A brief history of conservative political thought
Hobbes The desire for self-preservation drives rational human selfishness: freedom leads to unending war. Social survival requires popular disarmament: authority should be contracted out to a ruler able to impose law & order. Burke Government arbitrates between competing wants to prevent social chaos. Evolutionary governmental norms are embodied in culture & tradition, which can't be grasped by reason. Aristocrats' property offers them power & incentive to check the monarchy, + they are imbued with the habits of rule. Schmitt The rule of law depends on application of precedents, but to uphold constitutional continuity in a state crisis, a political guarantor of the legal system, who is himself above the law, is required. See Hobbes. Rand Selfishness is rational & right. State regulation restrains the self-interested creativity of the businessmen on whom production & civilisation depend. Hayek I Individual economic choice is politic...