Authors: Nohlen
Summary: The approximately 1900 word entry addresses definitorial issues, distinguishes three historical periods with changing content of conservative thinking, develops analytical categories for the analysis of modern conservatism, and reflects on the emergence of Neo-conservative movements in the 1970s. As one of the three large political movements which originated in the early 19th century, the meaning of conservatism becomes clear only in comparison with its rival ideologies liberalism and socialism. Alternative approaches view conservatism as an ideology or political programme or focus on geographical and historical developments. For the Western countries three periods are distinguished. The classical conservatism of the 19th century developed in reaction to the spread of liberalism after the French Revolution and highlighted monarchic constitutionalist, defense of religion and authority, a hierarchical societal order, and a pessimistic view of historical change in contrast to liberal optimism. In the reorientation period after the emergence of organized capitalism up to the world economic crisis in the 1930s socialism and the democracy movement become the principal ideological opponents. The entry draws a connection between conservative thinking and the emergence of fascism in Germany. The post Word War II version of conservatism is analyzed by the criteria of function of conservative thinking for certain classes, social groups, and elites, the principal addresses, intellectual content, and leading representatives and conceptualizes. While conservatives struggled to adjust to a radical changed political environment after 1945, the radical student movement, left-wing initiated Keynesianism, and economic crisis in the 1970s lead to the emergence of the new intellectual form of neo-conservatism. The entry emphasizes the changing nature of conservatism due to social, economic, and ideological changes in post-industrial societies.