British Conservatism ─ The Politics and Philosophy of Inequality

Defence of inequality has always been a core principle of the Conservative Party in Great Britain. Yet throughout the twentieth century, and now into the twenty-first, the Conservatives have enjoyed great electoral success in a British society marked by widespread inequalities of wealth and income. In British Conservatism, Peter Dorey initially examines the intellectual and political arguments which Conservatives use to justify inequality, including Conservative ideas about human nature, the apparent inevitability of inequality as indicated by historical trends and the way in which Conservatives link economic inequality with individual freedom. Dorey also notes how Conservatives themselves disagree over how much inequality is desirable or acceptable. Should inequality be unlimited, in order to promote liberty, incentives and rewards? Or should inequality be kept within certain bounds to prevent social breakdown and political upheaval? These debates within the Conservative Party have become even more relevant since Margaret Thatcher's leadership in the 1980s, and they continue today as David Cameron, as Prime Minister, pledges to mend a "broken society'. British Conservatism then concludes by examining how the Conservative Party has attracted considerable support from less well-off sections of British society, those who might otherwise have been expected to support political parties promoting equality.

This wide-ranging study will be particularly valuable to students interested in the ideas and debates surrounding British Conservatism, past and present. It will also be of great interest to readers wanting to understand how the Conservative Party proved so successful electorally during most of the twentieth century, to the extent that it attracted the support of up to one-third of the working class, thereby deflecting the potential challenge of socialism, and indeed, how it has come to enjoy its latest resurgence at the polls in spite of a growing gulf between rich and poor and deepening inequality.