Tradition is based on practices, ideas and institutions that have passed through time and has been produced from its earliest of origins. Conservatives stress the importance of tradition as it allows continuity between different time frames, traditional conservatives are against change so tradition creates a bases of society staying the same for examples, in terms of being hierarchical. The terms of tradition has caused conflict within conservatism as the New Right – the neoliberals and neoconservatives, have avoided placing any importance of tradition and continuity needed in society thus showing tradition and continuity is less followed by conservatives now.
Traditional conservatives support and defend the idea of tradition and continuity on many different grounds. For example, tradition provides a basis of religious faith that is shaped by God who is the creator of the Earth. This therefore means that traditional institutions provide natural law – tradition is seen as having accumulated wisdom from the past, these institutions and practices has been able to be “tested by time” and therefore they should be preserved for the benefit of those living now and for future generations. This means that society is based on a relationship between those who are living, those who are dead and those who are to be born – the dead always has the upper hand over society as they are the “democracy of the dead” – providing a structure for the present society to follow. Tradition and continuity also delivers a sense of identity for individuals and society as a whole, having established practices and customs that people are able to recognise creates a sense of stability and reassurance. Individuals have a sense of “rootedness”, change would lead to a journey into the unknown that creates insecurity and indecision.
This links on with the view of humans beings and their imperfections; they are psychologically limited which means they dislike instability and the fear of isolation – tradition ensures humans feel a sense of “rootedness” and makes sure humans are stable in knowing their place in society. Also being intellectually limited people are unable to understand abstract ideas as argued by Oakeshott – conservatives argue that tradition provides a pragmatic understanding of the world, they avoid dogmatic and doctrinaire principles as humans are incapable of understanding such ideas. The idea of an organic society is part of tradition as it is believed that society's institutions and functions are developed and are preserved to maintain society - having existing institutions demonstrate that they are worthwhile - if they are reformed or abolished it would cause society to be filled with dangers. Furthermore, tradition is preserved through the idea of pragmatism - there should be caution with change; as Burke claims "A state without means of change is a state without conservation." Avoiding radical change, some change is necessary to conserve with society. On the whole, traditional conservatism strongly believe in tradition and continuity in order to ensure that society runs successfully in the way that past generations have; having change may affect society in a negative way.
It could be argued that neoconservatives have broken away from tradition in terms of traditional values for example, paternalistic and one nation ideas of helping the poor and focusing on authority instead. In short, one nation ideas are based on social reform and the reduction of poverty whereas neoconservatives believe in strengthening the community through having social discipline and making sure authority is followed through for example, having stricter laws and sentences. This shows that the new right does not follow tradition and continuity as it has moved away from one nation ideas to help society.
However, the new right do place some emphasis on tradition and continuity as the neoconservatives draw back to the 19th century ‘golden age’ where there was economic prosperity and moral strength. They are also suspicious of radical change as seen with the liberal new right; they dislike the idea of rolling back the interventionist government. The idea of public morality links on with tradition as neoconservative disliked the era of the 1960’s and having the ability ‘to do your own thing’, they believe a permissive society leads to danger. Having the freedom to choose own morals/lifestyle could lead to having ‘evil’ views on society or not necessarily the wrong views but different to the rest of society. Therefore tradition is needed in order to maintain society as a permissive society leads to a pathless route that provides no stability and guidance – something which neoconservatives strongly disagree with.
Neoliberals however have significantly challenged the idea of tradition and focuses more on modern principles are theories such as individualism, rationalism and laissez-faire economics. For example, neoliberals are radical in the sense of trying to dismantle and roll back the interventionist government – this breaks away from tradition as traditional conservatives believe in the government having authority; therefore intervention is a must in order to ensure stability. They also view welfare as having provided a culture of dependency making welfare the cause of disadvantage not the cause. Charles Murray argued that welfare also provided the basis of breakdowns in the family as women no longer feel obliged to depend on the ‘breadwinning’ man in the family; they are given an alternative way to survive in society through welfare. Therefore breaking away from one nation views as the government should not provide support for individuals; a minimal state should exist instead. The breakaway from an organic society is the opposite of traditional views – neoliberals see individuals as self-seeking and self-reliant individuals – as Thatcher states ‘there is no such thing as society, only individuals and their families’. In addition to this, property is viewed differently as Libertarian conservatives support a liberal view on property whereas traditional conservatives have claim that property rights entail obligations. Therefore, property is important to society as part of tradition because it has been passed down to generations. Hence why Macmillan criticised Thatcher’s policy of privatisation describing it as “selling off the family silver”, the laissez-faire approach towards economics goes against tradition and continuity. Neo-liberals have justified that society can run without the need of tradition and have shown that state intervention and an organic society are no longer needed.
Overall, there are many different conservative views on tradition. Traditional conservatives strongly believe in tradition as it forms a foundation for future society too live on. However, the New Right (neoliberals and neoconservatives) have challenged tradition in the sense of an ever changing society; views on one nation and paternalism ideas have been banished however neoconservatives do place some emphasis on tradition to avoid radicalism. On the other hand, the re-emergence of one nation ideas seen through David Cameron through for example, the Big Society has led to growth in compassionate conservatism and more state intervention bringing back traditional conservatism. In conclusion however, conservatives have deeply moved away from tradition as ideas have changed with society changing through time.