One-nation conservatism, also known as one-nationism or
Tory democracy, is a
paternalistic form of British
political conservatism. It advocates the preservation of established institutions and traditional principles within a
political democracy, in combination with
social and
economic programmes designed to benefit the ordinary person. According to this political philosophy, society should be allowed to develop in an
organic way, rather than being engineered. It argues that members of society have obligations towards each other and particularly emphasises
paternalism, meaning that those who are privileged and wealthy should pass on their benefits. It argues that this elite should work to reconcile the interests of all classes, including labour and management, rather than identifying the good of society solely with the interests of the
business class.
The describing phrase 'one-nation Tory' originated with
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881), who served as the chief
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
spokesman and became
Prime Minister in February 1868. He devised it to appeal to working-class people, who he hoped would see it as a way to improve their lives via factory and health acts as well as greater protection for workers. The ideology featured heavily during
Disraeli's terms in government, during which considerable social reforms were passed by the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Conservative Party moved away from paternalism in favour of
free market capitalism. In the first half of the 20th century, fears of extremism saw a revival of one-nation Conservatism. The Conservative Party continued to espouse the philosophy throughout the
post-war consensus from 1945. One-nation thinking influenced their tolerance of the
Labour government's
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
intervention in the economy, formation of a
welfare state and the
National Health Service. Thanks to
Iain Macleod,
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
and
Enoch Powell
John Enoch Powell, (16 June 1912 – 8 February 1998) was a British politician, classical scholar, author, linguist, soldier, philologist, and poet. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (1950–1974) and was Minister of Health (1 ...
, special attention after 1950 was paid to one-nation conservatism that promised support for the poorer and working class elements in the Party coalition.
Later years saw the rise of the
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
, espoused by leaders such as
Margaret Thatcher. This strand of conservatism rejected one-nation thinking and attributed the country's social and economic troubles to the welfare state and Keynesian policies. In the 21st century, leaders of the Conservative Party have publicly favoured a one-nation approach. For instance,
David Cameron, who led the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016, named Disraeli as his favourite Conservative and some commentators and MPs have suggested that Cameron's ideology contained an element of one-nationism. Other commentators have questioned the degree to which Cameron and his coalition embodied one-nation conservatism, instead locating them in the intellectual tradition of
Thatcherism
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and general style of manag ...
.
In 2016, Cameron's successor
Theresa May referred to herself as a one-nation conservative in her first speech as Prime Minister and outlined her focus on one-nation principles.
May's successor, former Prime Minister
Boris Johnson, has made similar assertions.
Political philosophy
One-nation conservatism was conceived by the
Conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
British Prime Minister
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As moder ...
Benjamin Disraeli, who outlines his political philosophy in two of his novels: ''
Coningsby
Coningsby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, England, it is situated on the A153 road, adjoining Tattershall on its western side, 13 miles (22 km) north west of Boston and 8 miles (13 km) so ...
'' (1844), and ''
Sybil'' (1845). Disraeli's conservatism proposed a paternalistic society with the social classes intact, but with the working class receiving support from the establishment. He emphasised the importance of social obligation rather than individualism. The phrase was coined because Disraeli feared a Britain divided into two nations, one of the rich and one of the poor, as a result of increased industrialisation and inequality. One-nation conservatism was his solution to this division, namely a system of measures to improve the lives of the people, provide social support and protect the working classes.
Disraeli justified his ideas by his belief in an
organic society In sociology, mechanical solidarity and organic solidarity are the two types of social solidarity that were formulated by Émile Durkheim, introduced in his '' Division of Labour in Society'' (1893) as part of his theory on the development of soc ...
in which the different classes have natural obligations to one another. He saw society as naturally hierarchical and emphasised the obligations of those at the top to those below. This was a continuation of the feudal concept of ''
noblesse oblige
''Noblesse oblige'' (; ; literally “nobility obliges”) is a French expression from a time when French (more specifically, Anglo-Norman) was the language of the English nobility, and retains in English the meaning that nobility extends beyo ...
'', which asserted that the aristocracy had an obligation to be generous and honourable. To Disraeli, this implied that government should be paternalistic. Unlike the
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
of the late 20th century, one-nation conservatism identifies its approach as pragmatic and non-ideological. Its proponents would say that it accepts the need for flexible policies and as such one-nation conservatives have often sought compromise with their ideological opponents for the sake of social stability. Disraeli justified his views pragmatically by arguing that should the ruling class become indifferent to the suffering of the people, society would become unstable and social revolution would become a possibility.
History
One-nation conservatism has its origins in the repercussions of the
Industrial Revolution, which had caused widespread
inequality
Inequality may refer to:
Economics
* Attention inequality, unequal distribution of attention across users, groups of people, issues in etc. in attention economy
* Economic inequality, difference in economic well-being between population groups
* ...
, poverty and social discontent in Britain.
Tory politicians such as
Richard Oastler,
Michael Thomas Sadler
Michael Thomas Sadler (3 January 1780 – 29 July 1835) was a British Tory Member of Parliament (MP) whose Evangelical Anglicanism and prior experience as a Poor Law administrator in Leeds led him to oppose Malthusian theories of population and ...
and
Lord Shaftesbury combined their elitist responsibility and a strong humanitarian element with their involvement in the
Factory Acts. They were critical of individualism and
classical economics, they also disliked the 1834
New Poor Law and believed in the role of the state in guaranteeing decent housing, working conditions, wages and treatment of the poor.
Disraeli adopted one-nation conservatism for both ethical and electoral reasons. Before he became
leader of the Conservative Party, the
Reform Act 1867
The Representation of the People Act 1867, 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102 (known as the Reform Act 1867 or the Second Reform Act) was a piece of British legislation that enfranchised part of the urban male working class in England and Wales for the first ...
had enfranchised the male working-class. As a result, Disraeli argued that the party needed to pursue social reforms if it were to have electoral success. He felt that one-nationism would both improve the conditions of the poor and portray the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
as selfish individualists.
While in government, Disraeli presided over a series of social reforms which supported his one-nation politics and aimed to create a benevolent hierarchy. He appointed a Royal Commission to assess the state of law between employers and employees. As a result,
Richard Cross was moved to pass the
Employers and Workmen Act 1875
The Employers and Workmen Act 1875 (38 & 39 Vict c 90)Irish Statute BookEmployers and Workmen Act, 1875 accessed 16 January 2018 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, enacted during Benjamin Disraeli's second administration. The A ...
. This act made both sides of industry equal before the law and the breach of contract became a
civil offence, rather than criminal. Cross also passed the
Conspiracy, and Protection of Property Act in the same year which enshrined the worker's right to strike by ensuring that acts carried out by a workers' group could not be indicted as conspiracy.
By the end of the 19th century, the Conservatives had moved away from their one-nation ideology and were increasingly supportive of unrestricted capitalism and free enterprise. During the
interwar period between 1919 and 1939, public fear of
Bolshevism
Bolshevism (from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined party of social revolution, ...
restored the Conservative Party to one-nationism. It defined itself as the party of national unity and began to support moderate reform. As the effects of the
Great Depression were felt in Britain, the party was drawn to even greater levels of
state intervention. Conservative prime ministers
Neville Chamberlain and
Stanley Baldwin pursued an interventionist, one-nation approach which won support because of its wide electoral appeal. Throughout the
post-war consensus of the 1950s and 1960s, the Conservative Party continued to be dominated by one-nation conservatives whose ideas were inspired by Disraeli. The philosophy was updated and developed by the new conservatism movement led by
Rab Butler
Richard Austen Butler, Baron Butler of Saffron Walden, (9 December 1902 – 8 March 1982), also known as R. A. Butler and familiarly known from his initials as Rab, was a prominent British Conservative Party politician. ''The Times'' obituary c ...
. New conservatism attempted to distinguish itself from the
socialism of
Anthony Crosland
Charles Anthony Raven Crosland (29 August 191819 February 1977) was a British Labour Party politician and author. A social democrat on the right wing of the Labour Party, he was a prominent socialist intellectual. His influential book '' The ...
by concentrating welfare on those in need and encouraging people to help themselves, rather than foster dependency on the state.
Until the mid-1970s, the Conservative Party was mostly controlled by one-nation conservatives. The rise of the New Right in conservative politics led to a critique of one-nation conservatism. The
New Right
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Uni ...
thinkers contended that
Keynesianism and the
welfare state had damaged the economy and society. The
Winter of Discontent
The Winter of Discontent was the period between November 1978 and February 1979 in the United Kingdom characterised by widespread strikes by private, and later public, sector trade unions demanding pay rises greater than the limits Prime Minis ...
of 1978–1979 in which trades unions took industrial action with a wide impact on daily life was portrayed by the New Right as illustrative of the over-extension of the state. Figures such as
Margaret Thatcher believed that to reverse the national decline it was necessary to revive old values of individualism and challenge the
dependency culture which they felt had been created by the welfare state. One-nation conservatives such as
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George Heath (9 July 191617 July 2005), often known as Ted Heath, was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1970 to 1974 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1965 to 1975. Heath a ...
continued to criticise Thatcher's premiership during the
early 1980s recession
The early 1980s recession was a severe economic recession that affected much of the world between approximately the start of 1980 and 1983. It is widely considered to have been the most severe recession since World War II. A key event leading to ...
, but they lost influence after the party won the
1983 general election.
The Conservative Party's
2010 general election manifesto contained a section on "One World Conservatism", including a commitment to spend 0.7% of national income on well-targeted aid. In 2006, Conservative
Member of Parliament (MP)
Andrew Tyrie published a pamphlet which claimed that party leader
David Cameron was following the one-nationist path of Disraeli.
Phillip Blond
Phillip Blond (born 1 March 1966) is an English political philosopher, Anglican theologian, and director of the ResPublica think tank.
Early life
Born in Liverpool and educated at Pensby High School for Boys, Blond went on to study philosophy ...
, a British political theorist who has had past connections with the Conservative Party, has proposed a renewed version of one-nation conservatism.
Also in 2010, the then London Mayor and prominent Conservative (and later prime minister)
Boris Johnson explained his political philosophy as such:
In 2019, a
One Nation Conservative caucus was formed in
Parliament.
See also
*
Big Society
*
Blue Labour
*
Christian democracy
*
Class collaboration
Class collaboration is a principle of social organization based upon the belief that the division of society into a hierarchy of social classes is a positive and essential aspect of civilization.
Fascist support
Class collaboration is one of th ...
*
Gaullism
* ''
Noblesse oblige
''Noblesse oblige'' (; ; literally “nobility obliges”) is a French expression from a time when French (more specifically, Anglo-Norman) was the language of the English nobility, and retains in English the meaning that nobility extends beyo ...
''
*
One Nation Labour
*
Progressive conservatism
*
Red Tory
A Red Tory is an adherent of a centre to centre-right or paternalistic-conservative political philosophy derived from the Tory tradition, most predominantly in Canada but also in the United Kingdom and Australia. This philosophy tends to fa ...
*
Wets and dries
During the 1980s, members of the moderate wing of the British Conservative Party who opposed some of the more hard-line policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were often referred to by their opponents as "wets". Thatcher coined the usage in ...
References
Bibliography
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* Bridgen, P. (2000) "The One Nation Idea and State Welfare: The Conservatives and Pensions in the 1950s‟, ''Contemporary British History'' 14#3: 83–104.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:One-nation conservatism
History of the Conservative Party (UK)
Conservative Party (UK) factions
Benjamin Disraeli
1844 introductions
Progressive conservatism