Agustín de Iturbude and José Rafael Carrera

In Latin America, two representatives of the conservative promonarchic thought are the Guatemalan military leader José Rafael Carrera (1814 - 1865), and the Mexican politician and military Agustín de Iturbide (1783 - 1824).

Antonio López de Santa Anna

Among the main representatives of Mexican conservatism in the first half of the 19th century, General Antonio López de Santa Anna stands out, who ruled equally with liberals, centralists and monarchists.

Lucas Alaman

Lucas Alaman

Lucas Alamán was the founder of the Mexican Conservative Party. In addition, he was a historian, writer, naturalist, politician, and businessman.

Juan Nepomuceno Almonte

General Juan Nepomuceno Almonte was a prominent Mexican politician and diplomat, a follower of Emperor Maximiliano I.

Other representatives

Other politicians who governed and held high positions in Mexico also appear, such as Francisco de Paula Arrangoiz, Félix Zuloaga, Ignacio Comonfort, Hilario Elguero, Miguel Miramon, Luis Osollo, Leonardo Márquez and Antonio Haro.

Conservatism in Mexico

Conservatism emerged in Mexico and the rest of Latin America - even in the United States - after the wars of emancipation. Throughout the 19th century the political scene was dominated by two major parties: the Conservative and the Liberal.

Support for Fernando VII

In Mexico, conservative thought was initially expressed in support of the restoration of the monarchy and the rights of King Fernando VII, in the first two decades of the 19th century.

The monarchists fought the insurgents led by the priest José María Morelos y Pavón, who were fighting for Mexican independence from the Spanish Empire.

The First Mexican Empire

The process continued with Agustín de Iturbide with the establishment of the short-lived First Mexican Empire. At the fall of this, the conservative current was divided between monarchists and Bourbonists.

The first fought for a monarchical government system, but in the Mexican style. The latter were in favor of being governed by a monarch of the Bourbon House of Spain.

Role of the Church

Tensions and armed conflicts between conservatives and liberals continued for decades in Mexico. The role of the Catholic Church was one of the points of greatest conflict.

Conservatives defended the maintenance of the economic and social power of the Church against liberal thought, which demanded the separation of the Church from the State and education.

The conservative combat motto was "Religion and fueros." They fought because the Catholic religion was the only one tolerated and professed by the Mexican people and for the maintenance of the monopoly of education, because in this way they avoided the infiltration of liberal ideas.

In the same way, they tried to preserve the privileges and the military jurisdiction. Conservatives were convinced that a constitutional monarchy was the best system of government for the country.

Current conservatism

With this, the principles of conservatism remained in force despite allowing certain reforms in the political, social and economic. Thus, the old monarchical institutions that existed during the viceroyalty remained.

The Church would continue to maintain power by co-governing and governing education, while the upper classes of society would preserve their privileges.

Mexican conservative party

The Mexican Conservative Party was officially founded in 1849, after the Mexican defeat in the war against the United States, but its ideological foundation came from the Jesuit priests who were expelled from Mexico in the 18th century. So the Mexican conservative ideology was strongly influenced by European conservative thought.

The conservative organization was made up of the country's political and economic elites. They were Spanish and white aristocrats, landowners and landowners who defended Creole supremacy over the mestizo and indigenous population.

The Mexican conservative party disappeared in 867, after the fall of the second and last Emperor Maximilian I.

Current Conservatism in Mexico

Conservatism continued to manifest itself throughout the 20th century through different political conjunctures. Its ideological foundations had no place in post-reform Mexico in the last century, or after the Revolution, in 1910.

The conservatives did not accept the new political and social order, and kept fighting to try to overthrow it.

Reduced current

Later, in the period from 1940 to 1988, the conservative right was reduced to certain traditionalist regions, such as Bajío and Puebla. However, it remains in force.

It expresses itself politically through new organizations such as the Popular Force Party, which succeeded the Mexican Democrat. They focused their fight on the fight against communism and socialism, and everything opposed to Christian values.

Rise of conservatism

There was a rise of the new right-wing current in the late 1970s, due among other things to the political crisis of the 1980s.

Conservatives rallied around the National Action Party, made up of young technocrats led by Vicente Fox. In a country with immense poverty and cycles of low economic growth, they embodied the transformation of the Mexican economy and social conservatism.

Later, another PAN conservative, Felipe Calderón, won the presidency, giving way to power to a more moderate group on the Mexican right.

But in 2007, due to conflicts within the PAN, other political organizations emerged: the Humanist Party, the Movement for Social Participation, the National Synarchist Union and the Solidarity Party.

References

1. The religious thought of Lucas Alamán. Retrieved on February 27, 2018 from Biblioteca.itam.mx
2. Liberalism and Conservatism in Mexico. Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
3. Uribe, Monica. The extreme right in Mexico: modern conservatism (PDF)
4. Anastasio Bustamante. Consulted of biografiasyvidas.com
5. Conservative Party (Mexico). Consulted of es.wikipedia.org
6. Conservative thinking (PDF). Consulted of americo.usal.es
7. Conservatism. Consulted of abc.com.py
8. The Conservative Party and the Trade Unions. Consulted from books.google.com
9. José Contreras. The extreme right, with its own party. Consulted of cronica.com.mx