Social conservatism
Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional power structures over social pluralism.[1][2] Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutions, such as traditional family structures, gender roles, sexual relations, national patriotism, and religious traditions.[3][4] Social conservatism is usually skeptical of social change, instead tending to support the status quo concerning social issues.[4]
Not to be confused with Paternalistic conservatism.
Social conservatives also value the rights of religious institutions to participate in the public sphere, thus often supporting government-religious endorsement and opposing state atheism, and in some cases opposing secularism.[5][6][7]
Social conservatism, as a movement, is largely an outgrowth of traditionalist conservatism. The key difference is that traditional conservatism is broader and includes philosophical considerations, whereas social conservatism is largely focused on just moralism.
Social conservatism and other ideological views[edit]
There is overlap between social conservatism and paleoconservatism, in that they both support and value traditional social forms.[8]
Social conservatism is not to be confused with economically interventionist conservatism, where conservative ideas are combined with Keynesian economics and a welfare state as practised by some European conservatives (e.g. one-nation conservatives in the United Kingdom, Gaullists in France). Some social conservatives support free trade and laissez faire market approaches to economic and fiscal issues, but social conservatives may also support economic intervention where the intervention serves moral or cultural aims. Historian Jon Wiener has described social conservatism as historically the result of an appeal from "elitist preservationists" to lower-class workers to 'protect' wealth from immigration.[1][9]
Many social conservatives support a balance between protectionism and a free market. This concern for material welfare, like advocacy of traditional mores, will often have a basis in religion. Examples include the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the Family First Party and Katter's Australian Party, and the communitarian movement in the United States.[10]
